Returning customer confused by new products.

[Murr1525]

Yeah, UC is strong, and probably not the best thing to use every single time you want to detail. You could go with a milder pad, or less pressure, etc, but at that point you may as well just have a milder product.

Ult. Polish is actually a very mild cleaner/polish, so would be good for any dirt in the paint. It may be better to use that a few times after off-roading, and then only use the UC once or twice a year, or something like that.

[ScreamingTaco]

The truck gets off-loaded regularly

That to me made me think you've got marks or defects that may need the attention of Ultimate Compound.

This article shows the versatility of Meguiar's products and how pad choice, downward pressure and DA speed influence the performance of your buffing efforts. Which you may have seen this article years ago.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...Total-Cut-quot

Not questioning the recommendation, just want to make sure I use it appropriately. I normally do the full monty (wash/clean/polish/wax) 3 or 4 times a year and didn't want to get carried away with a product without knowing how to use it.

I like to off road, but my days of smashing through things and hitting every patch of mud because it looks cool are behind me. Now I'm a much slower, more technical driver (in a much newer, more expensive truck) so I try to do very little damage if I can avoid it. For the most part it's just washing off sand and mud, then buffing out surface scratches from tree branches dragging along the paint.

That article helps put things in perspective.

Yeah, UC is strong, and probably not the best thing to use every single time you want to detail. You could go with a milder pad, or less pressure, etc, but at that point you may as well just have a milder product.

Ult. Polish is actually a very mild cleaner/polish, so would be good for any dirt in the paint. It may be better to use that a few times after off-roading, and then only use the UC once or twice a year, or something like that.

Is there a product that falls in between the two? Or is there a method to Meg's madness and I'm just over-thinking this?

[Murr1525]

Well, the method to the madness is dont take your show car off-road....

In most cases, the idea would be to fix the car up once with the UC, and then maintain with milder products in the future. And then after a year or two, some swirls or scratches will build up naturally, and you would use UC again.

Removing swirls/scratches does remove some paint... So you certainly dont want to go removing paint every weekend, esp if keeping the truck for a while. And depending on the scratches you get, they may not be fully removable anyway.

So you are just going to have to find a balance you are happy with. Keeping it shiny is no problem, and the mild products will take care of that. But you may want to let the scratches build up a bit before tackling them each time.

As far as inbetween products, you would be looking at: UC - SwirlX - #205 - Ult. Polish.

#205 is just a little stronger, not a lot, but could be a good option.

SwirlX is more in the middle... but also kind of where your results would be. Not great defect removal, and not as good of looks.

Also, didnt notice claying in your list... should be a good thing to do once in a while.

[ScreamingTaco]

So you are just going to have to find a balance you are happy with.

That pretty much sums my whole internal debate up, and the only real way to figure it out is to do it and make adjustments.

I tried claying a number of years back (black truck) and didn't notice an improvement over just using a paint cleaner. I figured that as a step it was probably more beneficial to someone who needed to protect a quality aftermarket paint job than it was to me with a stock factory paint.

[Murr1525]

The clay and paint cleaner actually do different things, so you may or may not see a difference. The paint job itself doesnt really matter.

The clay pulls off bonded dirt/grit, that a buffing pad can actually just bounce over.

The paint cleaner removes the dirt from the pores/imperfections, and can remove swirls, etc if strong enough.

So if your truck didnt have too much bonded on dirt (the Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay is white, so can be easy to see if dirt is building up or not), then there wouldnt be much difference.

I'm not sure if off-roading would lead to extra dirt sticking or not. I usually do it twice a year for a regular commuter car.

[ScreamingTaco]

I'll give claying another shot as part of my pre-winter routine.

On another note it seems that I've found an unexpected drawback of white paint. Does anyone know how to remove road tar that's been flung up onto the wheel wells/rocker panels? I was going to hit it with Simple Green, but figured I'd ask here first in case someone had some high speed trick?

[wifpd4]

Sorry, no high speed trick suggestion from me, nor have I used Simple Green. It may work very well, if not there are commercially available tar removal products at the usual places, WalMart, AutoZone, Advanced Auto Parts, O'Reilly.

I do spend a lot of time on wheel wells. I believe it was Murr that suggested toilet brushes. I have four brushes for wheels and wheel wells. A long handled stiff bristled for tires and wheel wells, a long handled soft bristled brush for rims and two different size and shaped toilet brushes for tires and wheel wells. In addition to a high pressure washer. So nothing fast about cleaning wheels and wheel wells.

If the rocker panels are plastic, I wash them similar to doing the wheel wells. If paint, chemicals and microfiber towels to avoid making scratches. Also I go over the painted rocker panels with clay to insure I got everything.

Dry everything with an electric leaf blower.

[Murr1525]

The clay is also re-useable, so just toss it in a zip-lock bag with a squirt of QD. If your car is pretty clean, you may get several uses out of one piece. And the SS Clay Kit would supply several pieces. Just have to buy some extra QD.

As for the tar, I would go with either TarX or TRIX from Car Pro. I used their IronX in the spring and it worked great. Will be getting some TarX in the fall for the complete detail then.

[ffboy]

Claying may not make a significant improvement on paint's shine, but it does make a big difference when you go to apply the cleaner, polish and wax. Everything just goes on smoother and removes a lot easier, and it does give me a more even look to the overall shine and the slickness is definitely improved. Still worth the extra step, especially if the car/vehicle is subject to exposure to different contaminants.

[ScreamingTaco]

Took a tree branch down the side.

Is ScratchX still recommended for spot treatment, or is Ultimate Compound enough?