Critique..please

[melissa809]

Hey everyone



I have a white car...detailed it on Monday.....which involved me washing....claying using a Mother`s clay bar as I found the sonus green wasn`t agressive enough....and a paint sealant. I have to admit that while I DID buy a paint cleaner, I didn`t use it for 2 reasons.



1...the clay got off all the rail dust

2....frankly, I`m scared I will eff up my paint



NOW..about the effing up my paint..lol...a couple of times, while I was claying, I got ahead of myself and some clay residue stuck to the car...as in, maybe I was being too cheap on the QD at that precise moment...lol..also, sometimes I would press hard if the "orange dots" weren`t coming off, though most of the time I used plenty of QD



Okay....today, and this weekend it will be raining....and the lazy ******* that I am..haha...I didn`t cover my car. WELL...I got this idea in my head that I must have marred the hell out of my paint so I go out to my car...in the rain...with some ONR QD and a microfiber and start checking "spots" on my car to see if I have marred the paint...so far, I seem okay...but the car is white...so



BUT...during this process, I notice some NEW rail dust accumulating.



Being that I have LOTS of time off from work...via a layoff...haha..I plan on detailing the car, once again, when the rain lets up....Monday, I think.





Guys....what should I do this time around for better results?...I have about a zillion products, btw. BUT I am VERY uncomfortable using any sort of power tool during a detail. Mind you, I have no problem using power tools anywhere else....haha



Also...the car is an 09....mostly covered...and it is a Ford.



Thanks

Melissa

[melissa809]

Also, should I look into buying the 3M hand glaze?...also, sorry for all the questions.....when I re-detail my car, being that I used a sealant last week, can I use a wax over it?



Also, last question, I promise..if I decide to use 3M hand glaze, I`m thinking I need to strip the car of the sealant I already applied. I keep reading NOT to use Dawn dish detergent. Is there a product you guys can recommend?...

Thanks

[uberyk]

you`ll find most here are not very fond of glazes.

they fill in the imperfections in your paint to hide them.

but they don`t last forever and in the end your imperfections are still there.

if you`re really set on making your car virtually defect free then you`ll need to polish via machine.



you can wash the car with a safe all purpose cleaner (Optimum Power Clean, Mequiars APC etc.) to strip the sealant.

You can also follow up with some IPA-mix wipedowns.

When the car doesn`t bead at all is when you know you got all the sealant off.



as far as waxing over sealant, it`s trial and error to find which combinations of sealant and wax look best but for the most part you can pretty much wax over most sealants without any ill effect.