New member! I need some opinions on what I should use!...

[Krazeezx]

I'm entering my car into a show next Saturday, November 2nd. I am going to be doing a whole heap of detailing on Friday afternoon/evening/night/Saturday morning! I'm pretty new to the extreme detailing that you guys do here so I was looking for a few answers to some Q's I have.



BTW, the work you guys do is AMAZING!!!!!



Pats300zx has given me some great advice on the attitude I need to bring my car to the show, so now all I need to do is get my car looking clean!



Here's a couple of pics of my car in case it helps:



Front

Rear

Interior 1

Interior 2



Right now I just kinda grab whatever products look good off the shelf. I usually use a Meguiar's wash if I have it and dry with a normal cotton towel. That's probably blasphemy on this site, but hey, I'm here asking for help right?? I've used Zaino for my last 2 waxes and love it, although I'm unfamiliar with the letter/number references to Zaino products, so I can't list which one I used.



I'm planning on doing a good wash and 2 layers of wax (possibly a layer of polish as well) for the show. I know I have some light swirl marks that I need to take care of too. From what I've read, it looks like clay bars take care of those, but I've never used one, so help with that would be appreciated!



I also have 1 or 2 REALLY small door dings that chipped the paint a bit, what methods should I use to remove those?



What products do you all recommend? And if you suggest some great products, where can I get ahold of them?



Thanks a bunch, I'm hoping to get some great info so I can become an avid member of this site and detail my Z to the max!



- Vann

 

[shaf]

Welcome Vann! A good primer to what people do at Autopia is the downloadable e-Book. The first 8 chapters covers lots of ground and are free. Then when you buy access to the rest of it, you're supporting the forum as well as become elegible for free future upgrades. :up



Anyway, to address a couple things: If you're using the Zaino system I wouldn't use a "polish" under it, if you're using the Meguiar's definition of a "polish", which is actually a glaze. If you have some light swirls you want to get rid of, you'll have to use a real polish like a swirl remover on them.



I don't know where this idea that claying will remove scratches or swirls came from... And you're not the first one to be misled either - it's just weird. Clay doesn't do anything other than to pull out all the pieces of grit, dirt, tar, fallout, etc, etc that's stuck to the paint and you can't wash off. Doing this makes good paint feel incredibly smooth, but it doesn't do a thing for imperfections like swirls/scratches.



Paint chips will have to be filled in with touchup paint. Do a search on this topic (may be in the eBook too). If you have physical dents, paintless dent removal (PDR) is a popular fix.



Nice Z btw!

 

[Krazeezx]

Hey, thanks for the reply!



I've already downloaded the E-book but haven't gotten a chance to completely read through it just yet. I'll most likely end up purchasing it due to all the good info it seems to have!



Thanks for clearing up the whole 'clay bar' thing. I guess I thought it took out swirls because everytime I read about it being used, someone mentioned something about the car having bad swirl marks.



My paint is pretty decent, I'm having it touched up this weekend. The bodyshop who painted my bodykit didn't add any flex-additive into the paint so I had a pretty serious flaking and cracking issue on the front. If you're wondering why you cant see that in those pics, photoshop is my friend! But it is getting fixed, so the pics are an accurate representation of my Z.



I guess I'll be looking into a swirl remover and getting out the elbow grease for a lotta Zaino time !!



Thanks again