have a bunch of products that confuse me

I

imported_georgia boy

New member
hey yall. i have a few bottles of stuff that i found in my friends garage that i took. im wondering which one should i use and how to use em. id also like to know what else i need. heres the list..



meguiars deep crystal paint cleaner

3m perfect rubbing compound fine cut

3m hand glaze

3m paste wax



i know whats up with the paste wax but im a lil confused about the first parts of detailin my ride. dose the rubbin compound remove swirls? if it dose do i need to use the meguiars paint cleaner? cos it says it removes fine swirls. and dose the hand glaze work as a polish? on the back of the rubbing compound bottle it says to finish it off with a polish.
 
I don't know anything about Meguiar's Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner so I can't help you there. Wait... I might have a bottle of this stuff... I'll look in a few.



The 3m's Perfect Rubbing Compound Fine Cut is good. It will take out sandpaper marks, scratches, and swirls from your paint but it will leave a haze on the surface that you will have to use a polish to remove. I suggest getting Meguiar's #9 or 3m's Swirl Mark Remover as a polish before you apply the paste wax. Be careful if you are using it with a buffer as it has silica in it.



If the 3M hand glaze is 3M's Imperial Hand Glaze, then it is a good product. You'll want to make sure you don't use too much of the product and make sure you really work it in.



3m's Paste Wax is also good. Use it after the glaze.



So, for a complete detail apply 3m's Rubbing Compound, then Meguiar's #9 or 3M's Swirl Mark Remover, then 3m's Hand Glaze, and then 3m's wax.



So, basically you did pretty good jacking products out of a friends garage. :D Now all you need is a polish and you'll have everything :p
 
Keep in mind that least aggressive product should be tried first. You'll have to help us out here with the suggestions that will come with a little more information. What color is the car? How does the paint look? Give the eBook a try, the 1st 8 chapters are free. But you'll want to read the rest of the chapters (you'll get hooked). 3m rubbing compound seems kind of aggressive.

[edit - I type to slow]
 
yotone said:
yah it is the Imperial hand glaze. is it not a polish? whats it for then?
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It does have mild abrasives in it but not too much to be enough. It is a glaze. It is made so it doens't contain any silicone so it can be used by a body shop on fresh paint. (Silicone will seal fresh paint and prevent curing). It will help hide imperfections and add gloss to the paint. Doesn't last long on its own but works well under a coat of wax.



Pecs_McCoy said:
Keep in mind that least aggressive product should be tried first. You'll have to help us out here with the suggestions that will come with a little more information. What color is the car? How does the paint look? Give the eBook a try, the 1st 8 chapters are free. But you'll want to read the rest of the chapters (you'll get hooked). 3m rubbing compound seems kind of aggressive.

[edit - I type to slow]
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It isn't too agressive especially if he is using it by hand. It will be fine if he uses it during his first detail on the vehicle to make sure he gets all the deep swirls out. He probably won't need it again after this detail and can just maintiain with Meguiar's #9 or 3m's SMR. He can then just spot compound with 3M's Fine Cut when he gets bad swirls.
 
i got a black 97 M3. its got sum swirls on it. has sum scratches which i put on it, i tried to take off bird **** off with a napkin. i didnt know what i was doing cos i just got the car a few days ago. so when should i use the glaze?
 
Your posts were quite detailed and so informative. But, what I was trying to get across without knowing the specific paint problems was to let it be known that use the least aggressive product to remove the defects first. If #9 or SMR removes the paint problem no need to use the more aggressive product.
 
yotone I think what intel was saying was use the rubbing compound if your car's paint is bad enough that it warrants it. When done this process willl leave a haze that will need to be removed with a polish. This will remove the haze and aid to fill/abrade away any light swirls The use the glaze this will give the paint more oils and make it shine better. Then you can top it with the wax. Good luck man!
 
I've always wondered, everyone says that glazes don't last long, but does that refer to the glaze alone? Because if you layered wax on top of it, then the wax would have to wear away before the glaze could possibly wear away right?
 
Neb said:
I've always wondered, everyone says that glazes don't last long, but does that refer to the glaze alone? Because if you layered wax on top of it, then the wax would have to wear away before the glaze could possibly wear away right?
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Correct on both accounts.
 
Pecs_McCoy said:
Your posts were quite detailed and so informative. But, what I was trying to get across without knowing the specific paint problems was to let it be known that use the least aggressive product to remove the defects first. If #9 or SMR removes the paint problem no need to use the more aggressive product.
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I get what you are saying :up



I'm just doubting that if this car hasn't be detailed before that Meguiar's #9 or 3M's SMR would remove the swirls especially if he is applying them by hand.



yotone said:
so i need to wash it, then use the rubbing compound, then polish, glaze then wax? god damn this seems like more work than i expected.
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You're right. It is a lot of work :)



I take my truck a panel at a time because I never have a full day to work on it. I'll have maybe an hour so I'll wash just a fender and compound, polish, wax it. I do this and just keep working around the vehicle panel by panel until it is done. Do a panel a day for two weeks and your vehicle will be done. Then you only have to maintain with regular glazing and waxing, which is pretty easy to do. (Or just waxing).



You then only have to polish and compound when you notice swirls that you don't like. You might have to do this once to three times a year depending on how much you abuse your vehicle. If you are like me you will probably need to do it once a month :p
 
yotone said:
so i need to wash it, then use the rubbing compound, then polish, glaze then wax? god damn this seems like more work than i expected.
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Nobody said detailing would be quick and simple. It is a lot of work - especially if you're doing this job by hand. It all depends on how much damage you have to fix.



I'm surprised no one's suggested this earlier, but the eBook or CMA's guides are a good place to start reading about how to approach your needs.
 
Having had experience with the damage that a beginning detailer can cause with rubbing compound, it seems that it might be a product better left out of the picture for a newbie.

If the paint is bad enough to need RC, it will also probably need a rotary buffer. Another thing he might want to stay away from. Meguiar's #9 is the only swirl remover I have used, but I'm sure the 3M swirl removers are similar. Since he already has 3M IHG and 3M paste wax, maybe using the 3M swirl remover, followed by the 3M IHG and finished with the 3M paste wax, might be a good way for yotone to start.

Who knows, he may get the bug and have a garage full of stuff in a year or so. Then again, if he doesn't care for all this, he didn't spend a lot of money or do any serious damage. Maybe even the Deep Crystal Paint cleaner would do the job as the first step, instead of buying swirl remover. No investment other than time.



Charles:nixweiss
 
I'm sorta with CharlesW on the rubbing compound issue. I know of FAR too many people who've messed up their cars with it. Works fine for me, but I've seen what it CAN do. Intel486, I'm just imagining a worst-case scenario with a black car.



yotone- I'd only try the rubbing compound on a SMALL area that has severe scratches already. See what you think as you try it. Go easy, REAL easy-you don't want to remove too much clearcoat (if you do, the only fix is a repaint, so this is very important). See if your deep crystal (or whatever SMR you try) removes the rubbing compound's hazing. If not, see if the IHG covers up what's left to your satisfaction.



The IHG is so gentle it won't really REMOVE any swirls, but it can hide some mild ones.



Yeah, it IS a big job to revive a car the first time (especially a black one), but it's a LOT easier to KEEP it nice. Welcome aboard.
 
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