dantemaxx

ive had my 95 maxima for almost 5 months. the black paint was never anything to look at in the first place, cause it is 7 years old but anyway. i havent waxed it yet and i was wondering how big a difference it would look afterwards. dont get me wrong it looks sweet after its washed but that only lasts so long. fill me in, cause its spring and once the weather warms up you know we'll all be out there 2, 3 times a week washing our maxes.
peace

heems27

Before you wax, use a clay bar to get all the surface contimanants off the car. This leaves the surface in good shape for waxing. Put a couple of coats of carnuba wax on and you'll be amazed how good your car looks. Trust me, I did it this weekend and my car looks almost new (other than countless paint chips ).

Geophrum

wash the car then clay bar it.. then use cleaner wax or scratch X from meguires after that polish and then wax.. lot of work but you will be surprized at the results check out my home page to se the difference!!!


I never new my Max was that black!!

MIDNightMAX84

yeah ill agree it does make a huge difference...i also agree that paint chips are a ***** on a black car

95GreekMaxSE

how much to get car re painted??

imstuckherenow

i use the turtle wax extreme wax and it will fill in some of the scratches and chips kinda good. any1 kno of a wax that will leave a nice shine? i used that black magic **** and it was so hard to get the stuff off the car. (i stoped after i finished the hood with that stuff)

Geophrum

depends on the shop and the paint i have heard any were from 1300 to 3000

95GreekMaxSE

realy..i got a quote for 1200. Is it better to just piant over the existing coat and is it cheaper???? (im chipped and scracthed pretty bad)

Geophrum

I only use Meguires or mothers products.. the Meguires Gold Class Clear Coat Car Wax is great for a nice wax. the only thing i actually used that wasnt meguires was the clay bar, that was the mothers clay bar system i used

Take the time and do all the steps you will be pleased.


As for the paint chips i have alot of them to.. my front bumper is the worst. so i was thinking about having her painted too but its expensive and i need rims first

Geophrum

if you going to have her painted do it right have them sand and prep the car if you just paing over the chips they will come back and your car wont look as good

rmb

Depends what you want and how much $$$ you have.

90% of painting is in the prep work. 10% is actually laying down the coats. The best thing is a complete stripping of all the old paint and primers. You can imagine how hard that would be..... Your quote of 1200 doesn't include that I'm sure unless you got that quote at gunpoint. Most cheesy paint places just "acid etch" the old finishes. A really detailed prep and paint job in CT would run you around 4k(for a solid-color original-type paint job).


-RMB

KWheelzSB

iTrader: (1)

Ditto. Mequire's rocks!

I use their three part system with cleaner, polish & wax. Yes: a lot of work, but it goes on easy, comes off easy & the results are amazing.

carnal_c30

iTrader: (38)

yes

JonnyCum Lately

Be ready to spend at least 4 hours on the entire job if you want to do it right. Wash the car with a good shampoo, then clay it (get Clay Magic at PepBoys or Autozone for $10). Save the detail lube that comes with the Clay Magic and instead use a solution of car soap and water as your clay lube. Wash the car again to remove any residue clay, dry it and then apply Megs #7 show car glaze to get an awesome shine. Top it off with a carnuba wax like Megs #26, then spritz on some of that lube that came with the Clay Magic to remove any smudges or excess carnuba. Its a lot of work but your black max will look awesome.

Geophrum

i have a cool write up on al the steps on detailing your car

Let me know what you think

http://home.attbi.com/~geophrum/cleanandwax.html

JonnyCum Lately

Geophrum, nice write up. My only other suggestions would be:

The Pefecting Drying Technique: When doing the final rinse during a car wash, remove the nozzle from your hose and rinse with just a stream of water from the hose. This creates a huge sheet of water that rinses the entire car and leaves only a few drops of water on the car's surface to dry. This works even better if one end of the car is higher than the other, such as parking on an incline.

Switch to microfiber towels - these towels tend to grab better than cotton fibers and don't lint.

Geophrum

i will add that with credit that is a good tip and does work well. never tried the microfiber towels tho next was i will try them.. is there any brand that you recommend?

laba

Excellent write-up Geophrum, thanks. I can't wait for a nice day to get started!

CheshireCat76

iTrader: (1)

1. 3M Polish
2. 3M Hand glaze
3. Meguires Carnuba wax

Takes time but the end result is well worth it.

luckee2bhere

iTrader: (1)

JonnyCum Lately

Check out pakshak.com for a high quality auto MF towel. Locally, TurtleWax MF's are available at PepBoys or Autozone. I personally got cheap MF towels at Dollar Tree. They're not as plush as pakshak's but I mainly use them for applying polish and wax.

Two other important tips when washing to hlep minimize swirls:

1. Use two buckets. One is for your suds. The second contains only water and is used for rinsing your washing mitt. You don't want to add dirt back into the suds bucket, so rinse out the mitt before loading it up on suds. You can also rinse out the wash mitt with your hose prior to dipping in the suds bucket. Keep a

2. Don't use a circular rubbing motion when washing, polishing or waxing. You want to rub in the same direction as the airflow hits the car. Back and forth motion on the hood, roof and truck. Horizontal motion on the sides.

dantemaxx

sounds good....but about how long will a good wax/wash last? compared to a car wash.

Geophrum

depending on your environment.

and you should still wash your car in between waxing. go to megiars.com and do the RX questionair it will tell you a good guide on what and how often you should wax your car in your environment

most people will tell you that you should wax your car once every 3 months and wash once a week..


in any case stay away from those nasty automatic car washes most all are crap and you can get a better wash if you take your time and do it your self.. besides there so called wax in the auto car washes isnt really wax.

Dolomite

Nice! Added to my favs!