Question about paint cleaning

[Wouter]

Hello all, new to these forums, and I drive a 2005 VW Polo 1.9 TDI (Black Magic Pearleffect)

I just bought some Meguiars stuff. I already used Meguiars NXT Tech Wax before, was very happy about it so that's why I decided to do more steps, will post some pics of what the NXT Tech Wax in the right subforum.

These are the products that are in my possession now:


As you see, I don't have the DC Paint Cleaner, only the ScratchX.. my question is, when I do all the steps, so these ones:

1. wash
2. clay
3. handle the little scratches I find with scratchX
4. polish
5. wax

will it be worse than when I would also use the DC Paint Cleaner ? I read the description of what it does, but I didn't buy it (yesterday when I was at the Meguiars dealer) because I thought it wouldn't give a difference on a car that has a paint from <2 year old (it isn't "vaguening" at all yet), so I thought spending the money on ScratchX would be more wise because then I can use it on some scratches/details that I might find.

Is my "thinking" correct ?

Thanks from a Meguiars Amator ..

[MaximusZTS]

Re: Question about paint cleaning

With what products you have your steps are spot on.

[Murr1525]

Re: Question about paint cleaning

I would tend to recomend DC#1 for the rest of your car that doesnt need ScratchX'ed, but its up to you. DC#1 is good to remove the general dirt build up that a car will get on it.

[Wouter]

Re: Question about paint cleaning

@ Maximus: Wow that's a quick answer, thanks.

So you do agree that in my case the ScratchX is sufficient ? It's just - when I start doing all the steps I wan't to do it right! That's why I needed to make sure that not going over the whole car with DC paint cleaner would make it look less good.

PS. All these steps are possible to do by hand, yes ?

How much time must I be counting on +- ?

Washing exterior 2 times with Nxt wash + wash mit: 40 minutes
Drying with water magnet 10 minutes

claying 1hour 30 mins
removing some visible scratches and swirls with sratchX: 20mins
polishing 1hour 30 mins
waxing 1hour 30 mins

Would this be about right ? (so a total of about 6 hours)

[OhioCarBuff]

Re: Question about paint cleaning

Wouter,

I would definately say you should go over the entire car with DC#1, this will clean the pores of your paint, which get filled with dirt. Read this article, it will explain in depth....

Read this thread, and go to the link that says "a lesson from white paint", it will go into detail about this..

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19978

[Wouter]

Re: Question about paint cleaning

Wouter,

I would definately say you should go over the entire car with DC#1, this will clean the pores of your paint, which get filled with dirt. Read this article, it will explain in depth....

Read this thread, and go to the link that says "a lesson from white paint", it will go into detail about this..

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...ad.php?t=19978

Thanks very much for this link, it cleared out a lot of things for me. I'm actually going to go get the deep crystal paint cleaner step 1 tomorrow now. Another motivation for this is: my car is sleeping outside 90% of the time!


Wouter.