Being that I don't want this section of the forum to die, I'm creating this thread.

Post your favorite brand of wax and list the reasons you like it:

I'll start:

Meguire's NXT 2.0 liquid wax.
Because it goes on easy, doesn't take very long to dry and comes off easy with little or no residue, and leaves a great non-greasy shine.

YOUR TURN!

Use Maguire's Gold Class on white Volvo, silver Honda, and dark blue '00 Chrysler Sebring (wife's summer toy). Easy on and off (but its not a polish, so look and feel your paint surface first) and reasonably durable. Since I'm lazy, I like the durable aspect of the brand. Pretty good at shedding road crud in carwash, too.

http://i37.tinypic.com/34yshas.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/11vpdtw.jpg

Both are Synthetic polymer sealants... They bring out the pearl in your paint, the more coats you apply, the harder your paint gets which resists chipping, creates the longest lasting reflective surface on the paint and lasts upto 6 months between applications. Need I say anything else!?

http://i37.tinypic.com/34yshas.jpg

I used Klasse and the first time it rained and dried on the car I got perma-waterspots. They will not come out. To this day if you look at the car at the right angle it is covered in waterspots. And to add insult to injusry detailcity.com where I bought it from refused to offer any assistance or give me Klasse's contact information. I will NEVER buy a product from detailcity again. I even told them in an email that they had lost a customer and they still offered nothing. I spent $50.00 on this stuff and used almost none of it. (In fact if anyone want it I'll sell both the glaze and all-in-one small bottles for $25 + shipping) I think the only way I will be able to get them out is to have it professionally detailed.

I must say Meguire's NXT does a great job. No mater what wax you use. It's all in the prep work...

I used Klasse and the first time it rained and dried on the car I got perma-waterspots. They will not come out. To this day if you look at the car at the right angle it is covered in waterspots. And to add insult to injusry detailcity.com where I bought it from refused to offer any assistance or give me Klasse's contact information. I will NEVER buy a product from detailcity again. I even told them in an email that they had lost a customer and they still offered nothing. I spent $50.00 on this stuff and used almost none of it. (In fact if anyone want it I'll sell both the glaze and all-in-one small bottles for $25 + shipping) I think the only way I will be able to get them out is to have it professionally detailed.

If you wet sand your paint, the water spots will come off! So did the rain hit the finish while drying/curing??

If you wet sand your paint, the water spots will come off! So did the rain hit the finish while drying/curing??

I'm hesitant to wet-sand anything because I am by no means a professional. It seems like it would do more harm than good.

I did get a tube of Meguire's Scratch X 2.0 yesterday. I'm thinking about using that with my random orbital on the whole car...


And the first rain after I applied the product was long after the 48 hour curing time. Disappointed!

I must say Meguire's NXT does a great job. No mater what wax you use. It's all in the prep work...

What prep work do you do?
Clay bar?

I like Turtle Wax's Black Box. It's a 3 step kit specifically for black cars; Takes some time but looks great when you're done!

I like Turtle Wax's Black Box. It's a 3 step kit specifically for black cars; Takes some time but looks great when you're done!

I'd try it if I had a black car...

Sometimes I wish I did.

What prep work do you do?
Clay bar?

A good citrus wash before I start my claying. Then I use a aerospace grade clay bar to clay my clear coat, before polishing and waxing. Claying is basically removing very small particulars from the surface you cars paint or clear coat. Run you fingers alongside your paintwork. If it feels like sandpaper and not glass, and you can hear the surface tension from your fingers. It needs to be clayed. Once a vehicle has been clayed polishing and then waxing goes on and off very fast. I clay every three months.

Check this link for more info:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfEfLGL59GI&NR=1


Then I tape off all chrome and non-paint surfaces. Next comes my 3M Perfect-It ll Rubbing Compound with a DeWalt DW849 polisher and wool pads. Then various waxes from Meguiars with foam pads. Then waxing by hand If I have time.

