What to use as paint cleaner?

Z

zimmerDN

New member
I am new at waxing cars and detailing. I am still in the process of getting all the detailing products I will need. Right now I am looking for a paint cleaner for the step before apply the wax (Mothers Reflection on a dark color car, car will be clayed bar after the wash).





I have someone recommanded me the AIO but others made the comment that it won't hide defects as good as others like 1ZPP. Remember I will be doing everything by hand.



The car is 1 year old never been waxed and have minor scratches from washing. I have bought ScratchX already to repair some hairline scratches that are deeper and get the paint off my car that's left behind by other cars when they dinged my door.



So please tell me what I need to prep the paint before waxing.
 
Something with both abrasives and fillers, that's also easy to use by hand (well, relatively speaking ;) ) should fit the bill. 1Z PP and Meg's #80 both come to mind. They'll clean the paint, abrade away some of the marring, and help hide whatever's left. Top with your wax and it'll pretty good.
 
Megs #9 or poorboy's pro-polish. Keep in mind that pro-polish contains no oils/fillers and is best at removing oxidation and giving the paint a squeaky clean finish. It's more of a chemical cleaner. Some people prefer to use a cleaner with no oils/fillers so they can see the paint for what it really is before they proceed with the polishing or waxing step.
 
zimmerDN said:
I thought #80 was mostly for PC and not for applying by hand. At least that's what ppl here told me.
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I normally use #80 with my pc because it is so much faster but it also works just fine by hand. The product doesn't need much heat to break down the diminishing abrasives.
 
I've found Meguiar's Medallion Premium Paint Cleaner is wonderful. Unfortunately it's being discontinued. I bough two bottles from Autopia in their garage sale section for less than 10 bucks a bottle.
 
Take a good look and see how much defects your car really has. If its to your satisfaction then just use AIO. You can use Sctrach X as a cleaner as its no harsher than #80. Scratch X is rather costly as a whole car cleaner and you can purchase #9 locally which is $10 for 16oz. As far as ordering product there is so many like #80, SSR1, VM, IP, FP, 1ZPP. IMO all cleaner works well the only difference is how abrassive you need them and user friendliness. I'm a fan of Menzerna, 1Z, and Meguiars Professional but I use a PC.
 
Everyone here's been telling me it's a crazy idea to polish the entire car by hand with #80. I am beginning to think I should just stick with some kind of filler to fix the scratches for now until I get a PC.



If I end up using fillers... what about the oxidation on the paint? I am not even 100 percent what oxidation really means anyway.
 
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