I wanna compound my car today but would like to know what you guys think I should use? Thanks guys!

 

Is it really that bad? When I think compound...I think really agressive stuff.

For something moderately agressive, Meguiars Fine Cut Cleaner (manilla bottle, professional line) would be good, and safe. Want to follow it up with something lighter though.

 

What would be lighter? I have a bunch of few scratchs on my paint and it really bothers me. I wanna do something small and cheap. They want $75 to do the job at a detail shop but I don't have the money.

 

If you don't mind ordering...Poorboys SSR2.5 is good (specialtymotoring.com)

Just use a terry towel (cotton), folded into quarters for more even pressure. Work parallel to the scratches. Straight lines always, never circles. Wipe immediately after.

Local, you may be able to find the meguiars. You may also be able to find some 3M products, which I haven't used, but people like a lot (the finnesse it line, more specifically).

 

thougt u meant impound, lol

but what does compounding do? fix swirles or scratches?

 

Back in the day people used compound and a rotary buffer to even out a paint surface (kind of like what wetsanding does...it was preference, my granfather did it the compound way, my uncles did it the wetsanding way).

Now it's used as a last resort for getting out wetsanding marks, although if you can't get them out with a agressive polish you're likely using too coarse of wetsanding paper.

I wouldn't use too agressive of compound to get out scratches. Risky business.

 

if you want to get rid of swirls use a car polish before you wax. you apply it the same way as wax, you just don't let it set as long.

compound is really abbrasive(relativly speaking) and i don't think you'r looking for something with quite as much bite to it.