Hi! im new! product questions

[Fobia]

Hi guys im Chris and i have been detailing friends / audi club cars for about a year now.. as a side job. discovered this site.. i have a couple of questions for you guys



i have a new car and i want to keep it new so i hand wax / polish it with these steps



Wash car with meguiers gold class 2x

CG Clay/with cg detail sprayhttp://www.chemicalguys.com/product_p/wac_102.htm

polish using hand pads Revive Paint Car Polish - PAINT RESTORE & RESHINE

wax using car polish



i am wondering is a glaze a good thing to use.. or should i throw in ALL IN ONE POLISH

and glaze too??? after/before idk



and im wondering when i should use a compound.. and what grit.. cause sometimes in the tough cars that i do IE black... a glaze and polish seem to not do the trick.. so should i try polish and glaze first before i compound.. and if i did compound it would go..??



clay

compound

polish

glaze

wax?



and does 2 layers of wax really do anything?



and i do not use a buffer .. should i purchase a PC



also im wondering what pads you use for what thx



CHRIS! :waxing: :woot:

pics of my car

[fdizzle]

you mean what by megs gold class 2x



you wash the car twice?



im probably confised on what you mean, butwashing once is all that necessary, unless you take your audi on a rally coarse. Using too much soap and not properly dilluting it will make the soap too strong. You want just enough for good suds, and a clean PH level, so not to strip any lsp`s you have on your finish



if you have AIO I dont think you need a glaze. The AIO will prep the surface for whatever sealant, or for that matter carnuba topper you wish to put on it. some people might even consider AIO a type of glaze.



effectife polishing, especially on an audi (super hard clear coat) will require at least a porter cable if you have any desire of effectily removing defects. so yes, a PC is a good investment.



your process looks correct. wash, clay, compound (if you need it) polish, than use yoru AIO and then follow with Klasse sealant glaze (dont get confised with the glaze part, its a acrylic sealant) or a carnube topper. wanna go crazy, use AIO, followed by a coat or 3 of KSG (letting each coat of KSG cure for 8-24 hours) and then put a layer of carnuba wax on her. your jaw will most likely drop.



pads for your pc - edge pads are a nice way to get started. dual sided (two pads for the price of one) self centering quick change adaptor.



lake country pads are what i use. they utilize a velcro backing plate system, which you can change out easily. only one side hwoever, and centering the pad takes a few tries, otehrsie your pad will wobble a little.



if you stay with velcro, you can also pick up a smaller 3.5 `` backing plate for some 4`` pads, which make the porter cable polish,cut into defects much faster, and far more effectibly than a 6.5 pad with a 5.5 inch backing plate.



but for starters, just get some 6.5 pads - usually cheaper if you buy a kit, if you go with lake country you will want a yellow cutting, orange light cutting, white polishing, black finishig pad. as you probably guessed, yellow and orange are for cutting, defect removal, white is for polishing, black for applying glazes, waxes.



( i find it eaiser to apply sealants like Klasse KSG and paste waxes by hand - but i dont do this for a living, just for side cash and fun)



layering wax does work - check out the thread in detailing entitled "layering" for more info on that whole ordeal.



layering sealants is very effective, most zaino,Klasse KSG, werkstatt, and poorboys users layer the sealants. you need to let sealants cure, like i mentioned before. some cure faster than others.



perhaps this will get you strated in the right direction. the amount of info on thie forum is overhwelming. try not to get over your head, do soem research, look at new thread subjects, and play aroudn with the search feature. still lost, just do exactly what you have done, start a new thread. some board detailer will answer you. because right now, its raining oustide and all my cars are wet. heheh.



