I just got a flex. I have a black 1997 toyota 4 runner that I am going to learn on. The car runs great, but it was a paint-damaged lease when I bought it six years ago and it has taken a beating as the daily driver of my wife and kids since then.

This is my first machine polisher. I washed the car, hand polished, hand waxed it about 14 months ago. Nothing since then (water restrictions). I have a bunch of Adam's products and am not looking to buy anything new right now.

My plan:
- Wash with adam's car wash
- Dry
- Clay with adam's detail spray and clay bar
- orange pad, flex, adam's swirl and haze remover
- white pad, flex, adam's revive polish
- hand apply adam's buttery wax
- VRT tires and trim, do interior, etc

I'm expecting this to take 2 days. I watched the detailer's domain videos. My questions:

(1) How much swirl and haze remover should I be applying to the pad?
(2) Same for revive polish
(3) When would I ever use the black pad that I got with my flex?

Thanks! Any comments welcome before I get started. I will do the traditional halogen / digital SLR picture logging and post in a couple of weeks when done. Once I learn on the old 4runner I will move on to my other toys.

 

Im assuming your using 6.5inch lake country pads, correct?

If so start with 3 small beads of polish on the pad, this is a bit more than average but is necessary to prime the pad, especially if its new. I suggest running the foam pads under warm water first to soften them up a bit, make sure to thoroughly dry them before polishing.

Since the flex is a random orbital machine always apply the polish directly to the pads and not the panel your polishing, trying to pick up a bead of polish on a random orbital isnt a great idea. With the beads of polish on the pad, lightly dab the pad on the paint with the machine off, the whole panel should be covered with small amounts of polish and then go dry spread the product again with the machine off.

Start at speed 1 to spread and gradually increase to speed 4 or 5 for the heavier correction work if your using the swirl remover.

Follow up with the same process using the lighter polish and pad

The black pad you got is a much softer foam used for finishing, you can apply a glaze with it (speed 1) or use it with a fine polish to produce a nice crystalline type gloss to the finish.

Heres a great video of the flex in action doing paint correction its compareing the flex to the porter cable but you get the idea of how to move the machine fluidly and break down a polish. I still have my flex and think its a great machine btw.

Hope this helps

http://paintcare-n-detailing.com/flex_demo.html

 

Great thank you! When you say a glaze, would that be my adams buttery wax? So I can use the black pad to apply the wax on speed 1?

 

Yes you can use the liquid adams wax with the black LC pad on the flex, speed 1 or 2 with light pressure should cover a car very nicely. Let it cure on th paint for 15-20 before buffing off. Try to get even thin coats