My weekend experience

[realitycheck]

Well I want to start by saying meguiars I really like your products, I might even be a lifer now. Anyway my saturday morning consisted of me detailing my '02 Rallye Red Honda Civic. My fiance helped me out. We started by claying the car with smooth surface kit. I was amazed at how much dirt and gunk was pulled off the car and onto the clay. I tried the plastic bag test on the hood and their was a huge difference in smoothness. Very nice. Second we applied deep crystal step #1 and removed it. It did a great job, as well as it could do, since I only have an orbital buffer from walmart. The 10" $30.00 one that if you press down to hard it just stops hehe. So like I said it did pretty good. Then moved on to step #2 of the DC system, the polish very nice stuff, make the car look really nice. Moved on to the last step we applied Gold Class paste wax, I will have to say the only thing I didnt like about this product was the paste. It seemed no matter how much I put on the foam pad it just bleeding through and it was like I couldnt even hardly see the wax on the car. I was trying to do a thin coat so too start i barely put any on there but then I couldnt even see it. So I put more and still couldnt really see it, and the more I put on it just seemed to stay that way. So anyway I did two coats of the wax and it looks pretty good. The one thing I was disappointed in was that alot of scratches and waterspots were still there. All over the car, I guess without having the G-100 or doing the entire car by hand with scratch-x you just cant get them out. I was really hoping the DC #1 would get rid of them but oh well. The car looks pretty good, I was just hoping for that smooth glass show car look. Without the scratches and stuff in it, but I guess another day. I will have to say though I went back and looked at the pictures I took and it did get rid of some of the scratches and all the ones that you can still see have been lessened. So any advice on what to do would be great. Thanks, Realitycheck

[TH0001]

Paragraphs=good, IMO.

Yes the buffer you used plus the DC1 which is very mild are not going to do alot for defect correction.

[realitycheck]

Yeah sorry about that. Im at work and was busy but trying to type it all up, hehe. Let me ask a question then if I apply scratch-x to the entire car probably two or three times. Will this get rid of at least the majority of the scratches and water spots?

[rascal]

Originally posted by realitycheck
Yeah sorry about that. Im at work and was busy but trying to type it all up, hehe. Let me ask a question then if I apply scratch-x to the entire car probably two or three times. Will this get rid of at least the majority of the scratches and water spots?

Only depends how much "passion" you put behind the pad. ScratchX is more for a hand application and if your scratches or water spots are deep, you need to work the ScratchX in really good. You may have to do the spot several times before you see great results. ScratchX has diminishing abrasives so don't worry about working it in too hard and damaging your paint. It some very nice stuff, I highly recommend it.

Post up some pics. of your work of art.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: My weekend experience

Originally posted by realitycheck
The one thing I was disappointed in was that alot of scratches and waterspots were still there. All over the car, I guess without having the G-100 or doing the entire car by hand with scratch-x you just cant get them out.

So any advice on what to do would be great. Thanks, Realitycheck

ScratchX by hand, only work a panel at at time and maybe even only work on panel really well in a single detailing session.

[realitycheck]

Mike I was planning on working probably a square foot at a time of so. Maybe smaller.
Im confused though by what you mean by working on the panel really well in a single detailing session??
My plan is to work a square foot or so at a time, start with hood finish it, go to roof, finish it, etc, etc. I figure it may take me two to three applications to each square foot area. Is there a problem with doing the whole car like this? Anything im planning wrong? Thanks

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by realitycheck
Mike I was planning on working probably a square foot at a time of so. Maybe smaller.
I'm confused though by what you mean by working on the panel really well in a single detailing session??
My plan is to work a square foot or so at a time, start with hood finish it, go to roof, finish it, etc, etc. I figure it may take me two to three applications to each square foot area. Is there a problem with doing the whole car like this? Anything I'm planning wrong? Thanks

The point was that working by hand with the goal of removing all of the swirls and scratches can be a lot of work, there's a difference between applying a paint cleaner to insure the surface is clean and free of contamination and working-in a paint cleaner multiple times in and effort to remove small particles of paint that surround the defects i an effort to level the surface and actually make the defects disappear.

In the case of the latter, the harder your paint and/or the deeper your defects, the smaller the work area you'll want to tackle at one time. A one foot square area may be too large for some paint types, but just fine for others, you won't know until you go out into your garage and do some experimenting with your product and technique to see what you can achieve.

If you find your paint to be fairly workable, or polishable by hand, and you find you're pretty good at using your hand to remove defects out of the paint, then you can tackle the entire car in one day.

If you find it difficult to remove all of the swirls and scratches without really working an area with multiple applications, then you may want to work only a section or panel at a time, as in only work on the hood on one day and when working on the hood, work a small area until your results meet your expectations and then move onto the area next to this area and overlap into the previously worked area.

Does that make sense?

What is your goal? Do you want a swirl free, scratch-free flawless finish by hand?

If so, it can be done but first you need to find out what it takes by hand to achieve these kind of results on the paint on your car. Once you find out exactly what it takes you can then duplicate this process over the entire car.

If it's easy to create show car results by hand then tackle the entire car on a single Saturday. If you find it difficult to create show car results by hand on your paint type then you may want to only work panel by panel on any single day.

[realitycheck]

My goal I would love to have a scratchless show car finish. This car also is my daily driver though so I need even if I achieved it, it would be pretty hard to keep it. Especially by hand. So I believe my goal is to just get it looking as best as I can. With a minimal amount of scratches.
I completely understand what you were saying now. Thanks for that. If it turns out to be really hard though. I'll probably just save up for a pc and hope that it can tackle it, hehehe.

Oh by the way, I like the scripture you have in your signature. God is awesome I couldnt live without Him. I saw on a show of car crazy that barry stands for the same thing. Thats a big reason I have converted using your products.