VW GTI..trying to bring the shine back

[celtics8]

I am trying to bring back the shine to my car....what products do you guys suggest I use....?

oh and what is the best Maguiars tire shine? I have been through so many and am yet to find one that looks shiny but doesnt come off 2 days later...


once again thanks in advanced!

[greg0303]

Re: VW GTI..trying to bring the shine back

Your car looks like it has been detailed already: the wheels are clean, the tires are dressed, can't see reflection due to lighting though.

What products to use? It all depends what shape your paint surface is in now, how you'd like it to look (show car shine, just clean and glossy), what application you're gonna use: hand or machine (type of machine).

After you set your goal you could do 1-step, 2-step or 3-step correction.

For your tires:
- longest protection: Endurance Tire Gel,
- super wet look: Next Insane Shine,
- ease of application: Next Insane Shine Aerosol,
- spray and walk away: Hot Shine Tire Foam.

[prbrianpr]

Re: VW GTI..trying to bring the shine back

There are a simple list to do:

1. Wash
2. Clay bar (not always 2-3 times at year)
3. Paint cleaner
4. Glaze
5. carnauba or syntetic (be shure that not have cleaners on it or will strip the glaze)
6. Ultimate quik wax spray. You will love it. Also detailers comes handy for several aplications.

If you want a very high shine and reflections you will need to make a polishing process with a machine but not is a necesity for you, its only opcional, start first with the list, maybe it works very well.

[ANeat]

Re: VW GTI..trying to bring the shine back

An inspection in the sun or under a bright light will reveal if there are any fine scratches/swirls

Depending on how bad that is will dictate the best option. You may get by with something like a wash/clay/cleaner wax, or you may need to look into getting a orbital buffer and all the goodies.

There are a lot of before/after pics on here similar to this. This is my 2002 VW Golf TDI with 150k miles. I recently got into this myself and this was one of my first attempts. I had several bad etchings from bird droppings on the hood plus 8+ years of wear, you can see the etching here plus some of the fine scratches.

Also note how dull the reflection of the garage ceiling is (Black car BTW)









So after buffing (machine buffing) the reflecton was much better




I didnt get a before pic in the sun but here it is after

[celtics8]

Re: VW GTI..trying to bring the shine back

Thanks for replying guys......

never waxed.....just washed it w some cheap soap I bought at Advance Auto Parts.....and tire shine is just regular armor all....but I hate it..... the car looks decent at night but in the sun you can see a bunch of swirls and scratches.....

As for that machine.....I know nothing about it.....which is best to buy?

Any Megs polish is ok to buy? Or do I have to wax first?


Sorry for all the questions ...

[greg0303]

Re: VW GTI..trying to bring the shine back

If you plan to step up to machine polishing you should get a dual action (random orbit) polisher. Any reliable one is good: Meguiar's G110v2, Porter Cable 7424 XP or Griot's Garage 6". You also gonna need backing plates and buffing pads.

For product selection probably you'll need:
- good car wash (like Gold Class or Next),
- clay bar kit (with lubricant),
- paint cleaner (Ultimate Compound, Scratch X 2.0),
- cleaner polish (SwirlX),
- maybe pure polish (Deep Crystal Polish or M07 Show Car Glaze),
- wax (either synthetic like Next Tech Wax 2.0 or natural like Carnauba Plus).

If you waited another month or so you could get some new 2011 products like Ultimate Polish and Ultimate Wax.

Mike Stoops explained the principals of machine polishing with DA machines in this thread:

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45702&highlight=introduction+g110