Yeah I clay bar all the time.
It's a good thing to do.

I'd try it if I had a black car...

Sometimes I wish I did.


I love the look of black cars, soooo sexy! :D

I love the look of black cars, soooo sexy! :D

You know what they say...
Black isn't a color, it's a second job!

You know what they say...
Black isn't a color, it's a second job!

Very true, but it's a labor of love!

http://i37.tinypic.com/34yshas.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/11vpdtw.jpgBoth are Synthetic polymer sealants... They bring out the pearl in your paint, the more coats you apply, the harder your paint gets which resists chipping, creates the longest lasting reflective surface on the paint and lasts upto 6 months between applications. Need I say anything else!?

Yes, i also use Synthetic polymer, it last up to 6 months, not like the other brand of waxes, it lasts only 3 months...

I use Mc Guires for everything, good stuff and it smells pretty good too. Just take your time in a shaded area, truck needs to be cool. Section by section buddy.

I have a few I like depending on the color of the car. However I use Optimum, 3M(professional grade), Wolfgang, P21S, and a few others.... but again it depends on the car and the color. Different cars require different treatment of the paint.

I am a professional detailer... I can write up a "how to" if anyone is interested.

Here's an old Ford Escort I did as a demo(the weirdness in the bumper is where I edited out the plate):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v215/darkknight1999/Thefinalfrontendsplitinhalfinside.jpg

This is a Lexus (they have a med hardness clear coat). This car had about a 1.5years of auto car washes... so much for that idea....

Before:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v215/darkknight1999/Before.jpg

After I was done:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v215/darkknight1999/DecklidReflection.jpg

Yes, darkknight, please elaborate. I have a 3 month old black Volvo and I would love to know a professional detailer's recommendations for maintaining and preserving the beautiful black finish. I was looking at the Zymol for Volvo option, but am open to anything. I've had many Volvo's but never a black one before.

Please note this is not a complete how-to and if your not sure how to do something please ask or hire a professinal to polish your car.
I take not responsibility for what you do to your own paint.
I'm a certified detailer and have been doing it for years. Some things have been left out, such as high speed buffers. Without proper instruction you can damage your paint. If you decide you can handle doing something like this, do yourself a favor and go to the junk yard and get a piece of junk panel and pratice... practice and time using a high speed buffer is the only way to get good at it. This is not a trade you can pick up over night... however it is something can be learned with practice. Take your time, and practice, practice, practice. Don't try an rush it. If you rush while detailing... you'll get exactly what you put into it... a half ass job.

The buffer will refer to in this is a Porter Cable 7424.
I recommend picking up this kit here: http://www.1car-detailing-training.com/porter-cable-buffing-kit-p-55.html that kit has a lot of what you need to get started polishing. A complete list of things you should own if you plan on really detailing and keeping your car clean and beautiful is listed at the bottom of this post.

The thing about detailing is that it’s seriously all about the prep work. If you don’t wash the car and get all the dirt of the when you wax the paint your waxing the dirt onto the paint... as it turns out that’s bad...

This is what I did to take this car in all its scratchy splendor and make it shine like this.
I’ll be doing most of this about once a month on the V50... black car no choice really... (during spring, summer, and fall (the final fall wax will need to be layered to last through the winter months)

Wash (gold class wash, heavy on the soap, why because the heavy dirt will stick to it and it help lubricate the paint while you wash) try and wash in straight lines, back and forth, I'll explain later.

Clay (I use both Optimum and Sonus clay. Both work well. I use med grade which it good for most average cars. The manufactures say to use detail spray to lube the clay, however... I just use clean soapy(the same soap you used for washing... again heavy on the soap) water from clean bucket for the next wash) As with washing, the same goes for claying the car, do your best to go in straight lines.

