Is this the right sequence?

[kid_dynamite]

Hi guys,

White car, nine years old, excellent condition, nearly always garaged and no major blemishes. It's time to give it a good clean so here's my plan of attack - how does it sound?

1. NXT Car Wash
2. Quik Clay Detailing System (no NXT Speed Detailer in Aus yet as far as I know!)
3. M80 Speed Glaze
4. NXT Tech Wax

Will be using this GMC random orbital with a 5" and 6" base. Could I have some recommendations for pads and sizes for steps three and four?

Cheers!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Is this the right sequence?

Originally posted by kid_dynamite
Hi guys,

White car, nine years old, excellent condition, nearly always garaged and no major blemishes. It's time to give it a good clean so here's my plan of attack - how does it sound?

1. NXT Car Wash
2. Quik Clay Detailing System (no NXT Speed Detailer in Aus yet as far as I know!)
3. M80 Speed Glaze
4. NXT Tech Wax

The above system when properly applied will produce stellar results.

Will be using this

GMC random orbital

with a 5" and 6" base.


Could I have some recommendations for pads and sizes for steps three and four?

Cheers!

You want to use as small of a pad as possible otherwise the cleaning/abrading action of the M80 Speed Glaze will not be effective. As you increase pad size, you decrease amount of force applied over each square inch, thus diminishing the cleaning ability of a dual action polisher.

What pads do you have available to you?



As for the paint cleaning step, (step 3), with the #80 Speed Glaze, (or any paint cleaner), this step takes the longest, deserves the most attention and is the most important. If you don't remove the below surface defects during the cleaning step, they will be there when you wipe off your last step product.

During our Saturday detailing clinics, one of the things we stress is to do a thorough job of removing the defects by focusing on the task at hand. When applying ScratchX by hand this means working small areas at a time and overlapping into these areas when moving on to the next section. Same goes for applying products like the the #80 Speed Glaze. It's important to use a slow arm speed, 4-5 lbs of pressure on the head of the polisher and overlapping motions on the 4.5 to 5.0 setting. If you do this, you will have greatly increased your chances for successfully removing a majority of the defects from your car's finish.

An interesting thing we always try to point out is the defects that do remain after detailing your car. If you have done everything correctly and after wiping off your LSP you discover random, isolated, deeper scratches, (RIDS), this is what you're seeing... deeper scratches.

You see, the shallow scratches will buff out leaving behind the deeper ones. With the thousands of lighter, shallower scratches removed, the remaining deeper scratches will now stand out like a sore thumb making it easier for you eyes to detect them. This is normal. The thing to remember is that in order to remove all the defects means to remove more paint and depending on your goals and how much paint you have to work with, (film-build), you may be better off learning to live with the deeper scratches versus trying to remove them.

Here's a saying to remember,

"You can often improve a scratch, but you cannot always remove a scratch"

Here's a different way of saying the same thing,

"Often times you are better off merely trying to improve a defect than to completely remove the defect"

The point being is this, you only have a certain amount of film-build, or paint thickness to work within, if you remove too much paint you will expose the color coat under a clear coat, and in the case of a non-clear coat finish, you will expose the primer under the color coat.

It's also important to remember that when you're working on a clear coat finish, all of the U.V. protection for the paint job itself is in the clear coat, so the more clear you remove, the less U.V. protection you have left.

For the 4th step, applying the wax, you want to slow your polisher down as at this point you're not trying to remove defects, but merely apply a well worked-in uniform application of wax. On the G100 dual action polisher, we use the 3.0 setting. We also switch to a softer finishing pad, in the Meguiar's line this would be the W-9006

Two more things, compounds, paint cleaners and cleaner/polishes do not need to dry before removing them. Basically apply them, work them in and the remove them. There is no benefit to the paint by allowing these products to dry.

Meguiar's waxes on the other hand need to dry before you remove them, allow 10 to 15 minutes before removing NXT Tech Wax, use the swipe test to insure the wax is fully dry before removing.

How to tell when a Meguiar's wax is ready to remove - The Swipe Test

[Mike Phillips]

Read this to...

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

[kid_dynamite]

Re: Re: Is this the right sequence?

Originally posted by Mike Phillips
You want to use as small of a pad as possible otherwise the cleaning/abrading action of the M80 Speed Glaze will not be effective. As you increase pad size, you decrease amount of force applied over each square inch, thus diminishing the cleaning ability of a dual action polisher.

What pads do you have available to you?

Thanks for the info Mike!

I haven't bought any pads yet, but I'm pretty sure I can pick up most of the Megs pads in Australia. I just found your pad choice thread here so I guess the W8006 would be the best way to go?

[Tim Lingor]

Generally, when using M80 Speed Glaze, I would suggest the W-8006 Polishing Pad for swirl removal.

For the NXT Tech Wax, I would apply with a W-9006 Finishing Pad. Allow the 10-15 minutes for the product to set-up and then remove. I like to use a Meguiar's Ultimate Bonnet over a clean/dry W-8006 Polish pad.

Please post some pics of your vehicle when done!

Tim

[vdubpower]

how is using an ultimate bonet different that using a mircofiber towel to remove NXT wax, in terms of results.