Need help with a line up of products

[jayb73]

For my birthday I told the wife that I wanted a bunch of car care products. Well I just purchased a 2004 GMC Sierra about 3-4 months ago. I want to make it look top notch for it's year, and know it's going to take some work. I live in Philadelphia, moderate winters, hot humid summers with weekly bird ****. The truck is med. to dark red with a silver lower. The paint has the usual highway chips in hood with a shallow 2" long scratch on the bed. My goal is to eliminate most of the swirl marks and clear coat scratches, bird **** acid drops, plus minimize the road chips and scratch. What products would you reccomend for this application. I use Meguiars Gold Class Wash. I was going to have my wife buy me the following products: Meguiars wash (need another bottle), meguiars clay system,Meguiars quick detailer, Mequiars paint cleaner, Meguiars polish, and a Meguiars wax. I plan on doing this all by hand, as I do have a cheap pep boys 8" polisher, I do not plan on using it. What product specific type? I may have excluded a scratch remover or swirl remover, which ones do you think I need? Thanks.

[Murr1525]

Re: Need help with a line up of products

1. Wash - Gold Class, 2 buckets, Grut Guards, quality towels/sponges

2. Clay - Smooth Surface Clay Kit, extra bottle of QD.

3. Clean - SwirlX and Ultimate Compound. Do a test spot with SwirLX, see if it does the trick. If not, try the UC.

4. Wax - Nxt 2.0 is hard to beat

5. Wax - 2 thin coats are best.

6. Maintain - Ultimate Quick Detailer is good dood for bird droppings ,and Ultiamte Quick Wax is great for after future washes.

Meguiar's 5-Step Paint Care Cycle
Step 1 Wash
Step 2 Clean
Step 3 Polish
Step 4 Protect
Step 5 Maintain

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Recommended Products - G100a Dual Action Polisher

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

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[Mike Phillips]

Re: Need help with a line up of products

Hi jayb73,

You want to pick up a bottle of Ultimate Compound
G17216 Ultimate Compound




G17616 SwirlX



and a few packages of these,
X3070 Soft Foam Applicator Pad





Each panel, (panel = a door, or a hood, or a roof, etc), needs to be broken up into small sections, about a foot square and then each of these small sections needs to be rubbed-out meticulously, evenly and thoroughly in order to leave a uniform, clear finish. Then move onto the next section and repeat the process while overlapping a little into the previously worked section for UMR.

UMR = Uniform Material Removal.

Rub out all the paint first using Ultimate Compound and then follow this with SwirlX. After that apply a coat of your favorite wax.

The most important step is working the Ultimate Compound to remove the swirls and scratches. You want to remove as many of the defects in the Ultimate Compound step as possible. This means working small sections at at time, about a foot square or so until you've gone all the way around the vehicle. For a truck the size of yours, you might want to only tackle a portion of the rig each day/weekend.


Couple threads to read,

Very important...
How to do a Test Spot


These might help you also...
What it means to remove a scratch out of anything...
Which products need to dry before removing?
Final Wiping Techniques
The Swipe Test
NXT Cure Time?
How much time to wait before applying a second coat of wax?
Circles or Straight Lines?


Lots more in these two groups...

Hot Topics
How To Articles

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Need help with a line up of products

Dang Matt, you beat me to it...

Between Matt's post and mine you should be armed to the teeth with how-to information....

Hope to see some great before and after shots...

[Murr1525]

Re: Need help with a line up of products

[jayb73]

Re: Need help with a line up of products

Great fellas, thanks for all the info. I am sure these products will work wonders. It's been a while since I detailed a car, even then it was just a conglamorations of products which I thought might be good at the time. I will be sure to post some before and after pics.

[Murr1525]

Re: Need help with a line up of products

Sure, see what you can get, ask anything else.