Polishes/wax

[SS8_Gohan]

nissan clear is quite soft, as are most of the jap cars.

If you buy a new car (by new i mean second hand) and it's paint is fairly rooted, just get a pro to fix it up once for you and then learn how to look after it from there on it. So basically you'll be back to a relatively imperfection free paint and it makes it much easier for you to manage for there on in.

[NSNPWR]

Farecla.... nasty stuff

Nothing wrong with it as long as you know how to use it....the paste is messy stuff as it requires alot of water to keep it fluid, its absolutely uselss once it dries out and does nothing but goes crusty...

I gave the 32 GTR I just bought a going over last wkend...

-Washed car

-Clay rubbed

-2000 wet/dry in various places (to remove medium scratches) anyone can do this with a little practice, just be cautios, its not hard.....

-Farecla G6 paste, white compounding pad

-3M Swirl Remover, grey egg carton style pad

-Finished with Meguiars Synthetic Sealant

Ive never really rated Meguiars products over the years but have to say, their Synthetic Sealant V2.0 is by far the best product I have used in a long time, ive tried everything from FireGlaze to AutoGlym Super Resin...

For filling - swirl removal - gloss and durability, the Meguiars product sh1ts all over them.

Just my opinion, cheers.

[DTSNR32]

Hey guys,

Currently im using alot of Zaino gear.

Z7 Wash Shampoo

Z18 Clay Bars

Z5 Pro Polish

Z2 Pro Sealant

ZFX Flash Cure Accelerator Additive

Z6 Ultra Clean Gloss Enhancer Spray

Z12 Glass polish

P21S 100 Carnauba Wax

Now i dont carry a ROP so i apply it all by hand... Im very picky to how its applied. The paint on my car is about 2 years all and is in very good nick but i have very very light/fine spider web swirls that i cannot get rid of. Im keen to try some menzerna polish but not sure if it can be applied by hand and get good results getting rid of these swirls.

Edited February 15, 2010 by DTSNR32

[SS8_Gohan]

Nothing wrong with it as long as you know how to use it....the paste is messy stuff as it requires alot of water to keep it fluid, its absolutely uselss once it dries out and does nothing but goes crusty...

I gave the 32 GTR I just bought a going over last wkend...

-Washed car

-Clay rubbed

-2000 wet/dry in various places (to remove medium scratches) anyone can do this with a little practice, just be cautios, its not hard.....

-Farecla G6 paste, white compounding pad

-3M Swirl Remover, grey egg carton style pad

-Finished with Meguiars Synthetic Sealant

Ive never really rated Meguiars products over the years but have to say, their Synthetic Sealant V2.0 is by far the best product I have used in a long time, ive tried everything from FireGlaze to AutoGlym Super Resin...

For filling - swirl removal - gloss and durability, the Meguiars product sh1ts all over them.

Just my opinion, cheers.

if you go to the trouble of wetsanding, my wreck all your working by applying a glaze with fillers at the end?

"Nothing wrong with it as long as you know how to use it....the paste is messy stuff as it requires alot of water to keep it fluid, its absolutely uselss once it dries out and does nothing but goes crusty..."

sounds to me like there's A LOT wrong with it... don't have ANY of those issues with Menzerna

DTSNR32: you can apply Menz by hand, but it won't remove much more than perhaps what you're describing. A good applicator obviously is a must... checkout finalinspection.com.au as they have some great 'slip on the hand' type MF products that would be ideal for trying to polish by hand.

[NSNPWR]

if you go to the trouble of wetsanding, my wreck all your working by applying a glaze with fillers at the end?

Eh? What do you mean? The paint still requires cutting after wet sanding, which creates swirls...which require removal.......

[Marko R1]

i use autoglym shampoo, polish & deep finish wax (3 products) & they are great!

[SS8_Gohan]

Eh? What do you mean? The paint still requires cutting after wet sanding, which creates swirls...which require removal.......

yes... you POLISH out the imperfections, and correct the paint properly THEN you apply the LSP. If your polish/bad combo's worked properly, you wouldn't need to hide anything with a glaze.

The removal of the swirls/wet sanding marks happens in the polishing stage. You don't just attempt to "fill it in" with a glaze. Hence, why go to the full-on trouble of wetsanding, if you're not going to correct it properly and show off the potential of the paint??

[NSNPWR]

Dude, WTF are you talking about?

I said after the Farecla-

-3M Swirl Remover, grey egg crate style pad

-Finished with Meguiars Synthetic Sealant

Never said nothing about a glaze?

[SS8_Gohan]

For filling - swirl removal - gloss and durability, the Meguiars product sh1ts all over them.

considering you only used ONE meguiar product in your detail, then in stands to reason you essentially used a glaze as synth sealant contains a fair amount more fillers than say Meguiar's NXT 'wax' product

is your paint metalllic?

[NSNPWR]

Yes it is Metallic and I still dont understand what your point is....even after wet sanding and compounding and swirl removal, there are still SOME marks that can be improved upon with a product that has some ability to fill.

