My car is getting on in years now - 10 years, 107k miles, and it is never parked in my garage - always parked in the drive, literally steps from the Atlantic Ocean and the salty, sand laden breezes that are cancer to a car's finish. Most people don't know this, but nothing to done to new cars to decontaminate and correct the finish after their traveling on ships, trains, and car carrier trucks on the way to the dealer. Therefore, your paint has NEVER been truly decontaminated - just washed and waxed at the dealer before they place it on the lot.

For regular maintenance, I use Griot's car wash, microfiber dry, and finish with Griot's Speed Shine every 2-3 weeks or more often depending on how dirty the car gets.

Every 6 months I do a cleansing wash and decontamination to strip the surface and inspect the paint. This is the best way to see the paint and judge for clarity, swirls, hazing, etc. That way I can decide how much correction is needed to restore it. This time, I saw just minor surface swirls in the clear coat and a simple finishing ream will correct that. But I also noticed some loss of depth, decreased clarity, and slight hazing on the hood, roof, and trunk lid. Finishing cream is not aggressive enough to remove that. It needed an actual correction. I did one slow pass with correcting cream and did another inspection. One pass with the correcting cream worked. If not, I would have done a second pass. Then I applied the finishing cream to remove any remaining faint swirls and leave behind a coating to protect the finish.

DAY ONE:
1) Chemical Guys Clean Slate Cleanser wash to deep clean surfaces
2) Carpro Iron-X treatment for chemical decontamination (horrible odor!)
3) Carpro Tar-X treatment for road grime decontamination
3) Chemical Guys Watermelon Snow Foam with Griot's Prep Mit for mechanical decontamination
4) Carpro Eraser again to one panel at a time before Griot's Correcting Cream (orange stripe)
5) Place car in garage overnight unless you want to complete in one day

DAY TWO:
7) Polish tail lamps and headlamps with Griot's Plastic Polish
8) Apply Griot's Finishing Sealant to headlamps and tail lamps
9) Griot's wheel cleaner to each wheel
10) Carpro Eraser to one panel at a time before applying Griot's Finishing Sealant
11) Clean windows inside and outside with Griot's Window Cleaner
12) Clean all rubber seals with Griot's Rubber cleaner and apply Griot's Vinyl / Rubber dressing
13) Apply Griot's Undercarriage Spray to wheel wells

Tools that I use:
Greenworks 1500 PSI 1.2 GPM pressure washer
Griot's BOSS G15 orbital with 5" and 3" backing plate
Griot's BOSS microfiber fast cutting pads 5.5" and 3" (for polishing)
Griot's BOSS microfiber standard pads 5.5" and 3" (for wax)
Griot's BOSS innerflex pad for 5.5" pads to assist in contours of panels
Griot's Fine Surface Prep Mit (more effective than clay bar and cleans easily if dropped)
Griot's Foam pad conditioning brush to clean microfiber pads after each panel.
Griot's PFM Terry Weave drying towel
Griot's Plastic polish (tail lights and headlamps)
Griot's Dual Weave glass towels
Griot's Window Cleaner
Griot's Rubber Cleaner
Griot's Vinyl / Rubber Dressing
Griot's Undercarriage Spray
Griot's Speed Shine
Griot's Speed Shine Towels
Griot's Car Wash
Griot's Wheel Cleaner
Chemical Guys MIC_708 microfiber towels with silk edges (polish and wax removal)
Chemical Guys MIC_495 Chenile wash sponge
Chemical Guys CWS 803 Clean Slate Surface Cleanse Wash
Chemical Guys CWS 208 Watermelon Snow Foam wash
Chemical Guys EQP_313 Torq Foam Cannon
Chemical Guys MIC_721 Miracle Dryer Towel
Carpro Eraser 1 liter
Carpro Iron-X 1 liter
Carpro Tar-X 1 liter
Impacto Gel Palm Anti-Vibration Gloves
SudMagic Boar Hair Detaling Brush Set
EZ Wheel Detail Brush
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