So I received one of those Meguiar's complete car care kits as a gift and finally decided to put it to use. I've only owned the car since November of 2010 so haven't had a chance to hand wash my Max yet, have been hitting up the touchless until now. I ran to Autozone and grabbed a Meguiar's claybar kit and went to town.

Detailed the rims and wheels using one of those sponge drill attachments (they ROCK), polished the wheels a few times as well with Meguiar's polish.

Washed the entire car using the car wash included with the kit, and toweled off a couple of the areas that had scratches on them.

Used some Meguiar's Scratch-X 2.0 on the lighter scratches, and don't get me wrong it didn't "remove" anything but it definitely reduced them in appearance significantly. I'll post up some before and after pics of some scratches soon, too dark for pictures now. Very impressed with the Scratch-X considering the cost. Went ahead and rinsed the whole car off and hand toweled it.

Broke out the claybar kit, used the Meguiar's quik mist detailer and went all over the car with the clay. I used it even in places where it felt smooth, and it came away feeling like glass. The clay starts out white but on the roof hood and trunk it came away light yellow/brown! And that's after a wash! Sorry, first time doing a claybar, really surprised by how much crap it takes off. Also, all the gunk near the ground on the car, the little black dots/yellowish dots from tree sap it erases them like pencil. Only one piece was barely used, although my arm is sore as hell, and I was able to do the entire car with very positive results.

Went ahead and rinsed the car again, hand towel dried and applied Meguiar's tech wax wax to the entire car, let it dry, and used a fine cloth to buff it all off. All I can say is...Damn. Meguiar's is the ****.

Nice. Wanno wash mine? Lol

Hell no. Only gonna do all this 1 time a year, just gonna wash/wax otherwise.

Now I just gotta do the interior...and shampoo/condition the leather...maybe next month...

Your hired, and it'll be a full time job....."Mine is Crimson Black" if you know what I mean.
BTW...your car looks awsome!

i got the clay bar kit and wax in my room im waiting for some good weather to do it i cant wait to see the results.

urs look awesome!

Looks good nice job.

Wow! I actually also just bought the clay bar kit and I was feeling lazy to do it. Now that I see how excited you are about your results I am more motivated to do mine. I can't wait to start.

I got the same meguiars kit and scratch x too . It's pretty good stuff and smells great as well.

Thanks guys! Yeah it took several hours to do all of it and didn't want to use a buffer, nothing like hand caring for your baby. I'm very satisfied with the results, saw some pollen on the car this evening and it wiped off like a dry erase board using a dry paper towel.

Very nice, the paint looks deep enough to swim in, and the pollen, wanna switch places, here in GA it freakin snows pollen, fingers crossed it has not been that bad yet, maybe it's all the rain washing it away

Damn, car looking nice, great job

You did an awesome job and yes those little wheel buffers rock, especially with both sizes. Next time try Zaino Bros. Best stuff I have ever found, but you have to order online.

looks great...you may want to get an assortment of microfiber clothes eventually...its easier to use than terry clothes and better for your paint

I used the Meguiars clay bar last weekend. I had been putting it off because I thought it would be difficult.

Surprise! It was incredibly easy! Just spray a section of clean car with the detailing mist and run the clay over the surface. It's not like waxing at all - no pressure required. I found that if pressure was needed the surface was too dry. The paint surface came away extremely smooth.

I followed it up with the paste Meguiars NXT Tech Wax. Goes on and comes off pretty easily and had a good smell. It produced a nice shine, but did not minimize the look of scratches and swirls in my black paint as much as I had hoped from reading the package. The shine wasn't that "deep" IMO; shiny but not the coveted "deep wet" look. I'll use it until it's gone, then look for another product.

The Meguiars NXT tire shine also was a disappointment; certainly is not as shiny and did not last as long as other products I've used.

Wow, looks amazing man! I need to stop procrastinating and do mine

Thanks man, yeah the more I look at the picture the more I can see down my street. Crazy. The pollen doesn't bother me as much I can literally wipe it off with a cloth now, what is going to drive me crazy are the birds though. Probably a more attractive target now that it's all shined up, I definitely noticed a bunch of random little flies sitting on my car now because they like the shine or smell of the wax I guess?


I actually had a bunch of microfiber clothes and small little circle sponge things I had gone through and had to resort to terrycloth cause everything else was dirty. Used a dirty cloth on my last car once that hadn't even fallen on the ground or anything and it scratched something with a piece of road salt that got embedded in the cloth. Fun, at least it was a Sentra so who really cares?


Sorry to hear the tire shine didn't work well for you, it's a couple days later and my tires still are a rich "wet" looking black. So far it's doing a better job than Black Magic.

And yeah the claybar didn't require a lot of pressure, if you used the detailer it slid along fine. I definitely went over the same areas several times though, I did the hood 3 times and each time it came away light brown to light yellow. Killed my arm just doing all of this including the wheels, I feel like I need to wash a car with my left arm to even it out.

I would've clay'd after the wash, then used the scratch remover and wax but your results look good.

My order was the following : rim/wheel detail, wash, scratch-x, claybar, wax.

