MY baby.. washed and waxed.

[Rmuth25]

i'm afraid to ruin the paint if i clay bar improperly i hear you can really ruin paint that way. tahnks for the rainx advice..i'll try next time its warm out.

Clay Bar followed up with a Wax is just about the greatest thing ever for a black car. I just did it to my coupe like 3 weeks ago(its black as well), and whenever I wash it it looks like there is a fresh coat of wax on there. Also, its pretty straightforward as well. I was really freaking out about all of the swirl marks and micro marring scratches on my car, but once I did the clay treatment, and the 3 step wax you only notice it in direct sunlight. I think I did get a "slight" case of orange peel, but its not too bad.

I got the meringuers kit, which was like 20 bucks, and that comes with 2 clay bars, the quick detailer spray and a microfiber towel. All you do is just spray the surface and rub the clay bar(which is more like putty) till it slides really smooth, then if there is alot of dirty on the bar just fold it up to get to a clean surface. Ive done my car once and my moms and Im guessing the bar still has about 2 more cars left in it before I have to switch to the new one.

From here on out I am going to do a clay bar before waxing though since it picks up little particles that in part cause those damn spiderscratches/swirl marks. Even though they are pretty much inevitable. Next time I wash my car, probably next weekend Ill post up some picks so you can see what a black altima coupe looks like after a clay treatment

[Shift_Altima]

So ur saying clay bar is idiot proof? Just spray quick detailer and rub teh clay until its smooth and then wipe off the left over detailer and ur done?

[Shift_Altima]

oh. whats orange peel btw?

[niztec]

i think you should clay bar your car atleast twice a year, anymore i think its over doing it. after using the clay bar, follow up with PURE Carnuba wax, not the cleaner type wax.

i use mothers step 2 and 3 as our cars are new and we dont need step 1...

[LongBeachCoupe]

you need to do some serious searching for washing techniques... on youtube you can see videos of most... for instance.. do you know what a grit guard is? Anyways, dont worry about the drop man lol.. im on 245/35/20 and yes its a 35+ with no rubs... im actually a little over diameter so you should be MORE than fine.

[Rmuth25]

oh. whats orange peel btw?

its hard to explain. I mean I think whats on my car is what they consider orange peel. Like how an oranges surface is not smooth its has a bunch of little indentations in it that is how reflections look off my car if you look really really close at it. However, I like that look ALOT better then the tons of spider scratches/swirls that were so noticeable before I did the clay bar treatment. I will take a picture of it this weekend so you can see. Bottom line is its not bad at all though.

And yea, using a clay bar is pretty much idiot proof. I am no expert detailer by any stretch of the imagination, and it was very easy for me to do.

[Rmuth25]

So ur saying clay bar is idiot proof? Just spray quick detailer and rub teh clay until its smooth and then wipe off the left over detailer and ur done?

Yep. Just spray the surface and rub the clay bar till it glides over the surface. Which wont be much since the car is new. I did my moms car (2006 Mercury Mariner), and the surface picked up a lot more gunk then it did on my altima coupe. Then just wipe it off. Just make sure that once the surface of the claybar seems to have alot of gunk in it you just fold it and kneed it to get a new clean surface. I was a little intimidated when I did it for the first time, but its really not bad at all. I try not to do an area larger then a door either. Again Ill take some pictures of my car next time I wash it so you can see how it looks.

[Rmuth25]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...lated

video on clay bar

[Shift_Altima]

y carnuaba wax?? I can use the regular paste wax rite?? I use turtle wax and meguiars liquid wax..... why do i need carnuba?

[Shift_Altima]

ok. to make it easy here are my 2 qutesions:

1) can i use any normal wax or does it have to be carnuba wax?2) after i finish clay barring.. should i rinse the car off entirely or go straight to waxing?

[MisfitBrian]

ok. to make it easy here are my 2 qutesions:

1) can i use any normal wax or does it have to be carnuba wax?2) after i finish clay barring.. should i rinse the car off entirely or go straight to waxing?

1) For your car, Meguiars NXT wax & top it off with a good carnuba or Meguiars #26 hi-tech wax(only because the NXT doesn't last very long.2) If you use quick detailer with your clay bar, you can go straight to waxing.

[PJPrunesti]

First i would like to give you props on the car and a great "wax job", i must say even though black needs a lot of attention to keep clean, in the end it will look the best. Now im not saying this is true but i was told by a auto detailing shop that when you get a new car, you shouldn't wax it until after the first 6 months because the paint is still considered fresh and chemicals within the wax can hurt the paint...not sure though, just sharing something i heard that may be usefull.

[Shift_Altima]

Thanks man! Don't wry.. i got the car in august and this is the frist wax i did. so it has been a while. I'm doing my next wash wax clay soon. but i curbbed 2 of my rims last night

[MisfitBrian]

Now im not saying this is true but i was told by a auto detailing shop that when you get a new car, you shouldn't wax it until after the first 6 months because the paint is still considered fresh and chemicals within the wax can hurt the paint...not sure though, just sharing something i heard that may be usefull.

That used to be the case, but now they're baked at the factory. From Meguiars.com"A new car with a factory paint job can be waxed the moment it is rolled out of the manufacturing plant. Cars that have factory paint jobs are cured at much higher temperatures, sometimes as high as 300 degrees in special baking ovens. At a factory level, the car goes through the painting and baking process without any of the rubber, plastic, and cloth components installed. This is why they can expose the car and it's fresh paint to such high temperatures. These high temperatures and special paints used at the factory level insures the paint is fully cured by the time the car is completely assembled.

After-market paint finishes however, are cured at a much lower temperature to ensure the method of baking or heating the paint doesn't melt non-metal components such as wiring and vinyl. For this reason, it's best to follow the specific paint manufactures recommendations for care and maintenance of fresh paint. Most paint manufactures that supply paint to the refinish industry recommend that you allow anywhere from 30 to 90 days curing time after the paint is applied before you apply the first application of wax."

[Rmuth25]

[Rmuth25]

[Rmuth25]

Theres some pictures of my coupe. Just some notes. If you look at that picture of my hood closeup with the reflection of the cloud you can see that its kindof blurryish. Thats what I think is what they call "orange peel" That being said thats better then a bunch of swirls. And I also took a picture of the bumper plugs i got to cover up the damn holes the dealer put on to put their damn license plate on