BTW - nice audi

[Fobia]

you mean what by megs gold class 2x



you wash the car twice?



im probably confised on what you mean, butwashing once is all that necessary, unless you take your audi on a rally coarse. Using too much soap and not properly dilluting it will make the soap too strong. You want just enough for good suds, and a clean PH level, so not to strip any lsp`s you have on your finish



if you have AIO I dont think you need a glaze. The AIO will prep the surface for whatever sealant, or for that matter carnuba topper you wish to put on it. some people might even consider AIO a type of glaze.



effectife polishing, especially on an audi (super hard clear coat) will require at least a porter cable if you have any desire of effectily removing defects. so yes, a PC is a good investment.



your process looks correct. wash, clay, compound (if you need it) polish, than use yoru AIO and then follow with Klasse sealant glaze (dont get confised with the glaze part, its a acrylic sealant) or a carnube topper. wanna go crazy, use AIO, followed by a coat or 3 of KSG (letting each coat of KSG cure for 8-24 hours) and then put a layer of carnuba wax on her. your jaw will most likely drop.



pads for your pc - edge pads are a nice way to get started. dual sided (two pads for the price of one) self centering quick change adaptor.



lake country pads are what i use. they utilize a velcro backing plate system, which you can change out easily. only one side hwoever, and centering the pad takes a few tries, otehrsie your pad will wobble a little.



if you stay with velcro, you can also pick up a smaller 3.5 `` backing plate for some 4`` pads, which make the porter cable polish,cut into defects much faster, and far more effectibly than a 6.5 pad with a 5.5 inch backing plate.



but for starters, just get some 6.5 pads - usually cheaper if you buy a kit, if you go with lake country you will want a yellow cutting, orange light cutting, white polishing, black finishig pad. as you probably guessed, yellow and orange are for cutting, defect removal, white is for polishing, black for applying glazes, waxes.



( i find it eaiser to apply sealants like Klasse KSG and paste waxes by hand - but i dont do this for a living, just for side cash and fun)



layering wax does work - check out the thread in detailing entitled "layering" for more info on that whole ordeal.



layering sealants is very effective, most zaino,Klasse KSG, werkstatt, and poorboys users layer the sealants. you need to let sealants cure, like i mentioned before. some cure faster than others.



perhaps this will get you strated in the right direction. the amount of info on thie forum is overhwelming. try not to get over your head, do soem research, look at new thread subjects, and play aroudn with the search feature. still lost, just do exactly what you have done, start a new thread. some board detailer will answer you. because right now, its raining oustide and all my cars are wet. heheh.



BTW - nice audi

thanks well.. crap i use megueiers gold glass car wash shampoo twice.. and i put alot of soap in.. i guess that isnt a good thing then huh.. ;/ i thought i was always better cause i got more lubricant per water



what does AIO mean?? and ksg im confused on your lingo and lsps



thanks



so next time i detail a car im gonna do this.. get PC ,get pads

wash car

clay

compound if needed

followed by polish

followed by glaze

followed by Hand applied wax

/buff of by hand too



if perhaps you got time.. can you reccomend some polish and glaze i should get (keep to CG) just to keep it easy haha



oh yeah .. is there a like PIcture reference for the Degree of swirls.. on how heavy and light they are so we know what pad to use

[Eliot Ness]

.......what does AIO mean?? and ksg im confused on your lingo and lsps...

AIO is Klasse All-In-One, and KSG is Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze.



This is a list of Autopia Acronyms.



Some newer abbreviations haven`t been updated yet, so this thread has some of the newer ones listed that you can download.

[Fobia]

AIO is Klasse All-In-One, and KSG is Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze.



This is a list of Autopia Acronyms.



Some newer abbreviations haven`t been updated yet, so this thread has some of the newer ones listed that you can download.

woudl you reccomend this over CG stufF?

[Eliot Ness]

woudl you reccomend this over CG stufF?

You should probably try a good AIO/KSG combo sometime and see how you like it, you can always top it with a wax, and the sealer is more durable than the CG wax you`re using.



Instead of AIO/SG, since you are just starting out and haven`t bought them yet, I`d suggest you try the Jeff Werkstatt line. I hear that Prime is like AIO but better, and Acrylic Jet is a lot easier to use than KSG but offers the same (if not better) level of looks/durability.



