Help with detail plan - 2017 Nissan Maxima

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dakotap

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So I just bought a 2017 Nissan Maxima in pearl white with 2200 miles on it. Overall the paint is in good condition but is rough to the touch, my drying towels drag feeling like sandpaper. I did a quick foam and wash and then foamed a coat of hydrofoam so I could go to work for the week. Help me come up with an attack plan.

I have heard that the paint is fairly soft on these cars and am worried about messing it up. My current plan is

Wash- foam cannon with Mr Pink and two bucket system.

Dry

Clay bar or Nanoskin

One step with HD speed or Griots garage finishing sealant (which one?) Or I have access to Meguires 205. Going to be using a griots garage da with 5.5" lake country CCS pads. Orange or green pads?

Finish it up with a coat of blackfire wet diamond and then maintenance with hydrofoam.

I have one stepped a couple cars but older ones a while back. Anything I'm missing here? Iron X before the clay?
Can you apply bfwd to gloss black wheels?

I'm wanting to maybe do a ceramic coating but I'm worried that it is more advanced than my skill at this point. Recommendations?

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Holy cow those cars have changed. Your plan(s) sound fine. Any of them should work; if it were me I'd go M205 followed with the Blackfire, but I haven't used either of the AIO's you mention.

You don't need to use the Iron X unless you want to; I guess there are two theories with that, using it first reduces what needs to be removed by the clay (depending on what the contamination is), and using it after removes sub-surface particles that have been sheared off by the clay.
 
If it were my car, I'd use the Iron-X, just to be on the safe side. Depending on where that car has been and how it's traveled, I'd not be shocked to see it bleed a little. Of the AIO's you mentioned, I've used HD Speed and love it. It gave me the slickest, most glossy finish I've gotten with any product. I topped it with Pinnacle Signature Series II, and it came out awesome.
 
In my experience, AIO's are a nice way to knock out two steps at once if the paint is in good shape, but they don't last very long. If you need/want to go with longer intervals between applying the LSP, I'd suggest using a dedicated polish to do the correction, and then top with a reputable sealant.
 
You can really adjust the amount of cut out of boss sealant with the more aggressive pads and it's a super easy process. The boss creams just do not dust like 205 does.
 
If you're going to use hydrofoam, do not use a polish that leaves behind protection. They won't work synergistically. Use M205, then wash with hydrofoam.

If you're going to use an AIO, I definitely prefer HD SPEED over Griot's Finishing Sealant.

Start with the green pad, then inspect. If you need more cut, use the orange pad. With an AIO, pads will load up fairly quick(especially the CCS pads), so have a good amount of fresh pads on hand.

You can use BFWD on wheels, but it won't last very long.

IronX before clay is always a good idea, but not NEEDED.


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Thanks for all the help. So it would not be suggested to top an AIO with say BFWD? I'm just trying to figure out a plan to keep it as protected as possible without major upkeep. What coating would you suggest for wheels?
Any thoughts on difficulty of using something like cquartz?

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dakotap said:
So I just bought a 2017 Nissan Maxima in pearl white with 2200 miles on it. Overall the paint is in good condition but is rough to the touch, my drying towels drag feeling like sandpaper. I did a quick foam and wash and then foamed a coat of hydrofoam so I could go to work for the week. Help me come up with an attack plan.

I have heard that the paint is fairly soft on these cars and am worried about messing it up. My current plan is

Wash- foam cannon with Mr Pink and two bucket system.

Dry

Clay bar or Nanoskin

One step with HD speed or Griots garage finishing sealant (which one?) Or I have access to Meguires 205. Going to be using a griots garage da with 5.5" lake country CCS pads. Orange or green pads?

Finish it up with a coat of blackfire wet diamond and then maintenance with hydrofoam.

I have one stepped a couple cars but older ones a while back. Anything I'm missing here? Iron X before the clay?
Can you apply bfwd to gloss black wheels?

I'm wanting to maybe do a ceramic coating but I'm worried that it is more advanced than my skill at this point. Recommendations?

