Well, I got up both Saturday and Sunday mornings at 5:30 to beat the sun and the heat. Saturday was for the black Passat and Sunday was for the silver Durango.
I'm selling the Passat so this was going to be the best detail I'd ever given her. This was also my first use of the old B&D buffer my father-in-law gave me as well as my new MF's from JT International that I got through Brad B. and my first time claying. Whew, all kinds of firsts.
I used Dawn soap on the Passat and the sun was still hiding so I started to clay. I picked up the Clay Magic kit from Autozone for $10 since this was my first time and I didn't want to invest too much yet. It went great! I think I used a bit too much lube, but I figured out the right amount. Every now and then the clay started to fall apart a bit, but I would just spray some extra lube directly on it and it was fine. The paint was pretty good since I had hand polished it 2 months earlier. No issues with streaking and the MF's did great!
Next, I pulled her in the garage and started working with the orbital and some 3M FI II. The orbital is an 8" but I looked for weeks and couldn't find 8" pads. I ended up getting the 9-10" foam pads from Wal-mart and they fit okay. I now understand why you guys by polishes and what not by the gallon. I went through a lot more product using the orbital than I ever did by hand! The B&D pretty well sucked balls like you all said it would. No power. I had to support it's own weight for it to even spin freely! It took some time, but the polish eventually buffed out. What I would have given for a PC this weekend! Oh well, my birthday's coming up, hope my wife is reading this! Anyway, again the MF's were fantastic at buffing out the polish.
Now the wax. Meguiars #26 with a fresh pad. This went on really easily. The B&D did just fine for this. By this point it was about 100* in the garage, but it didn't feel too humid. I waxed the whole car and took an hour break. The MF's only took about 15 minutes to buff off the wax of the entire car! The first pass left a little bit of a greasy looking streak, but a fresh MF took that right off. This car has never looked better. There are some minor swirls left, but I got the ones out that I had caused by doing it by hand and not exactly knowing what I was doing. It looks great even in the sunlight which was my goal.
Day 2, the silver Durango is less than a year old, but easily ready for it's first coat of wax. I used regular Meguiars gold class car wash and then started to clay. Boy did it need the claying! I couldn't believe how much crap I pulled off! She's a big SOB so this all took a while.
I decided to use Meguiars #20 Polymer wax on this one since it's silver and easier to keep clean, since it's our highway cruiser for trips, and because it's so big I don't want to wax it any more than I have to. It went on fine and came off really easily. I can't say how much I love these MF's! So much easier than plain cotton. The only problem I had was that after I had buffed off the car, later in the day it seemed like some parts re-hazed! I kept getting little white specs here and there too. They buffed right off, but they kept popping up through the day. I don't know if it was the heat "curing" the polymer some more that I may not have completely removed or what.
In summation, I am very sore, but very satisfied. I can't wait to get a PC. JT International towels are awesome, I don't have any other MF's to compare, but I am very happy I got them. I went through 10 for each vehicle. I forgot to mention that I got the big a$$ waffle MF for drying. It took on the Durango and was still thirsty! Thanks to everyone here for their comments and posts that I've read in the past. Big thanks to Brad B. for answering all my questions and getting my in on the towel buy. I'll post some pix as soon as I take them. Please don't rain today!!!!
I'm selling the Passat so this was going to be the best detail I'd ever given her. This was also my first use of the old B&D buffer my father-in-law gave me as well as my new MF's from JT International that I got through Brad B. and my first time claying. Whew, all kinds of firsts.
I used Dawn soap on the Passat and the sun was still hiding so I started to clay. I picked up the Clay Magic kit from Autozone for $10 since this was my first time and I didn't want to invest too much yet. It went great! I think I used a bit too much lube, but I figured out the right amount. Every now and then the clay started to fall apart a bit, but I would just spray some extra lube directly on it and it was fine. The paint was pretty good since I had hand polished it 2 months earlier. No issues with streaking and the MF's did great!
Next, I pulled her in the garage and started working with the orbital and some 3M FI II. The orbital is an 8" but I looked for weeks and couldn't find 8" pads. I ended up getting the 9-10" foam pads from Wal-mart and they fit okay. I now understand why you guys by polishes and what not by the gallon. I went through a lot more product using the orbital than I ever did by hand! The B&D pretty well sucked balls like you all said it would. No power. I had to support it's own weight for it to even spin freely! It took some time, but the polish eventually buffed out. What I would have given for a PC this weekend! Oh well, my birthday's coming up, hope my wife is reading this! Anyway, again the MF's were fantastic at buffing out the polish.
Now the wax. Meguiars #26 with a fresh pad. This went on really easily. The B&D did just fine for this. By this point it was about 100* in the garage, but it didn't feel too humid. I waxed the whole car and took an hour break. The MF's only took about 15 minutes to buff off the wax of the entire car! The first pass left a little bit of a greasy looking streak, but a fresh MF took that right off. This car has never looked better. There are some minor swirls left, but I got the ones out that I had caused by doing it by hand and not exactly knowing what I was doing. It looks great even in the sunlight which was my goal.
Day 2, the silver Durango is less than a year old, but easily ready for it's first coat of wax. I used regular Meguiars gold class car wash and then started to clay. Boy did it need the claying! I couldn't believe how much crap I pulled off! She's a big SOB so this all took a while.
I decided to use Meguiars #20 Polymer wax on this one since it's silver and easier to keep clean, since it's our highway cruiser for trips, and because it's so big I don't want to wax it any more than I have to. It went on fine and came off really easily. I can't say how much I love these MF's! So much easier than plain cotton. The only problem I had was that after I had buffed off the car, later in the day it seemed like some parts re-hazed! I kept getting little white specs here and there too. They buffed right off, but they kept popping up through the day. I don't know if it was the heat "curing" the polymer some more that I may not have completely removed or what.
In summation, I am very sore, but very satisfied. I can't wait to get a PC. JT International towels are awesome, I don't have any other MF's to compare, but I am very happy I got them. I went through 10 for each vehicle. I forgot to mention that I got the big a$$ waffle MF for drying. It took on the Durango and was still thirsty! Thanks to everyone here for their comments and posts that I've read in the past. Big thanks to Brad B. for answering all my questions and getting my in on the towel buy. I'll post some pix as soon as I take them. Please don't rain today!!!!
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