need some advice for polishing a neglected car.

so a few years back i purchased a whole suite of products and a porter cable to maintain the paint on my family's cars. it was fun for a while, but then life happened and i lost interest and basically stopped caring for my 2003 mazdaspeed protege. The time has come to sell the car as i have a new one on order and it seemed like a good idea to break out the old detail supplies and try to make the car look as good as possible. the car is never going to be 100% without body work and a lot of replacement parts, but id like to make the paint look as shiny as i can.

today i spent about 4 hours washing, claying and attempting to polish the paint and the results were less than satisfying. the hood in particular is very hazy and i was unable to bring back the shine. i spent maybe an hour and a half on the hood alone and while it feels great and has a very smooth surface, its still dull.

here is what i used:
porter cable da polisher
step 1 adams haze and swirl remover - orange stuff, with adams orange cutting pad
step 2 adams fine machine polish with adams white pad
step 3 adams sealant applied with adams black pad.

unfortunately i don't have any pictures, i will get some tomorrow. but im wondering if my products are the issue? do i need something more heavy to cut through severe haze? ive been watching videos and a lot of people seem to be all about the megs microfiber cutting disks. not really sure where to go from here. any advice would be much appreciated.

 

post some photos up so we can help you out.

 

hope these are good enough, they are the best i can do.

 

Those photos are a little unclear and seem to be in the shade. Nevertheless, given your limited experience with polishing and your statement about wanting to increase the gloss and shine of the paint for a quick sale I would suggest an AIO (all in one polish) product like sonax paint cleaner with a medium cut or just a heavy polishing pad and your porter cable to bring the paint back to life. It won't take a lot of time, has a long work time, really enhances gloss and leaves some wax protection at the end. Good luck on your sale.

 

It is hard to tell from your photos. Those Adams polishes are quite old. They have gone to a new set of polishes. It may be time to upgrade your polishes.

Also with it being a light colored car, it won't have that same pop as a darker car.

Better photos would really help us out.

 

yeah its the best camera ive got (cellphone) and im not an experienced photographer in any sense. i can tell a big difference in the hood versus other parts of the car, the reflections are extremely blurry on it compared to say the trunk and rear quarters. i think i need to try again, probably with some new product as that stuff has been sitting in the garage for at least 2 years. ive been looking at the standard megs stuff (105, 205) or possibly the chemical guys v line of products. not sure if i should upgrade my pads to something different like microfiber or stick with standard foam pads.

for some reason the all in one product doesnt really excite me, i just have this idea that it won't work as well as i want it to.

 

You'd be surprised, good luck nonetheless.

 

I would not recommend M105. It has a slight learning curve and can be frustrating. I would recommend Meguiar's ultimate compound. It is derived from M105 but is intended to be more user friendly. It's an excellent product. M205 is my go to polish and I like it's versatility. Ultimate Polish is derived from M205 and you can pick that up locally as well. The difference being that M205 offers more correction where as ultimate polish offers more polishing oils. You can try these first with foam pads.

I am not a CG user and I have recently seen members on autogeek complaining that the polishes don't work that well.

Hopefully you can get some better photos. It would tell us more.