meguiars deep crystal car wash
clay magic
scratchx
need a polish (my car is very faded)
s100 wax

hi i just bought this car and the person who i bought it from didnt take care of it. its a dark gray color and im wondering if these products are good to use and in this order? could some one recomend a polish for me. i was looking at colorx because i would like to bring out the color in my car but should i go with something else? and to wash the car i will use chenille wash mit with 2 buckets. what should i use to apply the other products?
are there certain foam aplicators that are better then others? i will be getting everything from autozone walmart or pepboys except the s100. oh and where do i get touch up paint to match my car? thanks

 

Any pics of the car? It would be better if we knew what you have to work with.

Your on the right path so far, but instead of washing with the DCCW, I'd wash with dawn soap first. Dawn will remove more BS from the paint than the DCCW will. These are the steps you should follow, and will work for you:

A good prep before washing is bug and tar remover on the front bumper. Get rid of all the bugs an it'll be easier to polish and wax in the end.

Wash with dawn (x1 or x2, depends on how dirty your car is. I'd go x2)
Clay
Scratch X (apply with foam applicator pad panel by panel, buff off with cotton terry towel)
Zymol Cleaner Wax/Polish (availiable at wal-mart, target, autozone, etc. It's the blue stuff) (x2) apply with foam applicator pad panel by panel
S100 will work, but another local good wax to pick up is Megs Gold Class. Apply with terry towel and buff of with terry towel.


This is all assuming you don't have a machine, and are picking up stuff from the local store. If you do have a machine (and know how to use it), tell me, and I'll rearrange things on the list. You won't get out moderate scratches by hand...you're going to need a machine.


Have fun,

Dan

 

thats the hood. those are the best pics i could get, i left my good camera at work. i would like to buy a pc but cant at the moment so i will be doing this all by hand. unless u can tell me a cheap alternative to the pc. also when u typed (X2) do u meen to do 2 coats? what would the best aplicators be to use if i do this all by hand? and with the scrathx should i do a panel and then remove it before i go on to the next one? thanks again..

 

If the car is in a condition like that, I highly doubt there is any wax/sealant to remove with Dawn. I would just wash it with the normal car soap. Scratch X will remove any waxes from the paint (if there are any) so the Dawn wash is unnecessary. Dawn will also dry out the rubber seals on your car, like your weatherstripping. Definitely an unfortunate side effect of using Dawn to wash a car.

 

Scratch X should be decent enough to do that hood, but I might be wrong. I've had both good luck and bad luck with ScratchX, it depends on how neglected the surface is. I'll tell you this though, you're not going to get it completely oxidation free by hand, you're going to have to use a machine.

When I say x2 that's 2 coats. Just use a common foam applicator, I use megs applicators, but there's really no difference between foam applicators.

With the ScratchX, do a panel at a time. It's generally pretty easy to remove, but the application by hand is what's going to get the oxidation off. Work it into the paint good with the foam app.

Dan

 

I'd also recommend either of the following:

- Meguiar's Dual Action Cleaner Polish
- Menzerna Power Gloss
- Sonus SFX-1
- Poorboys SSR 3 or SSR 2.5

Bear in mind, this is a starter step because it does appear you have some oxidation. Your polishing step is going to be the longest step because you may have to use at least 2 polishes for this situation.

Case in point, this Jetta:



The above picture was from using SFX-1 and a rotary. This car was heavily oxidized and required 3 polishes (SFX-1, SSR 2.5, and AIO) then was topped with S100 so that it could look like this: