Anyone have any comments?

[Shroomster]

ok my routine for my civic when i get to her anymore (poor girl)

is as follows:

-Ice car wash

- let a little water evaporate (need a little for the following steps)

- Turtle Wax rubbing compound (the little tub of red/brown rubbing compound)

- Turtle Wax Polishing compound ( the little tub of white polish compound)

- then once everything is off I eagle one spray wax her.


questions, comments, concerns?


I ask this only since that thread the other Jason (YarisSedan), opened about that guy who left bad swirls in his paint got a lot of flak. [yes, I'm a Jason too]

[tomato]

rubbing compound? on the whole car?

[counterfiend]

Sounds a bit off to me. If your doing this all by hand then you would be best off completely skipping the rubbing compound stage.
Wash
Clay
IF by hand (polishing)
wax

You will spend far too much time and probably not get the result you want by doing the rubbing compound then the polish. Cause you will have to work that much harder with the polish to remove the swirls and hologram-ming left by the rubbing compound.

[Shroomster]

Yeah im still doing it all by hand.

@Counterfiend : you saying replace rubbing compound with clay?

[Shroomster]

Yup still all by hand.

@tomato : what's wrong :p

@counterfiend : replace rubbing compound with clay bar? And keep polish after?

[counterfiend]

All I'm saying is you can get the result with doing the rubbing compound then polish all by hand, but it will take FOREVER to do it right and actually get legit results you want, and your arm will be DEAD 1/2 way through.
For 95% of the population a good clay (to prep the paint properly) and a polish is more then enough. Before you kill yourself and your arm try a little test.
Get some painters tape, put it on say the hood. On one side (up to the tape) do just the polish, and on the other do the rubbing compound and polish. Check the results and decide if its worth the good full day of work.

And I know people are going to come in here and say "blah blah blah, it wont take all day to do all that by hand" and No it it wont take all day to do it by hand if you do it wrong and half ass it.

[Shroomster]

oh it usually takes me like 3 hours or so, just for the rubbing/polish.....it feels good knowing its done right.

[toad]

is it necessary to clay EVERY time you wax? i'm only asking because i've read on meguiar's site you only have to clay once or twice a season depending on conditions. i was thinking of the following:
wash(weekly)
clay(once every 3-4 months)
polish(monthly)
wax(monthly)
detail(weekly)

does this sound right?

[bzinn 1]

I dont clay every time I wax,but probably 4 times a show season at best.

As for the original poster,that Turtle wax rub comp has a lot of cut in it and if you use it a lot you will quickly wear through the clear coat......

Use the rub comp for large scratches,then work with polish,give a few differant grits of polish a try......

Once you have the car polished use good wax and take your time.I tend to just polish and wax say once a month durning show season and the paint stays pretty clean.

At season end use a paint cleaner to get out the wax,and down to the paint,then clay,then polish then wax with a couple of coats,this will help get through winter months.

[counterfiend]

Not to be a jerk but doing it CORRECTLY by hand will take more then 3 hours to actually do it right. Using a DA (machine) it takes longer then 3 hours to do the cutting right. Not to mention the extra 1.5-2 hours at least for polishing.
So just spend all your time with polish, skip the rubbing compound and spend the extra time on the polish.

[Red Horse]

Just wait for the rain to wash your car.

[Shroomster]

lol ok I'll quit the rubbing compound then.....