If you want your car to shine and look like a wet mirror, here's what you should do (product brands aside)
Wash your car with CAR SOAP. Car wash soap does not use detergents to remove contaminants like dish soap does. Your dish soap cuts grease, well guess what...wax is oil as well. Don't even pick up the Dial, keep it under the sink where it belongs.
Next, go out to autozone or pepboys and looks for what's called a clay bar. I use ClayMagic, you can use the mother's one if you want (more expensive, no advantages). The clay bar is just what it's called: a bar of clay that is sticky so that it removes stuck on dirt that a simple car wash cannot do alone. Take your time with this and work in 2-3 foot squares at a time. Pay close attention to the bumpers (notably the front) and skirts as they tend to collect the most dirt. After that, you can go on to the next step.
If you have bad swirlmarks or "webs" in your paint, you need a swirl remover. For this, I would either use only Meguiars or Poorboy's swirl removes. I know that Sonus makes some, but I only use the above two. It's going to be a ***** to get the swirls out by hand, so I suggest you invest in a PC. Go to http://www.autopia.org and pick up one of the sets with multiple pads. It's a great time saver, and won't burn your paint.
After the SWs, it's time to polish. Use a fine polish to basically smooth out the paint even further. Again, use whatever brand you want, but make sure that it's legit //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif . Once polishing is over, you can use a glaze to further smooth the paint. For this I have to recommend either Meguiars or Vanilla Moose. Great shit, that moose is.
Whew, now it's time to seal. For this, I recommend only one product: Poorboy's EX or EX-P. Haven't used any others, and don't intend to. You can just apply this to the entire car (I suggest in the shade even though they say it doesn't matter) and wipe it off with a dry microfiber towel after like 30-60 minutes.
Wax time. Don't skimp on the wax, and use ONLY carnauba waxes. Those synthetic shits are awful. I personally use Poorboy's Natty Blue, but there's plenty out there to choose from. I also like Turtle Wax's platinum line, megiuars gold class, and mother's original. For the conniseurs, use Souveran //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif
This is my car after a seal and wax using EX and Natty's. Washed with Meguiars Gold Class car wash. Polished it last week, so I just had to finish it off.
Doesn't look like this anymore, my car's falling apart //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif
Wash your car with CAR SOAP. Car wash soap does not use detergents to remove contaminants like dish soap does. Your dish soap cuts grease, well guess what...wax is oil as well. Don't even pick up the Dial, keep it under the sink where it belongs.
Next, go out to autozone or pepboys and looks for what's called a clay bar. I use ClayMagic, you can use the mother's one if you want (more expensive, no advantages). The clay bar is just what it's called: a bar of clay that is sticky so that it removes stuck on dirt that a simple car wash cannot do alone. Take your time with this and work in 2-3 foot squares at a time. Pay close attention to the bumpers (notably the front) and skirts as they tend to collect the most dirt. After that, you can go on to the next step.
If you have bad swirlmarks or "webs" in your paint, you need a swirl remover. For this, I would either use only Meguiars or Poorboy's swirl removes. I know that Sonus makes some, but I only use the above two. It's going to be a ***** to get the swirls out by hand, so I suggest you invest in a PC. Go to http://www.autopia.org and pick up one of the sets with multiple pads. It's a great time saver, and won't burn your paint.
After the SWs, it's time to polish. Use a fine polish to basically smooth out the paint even further. Again, use whatever brand you want, but make sure that it's legit //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif . Once polishing is over, you can use a glaze to further smooth the paint. For this I have to recommend either Meguiars or Vanilla Moose. Great shit, that moose is.
Whew, now it's time to seal. For this, I recommend only one product: Poorboy's EX or EX-P. Haven't used any others, and don't intend to. You can just apply this to the entire car (I suggest in the shade even though they say it doesn't matter) and wipe it off with a dry microfiber towel after like 30-60 minutes.
Wax time. Don't skimp on the wax, and use ONLY carnauba waxes. Those synthetic shits are awful. I personally use Poorboy's Natty Blue, but there's plenty out there to choose from. I also like Turtle Wax's platinum line, megiuars gold class, and mother's original. For the conniseurs, use Souveran //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif
This is my car after a seal and wax using EX and Natty's. Washed with Meguiars Gold Class car wash. Polished it last week, so I just had to finish it off.
Doesn't look like this anymore, my car's falling apart //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif
