new to detailing, do these products make sense to start with?

[flyingace]

hey all,



have been reading a lot in the forums and getting all excited about making my car super shiny. it`s an 09 black miata, and it`s never had too much TLC. No major issues, but there are certainly little scratches all over. my goal isn`t to have it show-car-status-perfect, but just to get it to a place where little scratches are minimized and i can maintain it in decent-looking condition w/o too much trouble. I don`t have any equipment so i`ll be doing it all by hand.



so -- here`s what i`m thinking of doing, would love to know if this is overkill



wash it, obvously (have chosen to go with optimum no rinse method since i`m in a big city and don`t have a hose)

claybar it w. meguiar`s c-2000 detailing clay and spraybottle of ONR

clean it w/ Meguiar`s A3016 Deep Crystal Cleaner

polish it w/ Meguiar`s G19216 Ultimate Polish - 16 oz.

wax it w/ Zymol Z503 Car Cleaner Wax - 16 oz.



here are my questions--

is this the right order? not sure where claybar should fit in.

Is the cleaner *and* polish redundant? I don`t quite understand what the cleaner does differently from polishing or washing but someone on amazon said that the polish didn`t do much for swirls w/o using the cleaner first.

I was also considering the `ultimate compound` or scratch-x instead of the `ultimate polish` but they perhaps sound too aggressive?

am I going to kill myself trying to do all of this without one of those buffer things? it`s a small car and i`m up for a challenge....but not a 10-hour challenge :cool:



thanks so much! these forums are awesome. bad for my OCD though!

[Dan]

The cleaner and polish will be redundant, as will the cleaner wax. To do this right by hand, you`d spend over 10 hours. Get some clay and some ultimate polish and do 1/2 the trunk lid or something, and see how far you get. You will probably want to re-evaluate your plan by then.

[imported_Bert]

The cleaner and polish will be redundant, as will the cleaner wax. To do this right by hand, you`d spend over 10 hours. Get some clay and some ultimate polish and do 1/2 the trunk lid or something, and see how far you get. You will probably want to re-evaluate your plan by then.



yakky is right on key. Your best bet would be to watch numerous youtube videos about machine polishing and then buy one, such as Griot`s polisher. Many newbs get pretty nervous using a polisher but so long as you start off with a dual action polisher (such as the Griots) I mentioned, rather than a rotary polisher, you should be fine.



If you decide to go without a polisher, the polishing alone will take a most of the day if not all of it and your results will probably not be as nice had you use a machine.



In regards to your products:



Wash - Optimum No Rinse will be a good choice.

Clay - Meg`s clay is fine

Polish - Probably want to use Meg`s Ultimate Compound and then maybe follow up with Swirl X

Wax or Sealant - Like yakky said, a cleaner wax is redundant. Give Megs NXT 2.0 a try if you want to stick with something you can get over the counter.

[Hey, Moe!]

All of the above advice is good stuff. I agree that if you try to polish by hand, you WILL make it a 10-hour day, and you will ache for a couple of days afterwards. I know; I`ve tried it, and ended up getting a PC.



Of course, your wash and dry techniques will help keep things more manageable. It`s a pain to see marring that you put there during washing and drying (done that too).



With a PC or something similar, you can spend an afternoon on the project, and will be happy with the result.



And yeah, I understand the difference between "everyday nice" and "show car." It shouldn`t be too hard to make your Miata look great. A car that you can walk outside, and as you`re unlocking it, you say to yourself, "nice car!"



There`s a pile of good advice here. Keep looking around. Most of what I learned is here.



And, by the way, welcome!!! Keep hanging around, and let us know how it goes.

[Scottwax]

Amazon is not the place to get detailing information from. Autopia is.



What reading have you already done here? I`d start by going through the car detailing forum and read the stickies and then start looking for threads specifically about detailing the exterior. That will give you a good idea of what people are using and the techniques.



The order would be like Bert said, wash, clay, polish, protect. What exact products and polishing will take to bring your paint to the level you want is something no one can tell from a keyboard. Start with a less aggressive combination (like ScratchX) and move up in aggressiveness if needed (Meguiars Ultimate Compound). Your best bet though, will be to invest in a proper polisher and pads and the machine polishing forum can really help you out there.

[TedFred]

:biggrin:You should be able to do a Miata by hand easily. I use to do cars by hand all the time when I was in my 20`s. Some remember the Meguiars three step Deep crystal system. The cars came out looking great. A Miata is a very small car, and it has no top. That being said I have a rotary and a PC and would never go back.



I think once a person does it by hand and gets the bug they want to take it to the next step and buy a buffer of some sort.

[flyingace]

hey, thanks everyone! yeah, i`ve been reading the stickies, but there are so many different kinds of products and so many different versions of each one that i`ve been having trouble figuring out what i need and what i don`t. but it sounds like the short answer is, i should save up for an polisher.



cheers :)

[Dan]

hey, thanks everyone! yeah, i`ve been reading the stickies, but there are so many different kinds of products and so many different versions of each one that i`ve been having trouble figuring out what i need and what i don`t. but it sounds like the short answer is, i should save up for an polisher.



cheers :)



Yep, but in the mean time claying it and throwing a layer of NXT won`t hurt.

[Accumulator]

Yep, but in the mean time claying it and throwing a layer of NXT won`t hurt.



IMO that`s a good idea :xyxthumbs It`ll look better and will have some protection.



Welcome to Autopia, flyingace! Yeah, saving up for a polisher is a good plan, but if you do decide to try it by hand there are some approaches that are better than others. And with something the size of a Miata you could do it piecemeal (one or two panels after each of a series of regular washes) without it being overwhelming. BTW, that would work fine when you have the polisher too.



But I do suggest that you *NOT* buy stuff/attempt a big-time detail without getting some opinions here; people often enthused and into a sort of, heh heh...buying frenzy and end up with a lot of the wrong stuff.