Anyone know is it possible to ship coumpound, polish and washing liquid from overseas? Will get hold and taxed by custom?

Looking at chemical guys US website, seems like lots of stuff are on sale. If I am to grab them all locally, the bill easily add up to 500+
Still thinking if I should just ship them with a forwarder, I think those compound and liquid will be quite heavy (16oz fluid oz?)

Any sifu here have experience compounding and polishing refinished surface? My dad sells used cars and sometimes he do refinishing himself (no worries, a lot of used car dealers do this too and they never tell you.), but he can never master the compounding and polishing part. Even not refinishing, he also have to polish some of those cars with okay paint that have heavy swirls.

Currently he is using a AEG rotary machine, usually he use a Farecla compound, and never go beyond that. I understand that there's a lot more than that to make the paint shine (polishes, sealant, wax and etc). I did learn quite a bit from Youtube and practiced on my own car with some slightly oxidised paint, the compound works great for removing the oxidised layer, but it can never reach the really shiny look (it is very coarse I think). I think I still did an okay job with the rotary and it's not as scary as most people said.

Maintaining the cars in the open showroom is not easy too, lots of dust will accumulate on it in just 2-3 days.

Can any sifu recommend me most of the products that actually works and not very expensive (we are selling mostly local cars only, not some premium cars ) from compound, polish, sealant (is this optional?) and wax.

Maybe also recommend polishing pads and washing soap. Basically everything except the machine

Saw someone mentioned the Clover DA, how's the durability? Anyone owned one long enough to comment about the durability.

Interested in getting a DA polisher

Hey guys, I have a question on washing microfiber cloth used to wipe off polish residue, wax and etc. What kind of detergent is suitable for washing?

I was at a point of almost pulling my hair out because no one seem to sell microfiber specific detergent for it and I couldn't find any "clear, perfume and softener free" detergent at hypermarket. I have a pile of mf cloth but idk what to do because I'm running out of them soon.

Any suggestion for locally available stuff that is suitable will be much welcomed. Thanks.

Thanks for the info, but what they mean by "mild detergent" in Malaysia? Any suggestion for off the shelves detergent that local hypermarket sells? Eg: Dynamo, Breeze, Top or whatever that works well in this case. I do have a lot of Dynamo detergent at home but im pretty darn sure they have perfume, not too sure if any softener inside.

Last thing I want is all my mf cloth turning hard and "clogged"

This post has been edited by CAL V: Jun 26 2017, 01:45 AM

Thanks, I tried dynamo, 60c water and extra rinse to get rid of any soap residue. Came out with no smell and very clean. Feels like new after drying.

hand wash faster than machine? I tried before but it's not as clean, maybe the entire wash cycle is longer with machine, but came out nicer tho.
Maybe I didn't rinse enough.

From my experience, in certain cases it also depends on how much clear coat is left on the surface. Newer cars shouldn't have much problem, but older cars is a different story. (oxidised or refinished)

It's hard to guess how much clear coat is left without the depth gauge.

Woah, that tree sap is a lot worse than mine

I also have to park my car under the trees most of the time, bird poop, tree sap, tiny branches and leaves are unavoidable

May I know what you guys use to check for paint defect?

I'm having a really hard time looking for them after polishing session, even a taped 50/50 didn't help much.

I'm currently using either my phone flash or some hand torch, they don't work very well. I have a semi-open garage (only one roof, lights coming in from 3 directions except my house) which makes it harder. Plus I was working on a silver car, even harder to see micro marring

I'm temped to do the DIY sun gun thing, probably can do it under RM150. I also saw some pen light options, Rupes, Scangrip and nitecore. The nitecore is the cheapest but it's actually not meant for checking paint defects, but it's still RM160+ and the rest is way beyond that.

Thanks a lot on the advice, but I think I can't wait that long until night to check the results (but it works very well ). I guess I'll use a piece of cardboard to cover the panel from sunlight and check with the dedicated light source.

Pulled the trigger on DIY sun gun route, bought a solux bulb. Figured I'll probably use a lot more in the future, hope it's all good.

Yeah, will post if it goes well.

I think I blew my budget already, the bulb was a little expensive, the drill I got those cheap ones from China. The cheapest drill I can find locally also 100++ and my cordless drill at home still works fine.

About rm110, 12V 35W 4700k version

From the video, I think the Note 5 light is warmer, so that probably explains why it works better on the white paint.

Most of the newer phones have dual tone flash, my phone also have a warm colour flash. Sadly it gets drowned by the surrounding light during daytime and the silver paint certainly didn't help.


I'm not too sure, they look exactly like other bulbs with the same design, but the solux version is rated at 99% CRI. I can't confirm if it works better in revealing swirls. (I'd imagine the high CRI is very important for people working on painting and refinishing like the original sun gun was intended for)

Atm I think colour temperature is more important with our usage. The right light for the light colour like you suggested before. Probably 2 light source with different colour temp makes more sense and also cheaper. I see lots of detailer on youtube also use normal led floodlight most of the time and only a specific light for final checking.

I went a little overkill on this (want > need) . I'll report back on how it performs.

Wah, your neighbor won't kacau? So good

This is a quick write up for my first machine wet sanding experience. I'm not good at writing stuff, hope you guys don't mind.

Materials I used:
-3M Trizact 1500
-3M Trizact 3000
-3M Trizact 5000
-sanding interface pad
-Spray bottle with plain water

*Disclaimer. This is not a step by step guide, just my experience. I'm not liable for any damages you do to your car if you attempt this.

