Critique..please

[melissa809]

Hey everyone



I have a white car...detailed it on Monday.....which involved me washing....claying using a Mother's clay bar as I found the sonus green wasn't agressive enough....and a paint sealant. I have to admit that while I DID buy a paint cleaner, I didn't use it for 2 reasons.



1...the clay got off all the rail dust

2....frankly, I'm scared I will eff up my paint



NOW..about the effing up my paint..lol...a couple of times, while I was claying, I got ahead of myself and some clay residue stuck to the car...as in, maybe I was being too cheap on the QD at that precise moment...lol..also, sometimes I would press hard if the "orange dots" weren't coming off, though most of the time I used plenty of QD



Okay....today, and this weekend it will be raining....and the lazy ******* that I am..haha...I didn't cover my car. WELL...I got this idea in my head that I must have marred the hell out of my paint so I go out to my car...in the rain...with some ONR QD and a microfiber and start checking "spots" on my car to see if I have marred the paint...so far, I seem okay...but the car is white...so



BUT...during this process, I notice some NEW rail dust accumulating.



Being that I have LOTS of time off from work...via a layoff...haha..I plan on detailing the car, once again, when the rain lets up....Monday, I think.





Guys....what should I do this time around for better results?...I have about a zillion products, btw. BUT I am VERY uncomfortable using any sort of power tool during a detail. Mind you, I have no problem using power tools anywhere else....haha



Also...the car is an 09....mostly covered...and it is a Ford.



Thanks

Melissa

 

[melissa809]

Also, should I look into buying the 3M hand glaze?...also, sorry for all the questions.....when I re-detail my car, being that I used a sealant last week, can I use a wax over it?



Also, last question, I promise..if I decide to use 3M hand glaze, I'm thinking I need to strip the car of the sealant I already applied. I keep reading NOT to use Dawn dish detergent. Is there a product you guys can recommend?...

Thanks

 

[uberyk]

you'll find most here are not very fond of glazes.

they fill in the imperfections in your paint to hide them.

but they don't last forever and in the end your imperfections are still there.

if you're really set on making your car virtually defect free then you'll need to polish via machine.



you can wash the car with a safe all purpose cleaner (Optimum Power Clean, Mequiars APC etc.) to strip the sealant.

You can also follow up with some IPA-mix wipedowns.

When the car doesn't bead at all is when you know you got all the sealant off.



as far as waxing over sealant, it's trial and error to find which combinations of sealant and wax look best but for the most part you can pretty much wax over most sealants without any ill effect.