Critique my game plan

[PandorianOne]

Hello all. I've been a lurker for over a month, soaking up what I can do for a six year old platinium colored durango I just bought. A lot of you guys know your stuff, so I figured I would put what I've learned up so you can correct me if needed. I am applying all by hand, using the recommended cloths/applicators.

85% of the paint looks OK, normal daily driver stuff. Quite a few hairline/web scratching from what looks like using the self serve car-wash brushes and/or bad cloths. Two items I have to tackle are the back door and a couple silver pancake size dull spots on two sides. The door looks to be sprayed with some 'slightly offcolor' paint (i.e Autozone diy), they taped off the front, and oversprayed so you have a orignal clear coat band in between two repainted areas... On the whole, the car looks acceptable, it just doesn't "pop". Thanks to you all, I have an idea of what to do, but am not sure on a couple seemingly interchangable items...

1. Wash -- Gold Class
2. Clean -- Smooth Surface Clay Kit vs. Pro Mild or Aggressive Clay Bar
3. Clean/Polish -- DC Step 1, followed by Scratch X in problem areas vs. Scratch X whole thing...
4. Polish 2 (pure polish) -- DC 2 vs Glaze #7
5. Wax -- NXT
Bonus -- Headlights -- PlastX applied with Mothers Powerball

I know the motto is 'least necessary force', but I figure that I might need the mild/aggressive clay bar to help with the overspray, it's been on for at least 3 months... I am scared to attempt to use Scratch X on the whole thing, besides overkill, according to what I've seen, my arm might fall off. I am thinking I can do it in a full day (8-5), so I can show it off that night...)

Wheels & Interior (Leather), I feel comfortable with. There are just so many choices for the paint! Any help on anything is much appreciated. Anyway, thanks in advance from all us lurkers out there. I am sure they are reading this, as I once did others' posts. Once I do this, I will post my experience for all, good or bad...

Mike, sorry if it's blasphemy to mention a competitor, I don't see anything from Meguiar like the powerball, and it seems easier than working by hand...

[PandorianOne]

Re: Critique my game plan

Wow, where's the love? Over 2 days with 40+ dozen views, 0 replies? I knew I should have not had that garlic pizza...

[PorscheGuy997]

Re: Critique my game plan

First of all, your arm will not fall off if you use products by hand. I did that for the past 3 years until I bought a Craftsman buffer and then a PC.

The one thing that concerns me is the "clear coat band" thing you described. Could you post some pics so I can get a better idea? Is it like a gap between the clearcoats? Is it a paint tape line? I'm having trouble trying to understand what you are saying. If it is a gap between the two layers of clear, then some wet sanding would be your only serious option to remove that line. If there is a tape line and then some overspray, then you should have to do some wet sanding. Clay removes overspray pretty well, but it will not remove large amounts of overspray past the tape line. If it is spray paint from a can, then the previous owners did a nice job of painting because I always have to wet sand after I use spray paint!

You can Scratchx the whole car. Actually, this is what I would recommend. If Scratchx doesn't help, Fine cut cleaner from O'reilly will work well.

For the clay, I would get the Quik Clay kit instead of the Smooth Surface. The Smooth Surface contains a small bottle of cleaner wax and a microfiber cloth, but it costs twice as much. The Quik Clay contains everything you really need, unless you don't have any mf's around. In both cases the Quik Clay and Smooth Surface contain the same amount of clay. The pro versions have bars that weigh twice as much as the others. You really don't need a huge amount of clay unless you do this for a business. The red agressive is for pros only as it can damage the paint.

For the wheels, you need to tells us what kind you have.

For the leather, I like the 2 step leather cleaner and conditioner from Meg's.

I prefer #7 to DC2, but they are similar. #7 is quite a bit more expensive, though.

Plastx takes a little passion to work well; it takes a little time, but it is not hard. Don't pay $10 for that powerball thing.