Various Car Detailing Questions (Mostly Product Recommendations Needed):

Tiger-Heli

New member
For background - I'm not a fanatic on car care. I run the car through an automatic car wash once or twice a year and polish it every two years or so - whether it needs it or not. And I've typically just bought what seemed good on the auto parts shelf or the infomercial.



Over 10 years ago, my wife's Dad gave me some of the best product I have used on a car. He said it was a glaze and was better than wax. He remembers the name as "006", but says it was only sold commercially to detail shops and not to the general public. It was a tan or beige color. The product went on smoothly, never really seemed to dry, wiped off smoothly, and left a mirror finish. Took off surface dust and water spots, easily removed swirl marks and minor surface scratches - removed deeper scuffs with more effort, and beaded water for about six months. Washing first was optional - but it probably was a good idea. Preferred application method for me was two paper towels per body panel - half a towel to apply and the other side to wipe off (the towels didn't soak up the glaze and didn't abrade the surface finish, and got thrown away before they caked up with dried residue).



Unfortunately, we are running out of it, he's retired and moved from that area, and a Google search was not helpful. I asked a body shop if they recommended glaze or wax or both, and they said either was fine, but use a good quality product without silicone and recommended either Mother's or Mequiar's of the commercially available products.



Other products I have tried over the years were TR3 resin glaze in the 80's (liked it - but a bit too abrasive on a single color red car I had), NuFinish (good but a bit hard to apply), Turtle Wax Polishing Compound and Rubbing Compound for really deep defects, and most recently Mother's Glaze and Sealant (okay product, but took more effort than 006 to remove scratches and much more effort to buff out - dried to a haze and tended to cake when wiping off - but I also think I applied overly thick).



I've come to realize that I want a sealant rather than a wax but am a bit fuzzy on whether a sealant is required along with a glaze or not …



Questions:



• Any idea what the "006" product might be, where to get more, or what an equivalent product might be? (From other posts, I'm thinking either Mequiar's No. 7 or Color-X, but I don't want to buy a bunch of products to find out.) I hadn't heard of Autoglym Super Resin Polish or Collinite or PS or Klasse All In One before reading here, but Klasse AIO seems to get a lot of positive reviews. (Understood it's hard for you to know what 006 might be from a description).

• I read the 5-step process on Mequiar's site and the last step is sealing/protecting. I think Color-X has a sealant, but No. 7 does not and I don't know if "006" did or not. If I were to use a glaze yearly or so without using sealant, would the paint be harmed (assuming the water still beads up)?

• Out of curiosity I know it is possible to remove scratches from clear coat paint, but I don't really see how this works. In single stage paint, it seemed logical that the compound smoothed the surrounding color paint over the exposed primer which made sense. In clear coat, is seems like it would smooth clear paint over the primer and not really do anything.

• I've had issues before with wax getting on black door handles or black rubberstrip or black plastic grilles. Mother's Back-To-Black works great on sun-fade, but not very well on this. Lacquer thinner does fairly well, but is hard to keep of the paint (and it's near impossible to keep polish off the black plastic - any insider tips?)

• The car has gotten a few stone chips over the years. I recently bought some touch-up paint and it looks great until I polish it, then there tends to be polish in the chip area. I know the professional method is to carefully use body filler to get the surface flush prior to painting - any easier secrets?

• My son has a 1997 Civic in Cypress Green Pearl CC. The paint is in good shape for it's age, but there are tiny areas on the lip of the fenders (next to the hood) where the clear-coat is starting to chip away (barely noticeable). However, I've seen other cars that age where the color coat was fine, but the clear-coat was gone from 3/4 of the roof, hood, or trunk. Any ideas how to keep the initial areas on his car from worsening or to restore a car with major deterioration - short of stripping and re-painting at a body shop?



Thanks in advance!!!
 
1. No idea what 006 is. Sounds like a dealer offered sealant which, history tells us, are mostly phooey. Or at least not better than some of the many sealants you will read about here on the forum. Do a search for sealant.



2. You always correct the paint and then protect it. "Glazes" will have fillers in them to help hide/disguise scratches and swirls. These glazes to not last long. They dissipate and evaporate and wash off. Great for the car show day, useless for long term. Do a search for glazes, too.



3. In most cases scratches and swirls in clearcoat are what people see when they see damage. The light reflects and refracts differently because of the mars and defects in the clear. If you polish that, flattening and correcting the damage, then you get clearer reflections and less visual disturbance. Hence you are removing the damage on top of the paint color which makes the paint color shine through better. Almost always you are just working with the clearcoat. The only difference is when a deep scratch goes through the clear into the color coat. That requires paint touch up.



4. There are products that remove wax from trim. And there are many products that do not leave any residue on trim. Search!



5. You must lay in multiple layers of paint to level the surface. Search paint chip repair.



6. This is a factory quality control issue in most cases. Using a sealant or wax regularly will delay the inevitable, but a respray is the only cure.
 
Thanks Brad - I did read through some other threads and came to roughly the same conclusions, but I do have some additional questions ...