If you lurk around the Click & Brag forum you`ll discover all kinds of combos that look great.

[Juztang]

For your polishes I highly recommend the Optimum line. They have great results with no dusting.



As for glazes, ClearKote Vanilla Moose and Red Moose are my goto glazes.

[Accumulator]

Fobia- Welcome to Autopia! Fellow Audi-nut here



The main thing with Audis IMO is the hard clear on most of them. Since it`s so hard to correct it`s imortant to not mar it in the first place. Those tiny scratches that only show up under certain lighting conditions (e.g., incandescent light in an otherwise dark room) will make the finish look not-so-swell in all lighting conditions. It`s the sort of thing you might not notice until you park next to one that`s truly marring-free.



The hard clear is tough to corrrect even by PC. Consider getting a 4" backing plate/pad setup as suggested, which gives the PC added ability. And yeah, it really does make that big of a difference



You`ll need something fairly aggressive for your first polish, maybe something like Hi-Temp Heavy Cut. Then something milder like Optimum Car Polish for a follow-up. I`d really rather recommend the discontinued but still commonly available 3M PI-III RC 05933 and PI-III MG 05937 which are on the shelves at many autobody/paint supply places, but you might have trouble finding them (they`re still there at my local place). It`s important to use user-friendly products that *work* when you`re dealing with that hard clear.



I recently used those two products (the Hi-Temp HC/Optimum; used the 3M pair the previous time) with theh PC and 4" pads to remove a RIDS (Random Isolated Deep Scratch) from the hood of my S8 and it took a long, long time to do it. Note that this scratch was so mild that most people couldn`t see it and it was absolutely invisible under most lighting conditions (such as fluorescent, didn`t show up at all). I shudder to think about doing an entire car that way (that`s what a rotary is for ) but it`d be a good approach for the more significant scratches. I use a similar approach by hand to do fingernail scratches behind door handles and that *really* takes a long time (I don`t mean just a half-hour).



I wouldn`t consider using the Klasse twins unless you`re prepared to get the finishes very close to (literally) perfect. Otherwise I`d use a polish-containing-fillers/wax combo, something like 1z brand polish topped with a wax like Collinite I use this sort of approach on my wife`s daily-driver A8 and it works quite well. The Klasse stuff (which I do use on one vehicle) allows every flaw to show while the wax approach hides some stuff.



So that would be aggressing polishing of worst marring, mild polishing of entire car with something like the 1Z, then wax.



Note that everybody has their favorite product lines and I use a lot of them. The above specific recommendations are just that- specific recommendations based on first-hand experience with Audis.



Two coats of wax applied back-to-back will really just ensure adequate coverage. Doing an additional coat after a few days (after the wax cures) is much more beneficial. I usually just do that after the next wash.



Oh, and keep polishes off the exterior brightwork (tape it up before you polish) as the clear anodizing on it is quite fragile. Heh heh, you`ll never see an older A8 with decent exterior trim, all the aluminum bits are clouded. Since it fails anyhow, IMO it`s best to be as gentle as possible with it and that means not subjecting it to any abrasion. I`ve gone over this with Audi reps and it`s a real problem Even some of the new replacement pieces are imperfect (I guess because they`re old and the stuff must be *that* bad quality-wise ) and doing the actual replacement is a fairly big job for some of the pieces.



Oh#2, you might look at some of my innumerable posts about the benefits of washing with a foamgun, no way I`d ever wash without one.

[Fobia]

thanks can you link me to the foamgun post...



everytime i wash.. in each section i keep the hose running and run my mit under the water to sheet off all the dirt on my cotten pad then ring it out and dip it in the soap bucket is that a good way to wash?





but yeah i can see very fine swirls under like Yellow light if you know what i mean.. like street lights and stuff .. like the last picture i show in my post above