[greensa14]

Hi all,

I need some advice. From NS.com. We dont have a dedicated detailing sub forum so hopefully someone can help me?

I am a little obsessed with keeping my car clean.

Using Meg soft wash shampoo. P21s Wax and also the OCW. Always use microfibre chamois and polishing cloths etc.

There is a small section on my bonnett between the window sprayers that has some slight cloudyness to it. My paint is in excellent nic, apart from this little section.

what can i do to get this out?

I have tried claying it, but that didnt work.

Not too keen on using a cut as my paint is pretty new.......(2 years old)

[NISMO]

Try a paint cleaner. Most of the big brands make em, and they're non abraisive, so not actually cutting the paint.

[greensa14]

Yea i have tried some paint cleaner, but it was more of a polish than a cleaner i guess.

Cheers will give it a go.

[SS8_Gohan]

snpwr: ok, wet-sanding is not something a general hobbyist is going to undertake. So you're already at a level where you're confident with your cars paint, so why on earth would you not correct it properly before applying the LSP, that's my point, and relates back to comments about farecla. If you have a good polish/pad combo, in a few stages, you will have rectified ALL marks left by wetsanding. You either have not stepped down enough in your polish/pads, or not used an aggressive enough polish/pad at the beginning after the wetsanding. You don't use the LSP to "cover" up marks... you do the paint correction properly and THEN apply the LSP.

And you have now vastly reduced the metallic flake by applying the 'sealant' that you chose. All that hard work and you just dull it.

Here's what i mean...

The Front Bar had a horrid respray carried out at some stage. The peel was horrible. It's also painted in Metallic Black, instead of Solid Black

So, 2000 grit, wet to remove the 'hills' and level them to the 'valleys'.

Polishing to remove wetsanding marring

Another wetsanding pass to remove more hills and acheive a flatter finish to match the rest of the car

More Polishing to have this section match the gloss level of the car

Almost complete

That's what i mean. Your polishes and pads should be good enough to rectify any marks you create wetsanding. And that's why i still say Farecla is rubbish. Get some good polishes (menzerna) and good pads, and you won't NEED to use a filler. It's like building a mean RB26, with $$ brakes and suspension and then running 4 space saver spare tyres as your wheels.

If you correct properly and don't use a lsp with a crapload of fillers, you then retain all that lovely metallic flake. Which all your hard work should have made as clear as possible

greensa14, polishing will be fine and seems like you're already using some good products. OCW is a ripper. Polishing removes very little in the way of paint and especially if it's only 2 years old, you've got nothing to worry about. It's a respray i take it? If so, you're more likely to have more film build than a factory finish, so you've got even more room to play with.

If there are marks you can't remove by hand, you'll need a machine, pads and polish. Either get a pro to paint correct for you initially, and then you maintain. Or have a bash yourself.

[switchlanez]

Does anyone use polymer sealant? I hear the shine is not as deep as wax but since it is a harder material it lasts longer (like 2x longer at LEAST).

[R31Heaven]

Does anyone use polymer sealant? I hear the shine is not as deep as wax but since it is a harder material it lasts longer (like 2x longer at LEAST).

Sealants can last from 3 (Megs) months up to 12 months (Zaino, Duragloss) depending on what you use. Sealants are good on light coloured cars, your whites ,silvers, you dont see much dif using a wax on these colours. And a wax on Dark cars Blacks and Blues. but nothing stopping you using a sealant and a wax like I do. But in saying this ,there are Waxes that you can get 12 months out of if your car is kept in the right enviroment like "Collinite 476 " & then again there is your hybrids like FK1000P can see 12 months. It is a mine feild out there. As a rule anything you get off a shelf at your autobarns etc will be lucky to see 2 months out of.

Edited May 6, 2010 by R31Heaven

[Kenna802]

i tried the Menzerna final finish and it came up like a treat before that i was using the autoglym polish but the final finish really got a lot of scratches out of the paint and than i used the autoglym to finish it off. Please note when i bought his car the paint was as flat as could be.

sorry for the pics they not the best quality and it rained after i finished the job

[SS8_Gohan]

definitely can see the gloss increase

but please for the love of detailing, DO NOT use autoglym after FF!!!! Final Finish is, as the name suggest, your last product to be used when polishing. Generally speaking you would have used a higher cutting polish first, then finish with Final Finish.

After FF, you wax the car or apply a sealant. Make sure you give it a good wash or wipe it down with an IPA like Final Inspection's Cleanse Light (for japanese vehicles) before the wax. You must remove all polish residues completely before waxing

great work anyway though, definitely brought some life back to the paint.

[Kenna802]

which wax would you suggest to use after the final finish? the buff left some faint marks as the sun heated the paint too much and dried it out ( the autoglym really seemed to make the paint great ) but the final finish ( 2.5 cut 5 gloss )did a great job of removing the scratches )

[ali-turko]

which wax would you suggest to use after the final finish? the buff left some faint marks as the sun heated the paint too much and dried it out ( the autoglym really seemed to make the paint great ) but the final finish ( 2.5 cut 5 gloss )did a great job of removing the scratches )

p21s 100 FTW