Best practices for older daily-driver

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NJRadioGuy

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Hi all,
I have a city-driven Honda accord that's over 10 years old. It's not a showpiece by any stretch but I still want to give it some TLC. This is all very new to me and with so many competing products it's hard to know what steps I need to do or how often. I'm up in New Jersey and it's generally too cold to hand-wash all year so I use a car wash during the winter and spring months, then break out the two buckets in the warm months. Now it's time to detail and I have questions.

1) Having never detailed this car before, how aggressive should I be getting with polishes or compounds? When I've taken it to the car wash I usually opt for waxes but until today, it's never been clayed. Now it's time to polish. I have some liquid polishing compound, some V36 and V38 from Chemical guys that I used on my truck. Is this overkill, just right or not enough? There are a lot of scratches in the paint (it desperately needs a trip to the body shop and paint booth, but I can't afford it). I think a good number of these will buff out but I'm not sure what materials to use.

2) After finding out the right polishing path, what's a good easy-on/easy-off synthetic wax for this car? Again, it's not a show car, just a daily driver to and from work.

3) After waxing, do I need to do a sealing coat or will the wax suffice?

I have a Porter-Cable dual-orbit polisher, Chemical Guys hex pads (all 6 in a kit), a ton of microfiber cloths, V36, V38, Turtle Wax polishing compound, Zymol Cleaner-Wax and Surf City Garage 922 Black Edge Wax (for my black truck). What else should I be looking at, or is all this enough?

Thanks in advance!
 
I have almost the same situation and equipment as you: 10 year old DD (Prius), even bought same DA & same package of pads.


Advice I've read has been to start with the least aggressive first. So I'm actually trying a 1 step polish/wax, then seeing how that turns out. If not happy, will try multi step.
 
The Turtle Wax compound words always makes my heart skip a beat.....and not in a good way
 
Do a test spot with least aggressive product and pad combo first. Given it's 10 years old you will have to do a 2nd test spot. Based on the results of the test spots do the rest of the car accordingly. Best advice I can give.
 
The other obvious reason to be less aggressive is if, like me, you don't know ### you're doing. Can't do as much damage with milder products while you're learning.
 
V36 is a mild polishing compound , not too harsh at all. It will clean up the light scratches and swirls but won't get the deep ones. Do you have any microfiber cutting pads or just foam ?

It's just a daily so no reason going after every scratch but you can get great results with V36/38if you are willing to do a two step. However I'm not sure if you have enough orange and white pads those are all you need. Then maybe a black or red one to lay down some LSP.
 
idriveblackcars said:
V36 is a mild polishing compound , not too harsh at all. It will clean up the light scratches and swirls but won't get the deep ones. Do you have any microfiber cutting pads or just foam ?

It's just a daily so no reason going after every scratch but you can get great results with V36/38if you are willing to do a two step. However I'm not sure if you have enough orange and white pads those are all you need. Then maybe a black or red one to lay down some LSP.
Click to expand...

LSP?? Not sure what that is.
There are some deep scratches, lots of rough patches, bumpers scraped, etc. Like I said, it's a city car. It's been keyed on every panel into the base coat when we were in a bad neighborhood last year, but nothing I can do about that. I'm trying to get as much crud off it as I can. It's an '06 that has never been detailed so I think I probably need to be a bit aggressive.

I really don't know enough about polishes and it's insanely confusing for a non-car guy like me. I'm thinking something quite aggressive to get out as much as a Porter-Cable can get, then do 2 or 3 more passes with finer polishes then a wax coat. But again, I'm so new at this I'm quite paralyzed by marketing and packaging. I don't mind going to town on it this one time, then just doing basic maintenance for the rest of the summer.

At the moment the car is in the garage overnight after having been washed and clayed this afternoon. I intend to get to it again, weather permitting, later today or tomorrow. I don't mind a trip to the store if I know what I'm buying and what the result should look or feel like.

Also, could someone please explain the difference between $15 Zymol cleaner wax and the $55 Zymol Carbon paste wax? Again, I'm swimming in options, not knowing what any of them are for. Then there are sealants, glazes, blah blah blah. Help?!?!?!

Thanks to all!!
 
LSP= Last step product (wax, sealant, coating)

Cleaner waxes will have very mild polishing/abrasive quality along with a LSP/wax

A paste wax, will have zero abrasion and only contains wax (no such thing as pure car wax, I know)

Sealants are a synthetic LSP that usually contain no organic wax. (Unless a hybrid wax/sealant)

Glazes usually fill scratches and give a good shine but have little to no correcting properties. Think of glazes as make up or cover up. The scratches are still there.
 
I have a beater pickup truck that's in equally terrible condition. I would clay it then rinse it down and spray it with CarPro Hydro2 Touchless Silica Sealant, spray on car wax Hydro2. No need for any other waxes or sealants or any of that jazz. Protects paint, glass, trim, wheels, brightwork etc... and doesn't break the bank.

If you want to compound, do it after claying. Then give another quick wash to remove polishing oils and use the Hydro2.
 
It sounds to me like an all in one (AIO) would be your best option. There are many choices ( I like Optimum Poly Seal on a Lake Country Green CCS pad). If after you try the AIO and want to further refine your finish, you can go from that baseline. Beware once you get the bug of trying new products and pad combos, it's hard to stop.
 
Since you're just starting out here's a list of articles and videos by Mike Phillips that will help you out or you could just buy his book here at AG that will really answer all your questions--http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...722-car-detailing-articles-mike-phillips.html Just pick and choose the ones that apply to your questions. I think the idea of starting out using an All In One (AIO) is a good idea--HD Speed and McKees 37 360 would be two good ones to consider. If you are going to apply a sealant and a wax (but wax is not really needed after a good sealant) then apply the sealant first then top with wax. You might want to look into Finish Kare 1000p High Temp Paste Wax--it's really a sealant that is inexpensive, has fantastic self cleaning abilities, protection from bird bombs and should last six or more months on a properly prepared car.

You are going to need more than one pad of each color-trying to use one pad per step on an entire car is a sure road to failure and melted pads. Here's another article by Mike regarding the number of pads you will need. http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...-how-many-pads-do-i-need-buff-out-my-car.html
 
Well I went with just two steps--V36 and Zymol cleaner-wax. Didn't get much done in terms of correction but it looks better than it's looked for a while. Plus I already had the pads and products in my garage after having done my pride-and-joy black Tacoma two weeks ago. I wonder whether the blemishes/etc would buff out with a very aggressive cutting polish or whether they need a body shop.
 
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