I just spent a bunch of my weekend polishing the swirl marks off my black 2004 coupe. Just wanted to report that I'm very satisfied with the results.

Products used were:
Porter Cable 7424
Lake country pads
Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover
Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish
Pinnacle Souveran Carnauba Paste Wax

I'm a newbie to this, but the kit came with an instructional DVD from Pinnacle. There are snips of it on youtube if you want a look.

If I had the week off instead of the weekend, I would have hit it with the clay bar first I think. The only drawback is that the deeper scratches that were once hidden by the haze of swirls are now more obvious!

Cheers!

 

LOL You'd need the rest of the week just to clay?? Claying is about a 30 minute process on a car this small and takes very little effort. Of course, if you go back and do it now you'll need to reapply your wax.

As for those deep scratches, they're extremely difficult to get out of Crossfire paint with the D/A. I busted out my rotary a few months ago with Meguiar's M105 and POOF! they were gone.

 

I just did the same this past weekend, but I clayed first and used the Adam's swirl remover, Machine Polish, and Machine Super wax using the PC-7424. I also have the Pinnacle products but find them harder to work. Looks like glass now .

Clay took about 15 - 20 minutes.

 

Man, I tried to tell the guys on the Miata forum a few years ago that you can clay a small car in that amount of time and they just started ragging on me! This after one of them complained about it taking 3 hours to clay their Miata. 3 hours!!! One of them said if they worked really fast and didn't care about the results, they could maybe, maybe do the hood of a Miata in that amount of time. I have no idea where some people get their ideas about detailing.

 

I don't get it either. Even the videos put out by Adam's or Megs demo it in about 15 minutes. I don't wax my car without claying first.

 

You mention the Pinnacle products. They have a cleaner for the buffing/cutting pads. I have found Dawn Dish Detergent gets the pads cleaner than the 15$ bottle of Pinnacle cleaner. Just don't get Dawn anywhere near your car unless you want all the wax off it.
The guys are 100% correct, it should only take 1/2 or so to clay your car.
Pat