Whats the best car soap? pretty general I know. Before now I have been using turbowax products but Id like to try something I dont have to order if possible, thanks!

 

Hey George, i recently swiped my car backing out of the driveway. Any ideas how i should tackle this?

 

Keep us posted on how things turn out.

I don't have many good suggestions for an over the counter car wash. Many of them can be harsh and actually strip off protection or leave a residue behind. Recently, I've been using Chemical Guys Glossworkz shampoo and have really enjoyed it. Optimum No Rinse is a favorite amongst detailing enthusiasts and professionals. Maxi Suds II and Optimum Car Wash are also great shampoos bang for the buck. Those would be some great places to start IMO, but unfortunately, you'd have to order any of them online.

Your best bet would be to invest in a buffer and a couple polishes. From the looks of the picture, your flash from your camera indicates your paint in general can benefit from a full polish, so this would be a good reason to invest in one. I'd highly recommend this Porter Cable 7424XP + Meg's M105 / M205 polish combo. It'll give you everything you need to properly polish your paint to remove the paint transfer, scuffs, swirl marks and scratches. Here's a great how-to article to go along with properly using the PC and the Meg's polishes.

For optimal results, I'd recommend using a clay bar prior to polishing to remove as much surface contamination as possible and properly prep the surface for polishing.

After polishing be sure to protect the paint with a sealant or wax.

If you have any other questions on anything, please do not hesitate to ask.

George

 

^ well I guess I will have to live with ordering it then, thank you!

 

^ thanks george!

 

random questions

#1 what do i tape up prior to polishing. besides emblems and door handles.

#2 how do u handle curves and tiny spaces with only having a flex xc

#3 can u use a buffer and m205 on headlights or glass?

#4 how many times are you supposed to polish a car? once a month? once a year? once every 5 years?

 

Your welcome guys, let me know if there's anything else I can help with.

I'd recommend taping up any exterior trim, window trim, around your lights, around any clear bras, sometimes if an area meets at a 90 degree angle so you can polish as low as possible without the risk of the edge hitting the other surface... Basically anything you don't want to risk damaging or getting product residue on.

With the Flex, simply bump the speed down and proceed with caution. If the area is too small for the Flex and pad to get in, I'd recommend hand applying a polish with the M105 / M205 combo.

Yes, you can use the M205 on headlights and glass. Glass is much harder to correct than plastic or paint, so you may need something more aggressive to put a dent at all in it.

A general rule of thumb is to polish as needed, that being said, I usually don't recommend polishing much more than 3 times a year. Ideally, this is the scenario you'll fall into... Spend one time correcting the paint as much as possible and getting it to a level you are happy with. Invest in the proper washing and drying tools, products and techniques to ensure you are minimizing adding swirls and imperfections in the paint. After that, follow the least aggressive approach when it comes to polishing and you should be able to get away with a simple finishing polish from here on out if you properly care for your car. I like to polish once in the spring and once in the fall during the longer details where you strip off protection, clay, polish, and reprotect the paint.

Let me know if there's anything else I can help with.

George

 

I have a Caribbean Blue G. Whats the best sealant/wax to really make the paint pop?

 

thanx for answering so quick, but related to the polishing 2-3 times a year, after like 10 years... wouldn't the clear coat just disappear? stupid question, i know. but still curious.

 

Detailed Image,

I have two quick questions

Whats the best wash/wax for OB coupe?

Whats the ebst sealant/polish for andodized wheel lips? Have residue marks on my work wheels........

 

If you're looking for a long lasting sealant that will really make the paint jump, I'd recommend either going with Blackfire Wet Diamond or Menzerna Power Lock. The two of them look great on just about any color car, similar to how a carnauba wax would look like, but offer the durability of a sealant.

If you're looking for a paste wax and want to see if you can appreciate the difference of a higher end wax, consider trying one of the Dodo Juice panel pots before diving into a full sized jar. A panel pot will give you between 3 - 5 applications to test the waters. If you don't find that one of those waxes adds more pop to one of those sealants, a wax that costs less probably wouldn't either.

If you were to compound your car 3 times a year for 10 years, then yea you may run into some clear coat issues. If you're compounding once and simply polishing the rest of the times, the amount of clear coat diminished each time is very small. You could polish (not compound) probably 20+ years a few times a year and still have some clear coat behind if performed properly. Using an over aggressive polish and pad combo, wet sanding, using a rotary buffer improperly will all expedite the wearing of the clear coat.

Hope that helps clear things up.

I guess it depends on what you define as best... best overall finish, best in terms of ease of use, easiest removal, best at stripping protection and cleaning, best at maintaining your coat of wax, most suds, highest lubricity... each product has it's pros and cons and sometimes a big price difference will be because of a small increase in one of the characteristics over another product.

A shampoo that's getting a lot of buzz now is the new Chemical Guys Glossworkz. I've used it twice now and can definitely rank it in my top 5 shampoos, higher if you put it in a category of maintenance shampoos. You don't need much product for a lot of lubricity and cleaning power, roughly 1 oz per 4 - 5 gallons of water. It's very slick, the cleaning power is great, but best of all it's gentle on your protection. It is a unique shampoo that also can help enhance the gloss which is nice on OB.

For a wax, I'd try out one of the Dodo Juice sample sizes like I recommended above. For OB, consider either Blue Velvet, Purple Haze or Supernatural. Those would be your best options without spending a lot right from the get go. Depending on what you like or don't like about the sample you try we can find a wax that fits your needs pretty easily.

I don't have a good anodized polish recommendation since many metal polishes aren't for anodized surfaces, but for a sealant, I'd use either Poorboy's World Wheel Sealant or Optimum Opti-Seal. The Poorboy's Wheel Sealant has some mild cleaning properties to it, so it may help a little bit, but it's not very aggressive since it's primary function is protection.

Hope that helps.

George

 

Thanks for your help George, definitely will be hitting your store up for those items!

 

George, in many detailing pictures on some pretty rich colors, I've seen the polishing pads the color of the vehicle (red car = reddish/pink pads) after they're done. Although the end product is superb, I thought the polish was only removing the CC. I'm not familiar with paints but isn't the CC actually clear? Hence the name? If it's just removing a few mil's of something that clear, why is it picking up some of the paint? Thanks.

 

Hey again, Im gonna order some car soap( chemical guys) but I wanted to grab some things to make my car shine. I have a porter cable and I still learning, what would be some good products to buy to get out scratches, swirls etc. Im sure I would need a compound, polish and wax? Is there anything else or certain products you would recommend? thanks!

 

Please excuse the newbie question if this has been mentioned before.

I have beige leather seats and I was looking for solution to clean the months of dirt that have collected onto the seat during winter.

Also any recommendations on cleaning my floormats?