Reddit mentions of Meguiar's DMC5 DA 5" Microfiber Cutting Disc, 2 Pack

How To: 2 Step Polish - Ammo Review on the bottom - forgot to add that to the title! Sorry guys

1. Inspect the paint for level of correction needed (pictures 1-4).
   
2. Find decent shading. Once again, if the paint is hot, the polish will flash and not be nearly as effective as it should be.
   
3. Find a good lighting source that will show swirl marks. I have found that the sun is both your ally and enemy in this situation. For smaller inspections, I am using the Flex Light. Link below.
   
4. Note: It is generally good idea to tape off a 2x2 area or whatever you choose to work in. I have not (mostly because I didn’t have any tape), but I am also comfortable enough in my abilities to know what I am doing. This is also my own car. If I were doing a customers, I would tape off sensitive areas.
   
5. Prime your cutting pad by adding enough polish to cover most of the pad. Work it in with your fingers to ensure all the fibers (or foam, whatever you are using) are coated in polish (picture 7).
   
6. Tap the pad around in the area that you are working in to spread the product around (picture 8).
   
7. Spread it in on speed 2 and light to no pressure (picture 9).
   
8. Bump up the speed to an appropriate setting (in my case, 5 & 6 on a PC), place the pad FLAT on the surface, and turn it on. Use medium pressure - enough so that the pad spins at about 1 rotation per second or so - Work in slow, controlled motions and move the DA in straight lines, about 1 second per inch. After your first pass, come back and cover 50% of the line you just did and continue on in such a manner. After you have finished going in one direction, work in the opposite direction in a similar manner. For example: if you started out north – south, work east – west, and so on and so forth. You will know when you are done polishing when the product does not appear to be there anymore. Think of it this way – it’s like buffing off wax. You want to work the product in until it isn’t really there. Each section should take about 1-2 minutes. If you are finding that the product is not going away, you have most likely used too much. Buff off the remaining polish with a clean microfiber. Inspect your paint and continue on. Repeat if necessary (picture 11). Make sure your pad is spinning! If you have too much pressure down, you are not doing anything. It is a common practice to mark the backing plate with a sharpie so know it is spinning.
   
9. NOT PICTURED: Polish leaves behind oils. They look like holograms, but can be buffed off. Isopropyl Alcohol can be diluted and used on the paint to inspect your work. I will include a link to a very helpful article. You can also rewash the car, but this runs the risk of reintroducing scratches to the paint.
   
10. Follow up the polish with a finishing polish. These are not as abrasive; they take away any induced swirls from polishing and further refines the depth of the paint. Using a finishing pad (doesn't have much cut) and the same priming method, tap and spread the product in the work area. These polishes do not have to be worked in at a high speed, instead a medium speed is usually fine (4.5 in my PC’s case). (pictures 12-17). You can lighten up on the pressure here, but still keep a consistent force down upon it.
    
11. Inspect the area and continue on. You may have to polish a few times depending on your OCD and level of correction desired!
    
12. For smaller areas, a 3 inch pad and backing plate is required (pictures 18-21).
    
    Here is a video showing some before/after polishing action:
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBdT_v60QXk&feature=youtu.be
    
    
    This guide may be a bit sparse and even less pictures than I would have liked, but I was fighting for sunlight and doing my best to get as much done as I could.
    
    
    Porter Cable 6 inch DA Polisher
    
    Meguiar's Microfiber Cutting Pads 5.5 inch
    
    Meguiar's Microfiber Cutting Pad 3.5 inch
    
    Uber Blue 5.5 inch finishing pad
    
    Flex Light
    
    Ammo Paint Restoration Regimen
    
    IPA Mixing Guide: http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/hot-topics-frequently-asked-questions/31183-how-mix-ipa-inspecting-correction-results.html
    
    
    Ammo Paint Restoration Regimen Review:
    
    Leveling Fluid
    
    Color: Coconut creamy whitish...you get it. Look at the picture
    
    Smell: Oranges! Yes, oranges. Never smelled a polish before that didn't smell like chemicals
    
    Cutting power: My car is in pretty good shape, so it had no problem taking out love marks and random light scratches. I will have to update this on a more neglected paint job. However, I found that I did NOT have to go back over and areas. Lucky me. 9/10.
    
    Dusting: Hardly any. I am very very very happy about this.
    
    Oil Residue: Again, hardly any. It was also very easy to remove. I found myself not needing IPA, instead a light spray of ONR QD took it right off.
    
    Amount used: after priming the pad fully, I found that I could get away with doing a whole panel with that primed pad and by only adding a few extra dots after. 9/10 (basically saying not much was used)
    
    Overall: 9/10 - easy to use, smells great, doesn't dust, great cutting power. Sounds like something I'd want in a polish!
    
    Jeweler's Polish
    
    Color: Light blue
    
    Smell: Green apple. Awesome!
    
    Finishing power: 9/10. Took away micro marring no problem
    
    Dusting: none
    
    Oil residue: hardly any. hnnnnggg
    
    Amount used: comparable to the Leveling Fluid. Very little was needed after the initial prime - and unexpected glob that came flying out of the bottle >:0
    
    Overall: 9/10 - same as above. smells great, easy to use, user friendly. Thank you Larry!
    
    Overall Regimen observations: Love it!!! They were so easy to use and had no learning curve on them whatsoever. The smells were awesome, the fact that there is next to no dusting is just amazing, the little polish residue. Cons? I can't find any. They are reasonably priced I think, especially coming from Ammo. I could easily see Larry bumping the price up if they catch on. 9/10 would buy again

you may need the iron remover eventually but you can wait to buy it until you actually need it.

FCC and Microfiber cutting pads

yeah, compare 10 gallons at $19 vs 10 gallons of invisible glass or whatever which is almost $200.

they are more expensive but you will have a better surface for waxing when you don't have a soap that has wax in it.

d101 may not be strong enough to get the wheels totally clean, that's where d143 will come in. d101 will be good on plastics though.

cleaner for the plastics would be d101. leather you could do leatheriques pristine clean for cleaning and the rejuvinator for protecting. they're expensive though, you might look into optimum leather conditioner or adams

I started with Hex Logic pads but honestly didn't find them that effective or that durrable. These days I use Meg's MF pads for compounding and Meg's Soft Buff for polishing. They are much easier to work with and give me a better result. As far as polishes go, you can't really go wrong with M105/M205 combo or if you want an AIO HD Speed is pretty good as well.

Here's a handy chart for aggresiveness of polish/compounds: Autopia Care Care Chart

You could try meguiars microfiber cutting pads if you still need a stronger cut. Remember that you want to use the least aggressive method first. No reason to take extra clear if you don't need to.

Going to order this pack of 2 - Meguiar's DMC5 DA 5" Microfiber Cutting Disc, 2 Pack https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004VG0N38/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_y58ODb2PE5GR4

These will cut more and be more effective than my current Uro-Fiber pad? Since the clear is hard should I be finishing and polishing using the Uro Fiber or a softer white foam? I ruined my Orange pad with the wrong brush/cleaning too aggressively.