Maybe I'm getting my hopes high...

I'll skip to the meat and potatoes. Car recently washed with prima hydro, then hydro sealed.

Scored a used griots. Used a 6" medium polish pad über. Did a quick clean with meguiars quick detailer. Used xmt 360 on half the hood. Then did a meguiars hand wax. On a different quarter of the hood only did the xmt. 1/4 was left just cleaned.

Why am I not seeing a difference? Pretty sure I did it how I'm supposed to. 3-4 passed each vertical and horizontal keeping the pad flat using light light pressure on the griots at speed 3.

What did I do wrong?

 

Ugh I'm so newb... I wasn't applying any pressure. Just watched Adams video on it and I was pretty much zero pressure on too low a speed. Oh well, atleast I didn't mess anything up. (Shrug)

 

I'm trying to understand your original post. You used xmt360 (which to my knowledge is an All In One, correct?) after you had recently hydro sealed your car? That doesn't sound right at all. You don't want to polish after you recently sealed your car! If anything, polish before to achieve the correction your trying to go for and then seal. I've had no experience with hydro seal but it does look like a promising product.

My suggestion: Try to stick with similar brands when using something like all-in-ones and topping it with something. It's guaranteed to work cause companies usually make their products to work hand in hand. Hence why I'm sure you washed with hydro then hydro sealed. Since you just recently acquired a griots DA, try to gain experience by working with all-in-one polishes as I remember from your other post you were hesitant with getting a polisher. I have yet to do an actual correction myself but I've worked with products like prima amigo, auto finesse tripple, and auto finesse rejuvenate. These are very user friendly polishes with mild cutting abilities and fillers. Once I feel comfortable, I will be moving to one step polishes such as meguiars m205 and menzerna powerfinish to get an understanding of diminishing versus non diminishing abrasives.

Try these combo's out as they are guaranteed to work and have NO NEED FOR IPA WIPEDOWNS after polishing:

Prima Amigo topped with a Prima LSP or Menzerna Powerlock
Auto Finesse Rejuvenate topped with your wax of choice
Auto Finesse Tripple followed by wax of choice or Auto Finesse Tough Coat
Auto Finesse Tough Coat Prep followed by Auto Finesse Power Seal or Auto Finesse Tough Coat

Werkstat, Autoglym, and Zaino are also other companies you might want to look at.

With these pre-prep cleaners/polishes, I tend to use at speed 4 with a uber green pad (thanks to overtimedetailer for helping me out whit this one). I don't work it in as slowly as you would a traditional polish but I don't rush it either. I apply light to medium pressure.

Again, practice makes perfect. Practice on your technique and get a feel for it. I recently did my 2012 gti with auto finesse tripple and auto finesse tough coat and let me tell you, there was a huge difference :thumb:. I wasn't striving for 100% correction but auto finesse cleaned up my paint nicely. Yea it took me a long time but once I continue to do these types of jobs, I hope to one day be as fast as some of the members here on DB.

 

this is exactly how you learn. nothing gets f... up and you still move forward. holdens primo amigo and powerlock is a great combo . i find hydro sealant more of a high quality quick spray than a durable long term sealant. patience, patience, patience, you didn't screw up the paint just learned a great lesson. every great detailer in the world is learning pad, product, pairings (3 p's!) its what sets them apart from the newbie. instead of wax on, wax off you should think polish and pad combo on, scratches off. (kind of a rip off of the movie and mr. myagi as sensei

 

chris, sorry i looked up prima hydro seal. i have not used it. i use hydro spray wax and mistook the two. love the wax. anyway, as per holden you must get any wax or sealant off before polishing. most car soaps wont do this so a lot of people use dawn detergent to wash first. i will add some chemical guys citrus wash and gloss shampoo to the bag. it does a nice job of prepping paint prior (wow, another 3 p's) to polishing. the xmt 360 does not have a lot of correcting ability so remember that it is limited to light polish correction.

 

Ahhhh.... About 6 months ago I did a hand polish of Adams blue polish.