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I would recommend starting off with the aggressive wash method to decontaminate the paint. It will save you some time.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/86146-aggressive-approach-washing-car.html

Then proceed with your polishing step. You have a couple options to do. HD Speed topped with Blackfire. The life of blackfire may not be as long as it is not necessarily bonding to the paint with the protection HD Speed leaves behind.

The other option is using M205 followed by Blackfire. I would consider investing in Blackfire Midnight Sun Carnauba Spray wax to maintain Blackfire Wet Diamond paint sealant. I am not sure how hydrofoam would react with the blackfire paint sealant.

BLACKFIRE Midnight Sun Spray Wax, spray car wax, aerosol wax

As stated you can use Blackfire on the wheels but it won't last long.

If you wish to try a paint coating Optimum Gloss Coat is super easy to apply. It's just as easy as applying that blackfire paint sealant. It can be applied to paint and wheels. Or you could look into CarPro Hydr02 for wheels.

Here's a good video of Mike discussing washing methods. Around the 10:30 mark Mike goes into detail on the aggressive wash method.

 
dakotap said:
Thanks for all the help. So it would not be suggested to top an AIO with say BFWD? I'm just trying to figure out a plan to keep it as protected as possible without major upkeep. What coating would you suggest for wheels?
Any thoughts on difficulty of using something like cquartz?

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Click to expand...
You can definitely top an AIO with BFWD.




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Setec Astronomy said:
Holy cow those cars have changed. Your plan(s) sound fine. Any of them should work; if it were me I'd go M205 followed with the Blackfire, but I haven't used either of the AIO's you mention.

You don't need to use the Iron X unless you want to; I guess there are two theories with that, using it first reduces what needs to be removed by the clay (depending on what the contamination is), and using it after removes sub-surface particles that have been sheared off by the clay.
Click to expand...
really? there are sub surface particles that are sheered off by clay? u sure about that? anf if there are sheered off particles are they removed by polishing or are they just stuck there forever unless you use ironx? that doesnt sound right to me i dont think the clay is sheering anything off
 
Detailsbydaniel said:
You can really adjust the amount of cut out of boss sealant with the more aggressive pads and it's a super easy process. The boss creams just do not dust like 205 does.
Click to expand...
ya but you can change the amount of cut of any polish by changing to a more aggressive pad not just the boss creams
 
I'm not sure about how clay works. I kinda think it has a shearing and/or abrasive effect. Neither of which remove subsurface contamination.
 
If you want to start out with a coating just one step it with CarPro Essence then use Pinnacle Black Label Paint Coating or McKees Paint Coating. This combo is so easy it makes you feel like you are cheating. I used PBL Coating on a daily driver and it's still holding up well after almost 2 years of almost no maintenance (not my car). You don't even have to do a wipedown after Essence, go straight to the coating. Done.
 
rlmccarty2000 said:
If you want to start out with a coating just one step it with CarPro Essence then use Pinnacle Black Label Paint Coating or McKees Paint Coating. This combo is so easy it makes you feel like you are cheating. I used PBL Coating on a daily driver and it's still holding up well after almost 2 years of almost no maintenance (not my car). You don't even have to do a wipedown after Essence, go straight to the coating. Done.
Click to expand...
Had never looked up essence before. Just checked out a review of it and it sounds really good and an easy to use option. Thanks.

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rlmccarty2000 said:
If you want to start out with a coating just one step it with CarPro Essence then use Pinnacle Black Label Paint Coating or McKees Paint Coating. This combo is so easy it makes you feel like you are cheating. I used PBL Coating on a daily driver and it's still holding up well after almost 2 years of almost no maintenance (not my car). You don't even have to do a wipedown after Essence, go straight to the coating. Done.
Click to expand...

You need to use essence on bare paint.


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I think I have decided to try my hand at a ceramic coating on it. The revised plan is wash and decontaminate with Iron X and then refoam with the cannon and use a fine nanoskin mitt, polish the minor swirls out with my DA with carpro essence on either orange or blue LC pad or Meguires microfiber finishing pad, then top with cquartz or cquartz UK. Not sure if I need the 30 or 50ml bottle yet. Two coats recommended?

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