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peteyturbo · 02-28-2006, 02:02 AM

I think I will add to this because it really has not been explained in detail and it's that time of year that most people want to get all the crud from the winter off of their paint and have their car looking lik new again.The previous write up was excellent and I'm not knocking but but rather adding to it. I will share my experiences as far as paint cleaning and protection are concerned.There is alot to explain about every aspect of your car but this is probably the most important.This process will take most of the day depending on what condition your clear coat is in.

First, wash the car with DAWN dish soap (only do this if you are planning to follow the rest of the steps). DAWN has a high PH level that will eat away all remaining wax on your car.It will not damage your clear coat in any way and it will make the next step alot easier. Make sure you rinse off well.

Next, after you have washed and dried your car with the dish soap it's time to get down to buisness.

The first thing I do is go over the entire car with a clay bar and meguier's quick detailer, this part is very easy and will take about one hour. You will be amazed at the difference, and the amount of crap that was in your clearcoat. You want to use a high quality clay bar but the 15 dollar mothers clay bar from autozone works ok too. Do one small section at a time making sure it is always lubricated with quick detailer, and you can feel when the contaminants have been removed, then wipe dry and make sure your car is clean for the next step.

Next, after you've clay bar'd your entire car it's time to start working, and believe me this step is alot easier after you have clay bar'd the car. You are going to need a potent cleaner to get your clearcoat as smooth as possible for shine and durability. I use meguiers paint cleaner or I think fine cut- cleaner is about the same, it's about 9 bux a bottle. This type of product you will want to keep off of all of your trim, ect. You will need to take about 2 hours to go over your entire car the right way. Working a small section at a time until you will be able to tell that the spot you just did is as smooth as a baby's butt. The product will come off in a different way then it would if the clearcoat still had contaminants in it so it's not that hard to tell which areas need it more and which need less.This product works excellent for paint stained by your exhaust, small scratches, faded paint,ect. After you have applied and removed your clear coat cleaner to the entire car (as per directions on the bottle) it's time to go on to the next step, POLISH.

Polishing will fill in all of the tiny little abrasions caused by the contaminants and the slightly abrasive nature of cleaning your clear coat. This is the most important step to get the most shine out of your paint so you may want to do it twice. I use meguiers reflections for this. Basicly you want to transfer as much polish to your car as possible so with most polishes you want to let it sit on your car for awhile before removing it. Polish contains alot of oils to give your car the wet look and really brings out the color while in the meantime it bonds to your virgin clearcoat filling in all of those fine scratches and swirl marks.

The next step is of course the WAX. Caranuba is best, I prefer ZYMOL Japon, which was made for the type of clearcoats used in japanese cars, but if you have the $$ get Zymol concours. If you use concourse you will need to apply it with your fingertips which is fun but it works unlike anything I have ever used before. FYI a jar of concourse is about 150 lol. Any caranuba wax will do but in this dept you get what you pay for. Typicly one coat of wax will suffice but some people like to do two just to ensure all of that work they've spent all day doing will last a long time. The job of the wax is to seal in the properties of the polish for as long as possible and provide protection to your clearcoat, so its a good idea to use a spray wax after you wash your car to keep that layer of wax protected and keep from diminishing for as long as possible.

Ziano is a whole other ball game as it is a synthetic polymer and is much thinner then caranuba,ect. Ziano will typicly yeild more shine then a traditional wax because of how thin it is but takes more effort to keep it in pristine condition for an extended period of time regardless of what they advertise. Ziano is an excellent product but its pretty much for the hardcore detailers out there.

That about wraps it up, just wanted to shed some light on this since no one really explained what everything does. I'm not a car show nut or anything, but I have renewed many of cars over the years and thout I'd share my experiences..Hopefully someone will a get a use out of this since it took me 20min. to type

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02-28-2006, 02:02 AM	#23
peteyturbo Tri-State Post Whore Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: NE Phila. Member #1450 iTrader: (0)	I think I will add to this because it really has not been explained in detail and it's that time of year that most people want to get all the crud from the winter off of their paint and have their car looking lik new again.The previous write up was excellent and I'm not knocking but but rather adding to it. I will share my experiences as far as paint cleaning and protection are concerned.There is alot to explain about every aspect of your car but this is probably the most important.This process will take most of the day depending on what condition your clear coat is in. First, wash the car with DAWN dish soap (only do this if you are planning to follow the rest of the steps). DAWN has a high PH level that will eat away all remaining wax on your car.It will not damage your clear coat in any way and it will make the next step alot easier. Make sure you rinse off well. Next, after you have washed and dried your car with the dish soap it's time to get down to buisness. The first thing I do is go over the entire car with a clay bar and meguier's quick detailer, this part is very easy and will take about one hour. You will be amazed at the difference, and the amount of crap that was in your clearcoat. You want to use a high quality clay bar but the 15 dollar mothers clay bar from autozone works ok too. Do one small section at a time making sure it is always lubricated with quick detailer, and you can feel when the contaminants have been removed, then wipe dry and make sure your car is clean for the next step. Next, after you've clay bar'd your entire car it's time to start working, and believe me this step is alot easier after you have clay bar'd the car. You are going to need a potent cleaner to get your clearcoat as smooth as possible for shine and durability. I use meguiers paint cleaner or I think fine cut- cleaner is about the same, it's about 9 bux a bottle. This type of product you will want to keep off of all of your trim, ect. You will need to take about 2 hours to go over your entire car the right way. Working a small section at a time until you will be able to tell that the spot you just did is as smooth as a baby's butt. The product will come off in a different way then it would if the clearcoat still had contaminants in it so it's not that hard to tell which areas need it more and which need less.This product works excellent for paint stained by your exhaust, small scratches, faded paint,ect. After you have applied and removed your clear coat cleaner to the entire car (as per directions on the bottle) it's time to go on to the next step, POLISH. Polishing will fill in all of the tiny little abrasions caused by the contaminants and the slightly abrasive nature of cleaning your clear coat. This is the most important step to get the most shine out of your paint so you may want to do it twice. I use meguiers reflections for this. Basicly you want to transfer as much polish to your car as possible so with most polishes you want to let it sit on your car for awhile before removing it. Polish contains alot of oils to give your car the wet look and really brings out the color while in the meantime it bonds to your virgin clearcoat filling in all of those fine scratches and swirl marks. The next step is of course the WAX. Caranuba is best, I prefer ZYMOL Japon, which was made for the type of clearcoats used in japanese cars, but if you have the $$ get Zymol concours. If you use concourse you will need to apply it with your fingertips which is fun but it works unlike anything I have ever used before. FYI a jar of concourse is about 150 lol. Any caranuba wax will do but in this dept you get what you pay for. Typicly one coat of wax will suffice but some people like to do two just to ensure all of that work they've spent all day doing will last a long time. The job of the wax is to seal in the properties of the polish for as long as possible and provide protection to your clearcoat, so its a good idea to use a spray wax after you wash your car to keep that layer of wax protected and keep from diminishing for as long as possible. Ziano is a whole other ball game as it is a synthetic polymer and is much thinner then caranuba,ect. Ziano will typicly yeild more shine then a traditional wax because of how thin it is but takes more effort to keep it in pristine condition for an extended period of time regardless of what they advertise. Ziano is an excellent product but its pretty much for the hardcore detailers out there. That about wraps it up, just wanted to shed some light on this since no one really explained what everything does. I'm not a car show nut or anything, but I have renewed many of cars over the years and thout I'd share my experiences..Hopefully someone will a get a use out of this since it took me 20min. to type . Last edited by peteyturbo; 02-28-2006 at 02:24 AM.