Newbie - First time to Clay / Polish – impression and more questions

[NTXG35]

Hello All,

First of all, thanks to everyone for all the tips and for pointing me in the right direction on all the how to’s that I read and watched, they really helped.



I clayed (used Turtle Wax Ice Clay bar kit) my silver 2008 G35 for the first time this weekend. Washed the car the night before and got started on the claying the following morning. The claying process is very straight forward, easier than I expected. I was pretty amazed to see how much the claying process removed from the paint and how the surface felt after claying. I think it took about 3 hours to clay the whole car, probably because it was my first time. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any ColorX in my area, so I skipped that step and went straight to polishing the car with Meg’s NXT Wax 2.0.



I must say that I’m super impressed by the finished results of NXT 2.0. The car looks amazing, the silver flakes really flash now, I could stare at the car from different angles for hours. The paint is soooo smooth to the touch now, I don’t think the car looked and felt that nice when it was new.



Overall the car’s paint looks like it’s in good condition (from a newbie’s perspective), I only noticed a few light scratches, one on the rear bumper that’s about 1.5 feet long and another one, but I don’t remember where it was. I also noticed that the lower part of the front bumper has several small spots where it looks like the paint is coming off, probably from flying debris. So my question is this, how do I fix the scratches? I guess the step I skipped (ColorX) would’ve helped. What about the spots on the bumper, what can be done about those so that they don’t spread? I’ll try to post some pics soon.



Thanks again for all the help, I’ve learned a lot during the last few weeks and am looking forward to making my G35 look even better in the future.

 

[Accumulator]

..I only noticed a few light scratches, one on the rear bumper that’s about 1.5 feet long and another one, but I don’t remember where it was. I also noticed that the lower part of the front bumper has several small spots where it looks like the paint is coming off, probably from flying debris. So my question is this, how do I fix the scratches? I guess the step I skipped (ColorX) would’ve helped. What about the spots on the bumper, what can be done about those so that they don’t spread?

If the scratches are really deep you might have to just live with them. To improve the ones that *can* be improved, you'll need something more abrasive than Color-X. Consider Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, or Scratch-X, or Swirl-X (listed aggressive to mild). Then redo the NXT on those areas.



For the chips/etc., first, I seldom find that they get all that much worse if you simply keep them waxed. I've let chips go for literally *decades* with no problems. But if you want to do something, try touching them up. Note that silver touchups never look very good, at least not when you DIY them (my good painter is a miracle worker, but I just can't do it the way he can).



Try conventional touchup paint (google automotive touchup.com or paintscratch.com) or DrColorChip, and do the dreaded SEARCH here to find oodles of info on touchups in general.



EDIT/PS- Glad it turned out so nice :xyxthumbs