Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

[mgray]

Unfortunately Meguiar's seems to use the typical marketing schemes of using great sounding product descriptors which never seems to actually tell me what makes that product different from the next. "eye-dazzling, Rich conditioning oils, legendary gentle cleaning, better-than-ever formula" doesn't really tell me why I should use NXT, Cleaner Wax, or Gold Class, or even what the difference is between Liquid, Paste, or spray wax.

I'm trying to decide what products are right for me. I'm trying to find out what wax is right for me and what gets rid of swirls and clear coat scratches. I have the GM metallic blue (with silver trim) and I'm pretty sure it has a clear coat.

From a 5 month driving trip and a dirty shammy, my clear coat is all scratched and swirly(not to mention rock chips).

Help please!
Thanks

[yalerd]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

Seems like you have a very neglected paint.
How will you tackle the job, by hand? DA?

Depending on how we can help out picking some products for you to correct and remove those defects.

Others will chime in, for now, read the links, it contains the techniques that you'll need to remove those defects by hand
How To Remove Swirls By Hand
How to remove a defect by hand with ScratchX
Meguiar's 5-Step Paint Care Cycle
How To Remove a Bird Dropping Etching by Hand using M105 Ultra Cut Compound

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

Are you working by hand or machine?

Is this a daily driver?

[TxZ71]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

I have the same color (GM Metallic Blue) and I can tell you from first hand experience that NXT 2.0 is perfect for it! I actually just waxed Saturday. Wish I had some pics to show.

[Evan.J]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

You seem to have the same issue as most ppl do when they come here. Everyone wants to have a great looking car with few swirls and few defects. The issue is what can you use to get rid of these issues?

Well first and foremost I would like to say that alot of pple have the misconception that wax alone will fix these problems. Well, that wont be the case. Most of the swirls and scratchs are below the surface of the CC if applicible. The only way to remove these is to remove the surrounding area of the clear coat down to the swirl/sratch level. Do do so you will need certain products that will allow you to "cut" into the paint. Most ppl usuall star out with a very mid abrassive such as ScratchX or M80 as these will fix most of the problems. Depending on how bad these can be M80 may not do the trick so then you would want to make the jump to M83. M83 is more agressive and with the proper application most people would need anything more than this.

The proper way to begin the process of cleaning a car would be as followed:
1.wash
2.clay
3.clean
4.polish
5.wax

I hope some of this info helps you out!

[mgray]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

Thank you guys, you are very helpful and fast!

Yes this will all be by done by hand.

There are chips that are down to the metal, and one small 1inch scratch that looks like it almost gets to metal, a very light blue is all that seems to be between. I know these issues need individual attention.

But the main thing is the light scratches. Basically it looks like not all the dirt was taken off prior to washing, or the washcloth was dirty. So I assume its only into the clear coat as it doesn't look like its taken any paint off.

I'd like to feel comfortable to be able to put sand paper anywhere near my paint (except bare rusting patches of course), but I don't. Right now, with my knowledge, sand paper near my CC will only make it worse I think.

I'd like to just tackle the light scratches for now, and build up my knowledge and experience.

Thanks again

[yalerd]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

Yes this will all be by done by hand.

There are chips that are down to the metal, and one small 1inch scratch that looks like it almost gets to metal, a very light blue is all that seems to be between. I know these issues need individual attention.

But the main thing is the light scratches

.


Since you'll be tackling your job by hand then you can get the following products to get the job done, this is an example on how your process will look like.
1.Wash (link to Meguiar's Customer Car Washes)
2.Clay (Meguiar's Smooth Surface Clay Kit)
3.Clean (Use ScratchX or M105)
4.Polish (You can use DC2 / M07 Show Car Glaze, these are a few of the variety of polishes that Meguiar's offer)
5. Protect (You can get the NXT 2.0 that has the new hydrophobic technology but all waxes that Meguiar's offer are great.)

I know others will chime in with different choices, like I said this is just an example and I hope it helps out a little. Also remember to read the links I posted in the above post, you can have the greatest products in the world but if you don't know how to work them then your results would be far from excellent.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

I'd like to just tackle the light scratches for now, and build up my knowledge and experience.

Thanks again

Follow the plan yalerd posted and spend your time upfront doing a good job applying either ScratchX or M105 as that's the step that's going to remove the swirls and scratches.

M105 works better and faster with less effort than ScratchX for what it's worth.

