what to use on a new car?

[hokies82]

hey, first off i want to let you know that i am new to detailing and would appreciate any help you can give me.

I recently bought a new black car one month ago. And was wondering what i should be using on my car. I have washed the car once since i got it and it seems like there are light swirl marks on some parts of the car. Also the paint feels a little rough when i run my finger over the car. (but not on the hood where they had the white plastic on)

I'm not really sure what would be safe to use on a new car. I bought meguiars deep crystal wash, show car glaze, and nxt wax. I am thinking of buying #9 and some clay, would it be bad to use these two on a car that i have had for only a month? Any tips or suggestions would be helpful. thanks

[Mike Phillips]

Re: what to use on a new car?

Originally posted by hokies82
hey, first off i want to let you know that i am new to detailing and would appreciate any help you can give me.

I recently bought a new black car one month ago. And was wondering what i should be using on my car. I have washed the car once since i got it and it seems like there are light swirl marks on some parts of the car. Also the paint feels a little rough when i run my finger over the car. (but not on the hood where they had the white plastic on)

I'm not really sure what would be safe to use on a new car. I bought Meguiar’s deep crystal wash, show car glaze, and nxt wax. I am thinking of buying #9 and some clay, would it be bad to use these two on a car that i have had for only a month? Any tips or suggestions would be helpful. thanks

Hi hokies82 and welcome to Meguiar's Online Discussion forum!

First of all it can be hard to make specific recommendations without personally seeing the car, that’s where it’s important to do your best job of describing the finish and when possible, including pictures.

While new cars shouldn’t need any prep work, the sad fact is many new cars do. Sometimes they receive less than professional prep work at the dealership, often times they receive less than professional car washing while at the dealership, this can result in swirls, scratches and cobweb-effect, which is easily noticeable with dark colored and black finishes.

It’ is also possible for a new car to have bonded contaminants from even short periods of exposure to outdoor environments. If you feel little bumps on the surface of your car’s finish after washing, then this is a good sign your car needs to be clayed before any polishing, or protecting waxes are applied.

What I would suggest is this, after washing, visually inspect your car’s finish with your eyes, and physically inspect your cars finish with the palms of your clean hands. If you do in fact feel little bumps on the finish, then the first thing you should do is clay the car. Meguiar’s Quik Clay System is perfect for this.

After claying your finish and wiping it down with the Quik Detailer, you can then apply a Meguiar’s polish, or go right to the NXT Tech Wax. Polishing will add extra depth, darkness, gloss and reflectivity, and NXT will lock these results in while giving your car’s paint wet-looking finish.

Do you own a Porter Cable Dual Action polisher? The reason I ask is because these tools produced awesome results over what your hand can achieve. If you really want to keep the black paint on your car looking like a show car, I would highly recommend investing in one. Also, while #9 Swirl Remover 2.0 can be used by hand, for removing scratches, swirls and cobweb-effect, best results come from using the #9 with the Porter Cable Dual Action polisher and one of Meguiar’s W-8006 foam polishing pads.

If you cannot find Meguiar’s Quik Clay System locally, you can order it direct form www.meguiars.com, same goes for the W-8006 foam polishing pads and if you decide you would like to purchase a Porter Cable Dual Action polisher Meguiar’s offers one with a Lifetime Warranty

Please feel free to call our Customer Care Hotline at 1-800-347-5700 to talk to one of our Surface Care Experts, they can also help you to order any products your interested in.

Hope this helps,

Mike

[hokies82]

Wow thats a lot of info, thanks for taking the time to help me out.

First of all it can be hard to make specific recommendations without personally seeing the car, that’s where it’s important to do your best job of describing the finish and when possible, including pictures.

Well when i picked up the car from the dealer they said that they had "detailed" the car. Not knowing too much about detailing i didnt think much of it. However when i got the car there were no swirl marks or scratches that i could see. (I think i might have caused some of the swirl marks on my car) The surface of the car was rough, i would slide my fingers over the car and it seemed kinda grity. This is probably due to the fact that it was sitting on the lot since november, I didnt buy the car until mid January.

i have washed the car two times since I have had the car. The first time was about a week after i picked the car up, I used deep crystal wash followed by show car glaze (which i learned is tough to use if applying too much), then topped it off with nxt wax. I used a wool wash mit, applied the show car glaze with terry clothes and used some more terry clothes to buff it. I then applied nxt with a terry cloth and used a microfiber towel (cheap one from walmart) to buff that.

I now know that cheap microfiber towels are not the way to go and have purchased some quality mf towels. Like i said above i think i caused the swirl marks myself. The thing is that the swirl marks dont seem to be all over the car, just in certain areas. And then even when i do notice the swirl marks it is only in direct sunlight when i am looking at the paint from about a foot away.

I apologize if this is a bunch of jibberish but i am just trying to explain what i did.

And the reason i ask about using #9 is I dont want to use something that is abrasive on my car. I mean i have only had this thing for about a month, i dont want to overdue anything that might cause more harm than good. I have thought about buying a PC but not looking at paying 200 dollars for one yet. Other people i have talked to said you can get good results by hand.

I will put some pics up too but they are about 3 weeks old.

[hokies82]

this pic is about a week after i got my car, before i washed it

[hokies82]

another

[hokies82]

this is the day after i wash, used #7, and nxt. This is the same side of the car just not the door.

[hokies82]

in these pics there arent any swirl marks that you can see. Maybe i am just looking for swirl marks or that it is impossible to eliminate all of them. But i swear that there are some slight ones toward the back of the car

[Mike Phillips]

Hi hokies82,

In order for your pictures to show up, you need to upload them to the Gallery and then use the IMG tag to imbed them into your message. It's not that hard, once you do it one time, you'll have the hang of it.

I'll try to finish the tutorial tonight.

Because you own a black car, and you appear to really want to take your car's finish to its maximum potential, I think your going to want to invest in the porter cable dual action polisher.

Also, I notice you applied the #7 and the Tech Wax using terry cloth towels. This will work, but on a black paint job you are usually better off using something that is even softer and that is new, clean, soft foam applicators pads.

Meguiar's sells these via their web,

http://www.meguiars.com/store_meguiars/product_detail.cfm?sku=W-00

Comparing their cost to the time and effort it takes to remove scratches, they are an excellent investment.

Mike

[hokies82]

ok, i uploaded the pics so they should work now. I just noticed that in the two before pics, the flash was on.

I will have to pick some of those foam applicators up, i think i remember seeing them at walmart. And about the PC, I hear people talk about the speeds they used and the different pads they use. Is the PC used for applying cleaners/polishes/waxes or is it used to remove them too.

[Don]

Mostly apply...Megs makes a microfiber bonnet for the PC for application/removal though