What order to detail and wash?

[1970judge]

I have an assortment of product and was wondering what to use at what time. I am doing a complete head to toe detail on my car next weekend. WHat do I use in what order?

Wash-soap
Clay bar
Scratch-x
Polish
Wax

Is that right? ANy tips or ideas?

Thank you
Marcus

[yalerd]

Re: What order to detail and wash?

Hi and welcome to Meguiar's Online!

Your process seems to be right.
Here are a couple of links that would help out
Meguiar's 5-Step Paint Care Cycle
How to remove a defect by hand with ScratchX
How To Remove Swirls By Hand

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: What order to detail and wash?

Your process seems perfect. Just make sure you have plenty of Quik Detailer for the clay lube, and a lot of microfiber towels. Be sure to post some before and after pics. Good luck.

[1970judge]

Re: What order to detail and wash?

Thank you, I have a BLACK (I hate black) 2007 chevrolet HHR that I keep Immaculate. But I accidently put swirl marks on the door. (i thought it was new dust so i wiped it off. Big mistake. I also have a 98 red GMC (I love red) pickup truck that is of course 10 years old and it needs it bad. I am excited to get the ball rolling. I LOVE cleaning my cars. Because when I drive around in my 10 year old pickup and get a compliment it makes me feel good!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What order to detail and wash?

Your process seems to be right. Here are a couple of links that would help out

Meguiar's 5-Step Paint Care Cycle
How to remove a defect by hand with ScratchX
How To Remove Swirls By Hand

Definitely read through the above threads, the first one discusses the categories and the order for using different products. The third link is a real-life documented example of how to remove swirls by hand using Consumer Products, I can vouch for it's authenticity as I'm the guy doing the demo.

Basically, besides washing and claying if needed, the most important step is the cleaning step, that's the step where you remove any below surface defects like swirls and scratches. If you do this step right then polishing and waxing will just take these results to a higher level.

If you've never machine polished then you might look into get a DA style polisher, it will ALWAYS give you better results than working by hand and it's faster. DA Polishers like our G110 have a clutch built into the drive unit so you can't swirl or burn through the paint, so they're completely safe to use.

New G110 Review

The first thing I will comment on is the way the G-110 is packaged. It comes in a blow molded black plastic case. In it, you will find the polisher, the new W67DA Backing Plate, wrench for attaching the backing plate, a bail handle, and its corresponding allen wrench for attaching it to the new G-110.





I really like having storage boxes for my polishers and usually I store my rotaries and G-100's in separate mechanics boxes. But this is one area of the G-110 that I think needs improving. Once you have the bail handle installed, the buffer no longer fits into the box. Perhaps if a different case was created with the handle already installed, (but still user removable), from the factory, I think this case would work much better. As it is, it is a non issue for me however as I said previously, I keep them in separate boxes anyway.




It's also easy to use...

[1970judge]

Re: What order to detail and wash?

Thank you for the help! I would really love to get a power buffer after about 10 hours of cleaning I am very beat! When you buy one of those buffers will it come with a manual on which liquids to use and step by step process?

[Murr1525]

Re: What order to detail and wash?

Check out these links, and thre is also a DVD available from autodetailingsolutions.com

Rotary vs. PC vs. Regular Orbital Buffer

Recommended Products - G100a Dual Action Polisher

Using the G-100 to remove swirls with the Professional Line

Each one, teach one... Ferrari Fiorano 355 F1 Spider

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What order to detail and wash?

When you buy one of those buffers will it come with a manual on which liquids to use and step by step process?

No but we post that kind of information here on the forum.

Usually everyone that gets into machine cleaning and polishing has a lot of different variables that require custom tweaking of their pad, product and process, so the forum works pretty well for this.