Clear this ? up for me please

[zingyginger]

zingyginger- Thanks for the link. I can't say that I agree with him about other topics to the extent that I do about his claying, but to each their own and again, people could listen to much *worse* advice than his.



The Sonus green is my go-to clay, and I use it for something at most every wash. But it's awfully mild.



The Sonus gray seems to cause a lot of marring and might not be a good idea unless you already plan to polish (doesn't sound like it).

No, I hope not to polish my new Mazda3 for a while since I don't have a garage but judging from what I read, it is inevitable (BTW, who's a good resource on handpolishing? seems after the PC came out, there are hardly any recent threads on it :help: .) For now, I've demoted my sonus gray to removing brake dust from my wheels.



I figured the link is a reasonable starting point that would save one hours of searching in this forum (am I the only one who has difficulties with the search engine?) and get started with taking care of the car.



Then again, I would have missed all the discussions of longterm effects of silicone on rubber/vinyl :nervous:, why yellow clay disappeared from the U.S. , the similarities of towels from various suppliers, enduring versus of-the-moment products, zaino versus non-zaino :hide:, how the danger of using meg's wheel brightener is blithely described :shocked (" There is a thin line between effective cleaning and dangerous to use products.") and what's the difference between wet, deep & reflective .



So far I've been impressed by the thoughtfulness and talents of people in this forum and even more so by their willingness to share their experience :xyxthumbs . Despite differences in opinions, I hope that openness will never change.

 

[Accumulator]

zingyginger- Well, when people stray too far from the "thoughtfulness" they get spanked, so I'm pretty confident that this'll remain a nice, helpful place.



No, you're not the only person who has less-than-stellar luck with the dreaded SEARCH



I don't know of any good resources on doing stuff by hand...but IMO if you get some 1Z brand polishes (sources: Welcome to Exceldetail.com! or Aloha & Welcome to Our Oasis for All Your Auto Detailing Supplies & Accessories ), well, that's about all you need to know In my book it's the only game in town for effective work by hand. If you get some I/we can easily cover anything you need to know..it really is that simple (simple, not easy ).



Working without a garage could be a problem though; I'd invest in an E-Z-Up canopy or something similar. Doing stuff in direct sunlight is simply not the way to go IMO.

 

[Evenflow]

Depends. If you have extra wash mitts and time then you can certainly wash.



However to save time I often go straight to polishing.

 

[zingyginger]

Accumulator,



Do they ever let people back in after the "spanking"? There's a poster or two who would be nice to have around again. I wish they had some kind of disclosure info on people instead of an outright ban on using products that one's affiliated with. Most people wouldn't jump and buy (ok maybe I would ) everything just because of one review. It's useful to have product developers talk about their stuff and how to best use them.



About the advice/offer on help with polishes :thx - I'm trying my darnedest not to swirl but in six months, I'll probably need them. Which 1Z polish would work with sealants? Or can it be cleaned up with KAIO (my favorite idiotproof product at the moment)?



About direct sunlight, I'm detailing the car in stages - either before the sun's on my car (clean engine, wash tires/jambs/wheel well, wash & dry body) then qd/spot-clay/KAIO/AJT after sun's off the car. I do windows & interior when sun's up. I don't know how you folks do it but at the speed I'm going :tumblewee, I need the breaks!

 

[Accumulator]

..Do they ever let people back in after the "spanking"? ... It's useful to have product developers talk about their stuff and how to best use them..

Not being a moderator, I'm not all *that* familiar with the rules here (I don't seem to run afoul of them so I don't give them much thought). Generally, IIRC, people get warned or given a temporary suspension before they're banned outright.

..About the advice/offer on help with polishes .. Which 1Z polish would work with sealants? Or can it be cleaned up with KAIO (my favorite idiotproof product at the moment)?

Their Paint Polish would be a good choice. You may/may not see an improvement if you go over that with their WaxPolishSoft or the Metallic Polish. If the marring is very light you *might* get by with just either of the two latter products, but based on my Mazda (but mine was a Japan-made vehicle so they're not the same) they'll be too mild to really correct much.



