I follow these steps for detailing the exterior of my RDX:

1. Wash - the car with Dawn or some other powerful soap detergent. This will help strip off some of the old wax(es) that are still on the paint.
2. Claybar - the car. This should take about 2 hours for a car this size.
3. Wash - the car again with your usual non-wax destructive soap (such as coral blue, etc)
4. Paint cleaning - apply a paint cleaning product (you could skip this step)
5. Polish - use a polish that suits the needs of your paint. If your paint is in bad shape use a slightly more abrasive polish and work your way down to the least abrasive polish that you have in your repetoir. Bad would mean etching, severe swirls and fading on the paint. For swirls a good polish is the only way to go. ScratchX is not practical for this step!
6. Wax - This step is mainly personal preference. Some people like to use carnuaba waxes and others like to use synthetic waxes. Others use both. Carnuaba waxes generally do not last very long (under a month) and provide a deep, rich finish to the paint. Synthetic waxes last much longer (3+ mos.) and usually provide a shinier finish. If you want to use both apply the synthetic wax FIRST, then the carnuaba wax. If applied in the reverse order the molecules of the synthetic wax will not bind to the paint at all (a waste of money).

I have been detailing cars, mine as well as neighbors etc, for awhile now. I've tried many different types of glazes, carnuaba products, synthetic waxes, liquid waxes, and polishes. I have only used Meguiars claybar, however Mothers is a good product as well.

From my experience the best products out there are made by Prima. There are a range of products for your interior "Nero", glass, and paint. The polishes come in various strengths as well- from "Amigo" to "Cut". The primary wax is called "Epic" which I have been using since last year and it lasts a good 4-6 months depending on your driving habits and road conditions. Use Hydro for your inbetween waxes, which is a spray on wax that lasts a few weeks and is downright INCREDIBLE. All of these products can be found at:

http://www.detailersparadise.com/_sy...qryDefault.asp

Feel free to comment, criticize, or ask questions!

 

cant beat Zymol. best out there.

 

I posted this thread to outline the basic procedure for detailing the exterior of your car. There could definitely be more steps added but the steps I included are essential for a good detailing job.

The polishes and waxes that you use are completely up to you. Some people die by Zaino, Megs, etc. I die by Prima!

 

then here are some tips for the wash (or no brainers to the seasoned vets):

1. Start with wheels, wheel wells, underbody trim. these are the dirtiest areas of the car. use a seperate cloth/towel/sponge. rinse.
2. rinse off body. DO NOT RE-USE WATER/SOAP from wheel/underbody cleaning.
3. make fresh bucket of water/soap, get fresh cleaning accessory to wash car with (sponges are not encouraged because they have tendencies to trap lose grit,dirt, small stones that you will scratch your paint with)
4. wash car
5. light rinse (wide light spray) & finish so water sheets off and cleans off scattered areas of soap
---
detail

 

+1 The part about washing the wheels, etc with separate water is really important. A tip for the final rinse: take off the hose sprayer and use just the hose to go over the car one more time. This will make most of the water sheet off, leaving the drying process much easier and faster.

Details for claybar:

1. Fold the clay in your hands for a minute or two to get it loosened up.
2. Put the clay in your hand so that a little hump of it is between two of yourfingers. This will help prevent the clay from flying out of your hand onto the ground. If you do drop the clay it should be retired from use on your paint. If you think you can tear off the soiled part go for it, but you will risk scratching your paint. Use it for your windows or wheels.
3. Spray some QD on a small section of the selected panel (about 1 sq. foot).
4. Apply pressure to the paint with the clay in a back and forth motion in one direction. You should hear a scratching sound. This is good because it means you are picking all kinds of crap out of the surface of the paint.
5. Get a good MF towel and wipe the section down.
6. Repeat for the whole car.

 

Some general remarks:

1. Product choice matters a lot less than process. There are lots of good polishing brands out there (Einszett is my fav), but they'll all perform poorly if the user doesn't know how to properly use them!

2. A ramdom orbital buffer improves the polishing process tremendously.

3. A sythetic wax can/should be used on the wheels (inside and outside, of course), as it makes cleaining brake dust easier in the future. Avoid non-synthetic waxes which can deteriorate with the excess heat created behind the wheels.

4. A "spot-free" water system can be a good investment. I have a CR Spotless unit that truly allows the water to dry spot-free, even in direct bright sunlight. Saves the labor of drying the car, but more importantly saves the potential for the drying towels to trap debris and scratch up the car.

5. An abrasive car wash solution (such as Dawn or similar) isn't necessary. The clay and polish steps will do a better job of whatever the more aggressive car wash solution was supposed to do.

6. At least once a year (maybe more in salty/snowy climates), I like to do a full engine-bay and undercarriage cleaning, along with removing the wheels and throughly cleaning them inside and out.

7. Avoid polishing products that contain "fillers" - fillers merely mask small scratches, as opposed to a pure polish which actually removes them (while removing a bit of the clearcoat in the process).

8. Invest in lots of good quality microfiber towels. I hate several drying towels, several polishing towels, several glass towels, and several "all-purpose towels". Don't use bleach, fabric softener, or dryer sheets when washing them. I just use a little bit of detergent on a gentle cycle, and use distilled white vinegar instead of fabric softener. My towels all look pretty close to as new as the day I got them.

