Hi guys,

30% off Meguiars locally due to oncoming winter

So what I want to know is what product (preferable polish and wax in one ) to buy to shine up my white BA. Otherwise I'm happy to do the polish and put Ultimate Wax over the top. The rest below is just the background info to give an idea of where I'm at!

I don't have the paint code as currently not near the car, will be shortly. The paint is in good condition, it is quite shiny from a distance, but up close the paint looks very slightly dull.

Please correct any/all mistakes and/or misconceptions below!

I believe it seems to be a solid colour, not clear-over-base.

When I received the car it had not been cleaned for a long time but had always been garaged. As a result the grime seemed to have 'baked in' or penetrated the paint especially on the side panels. However since I got at it that grime has been removed and the paint/colour matching appears fine (except where someone got at it with some mismatched colour touchup paint) with no more baked-in grime.

All products Meguiars unless stated otherwise. All products applied (where applicable) with a Meguiars applicator foam pad and removed with a (generic Costco-sourced) microfibre cloth. All done by hand, no machine work.

The procedure I have previously used went something like this:
* Wash (Ultimate wash & Wax) x2
- noticed grime wasn't coming off, hmm.

* Polish/protect with Wet Look Cleaner Wax
- better and well protected. Lot of grime came off but still some areas came up grimy/discoloured

Start again with everything...
* Wash
(* Paint Cleaner may have been used here to remove the wax))
* Clay Bar (a cheap one, seems to be chewing gum, now obtained a Meguiars but not used, hopefully better). This took some doing and removed a lot of contamination. Might even have done it twice.
* Meguiars Deep Crystal paint cleaner
* Meguiars Clear Coat Safe Polishing compound (wondering if this is not as fine as I should be using?)
* Meguiars Wet Look Cleaning Wax
(that all took at least 2-3 hours)

The Cleaning wax is an excellent product, it removes minor imperfections without seeming to remove too much paint and puts a durable protective coat on. With the car garaged most of the year and driven little it lasts a whole year beading water. I'm happy to stay with that if necessary.

Yes I appear a bit of a Meguiars tragic but that's not because of any misplaced loyalty, over the past ~20 years I've found their products work as described and up until the past few years they have been the most complete brand/system readily available locally.

I think I did some before/after photos or even a thread, if I find it I'll post a link.

Now gotta get driving (in something else) up to the car!

Cheers,
Patrick

I followed the steps you mentioned above but slightly different. When washing, go for the two bucket method, one with your shampoo other just plain water to rinse wash mit after each swish on the car, really does make a huge difference, I also got ultimate compound step before claying.
Also try to stick to same brand type, I.e gold class, ultimate, nxt . They are designed to compliment each other well. I also found Tha washing at the end of the day when its slightly cooler works a treat also.
Biggest tip though would be to drop Howie a pm, he's a Maguire's dealer and have a look through his thread, stunning is not high enough praise, he puts us all to shame.

THanks smurf182,

I was kinda hoping Howie would comment but I will take your sound advice and stick to one range I think.The paint cleaner and the cleaner wax are the "Deep Crystal" type if I remember correctly so will probably stick with that type. The Ultimate wash/wax (think Ilisted it as gold class) is the (mostly finished) bottle from my other cars stored elsewhere.

I just wish Meguiars didn't have so many seemingly overlapping ranges: Ultimate, Gold Class, Deep Crystal, nXt (NxT?) then there's the professional series...

Thanks,

Patrick

Meguiars also do a Light wax , especially for light or white coloured cars.

Thanks Stu.13,

unfortunately that product isn't sold in Oz as far as I can tell.

Thanks,

Patrick

Thanks smurf182, I've taken your advice. I'm sticking with the 'ultimate' series. I acquired a Meguiar's clay bar kit, Ultimate compound and Ultimate polish. I already have the Ultimate wash-n-wax and Ultimate liquid wax.

Now I was able to get to the car over the past couple of weeks. I therefore performed the following steps with the following results:

1) Wash the car with Ultimate wash-n-wax.
Result was it was already clean and the beading was excellent anyway. The 'wetlook' products- esp the cleaner wax- had done a very good job. The paint was still already smooth to touch so this ended up being a cursory step to get rid of any surface dust. However the finish still was a bit 'dull' and there were evident scratches, swirl and spider marks in various areas. My hope is to get rid of these as much as possible.

2) Clay Bar
Result was removal of minimal surface contaminants- especially compared to the last time a year or two ago! Very happy with that.