Wash the car again this time doing the wheels using a proper wheel cleaner... (I use a professional grade cleaner that needs to be mixed properly, (but I recommend Hot Rims® All Wheel Cleaner from Maguire’s for the wheels I use it if I run out of the stuff I normally use) and under the hood (you can use Simple Green), and the underside... (well as much as possible). (I use a degreaser I buy in bulk. I have different bottles mixed for different locations on the car.)

Now dry the car... you can use whatever you want. I use a couple of different things depending on what I’m doing next.

The reason I suggested you use straight lines earlier is this; the PC (Porter Cable) polisher spins in a sorta circle... if the wash and clay lines are straight as you compound and polish the paint your removing those lines, thereby removing the swirl marks as well. Those straight lines are in the clearcoat... very small but there, there. You can see this for yourself if you wash and clay the car in straight lines and spray water on the body panel, you'll see the lines. So as you polish the paint its smoothes and flatens them all back out.



So anyway going back to the beginning, if you did good prep work this next part should go fairly smooth. Using the PC. It’s a step process… the worse your paint is, the deeper you need to polish. If your car looks like this, then you better plan on starting with a wool pad or at least a yellow pad. I started this with a black wool pad. (Wool pads come in different colors for grade)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v215/darkknight1999/Before.jpg

I’ll start compounding (Optimum) using a green pad (medium grit foam pad)
So go though and compound the entire car doing a panel at a time. You need to do the entire car each time you switch to a different pad type. Once you get better you’ll learn that you don’t need to do the “entire” car but just the areas that need whichever type of pad…

Once that’s done, depending on which pad you started with move on to the next pad. If you start with say a wool pad then you’ll do the following: wool-> yellow-> green pads. (Depending on the brand the color of the pads could be different… so double check as you purchase them)
Once the car has been completely compounded, completely clean the car of compound.

After you’ve cleaned the car of compound you can polish the paint. Start with a different green pad and move onto a blue one…. And if you have a dark color car the you should finish with a white pad.

Once you have completely polished the paint its time to wax. If you did a good job cleaning the paint and polishing as you apply the wax the paint should not look any different. A good wax can deepen the glow of the paint but it shouldn’t make it look cleaner.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v215/darkknight1999/After1.jpg

If you polished the car with Optimum polish you can use the Optimum spray wax to remove the polish. This will wax the car and remove the polish. Optimum spray wax was designed to do this. It is also safe for vinyl and trim plastic (it won’t turn it white ;) )

If you have a dark color car you can enhance the depth of the paint by adding a high quality carnauba wax on top of the spray wax. (if you decide to do this please wait 24 hrs before you wax onto of the Optimum wax) Not all spray wax can do this… in fact most can’t.

Please keep in mind that most “popular” waxes (auto store types) can not be layered, only high quality waxes can do that. Any wax with a “cleaner” in it can not be layered… as the cleaner will strip the old wax off a good example of that is NXT from Meguiar’s


I'll add more to this tomorrow... ;) This could be far more detailed... and I should list the equipment I use/used to help lay it all out there.

Thanks Darkknight for your elaboration. I'm not sure I'm up for the challenge of the power tools. I think I'd be afraid of putting a hole in the side of the car. I'm not experienced enough w/ those kind of tools.

I still need to add more but I just got back from an overnight trip to NYC with the family so it will have to wait til tomorrow... ;)

darkknight- Thats a great write-up!
I love detailing my cars, unfortunately I rarely have time to do as much as I would like. With washing, claying, and waxing I generally spend 5 hours or more. As much as I would like to do more, I just can't spend that much time.
In the winter months, when I'm at school, its too hard to keep my car detailed without a garage. It kills me to see it dirty though.

I'm a Meguires guy. I've tried a lot of the other brands, but the Meguires just worked the best with my Camaro (sunset orange metallic). I still have to experiment to see what I like best for the Volvo (titanium gray). I use armor all tire dressing and turtle wax chrome polish, but everything else is Meguires Gold Class or NXT.