Ok so before winter and salt hit my car I just did my clay bar routine with Nu Finish wax as I was out of my stuff and there was some available to me. The wax is sooooo easy to apply. However the shine cannot beat my NXT which I will have to apply over the wax for an even more superb shine.

Does anyone use anything to clean the black areas on the cars to get the white stuff off?? I always get it on the edges and try not to...

 

Leesha, next time you wax try putting on a little painters tape. It's fairly quick to apply and easy to remove when you're done.

As for removing the existing wax residue, I use Meguiar's All Purpose Cleaner. It's the best stuff to use on all kinds of things, even in the house. It's available at Meguiar's on-line store under their professional line of product. Buy a gallon jug, dilute it 4:1 and go crazy cleaning everything in sight!

 

7andan may know more about detailing... but my 8 is my baby and I'm always finding ways to make it better with what i Have...


To GET RID OF RESIDUE ;;; USE QUICK DETAILER and WIPE AWAY WITH TOWEL(microfiber works BaNgIn!) lol... It works trust me .. i used to use zaino and after polishing, I would use quick detailer to take away residue and bring out super shine... Same idea with anything Meguirs ..(even substituting wax for polish)

I'd recommened buying this quick detailer from zaino for cheap because it works 1000's of times better than meguiars.

 

Just tried Meguiar's new Clear Coat Safe Rubbing Compound on my wife's Subaru. As you can see in the picture below, her paint had terrible swirl marks all over it. The Clear Coat Safe Rubbing Compound is only for hand application, so there were no power tools involved here.

I personally think the results are really good. There are still a few swirl marks, but they are almost impossible to see in normal daylight (unlike before). Also, these results are obviously not as good as a professional detailing, but the hood looks 100 times better than when I started. I'll also note that I only had an hour to get this done, so I was rushing. If I had more time, I probably would have been able to get a better result.

Here are the products I used:



Step one, wash.

Step two, dry.

Step three, mask off the fenders and grill (I only did the hood to start with).

Step four, wipe down the hood with some diluted rubbing alcohol to remove any remaining wax and dirt.

Step five, apply Rubbing Compound one small section at at a time. Do not allow to dry and wipe off immediately.

Step six, wipe the hood down one more time with a clean terry cloth towel.

Step seven, apply Clear Coat Safe Polishing Compound. As before, apply to one small section at at a time. Do not allow to dry and wipe off immediately.

Step eight, give the hood another thorough wipe-down with a clean terry cloth towel.

Step nine, apply and remove wax.

Before photo:


After photo:


Side-by-side:


One more after photo:

 

^^ wow that thing works

 

Not bad.

 

hmm more stuff to buy....and more time to waste doing **** to the car.... I'm guess you don't need to do a swirl remover (like Mequires SwirlX) if you use this stuff?

 

It looks like the rubbing compound is more aggressive than SwirlX, while the polishing compound is roughly in the same league as SwirlX and ScratchX 2.0.
http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...9&postcount=40

 

It's decent, but I would be left unsatisfied seeing all the swirls left over. Personally I would have hit it up with Poorboys SSR3, then PB SSR2.5, and SSR1. Then a coat or two of EX-P, and for final wax Natty's Blue.

 

I like to claybar before I polish and I start with the least aggressive compound (Griot's 3) and only move up if/where necessary. I also use a random orbital polisher just to be further safe.

Let's keep in mind that most swirl marks are self-induced by poor quality towels and/or dry rubbing (I won't even mention full contact car washes.. well, I guess I just did). "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." <- no, I won't do the metric conversion.

 

Smart move Huey.

 

Agreed. Not using the clay bar was an oversight on my part.

Seems like a lot of work for a grocery getter

 

Lol. Actually the VW gets the groceries. There are many reasons I have a passion for detailing, but the two main ones are A) I love my car. B) See pic below.

 

showw offfffffff

 

Indeed. It's what I love to do. Show my car. Share the beauty with all.

 

Got a 07 phantom blue finish and gonna try my first attempt at detailing with meguiars products. Here's what i picked up ...

1) NXT generation soap
2) Clay Kit with quik detailer
3) Swirl X
4) NXT tech wax 2.0
5) Quick interior detailer
6) Hot Shine Tire Spray
7) NXT glass cleaner

Using waffle weave towels to dry, microfibers to for claying and waxing. Am I missing any steps or other recommended products?

 

my steps
1) wash with turtle wax ice

2) mothers clay bar

and need something to remove the swrils.

 

That's a pretty good list jsbs84. Follow directions on the products and you should have great results. Are you applying by hand or buffer?

 

Thanks. Waxing by hand for now since Im not too experienced with rotary or orbital buffers.

 

Don't be afraid of a random orbiter. It's almost impossible to damage your paint with one, and the only way to really get out all the fine swirls. 20 years experience.

 

Cool. Will definitely check it out. My 8's an 07 though so the paint still in great condition. Is it better to start waxing by hand now and start looking at machine buffers down the line.

 

Oh, for sure! You really only need a PC for paint correction. I always wax by hand.

 

I just got my first bunch of car cleaning stuff together:-
Bucket
Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo & Conditioner - no really, that's what it's called. If I understand correectly, it is car soap.
Double-sided mitt (with scrubbing and microfibre sides).
Meguiars Gold Class Liquid Wax - which came with a spongy applicator.
Lint-free microfibre towel.
A squirty bottle of Meguiars Quik Detailer - the plan is to use this to keep the car looking good between washes. Unfortunately I don't have a garage, NC is full of trees, trees are full of birds, and birds are full of crap.


Is this about right? D'you guys think I need anything else? Remember, the car looks like new already - it is new - I just want to keep it that way.

 

california duster when you park it at home then car cover

 

Only a couple of suggestions:
1. Get another bucket; one for wash water, one for rinse water. Do one panel at a time with your mitt, then rinse the mitt thoroughly in the rinse bucket. An extra bonus would be to get some grit gaurds for each bucket (providing you bought 5 gal. buckets).

2. Be very careful with the "scrubbing" side of the mitt. Don't use it on your painted surfaces.

Bird crap is one of the major contributors to clearcoat failure. You'll do yourself a great service by using the Quik Detailer on that mess.