I thought I would post this on here as there have been posts in the past about machine polishing cars.

Well a neighbour has a red astra estate, I commented on it a few month ago and offered to have a go at restoring the colour, but the owner wasn't bothered. My dad was intrigued at what I could do with it and was speaking to them and mentioned it but the same response. A few weeks ago someone bumped the rear door and it ended up in the body shop to be sorted out and they ended up with a red rear door and about 2" of the roof where the body shop went over a little. so it was more noticable and thy asked if I could have a look at it. But the weather hasnt been any good to get a good go at it.
The car is parked facing the same direction every time so one side gets the sun more than the other so one isn't as white as the other.
It was pretty late when I started, we had been out for a meal for tea and I went round and they moved the car to the back of the house. I plan to do the car as and when I get a few hours spare, yeah repeatedly washing it but never mind.
So here you go.
Before shots, Passenger side is the one that has faded more.

more pinkness


The other side isn't quite so pink but there is a slight change

The fuel cover shows there is a slight change of colour

freshly painted boot has swirl marks where the bodyshop didnt break down the comound enough

top of the back door where the body shop finished their polishing

On with the wash, foamed using my sample of Autosmart HD foamwash. it does the job but the foam wasn't that thick probably due to using the karcher yellow bottle lance the proper one is elsewhere but it was removing something by the change of colour in the foam that has run off.

never doing a single stage paint before I wasnt quite sure how it would work so I started with meguiars speed glaze (#80) on a meguiars polishing pad for my test section and here is the result after a single hit, which was working the polish over the area for about 4 minutes at about 2/3 of full speed.


I was blown away, I always see people using a very abrasive polish on colour restoreation polishing so wasn't expecting much from just a single hit with #80 and was going to up to meguiars dual action polish (#83) but had no need as the lighter polish was doing what was needed. so I carried on with #80

The pad was caked with paint after half the bonnet so I rinsed it out and spun it dry and carried on.
Cleaned the pad again and did the drivers side wing then passenger wing.
before

half time

change ends

Full time, Little John 1 - pink astra 0

Well the bonnet, and 2 front wings are done.
now to clean the pad again

It really is just a yellow polishing pad not a red cutting pad, See

Yes I know I have missed the creases on the wing, I will sort them out when I can see what I'm doing. This was taken with out the flash.

I finished it with a coat of Dodo juice banana armour wax which will be applied at least another time possibly more to prevent it going pink again, I'm sure I will find out how much of the wax I didn't buff off in the morning. It was a little dark.

I will post more pics as I progress towards the back.