My view exactly.

Over on detailingworld.co.uk the detailers post there work on cars, but practically all of them are new cars, whose owners just spend money unnecessarily, they never seem to post up work on old cars that are truly filthy.

Patch - what rotary are you using? I use a DAS6 with poorboys products.

I have a 'orbital' rotary polisher, it's a Flex VR variable speed (1200W), retail around £300.00. Used to use the Dual Action, but I sold that once I was totally comfortable with pad and polish combo's for the coop paint.

I tend to use Menzerna and 3M polishes and a variety of waxes, depends on what the owner wants.

EDIT - If you suffer from faded light clusters on the rear, 3M fast cut plus and a compounding 4" pad bring them up a treat. You may notice on the pictures of the car that the headlights and front lights also look quite glossy and clear - I did these too

KDS keltec use 3M products too, apparently very good, i may give them a try.

Menzerna stuff is excellent! Im planning on giving that a go next once my poorboys nattys paste is out.

Im scared to use a rotary. The risk factors of burning the clear coat scare me to death.

Have you used collinite d'elegance? Is it any good?

Menzerna is a polish Rog, as an alternative to 3M, there are many more though ... used for the rotary or DA, PB Nattys paste is a wax - lol

I used Menzerna S100 on the yellow coop. it's their latest and most powerful cutting polish.

Collinite d'elegance, yes used that, very good long lasting wax. My favourite is definitely Dodo Supernatural though mate!

If you are getting into this you may consider looking into sealants, give great colour protection with aging cars (protect from UV) - Definitely needed on reds and yellows

Patch - apropos really scruffy cars - what's the cheap and cheerful Halfords-purchasable approach to get rid of swirling without buying a polisher (yes, I know it will be lots of elbow grease...)

T-Cut or Swirl X or Scratch X

T-Cut will be the most elbow friendly whilst Scratch X will see results faster! Hope this helps Neil

Cheers, Phil. I had figured it would be something like that. I'll take a trip in the morning (after the race, of course!)

Neil - alternatively, come and visit me and borrow my DA polisher - happy to let you have a play with it

Thanks for the offer, Nigel. I'll see how the elbow holds up...