1. Searching for 006 Wax, 006 Glaze, and 006 Sealant didn't turn up anything. My wife's dad did work for a car dealer and got it from the firm that detailed their cars. Guess it doesn't matter as I can't find it again anyway. The forum and and Amazon seem to really like KAIO and Collinite 845. Slightly confused as I think of NuFinish or TR-3 or Mother's Glaze and Sealant as an AIO - so not sure why I need the 845 if KAIO is an AIO, but I guess two products that are easy to apply (and more importantly take off) are about the same as one that is only moderately easy to apply and take off.



2. Decided this was a dumb question - No good answer for this - i.e. my car is almost 10 years old and really looks great and I've gone as much as two-three years without waxing/sealing/protecting it - but I guess I've been lucky - like smoking, it isn't good for you, but nobody really know HOW BAD it is ...



3. Thanks for the explanation - that makes sense - although a lot of the scratches LOOKED deeper than the CC (but maybe they were on top of the clear-coat and not below it.



4. KAIO and 845 are supposed to be trim-safe. And lacquer thinner seems work on removing the wax - although sometimes multiple applications are needed.



5. Makes sense.



6. Also matches what other threads have said. Seems to be worse on older (late 90's) Honda's and darker paint colors - but maybe that's just what I'm more familiar with.



Thanks again!!!
 
At this point, I think I'm mostly confused between this thread (KAIO and Collinite 845) (among many other similar ones) and these comments:



Klasse All-In-One is not a wax, silicone or polymer, but an acrylic formula. Klasse All-In-One bonds to the surface like wax but doesn’t penetrate or change the paint in any way. It matches the depth and clarity of a high quality carnauba wax but lasts much longer. One or two applications a year will keep your car looking great!



About all I come away with from "reading between the lines" is that KAIO is a good cleaner, but not a great protectant.



Quick question - to save money - would there be any downside to using KAIO now (to try it out), and then re-using KAIO and 845 in a few months when water no longer beaded on the surface?
 
The OP seems like an OTC type guy. Given his rather relaxed attitude towards paint care, I'd really just head down to Carquest and pick up some Duragloss 501 (yes the RV stuff), it is a fantastic AIO and has great durability. While you are at it, grab some AquaWax and some of their car wash. You'll spend about $20-25 and have a fantastic arsenal that will not only clean well, it will look fantastic and provide excellent protection.



ColorX is a very easy to work with product, but the durability is just not there. KAIO is fantastic too, but its so nichy and really doesn't offer long protection either. The DG products are just so far ahead of anything else OTC, and they are cheap.
 
yakky said:
The OP seems like an OTC type guy. Given his rather relaxed attitude towards paint care, I'd really just head down to Carquest and pick up some Duragloss 501 (yes the RV stuff), it is a fantastic AIO and has great durability. While you are at it, grab some AquaWax and some of their car wash. You'll spend about $20-25 and have a fantastic arsenal that will not only clean well, it will look fantastic and provide excellent protection.



ColorX is a very easy to work with product, but the durability is just not there. KAIO is fantastic too, but its so nichy and really doesn't offer long protection either. The DG products are just so far ahead of anything else OTC, and they are cheap.



If you do what Yakky says your car will look better than 95% of the cars out there. The additional 5% takes double maybe tripple the effort. I used to use Meguiars OTC cleaner wax twice a year, and my cars look great. Then my kids grew up and I had more time to focus on the cars and became an Autopian. My neighbors think that I am nuts I spend so much time on my cars.
 
Thanks yakky - I'm not totally OTC - but it's more convenient than ordering KAIO online - and I am pretty relaxed on paint car. There's a carquest nearby also.



Additional questions - With DG 501, do I need to be careful about getting it on black trim pieces? I still need both the DG501 and the AquaWax together - or would I use the DG and then just use the AquaWax after a wash removed some of the DG 501.



Sorry if I'm missing the obvious ...
 
Tiger-Heli said:
Thanks yakky - I'm not totally OTC - but it's more convenient than ordering KAIO online - and I am pretty relaxed on paint car. There's a carquest nearby also.



Additional questions - With DG 501, do I need to be careful about getting it on black trim pieces? I still need both the DG501 and the AquaWax together - or would I use the DG and then just use the AquaWax after a wash removed some of the DG 501.



Sorry if I'm missing the obvious ...



I have had no issues with DG501 and trim, but sometimes some trim is weird,so test accordingly. You don't have to worry about washing removing DG501, that stuff will last 4+ months on a car parked outside 24/7. The Aquawax is just a great shine booster and it aids in drying the car. Its an absolute pleasure to use. It will also make the paint super slick. You can use it after 501 or just after washing if you want the extra bling.
 
Okay - I've used liguid and paste cleaner/wax - but never the spray detailer like AW.



Think I'll pick up some DG 501 first and check it out - seems like that twice a year is better than what I've been doing - which has worked pretty well.



yakky said:
I have had no issues with DG501 and trim, but sometimes some trim is weird,so test accordingly.



I don't plan to test, but that's a fair comment. Top priority now is the 1997 Civic, but it doesn't have much non-painted trim, so not overly concerned. My 2002 Focus Daily-Driver has basically four types of black trim



- the trunk trim never has any problems, and I can't imagine I'm overly careful about avoiding it.

- The side mirror trim tends to show wax - but is fairly easy to avoid.

- The black rubber on the roof and tops of the doors shows wax, but tends to rub clean.

- The door handles aged to a pearlescent black finish and show wax, but I'm thinking of having a body shop paint them for me.



Thanks again!!!!
 
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