White Car Care Q

[The Critic]

That is good to hear.

Now, follow up the cutting step with a finishing step (if you are not already doing so) and you will be thrilled with the gloss.

 

[sleddriver]

Update III:
I was so pleased with the results from UC that I went back and used it on the hood as well. Previously I'd used up the rest of the G #3 on it, thinking it didn't need much being new paint. However there was some orang peel and scratches. It looked much better after the UC treatment.

Worked on it for a few more hours until I'd finished with polishing and a coat of sealant. Due to the early evening position of the Sun, I had trouble getting the camera up close, so I used zoom.

Here's the hood after polishing with #3:

Here it is after going over it with UC:

And this was before polish & sealant.

I'm really impressed with both the FLEX and UC. Never could have achieved these results by hand. The 15 yr. old sled had never been compounded nor polished like this before. Obviously, she really needed it.

The answer to how to make a 15yr old white car "pop" is to machine compound and polish the paint.

 

[qwertydude]

^^^ And this is why I say you'll never be able to accomplish by hand what a machine can do. A lot of people want to think they can do correction by hand and will fight tooth and nail trying to avoid getting a machine. But once they see the results themselves, then they're always like, dang I should have gotten a machine instead of spending hours and hours and arm-breaking labor to get unsatisfactory results by hand.

Now if you really want to get a mirror finish use the flex and a finishing pad with Ultimate polish and then finish with a pure wax of your choice. Don't get a cleaner wax and even many OTC waxes will have abrasives that can ruin a perfected finish.

The finish Ultimate Polish is capable of leaving behind will be marred by the likes of NuFinish or Meguiars old school cleaner wax.

I would go for something like Collinite or if OTC is your requirement Meguiars Ultimate Wax won't mar the finish even though it does have a very slight abrasive cleaning action. But if you want an absolutely pure wax Mothers California Gold Paste (Make sure it's not their cleaner wax) will work and is available usually at Pep Boys but it doesn't touch the durability of Collinite.

 

[The Critic]

That definitely looks better. I do see a lot of micro-marring, so you will need to follow-up with M205 or Ultimate Polish to improve this.

 

[sleddriver]

On both the hood & top, I used the Meguiars polish mentioned in my OP before putting on the NF sealant. I went with what I had. The Meg carnuba-in-a-can would look great...for awhile a few months maybe? I can always add it. But I was flat worn out yesterday AND the Flex isn't a light-weight DA by any means. It's more like a large angle grinder. The thing's a beast.

I might order some Collinite, 3M, Klasse, etc. from AG.

But I'm done for now messing with it. Too many other things still remain in my queue (build mortared stone wall, reinstall solar cold water heater system, recap an old amp chassis, build an arched arbor...the list goes on.)

This was a good experience and I learned a lot. The sled looks great. Mission accomplished!

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
That definitely looks better. I do see a lot of micro-marring, so you will need to follow-up with M205 or Ultimate Polish to improve this.


Nope. I'm done. I examined the car today in the sun after adding polish and wax and they filled in the little stuff nicely.

 

[FastEddie]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver

Nope. I'm done. I examined the car today in the sun after adding polish and wax and they filled in the little stuff nicely.

It looks a heck of a lot better, that's for sure, and as long as your happy with the results, as you should be, that's all that matters. Nice work and a massive improvement from what you started with.

 

[genynnc]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver

Nope. I'm done. I examined the car today in the sun after adding polish and wax and they filled in the little stuff nicely.


Awesome job!

Critic is not 'off' with recommendation for refinement... there is no way a professional detailer would be able to leave the finish as it is/was. However, you accomplished a great feat for A.) not a minute of experience, prior, with a Flex D/A or B.) Not a harry of work time prior to UC.

If you are happy... that's all that matters. Again, great job!

 

[sleddriver]

I found a local supply for both AutoMagic and Duragloss. Was surprised to read that 3M liquid Perfect-It contains grit. I thought it was pure wax/sealant/etc., so I didn't buy it.

BTW, what's the difference between the same product that's avail in both liquid and paste?

 

[sleddriver]

Since my last post, it's actually rained here...twice. Amazing...unbelievable actually. 3.2" rain at the house. I haven't received that much in six months.

Anyway, the car has stayed very clean despite this. The angle of the water drops to the hood is very, very steep. Haven't seen it like that it a long time.

Presently it's very humid & muggy outside. However, when it dries up a bit, I think I'll add another coat.

No one here uses AutoMagic?

 

[sleddriver]

Update:
I finally washed the sled a few days ago. It's stayed rather clean since all the work as if dirt has a tougher time getting a grip on the slick surface. But we've had a bit more rain and though she stays in the garage at night, you could tell that dirt had accumulated.

It rinsed off very easily with soft water and the water beaded like crazy. I used a bit of car wash in a hose-end-sprayer to wet it, then went over it with a micro-mit rec'd by qwerty___ I bought at WM. There was more dirt in the mit than I realized as it didn't look like I'd cleaned anything off.

I went to run an errand to 'dry-off' and it looks great.

 

[STSinNYC]

We have a white Accord. I use Finish Kare 1000P sealant, has a clear coat type look, two coast put on properly last me six months here in the Northeast. Its a high temperature formula, originally developed for mold release, so you will find many people using it in high temp/hot sun locales like yours. Now that you have the car well polished with a nice looking finish, its worth protecting it with a quality sealant.

 

[sleddriver]

Thanks!

 

[sleddriver]

Meguires also works great for polishing out lathe projects! Here on spalted buckeye burl. I topped off with a bit of their yellow carnuba:

Had to put my hand in to block a nasty bright reflection off the lathe bed.

