How to use foam gun and xmt360?

I get a package with a few goodies tomorrow, among the polishes, pads and waxes the two items I am looking forward to the most is the foam gun and the xmt 360, but I'm not sure of the technique for either.

 

Foam gun: I imagine you pre-soak the car with foam and let it sit for 2 - 3 minutes, then rinse it off and do a normal wash by hand using the two bucket method.

 

XMT360: I'm just about out of SSR1 and wanted to try something new, so I thought I would get XMT #3 and XMT #1, but alot of people really like the 360 AIO, so I got #3, 360 and 180. Since it is a AIO product, what is the recommended pad, and pc speed? Do I work at the speed of polishing or the speed of sealing? One section at a time, or the whole car?

 

Thanks guys.

I've been using the 360 with a blue edge 2000 pad. Then follow that up with a nice coat of polycharged wolfgang sealant. As for speed and whatnot.. I start out at 3 to spread the product, then bump it up to 5. I do a section at a time. buffing off the remainder as I go.

so you really use it like a light polish, not a cleaner or sealant. how long do you wait before applying wolfgangs on top? the usual 24 hours? was hoping I wouldn't need another top coat, but oh well.

You don't need to put anything over the 360, but I do depending on the car. I put the wolfgang on right after. The first time I was going to do this I asked OCD about it and he said go ahead and apply it anytime.

 

This is my dads car before, and after a polish with 360 and topcoat with polycharged wolfgang.

 

before (obviously)

http://celicaman.f0e.net/albums/dadscardetailed/DSCN4975.sized.jpg

 

after

http://celicaman.f0e.net/albums/dadscardetailed/DSCN4983.sized.jpg

HOLY ^@%#!!! 360 did that?!?! That looks like a job for some compound and tough pads. UPS should be here in about an hour and I might just be, umm, sick for the rest of the day

 

I don't have polycharger, but I do have wg sealant, and I also apply prima hydro after each weekly wash. My car still looks new, but after seeing your before and after pics, tomorrow can't come any sooner. good job.

Only thing I don't like about the WG sealant, is that the hood seems to need something 'extra' down here, in Florida.

 

I notice that water still beads on the rest of the car, except the hood. I might have to try a wax on top of the WG...to maintain the finish. Lots of road grime/etc. on these roads down here...so, I figure the extra protection will be worth it.

only thing i don't like about wg is it is a dirt trap (unless mixed with polycharger?). i haven't had it long enough to attest to its durability, however both can be cured easily by using a spray wax like prima hydro or aquawax. you will keep the shine, beading and protection fresh (that little something extra on top of wg) from wash to wash, and also detract some of the dusting.

Yeah, I have the WG detailer spray. Gonna try that, and see how it 'aides' the sealant.

 

Next time, though, I will wait for the WG to cure, and then add a coat of wax. Which, when I have some money, will go towards a bottle of s100, from a Harley D's store.

 

Hope that helps with the hood, at least...as I know the other parts of the car are OK.

well, I think my attack plan will be xmt 360, then wg sealant, followed by xmt 180 after the wg cures. will maintain with prima hydro.

I've got another thread around here somewhere on what 360 did for an Audi I was working on. It is a pretty nifty product. I honestly don't know what it is capable of. Sometimes it blows my mind and other times it doesn't do anything. I use it when I'm dealing with really light surface swirls or medium oxidation and it seems to work out great. I think it would be a great polish for the sensitive Legacy paint.

depends on the clearcoat hardness and the pad? i remember the results from the audi, it was very impressive. there was still some it didn't get out completely, but I was amazed at what it was able to accomplish. any tips for the foam gun?

Nope. I've never used it. I like washing by hand so I can really get to know the paint and what I'll be dealing with.

once again my results are far from spectacular. after 8 hours of polishing with xmt360 and a blue edge pad all of the paint defects that I bought the car with and all the minor swirls still remain. frankly the car looks like crap and I don't know why i keep torturing myself with these long hours of hard work. The foam gun is a lot of fun, i didn't use it as a replacement for washing (although after using it the car looks clean enough to dry and polish), just used it as a pre-soak before washing.

 

http://lh4.google.com/birbeck/RrV32SUJUwI/AAAAAAAAAN0/SoH6IRud8yA/s800/P1000821.JPG

 

 

http://lh6.google.com/birbeck/RrV32yUJUxI/AAAAAAAAAN8/l0y2SkBz8pw/s800/P1000824.JPG

... not to mention how much all the product and tools cost

Wow, you are right. The car looks like absolute shit. How can you bear to go out in public with that thing? Have you no shame???