I'm using a Rupes mini for this job, and also using these pads and sanding disc that I custom cut into 3" by myself.


First, I cleaned the surface with just water, didn't bother to wash the car because it wasn't very dirty plus I'm sanding it anyway. *maybe clean it thoroughly to avoid any large debris that gets rubbed into the paint and create deep scratches

I sprayed some water on the surface and sprayed some on the sanding disc too and started sanding. I don't think you need to flood it with water, just sufficient is good enough for me. *depending on the sand paper/sanding disc you use, some may require soaking

I did one test section with 1200, 3000 then 5000. Lastly I compounded it with Meg's 3" microfibre pad with Menzerna SHCC300. Oh boy, this pad combo cut really fast, I was looking at a glossy surface after the second pass (I mean going over the surface the second time not compound it the second time). I did polish it with Rupes yellow pad with Menzerna 2400 but it did nothing much, micro marring still exist . I'll probably get the FG400 and 3800 for a 2 step polish instead of 3 step but that's for another day.

Half of it is still covered in 5000 grit sanding mark


This is another section, notice the sanded side. This is with 1200, there's no reflection whatsoever


This is after 3000 grit, quite a bit glossier


And this is after 5000 grit, notice there's much more reflection on it than before


This is the other side that I haven't do anything, you can see the severe orange peel


This is the amount of slur after sanding it with 1200 grit with 2 passes


This is the result after one sanding session, there are quite many noticeable high spots left, so more sanding is required. Unfortunately my sanding session had to stop as I was chasing the remaining sun light and also have to head out for dinner with my family.


Conclusion time, it was quite fun, but not so fun when I saw my shirt covered in all the slur after sanding. It's quite a dirty job, also explains why I didn't do a full wash prior to sanding. I did it all with a Rupes mini and 3 inch interface pad. I don't know why they specifically marketed the Duetto for sanding. I think any machine in the Rupes line should work, but you better pay a lot of attention on what you're doing because they sand really really fast (especially the 15 and 21 with larger orbits). It cut really fast, not sure it is the trizact that are awesome or the 12mm orbit of the mini that helped. I think most other da machines will work too, maybe except any forced rotation ones and rotary.

Don't ask me why I used a Rupes mini, it's all I have now. I'll probably get a 15/15mk2 down the road, but now that's all I have. I think I know why they use a 6" pad on most sander, you'll get a flatter and more even surface, but in my case, I was doing 30% overlap and it turned out okay. Not the flattest surface ever, but good enough since I'm not chasing for perfection on such an old car.

Besides, I didn't notice any heavy load up or "clogging" on the sanding dics, probably they are that good. A couple squirts of water and they are good to go again. But I did feel that there's noticeably more resistance gliding the machine over the surface once it is covered in lots of slur, so I think that how they do it. Spray some water, wipe the slur off and continue.

But I do advice not to do it on normal cars because you simply don't know how much clear coat there is and how fast you're cutting. In my case, my car have 2 panels that have been re-lacquered (respray clear coat) before and I talked to the painter too so I was sure that there's plenty of clear coat for me to play with. If you are not confident, don't try it. But it is hard to see any brand new cars with this heavy of orange peel, probably only applies to resprayed panels.

I'll continue to finish this panel tomorrow and probably work on another panel too. Hope this long post didn't offend you.

Thanks for the compliment
One more note, it is a must to use a foam interface pad to help the sanding disc contour better and not to destroy your backing plate.

I got them from Taobao, actually most of the stuff that I can't find online in Malaysia too.
1500 and 3000 grit one is 18yuan and the 5000 grit one is 25yuan.
It comes in 6" and I cut into two 3" discs myself(will waste a bit la). Same goes to the meg's mf cutting disc, but those are super expensive.

Any clue of getting them or other mf cutting disc like Lake country or Buff and shine locally? I think I prefer them much better than the rupes blue foam. The blue foam pad just disintegrate too fast (small blue bits coming off) and not to mention they are not cheap too.

This post has been edited by CAL V: Aug 13 2017, 12:43 AM

Can tell is which brand of sanding disc? And how long they last

3M trizact is quite expensive, even in the states

Day 2, so this is where I got it after about 40 minutes of work. Really like the megs mf pad, and it finishes pretty good with the Menzerna 300 which is surprising for me (as a compound). Can't wait to see how it works with FG400.

It's a different time of the day so the white balance is a little different. There's some minor swirls left for polishing but I will end it here until I get some finer polish. Not perfectly flat like I mentioned yesterday but good enough for me, perhaps a little like oem look.


I washed the car afterwards and the surface actually beads really well with the remaining polish oils on the surface. Didn't wear off after I wash it with meg's gold class shampoo. Just a temporary protection until I polish it and apply some real protection.


Glad someone else had the same experience and not an isolated case. *it will get expensive really fast if using it full time

I converted the price I paid for meg's mf cutting disc to myr and it's not that much more expensive than they are selling on Autogeek. Probably even cheaper than shipping from USA. They still look really good after washing it, so I think it will last quite some time. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll go take a look at ezbuy.

Sure not full panel respray?

Seems pretty good to me, but I've not tested the trizact disc to that extent only one panel clear coat sanding.
Btw, I also found some ppl suggest Mirka abralon discs, and it's also sold on Kevin Brown's website(can get on taobao at affordable prices too). But I'm not sure how good they are and whether they will suit sanding fillers and epoxy or not.

And I see that rotary, are you sanding with rotary? I'm sure it cuts really fast, but seems like no issue for you