Question about car detailing

[orangeLegos]

Hello, I am new to this site (first car site) and I'm also new to working with cars and I want to make my car look new and all waxed up. I have a few scratches (my car is a 2001 white Toyota Camry). Would all these steps that I have listed below a good order and products for me to do/use? Please answer in detail, since I know NOTHING about cars/detailing. This is in the exact order that I want to do. Is this the right order? Would I need to add anything else?

1. Rinseless wash

2. Clay the car with Mothers Cali Gold Clay Bar

3. Correct (only the scratches)(Sand with 2000, followed by Meguiars Ultimate Compound)

4. Polish (Duragloss Marine Polish and cleaner(501))

5. Wax (Duragloss Aquawax #951)

I would also love to know the wait time between each process and what to do about deeper scratches, do i sand those too?

 

[natesmobiledetailing]

Well since this is your first post :welcome: to AGO

In my opinion and I've been detailing for a few years, is that if you have no experience in detailing then doing any kind of paint correction is completely at your own risk.

It can take a long time and a lot of practice to learn how to safely remove defects from paint. If you are willing to risk making a problem worse by practicing on your own car then more power to you. I was fortunate enough to be trained on how to properly buff and polish on cars other than mine. If you do decide to do it yourself you can never have enough information and this site has many how-to videos and many helpful people.

With all that being said, in my opinion if you just want to clean up your daily driver then I would skip #3, and #4, and just do the rest. As far as the rinseless wash goes just follow the directions very carefully and take your time. Or you can just go the more traditional route and use a standard car wash type product.

You could accomplish all of this in an afternoon, but as far as the defects go, your at your own risk, and I recommend leaving the correction to a professional. Hope this helps.

Good luck and once again welcome to Auto Geek Online!!

 

[Detail_Dude]

3. Correct (only the scratches)(Sand with 2000, followed by Meguiars Ultimate Compound)

Welcome to AGO!!! I got the bug several months ago and am now hooked, lined nad sunk

Regarding your 'sanding' step, I suggest not 'sanding' anything if you are truly new to car paint care. Leave that to the pros or practice on a junk car first to learn the process.

Alternatively, if you are content with temporary improvements, consider applying a glaze to try filling some of the lighter imperfections (swirls, etc.).

 

[-z yaaaa-]

only advice i can give is on the mother's clay bar. its a bit small and gives my hands cramps doing an entire car. it works well and gets the job done though.

i suggest getting a larger clay bar like a wolfgang 200 gram one. they sell them here. you can get a kit with towels and the lubricant included as well.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

3. Correct (only the scratches)(Sand with 2000, followed by Meguiars Ultimate Compound)

If you're new to detailing the last thing you want to be doing is sanding on your car's finish. Here's what I always type...

"Sanding is easy, that's putting scratches into the paint... the tricky part is getting them out"
​

What you want to do is to machine buff the paint with either a compound or a polish and remove all the light or shallow swirls and scratches and then learn to live with the deeper scratches.

I'm guessing this is your "Daily Driver" and not a "Show Car" that will be on display? If that's true then keep in mind even if you remove all the deeper scratches they will likely just be inflicted back into the finish in the future from normal tear-n-wear. So aim for removing the shallow scratches and your car will still look amazing.

Even on this car there were deeper scratches, also called RIDS, Random Isolated, Deeper Scratches in the finish that I did NOT try to remove.

Removing Swirls out of Ceramiclear Paint

I moved my finger back and now you can see my fingerprint...

Note to self, next time either leave finger in one place or wipe-off finger print :laughing:

Of course it does indicate very in-focus shots.

I would also love to know the wait time between each process

No need to wait in-between products, apply, work, wipe-off move onto the next product.

The only products that normally need to dry are waxes and paint sealants and then there are some of these that don't need to dry too...

Always read the directions on the label as the manufacture will tell you whether or not the product needs to dry after applying.

 

[orangeLegos]

Wow thanks everyone who replied, you are all very helpful.

I guess I won't sand the scratches then. I bought ScratchX2.0 since there are some nail scratches under my door handle, would that be before or after using aquawax? And I thought using two waxes, in this case the 501 and aqua, would be a good thing?