My first detailing: Do I need to polish?

[Beei]

After getting my car for 2 months, finally decided to wax my car for some shineness

So today, wake up at 5.45 am. Gather equipment, I started at 6 am to wash my car with Turtlewax F21 (green liquid) car wash. Using a 3M sponge and turtlewax fibre cloth for drying.

 

Then using a claybar and Meguiars quik detailer(red bottle, smell nice), I begin to claybar my car and dry off. Took me an hour. Realised there is some 'dents' on the paint caused by bird dropping and tree sap

 

Waited for a while, I used the Meguiars NXT Spray Wax(purple bottle) for waxing. Read from here that this is also a sealant also. Spray a lot on the roof of my car and using a dunno what brand polish cloth, realised I spray too much. So i reduced the amount on other places.

Then waited 5 minutes. Then buff off with another polish cloth. Very difficult to do so and i realised that the wax is still wet. So I waited for another 15 minutes and buff off again.

Very easy now.

 

However I seemed to find that the surface even though shiny now, does not look very smooth. What did I need to do to make it smooth?

To all bro and sis, will polishing help in making it smooth? Or do I need to claybar with soap water instead with quik detailer?

[Beei]

noticed that my car backside seemed not smooth enough

Edited March 4, 2007 by Beei

[Gen2]

Hi Beei, claying with QD should get a better result as compare to using soap water and if done properly, the surface should feel very smooth after you applied the NXT spray wax.

 

Assuming you have clayed correctly, the only reason why the surface is still not smooth is you have applied way too much wax on the car and you did not buff off the residue completely .

 

Btw from the photo, it looks pretty alright to me.

Edited March 4, 2007 by Gen2

[Beei]

Hi Gen2, do I need to use polish?? I am worried that if my skill not good enough, maybe will damage the paintwork...

[Gen2]

It will be a good practice if you can apply polish to the car every 3-4 months once. If you are looking for the off the counter(OTC) products, you can consider the Meguiar's DC Step 2 polish or Autoglym SRP.

[Beei]

thanks bro!

coz i see the autogylm SRP at autobacs is like very ex for such a small bottle...din know only need to apply so often.

any idea how long the spray wax will last?? My car is parked in the open subjected to sun and rain. Do i need to apply quik detailer every once in a while?

[Gen2]

You are welcome . Actually the spray wax is meant as a booster wax for the NXT liquid or the paste wax. If you want better protection, than I suggest using the NXT paste once a month, spray wax as a booster in between and a QD for general cleanup.

[Teckheng]

should have join us for MDDS today at AMK.

 

We are detailing as a group, any questions can ask expert, MadDriver, King of Detailing.

 

He can show you and do demo. But he is very poisonous.

[Beei]

oic...guess will try it next time..

Do i use the paste wax before the wax booster or after?

Edited March 4, 2007 by Beei

[Beei]

I din know u all are having a detailing session.

Can ask he to do demo on my whole car? just joking...

 

What is ORANGE??

[Teckheng]

He super friendly. He can demo a lot of things, bonnet, sealent, wax, window, seats, leather, chrome, dent, bird dropping, tree sap, scratches... wah.... but you gonna be getting poisonous by all his detailing toys..

[Beei]

yup...just read about the MDDS today...

Is the MDDS alway fixed at the same time, date at ang moh kio?

[Teckheng]

depending when MadDriver is free. He just now said that there might be this coming Sunday. Stay tune in the forum.

[Gen2]

You use the paste wax before the spray wax.

[Beei]

sorry bro Gen2, another stupid question...after some rain and hot sun on my car, my car surface now look more shiny and smoother than the time i buff off the wax...is it normal?? has the wax melt??

Edited March 5, 2007 by Beei

[Teckheng]

u leave your wax under the sun to bake ?

[Beei]

my carpark is open type...nowhere to park...

[Gen2]

I don think the wax has 'melt away' otherwise it will not feel smoother. It is not very common that the car feel smoother and looks more shiny after rain but I believe it is possible that you have applied way too much product on the car and did not buff off properly, so after the rain it might have washed off the residue and show the 'true color' of the car .