 

[sleddriver]

Update: From pens back to cars...

Lo, & behold I stumbled upon a local auto parts store, A1 Auto, that I rarely frequent as it's out-of-the-way. Instead of trying to carry EVERYTHING, they only carry name brand stuff. In the far corner, they had a whole shelf of 3M car care products and below that a whole shelf of DuraGloss products! I was stunned! Never seen it local, when I asked about it most never heard of it.

This place had DG leather care, tire cleaner, carwash, etc. I was amazed. When I asked about Aqua Wax, he said they had it in town, in their warehouse!! Next, I asked about #111 (Clear Coat Polish (which has no abrasive compounds at all)), he said that TOO was in the warehouse and they'd have it in this store tomorrow. What??? Yea, they're even open on Saturdays!

Since DG is known for a very glossy, 'wet-look', I thought it might look normal on a white car with no depth. We'll see. I'm going to try out the Aqua Wax next time I wash and compare with the current Nu-Finish finish.

Now I know of a local STOCKING DG store. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

 

[sleddriver]

Update:

I picked up the DG 111 CCC (clear coat polish) at the very reasonable cost of ~$8 several days ago. Yesterday, I was going to wash and apply to the hood and it began to rain! Great timing.

So I hosed off the dirt with soft water and it cleaned up very nice. Excellent beading action. While driving yesterday, it rained periodically (rather amazing here in Tx this time of year) so I'll have to wait.

I'm curious to see just how "wet" DG 111 will look on a white car. I'm hoping it will give it some depth and a high gloss to offset the usual white, floor-freezer look.

We'll see.....

 

[sleddriver]

Update:
Decided to use the hood as a test for the DG111. Wash + clay to get it clean, then applied 111. Tough to see on a white car in the evening light. Really liked it didn't stain the black, plastic washer nozzle trim.

This AM I applied another coat. Looks much shinier than the NuFinish, but that might be a poor comparison. DG HQ said I could apply up to three coats. Also recommended their 'bonder', but I didn't see any of it on the shelf.

Looking forward to getting the sled out in the sun for a better comparison.

 

[sleddriver]

Update:
Recently washed the sled and was amazed at how much dirt is removed with just a good, hard stream of water. Obviously has a tougher time sticking to the slippery dura-gloss finish.

As more kudos to the Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, I tried it on a small section of a loudspeaker I've been "detailing" the finish on. I used a small cotton makeup pad and applied it by hand after smoothing the area with 2500g synthetic steel wool. The result is a very high gloss finish! I was quite impressed, so I did a larger section with a SurBuf micro-fiber pad hook-&-looped to my 6" RO Sander. It came out just as well.

What impressed me is that waxed shellac is much, much, much softer than auto car paint and further, shellac will begin to melt around 150°F. Yet friction wasn't at all a problem and the UC didn't mar or scratch the finish at all! The point is my initial fears of potentially "damaging" my paint using it + the Flex were completely unfounded. Even bearing down with the tiny cotton pad + UC didn't damage the shellac. That's a lot of psi. I don't see at all now how one would ever damage clear-coat with it.

If you have any furniture or plastic that needs scratches removed, try UC.

Pictures can be found over on the photo thread:
Photos

 

[Chris B.]

Originally Posted By: qwertydude
Color specific waxes doesn't matter hardly anything for a white car. Really since you don't need darkening waxes which tend to be loaded with beautifying oils don't last as long. You really should be going for maximum protection especially if you're choosing the paint preservation philosophy over show car perfection.

In that case I would say get a 6" random orbit polisher like above, a few microfiber bonnets and Meguiars Ultimate Polish and Ultimate Wax.

Wash and clay the car and if you don't feel like spending pretty much a whole day polishing you can always just use Ultimate Polish one panel at a time to get the panel to look nice and then wax it by hand with Ultimate Wax. That's all that really should be needed. You'll get a lot of improvement and will minimize the amount of paint removed.

When working with microfiber bonnets too it's a good idea to buy a wool bonnet. You may or may not use the wool for polishing depending on how much correction you're going for but wool bonnets act as a perfect cushion to go underneath microfiber bonnets. And don't bother with a 10" wax spreader polisher. They're so unwieldy and have the same motor as the 6" but spread over a larger pad and so end up doing less work than the 6" one which can concentrate what little power it has onto a small section of paint to get it polished quite well when using Meguiars Ultimate Polish. Also 10" polishers tend to really suck up your polish and waste it.

The reason why I don't like NuFinish isn't for the protection. It actually does provide decent protection, it's that it has very harsh abrasives. Any polish that can restore oxidized paint like NuFinish makes their claims with obviously is using quite aggressive abrasives. So if you're in the paint preservation camp there's no point using unnecessarily harsh abrasives.


NuFinish is not abrasive at all. My 1997 Sierra has been "waxed" nearly 40 times in almost 20 years using NuFinish. The paint is like new and shows no signs of being worn down. If NuFinish was "unnecessarily abrasive" my paint would be gone. Stop spreading interweb bull [censored] rumors and myths. It just gets old:

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: Chris B.
[
NuFinish is not abrasive at all. My 1997 Sierra has been "waxed" nearly 40 times in almost 20 years using NuFinish. The paint is like new and shows no signs of being worn down. If NuFinish was "unnecessarily abrasive" my paint would be gone. Stop spreading interweb bull [censored] rumors and myths.


How do these pictures prove anything?

I can wax a finish 40 times using a heavy cut AIO (such as Meguiars D151) and a finishing foam pad and the paint may be just fine. Even paints that get worn down by lots of polishing will still look fine. You really need to get a paint depth gauge and measure the paint thickness now and compare it to when it was new.....in order to get a comparison.