I have used a 10 inch random orbital buffer for years and as long as you buy a car new and keep it garaged it does a pretty fair job of maintaining the finish. But if you want to do any corrective work to the rock hard clear coat on a 'Vette, then you do need a more serious buffer.

I have watched way too many YouTube and Auto Geek videos and finally decided to get rid of all the real fine scratches and swirl marks on my 2008 Z06. Nothing real bad - just enough to bug me.

After a bunch of comparison searches, I decided on the Griot's Garage Gen III buffer, as it has quite a bit more power than the Porter Cable or the Meguiars buffers. Not knocking those two - I just wanted to make sure I had plenty of power so it would not bog down under pressure.

Decided to use the Meguiars Soft 2.0 7 inch foam pads, and the Meguiars Ultimate Compound, Ultimate Polish, and Gold Class Carnauba Plus liquid wax.

Before I started the project I did some testing with my old 10 random orbital and the standard cotton pad. Using the Ultimate Compound I was surprised to find that it got rid of virtually all the swirl marks I had. It was a pain in the *** to use (not near enough power to smoothly run over the finish) and wasn't perfect in the end, but the Ultimate compound did a reasonable job with a cotton pad that had no cutting ability whatsoever.

One of my concerns was talking off too much clear coat as once you remove it, you have lost that protection forever. Based on that, I followed Meguiars advice and went one step milder than recommended on the buffing pads and used the Yellow Polishing Pad (W8207) for the compound, the Black Finishing Pad (W9207) for the polish, and another black finishing pad for applying the wax.

The Griots buffer was superb - very happy with it. If I were to do it again, I would probably have used the normal cutting pad for the compound, as I had to go over each area two to three times to get the results I wanted, and I had to lean into it a little more than I would have liked. Also made a couple of passes with the polish, and put on two coats of the wax. Meguiars said there was no harm in putting on two coats of wax but that it would not "layer" like some waxes. Wiped off all three products with a clean microfiber towel. Compound and Polish came off very easily (while still wet), wax was supposed to dry before removing and was a little more difficult to get off. Meguiars said to use small amounts. When I pulled it out in the sun, there were a few streaks so I did a trick I heard from someone else: lightly spritz each panel with water and gently wipe down with a 100% cotton towel - worked beautifully.

Also - for what it is worth: I have a clear bra on my car and I used the wax with the finishing pad over the entire car. You can be the judge from the photos below but I was pleased with the results. Also, I purchased the Brinkmann's dual xenon light to check my work as I went. Bought it all from Auto Geek.

If you follow the directions it is pretty easy to get great results. Comments or questions welcomed!

 

Nice job

My car is a twin to yours and I love to polish

 

And my car is a twin to yours.

 

My car is exactly the same too (minus the shine). Right down to the splitter, skirts, spoiler, 427 on the hood! Nice job!

I have chrome door handles and front splash guards though

 

That looks awesome Another example that process is more important than product

 

sheriffs assoc?

 

Well done.

 

Very nice, I have the same car with ZR1 wheels. Where did you get the front splitter and side skirts? Thanks for posting.

 

thanks for the kind words .... remember with the Griots you can use the same backing plates and pads as the Megs and PC buffer. So .... consider a bit smaller pad and backing plate for a little extra power. I personally find 5 inch backing plate and 5.5 inch Hydro Tech pads to be the bomb !

 

The buffing did not hurt the clear bra? Did it help it lose any of the orange peel look?
Otherwise, car looks great!

 

Looks great!

 

I just donate to them - I'm retired Navy, 30 years. The theory is if I were to get pulled over for going 5 or 10 over the limit the nice officer, upon noticing that I support their cause, MIGHT let me go with a warning - no guarantees. If I were to get caught doing something really stupid (me?) they wouldn't think twice about impounding the car and putting me in cuffs......

 

 

I bought the car used with it as you see it. I did crack the splitter and had to replace it - used RPI. Awesome service, perfect product. It was flawless, well packaged, and all the pre-drilled holes were dead on.

 

As I used the black finishing pad with no abrasiveness whatsoever, and the liquid (cream) wax had absolutely no cleaning ability - just pure wax, it was safe to use on the clear bra. I did test with the Brinkmann's light and there were no swirl marks whatsoever. The clear bra goes half way up the hood and if you look closely at the pics you can't see the line at all - it really blended in well with the wax.

I showed it to a group of guys I hang out with and they commented the orange peel look was all gone - which is what makes it really shine - when you get as close as possible to a flat surface. So yes, it was a big help with the orange peel.