Don't use AIO after 1Z polish, it'll remove stuff that the polish leaves behind. No reason to use it anyhow as the polishes leave things ready for your LSP (and/or will last a while all by themselves). The 1Z and Klasse approaches are basically either/or, but don't worry, the 1Z stuff is as easy to use as AIO IMO, maybe even *more* so. The only difference is that with the 1Z you a) work it longer so the abrasives break down, and b) can let it dry completely before buffing it off without running into issues that you can sometimes have if you let AIO dry completely. No foolin, 1Z is *that* user-friendly

 

[zingyginger]

Accumulator,



My sunlight silver 07 Mazda3 was also made in Japan so it's good to know that one of the 1Z's should work. Only thing is I'm trying to stick to sealants for now and I thought the 1Z paint polish adds wax. Isn't KAIO a mild polish that helps KSG or AJT to bond to the paint? If so, I figured, cleaning any waxy residue from the 1Z should prepare the surface for AJT (I chose this over KSG because of the ease of application). If 1Z paint polish is a standalone product that does not require an LSP then this should be a non issue. Hopefully I have time to sort it out since the paint's in decent shape.



A bigger concern at the moment is a few rust blooms on my 6 week old baby. It's a daily driver parked outdoors at night. I don't know if it's rail dust or fallout. I got it clayed and sealed the same week I bought it but I'm not sure how thorough these guys were. I used sonus green to clay out most but a few are a little stubborn and I don't want to risk using sonus gray. I sealed them off with KAIO/AJT but I'm trying to decide between repeated spot claying (risk marring) vs. cleaner wax (saw a thread on someone who used one of megs on rust spots) vs paint decontaminant (ABC sounds better but how often can it be used without risk to the car/glass/me?). I might post this as a separate thread but wanted to hear about your thoughts on the subject, since I don't have a hose to rinse off ABC.

 

[Accumulator]

Accumulator,



My sunlight silver 07 Mazda3 was also made in Japan so it's good to know that one of the 1Z's should work. Only thing is I'm trying to stick to sealants for now and I thought the 1Z paint polish adds wax. Isn't KAIO a mild polish that helps KSG or AJT to bond to the paint? If so, I figured, cleaning any waxy residue from the 1Z should prepare the surface for AJT (I chose this over KSG because of the ease of application). If 1Z paint polish is a standalone product that does not require an LSP then this should be a non issue...

The 1Z and sealant approaches are, IMO incompatible. If you clean off the 1z's waxes/etc. it'll probably expose residual marring...:think: To be honest, I'd rethink the sealant approach and use Collinite wax instead. I only use sealants on vehicles that I can get/keep basically perfect, but yeah, that includes my Mazda (but then I have different facilities I can avail myself of).



If you really want to use a sealant, I'd skip the 1Z. On my MPV, I use the discontinued, but still available if you look around (do an internet search), 3M PI-III Rubbing Conpound 05933 and PI-III Machine Glaze 05937. Don't worry about the names, both work OK by hand and both are mild and user-friendly. Changeling has plenty, he might be willing to sell you some, I'd PM him if interested.

A bigger concern at the moment is a few rust blooms on my 6 week old baby. It's a daily driver parked outdoors at night. I don't know if it's rail dust or fallout. I got it clayed and sealed the same week I bought it but I'm not sure how thorough these guys were. I used sonus green to clay out most but a few are a little stubborn and I don't want to risk using sonus gray. I sealed them off with KAIO/AJT but I'm trying to decide between repeated spot claying (risk marring) vs. cleaner wax (saw a thread on someone who used one of megs on rust spots) vs paint decontaminant (ABC sounds better but how often can it be used without risk to the car/glass/me?). I might post this as a separate thread but wanted to hear about your thoughts on the subject, since I don't have a hose to rinse off ABC.

I don't know how you'd do the ABC without access to a hose. Better skip that idea unless you can do it somewhere else that does have a hose/etc. If you *do* find a hose/shade, ABC isn't nearly as scary as it might sound, milder than I was expecting, by a mile.



ClayMagic Blue might be a great compromise between the Sonus green (too mild) and the Sonus gray (yeah, beware marring).



The cleaner-wax will be milder than the suggested polishes, and the chemical cleaners in cleaner-waxes are so mild as to be inconsequential IMO.



Best you can do IMO, without the ABC, is to try the claying/polishing and hope for the best.