3) Ultimate Compound
Now the treatment begins in earnest. This treatment obviously had an effect on the surface because it was no longer smooth afterwards. However I'm not sure as to the efficacy in removal of scratches and other light-duty surface marks. The other problem is how effective and even my hand application was given it was done in a garage after dark under artificial light. Buffing off revealed surface imperfections remained, and the application was uneven (as you would expect with hand application)

4) Ultimate Polish
Now this was hopefully to correct any issues remaining. Whilst it did help I fear that the results after this step will still show unevenness in application. Again applied under artificial lighting indoors. I'm beginning to think I may have done more harm than good in reducing the finish evenness. Furthermore a large number of the issues remain- scratches, swirls, spider webbing. Hmmm.

5) Ultimate Liquid Wax- OOPS! Pending!!!
Unfortunately I found I had left my ultimate wax behind at home. This was both unfortunate and OK- unfortunate 'cos I couldn't finish the job but OK 'cos it was late and I was quite tired after at least 4 goings over of the car with various processes by this stage. So it will just have to wait until my next trip up- this weekend. However this will be able to be done outside, I may be able to correct things under natural light before the wax.

I'll post some pics of the products and various steps when I can and let you know of the outcome with the final waxing step.

Patrick

Well I managed to get back to the car the weekend before to finish up with the waxing (just been a bit tardy with the pics). I also managed to get to the external plastics with the plastic restorer, in particular I did the scuttle which hadn't been done before (read: I missed it) which looks a whole lot better than before.

Anyways, some pics follow: not the best, but you get the idea and there's only so much you can do with a basic white anyway

Products used upto Ultimate Polish (Ultimate Wax and Wash-n-wax missing)


Post Ultimate Polish:
Pretty good.


Post Ultimate wax- well that was entertaining! SOOooo...I turn up to find there's a local major backburn in the area and the smoke's straight across where the car's at. Last thing you want on a newly polished but unwaxed white car- black soot and ash!

Anyway I waited a while and the smoke cleared so I got a good polish done outside on a lovely warm autumn afternoon...as the clouds built (no, really). By the time I'd finished the wax and then the plastic restoration I decided to run the vehicle 'around the block' to keep everything in running condition. Of course this took place under a looming dirty great wet-looking cloud at dusk and I only just managed to make it back with approx 3 drops on the windscreen. Still all's well that ends well...

I'll try to take some better pictures (e.g. with reflections) sometime.



So I reckon that's the best I can do- maintenance from now on! Any extra fixes to the paint (like to home-spray-canned areas) would require professional-type work which I'm disinclined to spend the money and time on.

I might do a follow-up post now I've run over the same car with two different sets of Meguiars- the "Deep Crystal" set and the "Ultimate" set- comparing the two sets.

Cheers,
Patrick

Wow, she looks superb, nice work. One thing I tend to do is alternate washed with, gold class wash and then wash n wax(the yellow one), keeps a really nice shine. I've also discovered the megs gel wash.
I've also heard good things about a ceramic glaze, I'm guessing that's an alternative to the final wax stage......very confusing I know, and also a bit anal....but we do love yo polish lol

She does look great, really good work.

The Ultimate range should last longer than the Deep Crystal, but both give good results, I started my Megs addiction with the Deep Crystal, then moved to NXT and Ultimate.
The Ultimate wax also has some fine polish built in too.
I would also recommend the Ultimate Wash and Wax Anywhere (waterless wash) to keep in the car for spot cleaning any bird marks etc.

Thanks Smurf182 and Howie!

Firstly I forgot the pic of the products so that's now been added to my above post.

(DISCLAIMER ON)
Now I'm not a Meguiar's agent, employee or shareholder nor have I any other known vested interest in the company. I've simply found their products work as described and have stuck with them for that.
(DISCLAIMER OFF)

I've used the Soft wash gel (hot pink coloured one) previously for many years, in conjunction with a product called "Deep Crystal Wet look Polymer Sealant". I used these on a bright blue car (I used to call it "stark raving blue" ) and they just about made it fluorescent. You could see it glow in a carpark and there was no mistaking it coming up the road. I miss that polymer sealant, the only drawback was it didn't last too long- max one month. I suppose it may have needed a wax over the top, but the product didn't seem to indicate this.

And yes Howie I started with those "Deep Crystal" products too... about 21 years ago now! I'd tried another polish/wax to find it very difficult to apply/remove... once I'd tried the polymer sealant (bought on special with the wash if I remember rightly) and found it was easy on/off and performed as described, I was sold! Been using Meguiars for washing/polishing/waxing primarily ever since.

I'll look into that Ultimate Wash and Wax anywhere...that should complete the collection! I assume it's not the same as the 'quick detailer' that came with the clay bar?

Many thanks,

Patrick

I am a Meguiar's addict, became hooked from advice on this great forum, the more I tried, the better my F looked.
Now only use Meg's on my F, firstly for the results and secondly as I am an Ultimate Stockist, it is only honest to show what can be achieved with what I sell.

I have found the Ult wash and wax anywhere is much safer and less liable to leave fine scratches,
and have used it to fully clean the F at shows, after 4 hours driving through revolting wet filthy weather.