proper way to use meguires quick detailer?

[drdavidge]

sup guys, im new to this forum, hopefully you guys can help clear up all my questions, haha...heres one: i have a black teg and EVERYTHING shows up on it, so i am gonna start to use the meguires quick detailer more often (with summer comming around)....so i started using it one day and this is what i have: a bunch of new white cotton terry cloth towels..and the absorber. what i have been doing is spraying the quick detailer, smearing it quick with the cotton towel, and then wiping it off (back and forth a few times) with the absorber. the cotton towels leave a lot of lint, but the absorber takes care of it, but its still kind of annoying. maybe im using the wrong kinda towels or soemthing, but how SHOULD i be doing this, exactly...step by step? and also it seems to take me a long time to do it..how long should it take? sometimes, i guess i dont wipe it of fgood enough, but it leaves a whiteish nasty lookin residu, but again, i think thats from not wiping it off before it dried. thanks guys.



also, i have a lot of paint chips from rocks and a few scratches and light swirl marks here and there...how do i take care of them? i will start a new thread about that and post some pics soon. thanks!

[crooper]

i don`t think the absorber is the best thing to be using with QD. i`d recommend using microfiber towels for this purpose. it should also eliminate the linting issue. i`m not sure why the QD is drying out unless you`re doing it in the sun. if so, try it in the shade.



and for swirl removal, there are many, many products that will tackle the problem. try a search for swirl removal and that should get you started.

[schoi]

Welcome, bro! :wavey



Uhhh.... no Absorber for QD`ing (Quick Detailing). Bad idea.



Also, for some reason, I`m not too sure about your towels. If you`re gonna be using cotton towels for this stuff and not microfiber, you definitely want to make sure that you ARE, in fact, using 100% cotton towels. I would try the burn test and CD test before they touch the car.



(Burn test: Burning a small, small piece of the cloth. If it turns to ashes, it`s cotton. If there`s a little hard ball in the remains, there`s polyester in it.)



(CD test: Rub the towel on a CD. The thinking here is that if the towel harms the surface (which is probably softer than paint / clearcoat), then it will / probably do the same to your paint. If it leaves no marks (or only a few under heavy pressure), it`s cool.)



Your paint chips will probably just need to be touched up; see your dealer for the paint (and clearcoat). The scratches ... well, it`s hard to say without actually seeing them in real life, but if they`re very, very light (cannot be felt with your fingernail), then you will probably be able to polish them out. Otherwise, you can probably manage to do a good job of reducing them with the right stuff; Meguiar`s Scratch-X is supposed to do a good job for this.



The swirl marks... well, both of the cars I`ve ever had were black (I`m 18... see signature). I feel for you and your swirls, man. :( The best way, I think, to get rid of them will be to get a Porter-Cable 7424 Dual Action Polisher (These orbital buffers are referred to as "PC`s" here) and some good swirl removing products, like 3M`s Swirl Mark Remover for dark colored cars (which I use and like), Meguiar`s No. 9, and that kind of thing. You can get them out by hand, but I never personally had good luck with it. Or, you could just keep them glazed. But wouldn`t it be better to get RID of them rather than hiding them? :p



And I think that you`ll have much better luck with QD`ing when you do it with towels / MF`s rather than with your Absorber. But to answer your question, it`s basically what you said: spray on, "buff" off. I also use Meg`s QD in the burgundy bottle (I assume that`s what you`re talking about) and like it. The only other thing I`ve used was Eagle One`s Wipe and Shine, and I didn`t like it at all. The smell made me want to puke on the Corvette after awhile, and we just can`t have that! :xyxthumbs

[imported_Aurora40]

Make sure you are using the QD only on a fairly clean car. Don`t try to wash your car with it. It`s fine for dust, fingerprints, carefully removing bird bombs, and the like. As for toweling, cotton towels should be just fine, though you may want to step up to MF`s as suggested (PakShaks are awesome, but mine still lint a bit too). If they are linting, maybe try washing and drying them. Also, don`t rub with them. Just gently wipe them. They really shouldn`t lint too much, and the lint should easily blow away at the worst. If you are getting streaking with the QD, you are probably using too much, or not buffing it off completely (very likely given that you were using an Absorber for this). If you continue to have streaking problems with it, try another QD. Don`t hose a panel down with it either. Just try to get a light misting on it. And as you feel more comfortable with it, you can probably use less.



P.S. the proper way to spell it is Meguiar`s Quik Detailer. ;)

[drdavidge]

thanks guys. about the towels, i just threw them in the wash today and gave it a nice rinse. you shoulda seen how much lint was hanging off these things, haha. i did the 100% cotton test and it passed, no little ball just ashes. and i tested it out on an aol cd that happened to come in the mail today, and no scratches even with hard rubbing, so now i feel better about the towels since they are washed.



keep the tips comming!

[CharlesW]

Originally posted by Aurora40

P.S. the proper way to spell it is Meguiar`s Quik Detailer. ;)

Just had a thought. Maybe you did actually get Quick Detailer. This is one of those goofy Meguiar`s name things.



Quick Detailer is actually a cleaner wax.



Quik Detailer (no "C") is the detailing spray



That would explain a lot of things. :nixweiss



Charles

[drdavidge]

lol, no, its the QUIK DETAILER spray thingy..haha. i knew it was spelled that way but my fingers just didnt like to type it like that or something, haha

[shaf]

Hello, and welcome! :wavey



Since your car is black, I suggest you buy yourself a California Car Duster (abbreviated CCD). You will wonder how you ever lived without it! After a pass with the CCD, your towels will be coming back from a QD session much cleaner than before.



Do a search for this handy tool, there are a TON of great threads about it to help you use it properly and learn more about it.



Since your towels turned out to be safe, they should lint less with each washing too.