hey whats up guys? i have a black G and i'm keeping it very good look-in! washing it once a week and waxed once a month. ( you all know how sexy a clean black G looks ) anyways....usually after car washes, after about 1-2 months, i see little scratches and swirl marks here. i know i can buff them out. my question is, what will happen to my paint if lets say I buff my car once a month? isn't it just like waxing? is it safe to buff my car once a month w/o ruining my paint? any info on this would help alot. thanks a million.

michael

 

Check out Meguiars.com forums. They have great products and advice. I've learned alot from there, the swirls could be caused by your dealer or you using a dirty wash mitt or towels. Try using a paint cleaner or scratchX.

 

It all depends on what product you use when you are buffing. If you use a pure POLISH that has no abrasives, you can buff away to your hearts desire and it won't hurt your paint at all (or VERY VERY minimal "harm").

If you use a compound with abrasives, depending on the scale of abrasiveness, it will affect your paint to some degree each time you buff it.

That's why you will see recommendations on deatiling sites to use only as much abrasiveness as you need. The abrasives in the buffing compounds are actually removing a very thin layer of your clear coat. Since it's removing some clear coat, each tiime you use it, you have less clear coat than when you started (altho it isn't MUCH less, it is less)..

So... the recommendation is, use only as much abrasiveness as you need to get your paint back to the level that you want.

Most swirl remover products on the market are "low-medium" level of abrasiveness.

I also have black. My monthly routine is Meguiars Hand Polish applied with Porter Cable (don't ask me why they call it hand polish), then NXT wax.

If I notice more swirls, I'll use Meguiars Dual Action Cleaner Polish. This is more abrasive than the Hand Polish and will therefore get rid of "deeper" swirls.

 

to be honest you really should not be polish to remove defects once a month. if you have that problem, you should really be looking at what's causing these defects and take that out of the equation. that being said assuming that you are not using an abrasive each time, you should be ok. just make sure you practice safe buffing/polishing. i've learned tons from reading up on forums like autopia.org and meguiarsonline.com. after that it's practice and common sense.

 

alright. well i dont wax and buff my car. i have this place do it in burbank. they charge pretty cheap but it s ure puts a big azz smile on my face when i pick it up. so let me get this straight. it's not really okay do BUFF the car once a month, but it is OK to WAX the car once a month? I can probably just BUFF the car maybe once every few months then to get rid of the swirls. But i definently want to wax my car once a month because it treats me so good

 

are you using sperate rags for the upper and lower portions of the car duringt he washing phase, typically the lower half of the car has heavier grit so you would notwant to wash it first and resue the same water on the upper half?

Do you change the water frequently? Are you rinsing the car good before you begin? I use a pressure washe before I hand wash.

Home depot has an electrical pressure washer for about 160 bux and sprays upto 1700 psi. Probably the best investment I made. All I own is black cars. My iwfe has a 3.5 SE Altima and I just bought the black G35 before this I had a Black Lincoln LS.

ScratchX and product like it can be very helpful but over use can do more harm especially if you use a buffer and let the product get hot and dry whilebuffing.

 

if you are ultimately having a place do it for you then i'd imagine wax once a month is fine. if they know anything about what they are doing they should be able to advise you not to do any defect removal too frequently. again, that's asuming they know what they are doing.

as far as the pressure washing, you should also be careful w/ that as well. the angle which you use to spray and the proximity of the nozzle to the paint can cause more damage than good. dont be surprised if you accidentally find some paint missing one day. the safest thing you can do is straight up hose and two bucket method

 

To maintain a good swirl and mild-scratch free finish, you're going to need to do a lot more than just wax. A lot of guys seem to be really particular about how thy care for the finish of thier car and they buy expensive porter cable buffers and insanely expensive waxes and care products. That's fine by me, but I'm of the belief that this is a daily driver. It's going to get used and abused. It's not a show car. This are my recommendation and I've gotten great results with my black 03 G35 and my prior 96 Maxima which I owned for 6 years.


Equipment:

1) Buy a cheap $20-30 random orbital buffer. Random orbitals are completely safe and you won't burn through the finish with it. It's a great tool to get that extra shine and depth out of the finish and it greatly speeds up waxing/polishing.

2) Apply the wax and polish by hand and then buff off with the random orbital. It's a lot cleaner this way.

3) Apply just enough wax and polish to create a hazy surface. You don't need to go heavy with this stuff.


Washing & drying

1) Use two buckets for washing. One bucket for car wash water and one bucket for wheel wash water. Use lamb wool mitts.

2) Use a quality car wash soap.

3) After you've rinsed off the soap, take the spray nozzle off the hose and use the steady stream of water to rinse the car off again. This greatly reduces drying time because the sheeting water takes away a majority of the water droplets from spraying.

4) Use micro fiber towels.


Finishing/cleaning compounds

I've had great luck with Meguiars (Meg) products. I've tried the infamous Zaino, Zymol, etc and the Meg's stuff seems just as good.

1) Clay bar is great for removing inbedded objects in the paint especially on bumpers, fenders, and the hood. I clay bar once a year. It's a great surface prep compound too because it will remove the wax too. Make to use lots of detail spray or a steady stream of water when doing this.

2) A paint cleaner is needed to remove the old wax. Using this before polishing/waxing will improve depth and shine.

3) Meg's Scratch-X is excellent for removing serious swirls and decent clear coat scratches. It did wonders for my hood and roof. Make sure to follow up with regular polish after using Scratch-X.

4) Polish. This cleans up swirls and fine scratches. I use Meg's.

5) Wax. This mainly protects the finish and adds some shine. I use Meg's High Tech Yellow Wax #26 (carnuba).

I wax 3-4 times a year, polish twice a year, clay bar once a year, and use Scratch-X only when necessary.

 

They also make microfiber washing mits. I use those and dry with microfiber towels. Voila! No swirls. I also use Eagle One Nanowax as a base and finish every wash with Eagle One "Wax As You Dry." It shines like mad. I never go to hand or machine wash. I always either do it myself or go to a pressure wash and don't use the brush.