Newbie questions

[H2SUT]

Hi all,



I`ve been lurking here for a little bit, reading up. Some good info, although some of the product/technique abbreviations are confusing.



Anyway, I have a new Black Hummer that I want to keep in good condition. Its about 2 months old. A week or so after I brought it home I washed it with NXT car wash and applied a coat of Collinite #845 Liquid Insulator Wax & MF towels to remove & buff. Since then I have washed it about once a week with the NXT and a (sheepskin?) furry mitt. I have only been using one bucket, or recently the Mr. Clean Auto Dry thing. When using the Mr. Clean I try to keep the mitt well rinsed, but I have started to notice slight swirls already. I want to catch it before it gets much worse.



Its time to reapply some protection & want something good. The Hummer is my daily driver and occasionally hits the trails. I`d like to put something on that lasts and has good protection. It doesn`t have to be a show shine. I`m a busy person so waxing might not come as often as I`d like.



At some point I`m going to get a PC to take out the minor blems from offroading past bushes, etc.



What would be the best system at this point? Some kind of sealer & wax? I`m not up on the latest & greatest... Also, what`s the 2 bucket method???



Thanks!

[imported_Macgirl]

:welcome to Autopia!



Sounds like you have a beast to take care of, you should check out the Klasse twins (http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?autopia+ufAdJU+klasse.html) for durable protection. They hold up well on daily drivers. You may want to preceed them with a good swirl remover polish though because I`ve not had very good luck with the AIO at swirl removal.



The "Two Bucket Method" is simply washing asnd using two buckets. One has soapy water and the other has plain water to dunk your mitt in after wiping the dirty auto. You`d dunk your clean mitt in soap then wipe a panel and then dunk the dirty mitt in the bucket with just water to rinse out the majority of the dirt. Sweeze out the water and then dunk in the soapy water and continue the pattern. You can keep your soapy water cleaner thus you`ll reduce you chance of inducing swirls.



Good luck :)

[scottlee]

welcome H2SUT

check out the acronyms tab in the features area , this helped me alot with the abreviations. i am sure you will enjoy the site as much as all of us do :bounce

[H2SUT]

Hi,



Thanks for the Welcome and quick answer! The swirl remover polish, is that applied by hand? Or is there a specific technique to using it, such as wiping front to back instead of circular, etc?



MacGirl, I see you have a Cherokee Country. I had a `97 Country before the Hummer. Great vehicle!



The Cherokee (sold):

http://i9.ebayimg.com/02/i/02/16/45/b1_12_s.JPG



The Hummer:

http://www.checkbuddy.net/H2/home.jpg

[imported_Macgirl]

Most swirl removers can be applied by either hand, random orbital (PC), or rotary polishers. If you do it by hand, then the school of thought is to apply using front to back motions. If you haven`t already done so, download the Autopia Guide to Detailing (http://www.autopia-carcare.com/lib/autopia/mendiraftery). It`s a great resource to have handy with great information on all aspects of auto detailing. PS, it`s a Windows .exe file so you`ll just have to download and double-click to run, then you`ll just have to click the register button to unlock all the chapters. Enjoy.



If you are interested in the PC, check out the Hall of Fame here for a good thread on it.



Oh, love the Cherokee. It`s has been a tough one!

[Accumulator]

H2SUT- Welcome to Autopia!



A good user-friendly polish such as those from 1Z, topped with your Collinite, might be a sensible way to go on your rather big vehicle. I like Klasse on daily drivers, but it`s enough of a pain to do our minivan with it and so I dunno about doing a black Hummer!



I use Collinite (their 476S paste wax) on one of our vehicles and it protects/lasts/beads very well and it looks OK too.



Perfecting your wash/dry technique will do wonders for the marring (swirls) so I`d concentrate on that. It`s *very* tough to keep a black vehicle marring-free!