UP then UW

[RPPM]

Re: UP then UW

I would not use dish soap, it can dry out trim, seals, etc. Plus, not the best for paint. Clay bar will remove most of your old wax, whatever is left, UC will cut right through. if UC can cut much harder Clearcoat, wax stands no chance.

[Murr1525]

Re: UP then UW

I just wash the car with Palmolive instead of the usual GC. This is the usual wash step, not an extra step.

As mentioned, just no benefit to using the dish soap, so why bother. More of a chance of making things worse.

This will be the first time I use UC (by hand). Should I rub the product hard against the paint in circular motion?

To remove siwrls, it does need some passion... best to do a test spot/panel, and see how results go before doing the whole car. Makesure you can get it right before going bigger .

Also, which is more aggressive, UC or SwiltX?

Yup, UC.

[Murr1525]

Re: UP then UW

I will use UC in the areas with more swirls, the rest with SwirlX.

If there are swirls to remove everywhere, I have a feeling you will want UC everywhere.

[mis3]

Re: UP then UW

If there are swirls to remove everywhere, I have a feeling you will want UC everywhere.

I think I will use UC on the horizontal panels and SwirlX for the vertical panels.

I have clear bra in the frontal areas, hope UC is OK with these 3M plastic.

[mis3]

Re: UP then UW

I would not use dish soap, it can dry out trim, seals, etc. Plus, not the best for paint. Clay bar will remove most of your old wax, whatever is left, UC will cut right through. if UC can cut much harder Clearcoat, wax stands no chance.

Good point on the trims,seals... So, GC it is.

Plan : GC - Clay - UC/SwirlX - DC Polish - UW - UW

Is it a good idea to spread out these activities in 2 days? I park in a condo garage and I won' t be using my car tonight.

[Murr1525]

Re: UP then UW

Swirl removal by hand is hard... you may want to wash and clay everything, then just start doing hte swirl removal slowly. See how long it takes...

[mis3]

Re: UP then UW

More specifically, I am thinking to do the clean steps today and the polish/wax steps tomorrow.

[Murr1525]

Re: UP then UW

I would expect Wash/Clay/some cleaning today... some cleaning, polish (not really critical if short on time), wax tomorrow.

Best get started...

[mis3]

Re: UP then UW

Starting now
Have to wait until late afternoon (4pm local time now) so the sun is not too strong.

[mis3]

Re: UP then UW

Just completed activities of day 1; ie: wash, clay and clean (mostly UC). It took me 3.5 hours.

Still have swirls, but my car is silver so they don't show as much. It's true that it is not easy to remove swirls without a DA.

The car is nice and shiny now. Not sure if DC-Polish will improve much.
Come to think of it, there is polishing oil in UC, then again polishing oil in UW. Maybe DC-Polish is redundant.

[Murr1525]

Re: UP then UW

Yeah, a pure polish isnt real critical for you.

[mis3]

Re: UP then UW

Another 4 hours today and my car is done. The whole detailing job took me 7-8 hours including wheels and glass.

The car was nice and shiny after the UC. Not sure if the shine improved with 2 coats of UW.

For the first coat of UW, I removed the wax after I applied the wax to the whole car. So, the wax stayed on my car for maybe 25-30 minutes. The wax was very easy to remove with no streak.

For the 2nd coat, the wax stayed on my car for longer, maybe 1.5 hours. After applying UW, I took my time to clean the windows and also applied UW to the wheels. Although it was easy to remove this second coat, I saw streaks here and there and they were not easy to remove. I can see this as major issue for black cars.

Kind of strange, maybe I left the UW on for too long, maybe I did not allow enough cure time between coats (3 hours).

[Murr1525]

Re: UP then UW

Most of the shine should come from the cleaning, not the waxing.

But, as long as it all turned out good for you.

[mis3]

Re: UP then UW

Yes, all turned out well. A lot of hard work but I only do this full detailing once a year. The rest of the time I would just wash and wax often.

I'm curious about UW. This is supposed to be the latest and greatest wax from Meguiares.
Hope we will get some response from Meguiares about these streaking issues.

[Murr1525]

Re: UP then UW

I think everyone has had some streaks at first... its just so different.

I think I'll try the short wait next time maybe as well.