Order of products

S

StiCy

New member
Tomorrow my brother and I are going to detail his 2000 Subaru Forester in preparation for a big Subaru meet on the 30th. Now this is where you guys come in, I have a bunch of different products at my disposal. My question is what products would be the best to use, and in what order. His paint is not in the best shape and has its share of scratches. I am trying to convince him that we can revive it, as long as we use the correct products, in the correct order. We will be doing everything by hand. I have Meguiars Gold Class to wash with. Here is a list of what I have:



NXT Paste 1.0

Meguiars Cleaner wax paste and Liquid

Meguiars Deep Crystal System: Step #1 Paint Cleaner

Meguiars ColorX



Is there anything else that you guys would suggest, if needed, that we could pickup around town? We have the usual Wal-mart, Target, Auto zone, Advanced, Napa, Pep Boys. Thanks for the support and I'll be sure to post up photos once we are done.
 
Hmm well what you have really are a bunch of chemical cleaners, aside from the NXT.



Since you will doing everything by hand, you need to decide how much work you want to do.



Honestly, Id go out, get some Meguiars Ultimate Compound, Megs ScratchX 2.0.



Those will allow you to remove most of the swirls and restore the paint gloss.



Then use your NXT. (Id consider getting the 2.0 version.)



Itl be interesting to see what others have to say.



Good luck!
 
I hope you guys have a LOT of time on your hands. Trying to do this work by hand is going to be insane. Do you have any photos of the car?
 
StiCy said:
Tomorrow my brother and I are going to detail his 2000 Subaru Forester in preparation for a big Subaru meet on the 30th. Now this is where you guys come in, I have a bunch of different products at my disposal. My question is what products would be the best to use, and in what order. His paint is not in the best shape and has its share of scratches. I am trying to convince him that we can revive it, as long as we use the correct products, in the correct order. We will be doing everything by hand. I have Meguiars Gold Class to wash with. Here is a list of what I have:



NXT Paste 1.0

Meguiars Cleaner wax paste and Liquid

Meguiars Deep Crystal System: Step #1 Paint Cleaner

Meguiars ColorX



Is there anything else that you guys would suggest, if needed, that we could pickup around town? We have the usual Wal-mart, Target, Auto zone, Advanced, Napa, Pep Boys. Thanks for the support and I'll be sure to post up photos once we are done.
Click to expand...



Hmmmmm, Depends on how hazy the paint is.



Generally, washing the car with gold class will get rid of all the washable surface dirt, so whats left is dirt that is cemented on, seeped into paint. The lower body panels tend to be pretty dirty, and sometimes with stubborn dirt, Bug and Tar remover can be be useful here.



Claying the car, (A mothers clay kit with 2x 80gm bars is the best value) will remove cemented dirt, producing a very smooth surface, which will take Wax to maximum advantage. (So I would probably get a clay kit).



Now comes the question of polishing the car. The Meg's ColorX is an agressive cleaner wax which will polish and dehaze the surface of the CC, removing fine swirls/cobwebs etc while putting down some polymer wax



Knowing absolutely nothing about the condition of the car that is what I would go with that, since it will clean up the clearcoat nicely.



Now that we have a clean, smooth, polished surface. At this point a final product for maximum shine is inorder. E.g a wax like product without(or with very little) cleaning ability.



Depending on how exhausted you are at this point, it would be A-ok to go with the ColorX's existing shine, or seek to top it with something even more shiney/refractive. If you decide to top it, you can go with a spray wax/QD type product or apply a formal wax.



Depending on where you go, you'll find a few.



Mothers California Gold NF Carnauba.

Meg's #26 Yellow Wax or DC3 Carnauba.

TurtleWax Ice.



I have to admit being very partial to TW Ice or Mothers NF Carnauba. How ever at the same time I am very lazy.



So my recomendation instead is to pick up some Lucas Slick Mist at AAP. This is an incredible spray wax/QD/miracle product that seems to be an emulsion of air curing silicones. The full shine develops over 24hr or so.



I would spray on a fine mist, pretty much soaking the panel, and then wipe it around with a microfiber to get a perfectly even layer. Put the car in a quiet dust free place to let the shine develop.



---------

Doing a neglected car can be a big project, so it may make sense to split it over two weekends.



Week 1:

Clean lower panels

Wash car at self serve car wash,

Clean wheels/tires

Dress black plastic cladding.



Week 2:

Hand wash car with Gold Class.

Clean wheels (which will be much faster since you cleaned them last week),

Polish Car w/ColorX

Redress black Cladding if needed

Dress Tires

Apply Lucas Slick Mist.



---------



Couple of thoughts.



Go find the mothers detailing guide which will cover most of issues and is nicely illustrated.



Black Magic Titanium Matte Tire Dressing will make your tires very black, which will contrast nicely with well cleaned wheels. Use an eagle 1, tire swipe to apply it.



Cleaning wheels is very tricky. You'll probably want to have one of those very soft (with fuzzy tipped bristles) wheel brushes. Also its important to be aware of what the wheel is made of. If its polishable metal, then mothers Mag/Alu polish is the way to go.



You can never have too many rolls of shop towels or MF cloths. AAP has the TW Ice line of detailing acessories of which the ICE MF polishing cloth thingies are very nice. Otherwise Autozone/Target is the place to buy microfibers.



Kit Scratch Out (~$5.5/14oz) is gentle and useful to have around. It can clean up headlights as well.



Invisible Glass is a must have.



TW Ice Total Interior Care is amazing, as you can use it on all interior surfaces and it makes them all look great, without the unnatural shine of old-style armor-all. New-style Armorall is much less shiney/greasy than old style armor-all.
 
Nice Post ^^



But I just really dont think using paint cleaners will bring the paint

up to its potential. If you are going through all the work of hand rubbing

in ColorX, you may as well use something that will remove some of the scratches.



Edit: Another option would be to use a glaze like Megs #7 to fill some of the scratches, without going through all the work of a hand polish.
 
SCoach said:
I hope you guys have a LOT of time on your hands. Trying to do this work by hand is going to be insane. Do you have any photos of the car?
Click to expand...



Great it's a white car. Which means we can pretty much ignore the condition of the paint, since you can't see hazing except on very close inspection. White paint also benefits from polishes with optical brigheners.



Wash --> Clay --> Vigorious application of the DC1 or Mothers Pre-wax cleaner.



This should get the finish as clean as it needs to be (e.g free from staining)



The ideal product for this situation now becomes Turtle Wax ICE polish because 1/2 this car is black plastic cladding. The game is now to get a nice contrast between the black cladding and the white paint, in fact the goal is to get a contrast between everything else and the white paint.



Get some Mother's tire and rubber cleaner and clean up the rubber, making it ready for the ice polish. (Use a cellulose spong) And then apply the ice polish to the entire car, and to the trim as well.



Finish with the Lucas Slick Mist in the evening, and wake up to an amazingly shiny car the next morning. :spot



If you didn't want to get the ICE polish, you could just apply the Meg's cleaner wax to the paint, and then apply armor-all to all of the exterior black cladding. You'll get better results with the ICE polish.



Make sure not to ignore the wheels and tires. You want to those things to pop in an ocean of black.
 
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