[mgray]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

Since you'll be tackling your job by hand then you can get the following products to get the job done, this is an example on how your process will look like.
1.Wash (link to Meguiar's Customer Car Washes)
2.Clay (Meguiar's Smooth Surface Clay Kit)
3.Clean (Use ScratchX or M105)
4.Polish (You can use DC2 / M07 Show Car Glaze, these are a few of the variety of polishes that Meguiar's offer)
5. Protect (You can get the NXT 2.0 that has the new hydrophobic technology but all waxes that Meguiar's offer are great.)

Step 3(clean) and 4(polish) kinda confuse me. Can you guys maybe go into what those steps actually are, and what the difference is....please?

Clean sounds a lot like wash, and polish sounds like wax, to me. Those steps kinda baffle me.

Thanks again!

[mgray]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

I'm having trouble also deciding what the real difference between the different washes are. NXT, Deep Crystal, Gold class, and Soft Wash Gel all sound the same to me(except price).....like I said, Meguiars doesn't do a good job(I think) of describing just what makes one product different from the next.

Also, if I'm gonna start from scratch....Should I remove the old wax? Is there a wash for doing that? And should I do it periodically, or does wax not get old and need to be removed??

And lastly, most of the scatches I'm talking about are white in color, and since the paint is a metalic blue, I assume they are white because they are only in the clearcoat right?

[TimG]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

Step 3(clean) and 4(polish) kinda confuse me. Can you guys maybe go into what those steps actually are, and what the difference is....please?

Clean sounds a lot like wash, and polish sounds like wax, to me. Those steps kinda baffle me.

Thanks again!

Clean = removing scratches, swirls, other contaminats cant be removed
by washing (paint defects)
Polish = adding gloss

Wax = protection to the paint surface

Sometimes when you clean the paint, you will get marring so you need to polish the paint to make it shine @ add gloss.

[yalerd]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

Step 3(clean) and 4(polish) kinda confuse me. Can you guys maybe go into what those steps actually are, and what the difference is....please?

Cleaning means that you'll be removing below surface contaminants. In this step you'll be removing swirls, scratches, surface imperfection, oxidation, stains.

Don't confuse this with washing, washing will only remove the loose contaminants present in that moment but contaminants that are bonded won't be removed, same with scratches

Polish means that once your finish is prepared, without contaminants and most if not all imperfections gone then you'll be using your pure polish to create that high gloss and depth that those oils, present in the pure polish, will give to your paint.

Hope this helps

[yalerd]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

I'm having trouble also deciding what the real difference between the different washes are. NXT, Deep Crystal, Gold class, and Soft Wash Gel

Washes are a matter of likes, some people use Gold Class, some NXT and so on. It's a matter if you like what you have or you don't. I've used Gold Class and NXT Shampoo, both are great and I think NXT has a little more of a cleaning ability compared to Gold Class but in my eyes I like how Gold Class leaves the surface when you are done washing.

Also, if I'm gonna start from scratch....Should I remove the old wax? Is there a wash for doing that? And should I do it periodically, or does wax not get old and need to be removed??

The cleaning steps (step 2 & step 3) will remove any coat of wax present in the surface. You won't need to do this periodically because the harsh environment we live in will do this by itself, contaminants will remove wax over time, that's why we need to re-wax from time to time.

And lastly, most of the scatches I'm talking about are white in color, and since the paint is a metalic blue, I assume they are white because they are only in the clearcoat right?

It could be that some wax has dried in those scratches / cracks and it also can be that the scratch is deep that clear coat/paint is present in that area anymore and what you are seeing is the base

[SSMUFF]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

Good thing I read this thread. It explained somethings I had questions about also.

[mgray]

Re: Having trouble finding my way thru Meguiar's products.

It could be that some wax has dried in those scratches / cracks and it also can be that the scratch is deep that clear coat/paint is present in that area anymore and what you are seeing is the base

Man I wish the forum was a little easier!! Like being able to post a pic!!

Yeah I don't think most of them are below the paint, as I have 1 or 2 scratches which are clearly below the blue paint (down to the base/metal) Most of the other ones I think are just in the CC as I can see the blue paint underneath and they appear suspended above the paint.

And as with the washes, since I haven't used any of them I can't make my own mind. I know I hear a lot of people here saying they like the gold class.....but seriously, shouldn't a company make it easy to know what the difference's are?? I know NXT is a nuclear molecule space wash....but what about the Deep Crystal, or Soft Wash??