Getting ready for my first exterior detail. I have a couple of basic questions.

[imported_Sullybob]

I am getting ready for my first exterior detail and I have a couple of questions.



The car that I will be detailing is my Wife`s blue 1994 Toyota Corolla with about 120,000 miles on it. This car has been waxed but never polished



I plan on



Washing

Claying with Clay Magic

Washing

AIO twice

SG



I will be doing this by hand. I do have an old random orbital buffer made to wax cars that my wife bought me years ago for about $20.00.



When I use the clay. I plan on using the lube that came with it.



1. When I use the AIO should I use MEG QD as a lube or just a little bit of water?

2. Can I use MEG QD as a lube for the SG?

3. Do I really need to wash my car after I clay it? If I use MEG QD will that be sufficient?

4. When I am using the AIO and I have worked it into the paint enough will it start to haze up or will it just disappear into the paint?

I plan on using the wipe on wipe off method for the SG.



After I put the SG on (assuming that my arms still work, maybe the next day ) and I want to put a coat of wax on the car, what locally available off the shelf wax would you recommend.



5. If I do put a wax topcoat on it and decide to put more SG on it will I need to strip the wax with Dawn first?



Thank you for your help. Any advice is very much appreciated.

Shawn

[ZaneO]

1. water will work

2. water will work

3. I would wash it just to make sure the surface is clean and clear

4. not sure - just experiement with a small area first



Your local Harley store will carry S100 carnauba; it is very nice and easy to use.



5. You could

[imported_Sullybob]

Zane,

Thanks for your quick reply. There is a Harley dealer just down the street from me.

[a.k.a. Patrick]

AIO will haze, go for wipe down after haxing......Additional coats of Sg normally require 24 hr cure time.......

[imported_Sullybob]

a.k.a. Patrick,

Do you mean just wipe down the car between the AIO and the SG? I plan on waiting at least one day to let the SG cure, and I figure that my arms will need the rest. This car has never been polished.:scared



Shawn







edited for spelling

[shaf]

Welcome to Autopia Shawn. :welcome



If this car is 10 years old and has never been polished, I should probably warn you not to expect miracles from using the Klasse twins on it. At this stage it`s probably quite swirled up, and you will still see them when you`re done no matter how many coats of SG you put on or if you top it off with wax or not. It`s a common mistake to put all the emphasis on final products like these, while neglecting or ignoring the critical preparation phase.



AIO is far too gentle to do much real polishing, so you`re really missing a whole stage in this job. Check out some of the articles in the Learn! link above and they`ll go over swirl removal for you and give you the general idea. Read up on that first and see if you can come up with another plan that includes one or more polishing steps in between claying and AIO. It could probably really use it by now.



Keep in mind that polishing out a car by hand is a lot of work and time consuming, but if you break the job up and budget lots of time, it`s certainly do-able.



I know, I know, that just more than doubled your workload, but saying here goes, "Prep is the key.".

[imported_Sullybob]

Thanks Brian. :xyxthumbs I was thinking that I really need to polish the car first. Right now I don`t have a lot of free time to work on my vehicles. My plan was to first get the car clean with clay and the AIO then SG to seal the paint. That way I know that the paint will be clean and by sealing it it will stop any further oxidation. Then come back at a later time and polish/removal the swirls. I am starting to re-think that whole plan.

Thank you for the advise. I`m off to learn about swirl and scratch removal



Shawn