Good job!

For anyone who has not clay barred their car new or otherwise, you can't believe the difference it makes. I have had my Max for 2 yrs now and have clayed it 3 times. Absolutely worth the time and effort.

I also agree with the previous post on using micro fiber towels, terry can scratch your paint. And if you use micro spend the money to buy the conditioning soap used to clean them. Dont use regular soap to wash.

theirs soap to clean them? wtf please tell me where to buy it

I would have washed it, clayed it, left it for a week then waxed it

I actually just Googled terrycloth and I was thinking of something else. The last towel I used was very very soft and almost felt like white linen, sort of see through. Wasn't microfiber, but more like I guess what I could call a really strong big kleenex? haha. I'll have to look into that conditioning soap you're talking about, didn't know about that thanks for the heads up.

great looking car you have there. they sure clean up nice don't they!!!

anyway very nice work!!! Thanks for the pics

great work...weather has been on and off in chicago so i havent been able to give the car a proper hand wash and cleaning. clay bar is great!

Here is one example - this site has several options.


http://www.autogeek.net/pin620.html

LOLOL!! sorry but this was funny

thanks for the link though

Car looks super clean bro...nice job..how many hrs u put into it?

Took me about 3.5 hours. I went slow and inspected every inch of the car as I went, first time doing this and all. Looking at the car again today I have a few more very fine scratches that I'm gonna have to at least go back over with some Scratch X and then re-wax. It'll never be perfect, but I'm pretty sure this is as close as I'm going to get to it.

Thanks for all the compliments everyone! As others have said if you haven't tried a clay bar yet try one - it's easy and has amazing results.

daniel did you use the whole clay bar on the car or you cut it up in pieces?

used the whole thing and just kept folding it into itself. could probably get more uses out of it if i cut it up into pieces though, good idea.

looks great, its all about the details. i need to try this claybar....

just a fact, those black dots that are like resin pimples are acutally mold spores from mulch

yea i seen it in a video. they cut it up into 4 pieces and used it

Car looks good dude!

Going to do the same thing myself when there's no rain in the weekend forecast this month.

Except... I'm going a bit more overboard than you did

1) Dawn wash / blow-dry with leaf blower
2) Clay bar
3) Wash again / blow-dry with leaf blower
4) Porter Cable D/A buffer (soft cut polishing pad) to remove the swirls
5) Zaino Z5, wipe off with Z6 spray
6) Second coat of Z5, wipe off with Z6 spray
7) Healthy coat of S100 Carnauba wax
8) Seal with Zaino Z8 grand finale spray

And of course clean the rims inside and out, polish with Z5, etc etc...

I'm insane... I know.

if i had a leaf blower i would do all that. cause wipeing down the car takes time

I've used the claybar system before along with a swirl remover & NXT wax from Meguiar's. The best thing about the claybar is that it removes all the surface build up junk that a regular car washing does not.
Afterward my cars paint surface feels silky smooth.
I highly recommend you try this on your Max. You will not believe the difference this makes. I usually will claybar the car once a year, then just regular waxing as needed. You can get claybars by themselves thru Amazon as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Clay-100g...2197475&sr=1-6

I use the Mothers Gold clay bar twice a year when I do a full detail on the paint. Keeps the surface slick as glass and helps remove most of the impurities out of the clear.

thats awesome. this is my first time doing this much to a car because I've never cared as much about my car's appearance as I do with the Max. I didn't want to try a buffer because I've never done it and didn't want to risk the swirls or other damage, definitely killed my arm though by the end of the day. good idea with the leaf blower though, thats a good time saver!

just looked up the Z5 and Z6, I think I'm gonna give that a try next time instead of spot-treating with Scratch-X. Scratch-X was great on the spots I used it but I can see now I missed several more fine scratches so a bath or two of Z5 seems worth a shot next time I go to wax. that Z8 also looks like something worth trying after the wax. it rained the day after I did all this and the next day I saw some white residue on the sides of my car, so wonder if the Z8 would help "lock" everything in when I'm done.

question, when you say healthy coat of wax how thick do you lay it on? do you frost your car like a cake? or leave it partially see through?

I've used the P/C DA buffer before with a soft cut pad. As long as the surface is super clean and you aren't using a hard cut compound, you won't screw up the paint that much.

I love the Zaino system, but to each their own. Best thing about it is the reflections and how long it lasts. It's on the pricier side, but unlike waxes, you can actually LAYER the Zaino. After its all done, the paint has more depth and shine. Lot of work, but worth it IMO.

Topping off the Zaino layers with some S100 wax is just to add another layer of protection for the soft-*** clearcoat. The wax just goes on in easy coats, like you're spreading butter. Don't want it too thick or you won't get it off.

I'll post pics a few weeks before my trip down to ZdayZ when I've fully detailed it

I have a white max and there are 2 issues I have. First is there are spots on the car that are dirty but wash and wax arent getting it clean its almost like its under the clear coat. Second problem is the idiot at the stereo place must have been weak because there are a bunch of little scraches on my bumper where it looks like he layed it on or something.... suggestions?