Timbo's very extensive polishing thread with Griot's products

[TheTimob]

One day, working at Advance, we found some very interesting products in our weekly truck shipment. Griot's Garage. We were selected to be one of the first Advance Auto stores to carry Griot's products. We have a few of their products.

I bought a Griot's Garage 6" Random Orbital, and the Machine Polishes, 1, 2, and 3. These things aren't sold from Advance, so I bought them from Amazon instead.

My car is Mars Red. It's a single stage paint. It has been buffed several times by previous owners. There's burn-through all over the car on corners of the body work. I needed a system that was non-destructive. Griot's random orbital is exactly that.

Yesterday, I washed the car with Dawn to remove all of the wax on it. Here's what we're working with:









Lots of swirls, haze, and other awfulness. You can also see where my bra has been scratching the paint up too.

Anyway, the system has three polishes. 1, 2, and 3 - with one being a coarser polish, and 3 being a finer one. I started with 1, and a new orange polishing pad.



This did a lot. You can already see that most of the swirls are gone.


Next up is 2. 2 is thinner than one and hence easier to use. helps that I am learning as I go.


Da-damn. That's starting to look pretty nice.


Notice how I draped the cord over my shoulder so it doesn't scratch the car up. You can also see the crosshatch pattern used to do the polishing.




Time for number 3






That's one shiny friggin car!






Lastly, I used Griot's Best-of-Show Wax. It went on with the random orbital in minutes. It took a LOOOONG time to remove it though. It worked though. I'll grab some sunny pictures tomorrow...




This was the result of 8 hours of work on it. I'm sure I would do it faster next time - there's a bit of a learning curve on getting it just right.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna give it a second coat of wax.

[Meltkamp]

ohhhh shiny!! I love griots stuff.

[TBerk]

I haven't even began to read this and I already know it's going to be good...

Reading
reading
Reading...

And it was! Timbo for the Win!


Fraternity of T, it's Awesome.

[scirocco*joe]

Nice job, Tim! I too am a fan of Griot's garage. I have the 6" and 3" random orbitals. Sometimes its nice to have a smaller pad to work around corners and such.

The Best of Show wax is a BEAST to remove. It's better if you wax in the shade, it doesn't bake on as hard. However, I would also recommend the Carnauba Wax stick from Griot's. It Is packaged like a stick of deodorant and goes on the red wax pads very easily. However, it comes off sooooooo easily. Like a dream!

[LoDub1.8T]

Huge difference!

Great work

[punchbug]

That car is getting SO spoiled! I must caution you about the use of the word EXTENSIVE in the subject line. You are not allowed to call it extensive unless you have installed a new drivetrain or amputated the roof or something. This was certainly an involved process, even intensive, but extensive means you got three quarters of the way through and were ready to burn the car. Or something like that....

Gorgeous result Timbo, and I will see it at Cincy...mAybe you would like to do a demo at Cincy...I have a few cars that would volunteer to be "models!"

[Loshambo]

great result. griot's is fun to use.
If you order from their web site or catalog, they will send you a new catalog every month or so. I wish they would reduce their price instead of sending out these every month.
Their speed shine is a must.
I recently got their rubber cleaner. Love it. their tire dressing looks sharp after a proper cleaning.

[VWsEatRice]

car looks good

their flagship store is in tacoma wa. they have gtg's the 1st saturday of the month for all car guys called caffeine and gasoline.

demonstrations of their products usage also.

[mellbergVWfan]

Damn, I need to get me a random orbital and some Griots stuff then.

[crazyaboutrocs]

You can also see where my bra has been scratching the paint up too.

Tim, I would recommend that you either:stop wearing the bra, or if you can't go without the support then either don't rub up against the car or wear softer shirts.
Seriously though, it looks great. I've been using their products for as long as I've had the black 16V and they've done a great job on it. I've only done hand polishing and buffing though because I was a little worried about burning through, but yours came great. Guess it's time to invest in a buffer.

[RoccoRacer]

Oh Em Geeeee! 8 hours, but daaaaaang that looks good!

[TheTimob]

Took these two pictures. One's early in the day, the other is later in the day. The sun REALLY has an effect on mars red!

[micdip'88]

Would this product help the faded original paint on my red 16v? Seemed to help yours quite a bit!

[scirocco*joe]

Would this product help the faded original paint on my red 16v? Seemed to help yours quite a bit!

Yes. Yes it would. Just as Mars Red turns to orange, Tornado Red turns to pink. This stuff turns pink back into red.

Also, Tim, next time you should use the paint cleaning clay and speed shine. Gets off all the dirt as well as old wax and stuff.

[sciroccojim]

Damn, there's a crazy parasite inhabiting Timbo's body! What did you do with our Timbo???



Nice work.

[TheTimob]

Also, Tim, next time you should use the paint cleaning clay and speed shine. Gets off all the dirt as well as old wax and stuff.

This I did do! Speed shine is awesome. I park under a tree, so I've clayed the car a few times.

[veetarded]

Tim you as*hole, now everyone will be able to make their car shiny.

You know how I roll tho, keep the real secret or I'll hunt you down.

[mellbergVWfan]

Tim you as*hole, now everyone will be able to make their car shiny.

You know how I roll tho, keep the real secret or I'll hunt you down.

Why would you want more Mars Red cars to become orange? Please share Will. Also, I'm part of the cool guy S club now.

[TBerk]

Damn, there's a crazy parasite inhabiting Timbo's body! What did you do with our Timbo???



Nice work.

ahem....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puppet_Masters

[veetarded]

I'm part of the cool guy S club now.

ORLY? Nice!!

[Michael Bee]

nice Tim. 1nce again, you have inspired me. I probably wont get far, but you have inspired me.

poor Becky... her Scirocco has such dull paint...

[TheTimob]

Muhahahahaha!

(that burn-through on the corner in this pic was not from this procedure)

[petebee]

Damn you scorched my retinas Tim...

[TheTimob]

[81type53]

Detail spray for the engine bay and the window cleaning clay work excellent. They also sell a product from Switzerland which Is this anti-dust blob that you jam Into areas such as airvents etc. that dust adheres to. Great products yet expensive. Best site for detail Items Is CarcareProducts.com, they are In New Jersey. I get a discount because I am a PCA member but I bet Vortex could get some form of discount If their buttons were pushed. Car looks good Tim.

[Iroczgirl]

Looking good!

We started to carry Griot's garage at our store about a month ago. I was going to try their stuff on my cars as well.

[-camber]

poor Becky... her Scirocco has such dull paint...

...

[TheTimob]

...

I deal with the mechanic stuff on her car. (except for oil changes)

Visual stuff? Her car. Her job!


<-- Deal With It