 

Seriously, dude... It doesn't look bad at all. In fact, with that angle and that lighting, it doesn't look like there is a scratch on it. You'll need to take a picture in more unforgiving lighting before I can even begin to offer suggestions. To me from those pictures it looks fine and I don't see what you are complaining about.

 

First of all, it shouldn't take 8 hours of polishing with 360. That product is primarily a paint cleaner and not meant to be a swirl remover. Sure it has minor abrasives that have done good work for me in the past, but most of the damage on the cars I've used it on were in the oxidation and were removed when the 360 cleaned the paint. If you have swirls that you are concerned with, then you need to use a polish for swirls. If 360 isn't cutting it then I'm not surprised. 360 is a very very mild polish and won't clear up swirls that are very deep at all. You would need to step up to at least a level 1 polish like XMT 1 or Poorboy's SSR1 or something like that. Either way, it shouldn't take 8 hours of polishing. You should start with the hood and figure out what level of polish you need to use in order to get results. Don't move on until you have removed the swirls from the hood. Of course you are frustrated after spending 8 hours polishing and it doesn't look any better. I'd be pissed too. That is why I always check my work before I move to another panel. Nothing sucks worse than to waste that much time and not get anywhere.

 

If you are truely interested in getting rid of your swirls then there are a couple things I would suggest. First would be to get a pair of 500 watt halogen lights on a tripod. That will expose even the lightest swirls and really let you know when you have finished the job. With the right lighting you can now go back to the paint with the produts you have and see which one will work the best. Be patient and spend as much time as the products need to break down properly. It can take three or four minutes for the polish to break down and do everything they can do. Go one panel at a time and check your work at each stage. Don't finish the job and then be frustrated that it isn't looking better. Make sure it is looking better before you continue. If what you are using isn't working, then try something else.

 

I'd really like to see what damage is left over that you aren't able to remove with the products you have used. I have a hard time imagining a brand new car having damage that can't be removed with a light polish and a machine. You may have a problem that goes beyond polishing if you aren't able to get them out. I'm not sure what that problem would be, but I have seriously never come across swirls that can't be removed with a PC. On a brand new car I could probably remove most swirls just by hand. I did have a 2007 997 Porsche a couple days ago that I had to get kind of agressive with, but Porsche uses some pretty hard clear coat on their cars, so that was a special case. Unless they have changed their paint, the last time I checked Subaru was still using really soft clear.

How does the 360 compare to PB?

How does the 360 compare to PB?

As ocd just mentioned the 360 is a all-in-one product with very light abrasives, not really a swirl remover, so even pb ssr1 would have more cut to it than the 360. when using the 360 it wasn't any thicker than a liquid wax or paint cleaner and you could not see any abrasives.

 

ocd, i used a pair of lights and checked my work on the drivers side front fender and drivers door. the paint was flawless so I did the whole car. there is some very light swirls on the hood that I think were caused by using a cheap mf to quick detail with just after getting sprayed with tree sap mist. there is swirling on the passenger side rear quarter, trunk and spoiler which I think was caused by the dealer dropping the wash mitt. there is a very fine scratch on the drivers side passenger door that the tint shop made, one very small one on the trunk right above the subaru emblem where my key touched the paint closing the hood . there is also a big scratch and some gunk on the top right corner of the trunk below that the dealer put there (i have used everything on it, but i don't think it is repairable by anyone but a body shop).

 

The swirls are so minor they are very hard to see, even with 1000w lighting. It takes the right angle and very bright light to see and no one knows they are there unless I point them out, so i figured xmt would do the trick. the car is smooth, clean and shiny, but I wash it weekly and use spray wax after each wash so it is never not smooth, clean and shiny. What frustrates me is exactly what you said, spending 8 hours cleaning the paint only to find that none of the imperfections were even touched. It is my fault because I should have started with the areas I knew had problems, but since they are so minor I figured 360 and a polishing pad should have no problems with a soft clear coat.

 

I worked on my wifes car 3 times trying out different product and pad combinations, it is now swirl free, smooth and shiny, but even with ssr2 and a medium cut pad the imperfections are still visible in any lighting, it doesn't look like it needs to be compounded because they are not very deep.

 

I will try to take a picture of the swirling of my car, but I have never been able to capture them on film, and I already returned the lights to work.