9. Don't rely too heavily on quick detail sprays for between-wash cleanings. Do you really want to push dirt and bird crap all over your paint, or would you rather just wash it off with a real car wash?

 

^^^
As for the RO Buffer. You can do tremendous damage to your paint if you don't know how to use on properly. Get a PC buffer if you are interested in speeding up the process of polishing, etc. A PC is much easier to use and costs less. Polishing is extremely tiring to do by hand as you must break down the compounds completely before moving on to a less abrasive polish or applying your wax.

And yeah, don't QD your car if you've pulled it out of the driveway (to be on the safe side). You could scratch your car easily this way.

 

I don't think the random-orbital buffer I have (Porter Cable) could damage the paint, unless maybe you cranked it up to the highest speed, and held it against a single spot on your car with 50lbs of pressure for 5 minutes.

What does "PC buffer" stand for?

 

I was refering to "Porter Cable" and how it can be used as a buffer, which was redundant (my bad!)

With the RO buffer it is easier to burn too much clearcoat off the car. Yeah it isn't lethal to the car or anything but for most peoples intents and purposes a PC will do the trick.

 

I don't understand. I have a Porter Cable Random Orbital Buffer, which is very safe for the point. Are you confusing this with a direct-drive rotary buffer? See this article, and in particular the following quote:

 

I think you are misunderstanding what my post was refering to. I was refering to the general topic of buffing in general. I did not quote the numbered list that I was refering to, as you can see. I was not responding directly to that post, but rather adding additional information (in general). Yes, there is the direct drive rotary buffer and a Porter Cable random orbital buffer. In the post above, "RO Buffer" was refering to the direct drive buffer (very unclear I know) and "PC" was refering to...a PC.

 

While on the subject of PCs, etc. Another note on polishing:

Polishing by hand takes a ton of work, as I said earlier, so you may want to just do the worst areas if you don't want to do the entire car. Its obviously best to do the whole car but you can go over the worst areas instead (tree resin on your rear bumper, etc). Its also a good idea to QD your car after you polish it if you think you may not have broken down the compounds all the way.

I made this mistake once! I had finished polishing the car and put on a nice coat of wax. After curing for 24 hours I pulled the car out into the sunlight and there was a slight haze all over the car. Man was I bummed...all that work for nothing it seemed.

 

Yes, indeed polishing is a ton of work, with or iwthout the porter Cable. By hand, it really takes literally the whole day, with the porter cable, probably 4 hours from claying to final wax.

I used to have the patience and the passion for it, but now, where I live (rainy and snow-bound Vancouver), plus the family commitments, plus not a young bloke anymore... I typically tend to skip the "important" polishing step and go from the claying to final wax. I also use a "cleaner/polish/wax" product to skip the polishing step, not the most ideal I know, but it works for me. Also, mine is a pearl white colour, like silver, will not really see the difference, unless you are a black or red paint. Plus, only people seeing it is myself (or my family who don't really care for a swirl free car), and am not taking it to a Concours competition anyway.

 

Yeah I have a Pearl White RDX as well. It hides dirt which is deceptive but it looks clean longer. My black MCSc is another story...

 

Washing your car with Dawn isn't going to buy you anything, and it isn't particular good for all the various rubber gaskets and plastic trim pieces. It is sort of an urban myth that you use Dawn to remove exisiting wax so that you can get a polymer to bond to the surface. But, if you clay your car and use a paint cleaner product there isn't going to be anything there anyway.

As for polish, most polishes applied by hand are going to cause a lot more damage than they fix. They can actually induce hazing and more swirls. If you don't have a PC, I'd skip this altogether.

 

^^^
Washing your car with Dawn will definitely take off some of the wax on your finish beacuse it is an abrasive soap. Dawn washing is absolutely NOT a substitute for claybar or polishing, which actually takes the old wax off the car. But as darth said it is bad for your plastic trim. If you wash your car with Dawn 2-3 times a year for your full detail it will not be a problem. If you wash your car with Dawn every weekend then you are going to do some damage. Fortunately, the RDX does not have very much plastic trim in the first place, so you don't have to worry too much about it. The Dawn wash is debatable and it is sort of the cheap way to skip out on a paint cleaning polish step. I do the Dawn wash but its all up to the individual and how much time/money you want to put into detailing and what kind of results you are aiming for.

Claybar is a mandatory step for good paint prep, whether you choose to Dawn wash or not.

As for the polish: pick one that is not very abrasive if you are going to do it by hand, that way you minimize the chances of not breaking down the compounds all the way or doing harm to the car.

 

Just washed the RDX again today, clayed areas of the car that needed to remove some grit.

I followed up with a layer of KLASSE sealant glaze and let it dry to a haze for 4 hours. This allow the acrylic polymer to bond and cure on the paint. To remove excess residue, I simply spritz the paint surface with a spray wax like Eagle One, and wipe off. No real buffing required.

The KLASSE sealant is suppose to last at least 6 months, and some carcare sites indicated that regularly spritzing the KLASSE sealed surface with carnuaba spray wax will bring out the deep shine of KLASSE.

 

what brand of polish do you guys use??

 

Depending on the age of your car and also the condition. If your RDX is fairly new, then, a polish step may be skipped. Otherwise, try Scratch X, it will remove most swirls and fine scratches. Mothers Cleaner wax also works well.