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 *** 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.c...-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)



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.



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.

 

You can hardly go wrong with swix.They have been doing it longer than anyone and have it dialed. If you are getting nitty gritty temperature specific,Swix is the way to go.I've been using Bluebird cold weather wax this year and last.Fairly impressed with it.I forget if I have any Bluebird warm weather wax.I am thinking not.I know I've got some one Ball Jay warm weather stuff sitting around.Thing is, in my experience, warm weather waxes are generally about the same.It's the colder stuff where the manufacturer really shines through on who performs in those temps.I could be wrong though,as I spend more time in cold temps than I do in warms ones each season.

 

I've recently learned I am not to wax in hot weather. I live in Central FL and 90s is par for the course. I am thinking I'll have to do all this early morning or early evenings if this is so. Thanks to the gentleman who shared details here. You're a godsend.

 

I use Zaino Bros wax on my stuff.

http://www.zainostore.com/Merchant2/...ry_Code=PHOTOS

Kinda pricy, but well worth it, at least to me.

 

Meguiars nxt wax is great because it has very nice features. It is 6-piece wash & wax kit has the next generation in car care products to keep your car looking clean and shiny.

 

Those would be great if they where used on a car... but all 3 of those products or designed to be used on skin... nice stuff though if your looking for nice skin

 

Just plan on rewaxing the car a lot... Unfortunately the NXT series products do not last very long. The look ok when your done but the product fads fast.
If your a Meguiars guy, get the professional products they offer at an autobody supply store in your area. The only useful Meguiars products on the shelf of your local store are the Gold Series products as they are closest to the professional line.
Just something to keep in mind

 

Meguires or Zymol carunuba is best and safest if cars paint is good and not oxidized etc..if oxidized I like Meguires scratch x or TR3 but TR3 is only if REALLY badly oxidized, scratch x is nuch easier to work with. Always needs to be followed by a good carnuba to finish(Meguires or Zymol).....

 

Are these sold everywhere??

 

I went over my car this past weekend with Mequires clay bar kit, and then sealed it with Mothers California Gold Carnuba Clearner Wax (paste style).

the clay bar is a clay bar... nothing special. they are all pretty much the same.

The wax went on nice and easy. It took a little elbow grease to get off, but as long as i stuck to a clean portion of my towel it was easy. Nice results i feel. and for a cheap wax (12 bux anywhere), I feel it was a great price. Plus the few spots i got it on trim dont look like crap. It doesnt get white and chalky like other waxes...

I do want to try out P21S wax next time though... I hear great things...

 

Dark Knight - I have got to say that is an amazing restoration of the finish on that Escort! I didn't realize something like that was possible - you are a real craftsman :-)

 

Wax refers to a class of chemical compounds that are plastic near ambient temperatures. Waxes are organic compounds that characteristically consist of a long alkyl chains. Waxes are mainly consumed industrially as components of complex formulations, often for coatings.

 

Car wax Brand popularity intend to come and go with the season and with the advertising agency and you can never go wrong with old standards such as Simonize or any of the Turtle Wax products.

One of the top brands used is made by Maguires, which also makes a range of car-cleaning, polishing and restoring products.

 

Just polished and then waxed my c70 convertible with turtle. Takes some elbow grease, but it looks so deep that you could dive into it. My color is "moondust". Tried McGuire but couldn't understand whether you wipe it off while it's wet or when it dries to a white surface. Anybody have experience with McGuire?

 

I found that your really have to know what you are doing with rubbing compounds. Screwed up a door on my c70 with it and had to pay $250 for a door paint job. That hurt!

 

Hey,

I am looking to remove scratches on my newly bought used 2003 S60 (black). I have been reading and doing a lot of research and it seems that for shallow to deeper (but still clear coat) scratches, Quixx works best.

So my question is what are your opinions and experiences with scratch removers?
Are there any scratch removers that don't wear down the clear coat but instead fill the scratch and do a good job and don't wash out in the rain?
What is the best wax to use, after I do remove the scratches, which will protect from future scratching, will last a while and is durable, and also helps reduce the appearance of the scratches that aren't completely removed?

Thanks.

 

I hate to be a commoner, but I've found that Turtle Polish and Turtle wax work best on my 2002 C70 convertible. I have friends who use more esoteric products, but the results seem the same, and the chance of errors seems more.
When I first got my 2002 C70, I gave it a complete detailing and found Turtle products worked easily and well.
Capwheel