DamonB

My FD is daily driven. A few years ago it was hit in the left side and I had both the left and right sides repainted (I payed extra to have dings in the right side fixed at the time). So the fenders and doors have newish paint but all the horizontal surfaces were original. I had some stains in the clearcoat I couldn't get out along with some light surface scratches from working on the car often. There was also a slight blemish where the new and old paint meet at the tops of the B pillars. I figured having the car professionally buffed would cure all of this but before that I wanted to try to do it myself.

I started using a Mother's clay bar a few years ago and highly recommend it. I've heard some horror stories but used correctly it really does pull the dirt out of the paint and does so easily. I can clay my FD in about an hour and do so about once a year. The clay bar will remove the far majority of pollutants from the paint but does nothing for scratches. I wouldn't bother claying a car that wasn't at least a few years old and outside often, it just won't need it in those cases.

I have always had issues with wax. I wash my daily driven car so often wax never lasts more than a couple months at best, no matter what wax or car wash soap I use. I've been looking to try new things but I wasn't going to think about spending money on $$$ wax without getting the surface scratches out first; seemed pointless. There are plenty of products that fill the scratches and make them look gone until it eventually washes off but I actually wanted them physically gone. These scratches were light and only in the clear coat, but in bright sun they were obvious. The other most obvious thing was where the paint was blended.

So I'm at the Dallas Auto Show a few months ago and in the vendor area there's these guys giving a demo of their paint care products on a wrecked car. I've seen them there every year and was somewhat familiar with them. Long story short the demo and pitch seem really interesting but at the same time you're always reminded of those "Call now and we'll send you not one, but TWO brand new made in China widgets. We'll even throw in two free hoopties for only $19.95!" type ads. I asked the guy a bunch of questions and bought it. The show special was $30 for a big bottle of sealant, some polishing compound, car wash soap and Rain-X type glass sealer. I was most interested in the polishing compound (there's easily enough product left that I could polish and wax 4 more times easily.)

So Sunday I washed the car and clayed it. Then I tried the polishing compound inside the radiator inlet to make sure nothing bad was going to happen. It looked fine so I started doing the trouble spots on the car. Man did it work! Just by hand I removed all the scratches and the blends in the paint (I didn't want to use a power buffer as I have never used one and didn't want to learn now). The deeper the scratch the more elbow grease it takes but I was able to get all the scratches out of the clear and yet there are no swirl or scratch marks left behind from the compound itself. It just looks perfect! Couldn't ask for anything better. I finished up with the trouble spots and then polished the entire car. That took me a couple hours of hard work since I was doing it by hand but the results were worth it.

Last step was applying the "wax". It's not really a wax but a sealant. The vendor claims this same product is what all new car dealers are using. I don't know if that's true but the depth of shine is great and it just has that smooth, slick feel. How long will it last? That I will have to wait and see. It's supposed to last a year but with as much washing as I do if it lasts half that I will be happy.

At this point I couldn't be happier as the results exceeded my expectations. I get no money for this plug but if your paint is no longer perfect I can highly recommend going to www.tfppolymer.com and buying the micro polish and the sealant. Worked for me

The only persistant trouble spot I have now is the front bumper. It's like it just refuses to get clean anymore; it's slightly cloudy. It's more obvious now that the rest of the car looks great so I'm going to see about having just that area professionally done.

911GT2

Very nice, sounds like a great product. How do you know this stuff didn't just fill in the scratches like a normal wax would though? I guess we'll have to wait and see how it holds up after a few weeks. Sounds promising though.

DamonB

I specifically asked the salesman that question and he assured me the polishing compound is in fact just that: It is not a filler but a polish which will "knock down" the surface to make it smooth again. The polish need only be used for scratches and oxidation, after that's done the sealer is applied. The polish is certainly not strong enough to remove something like a stone chip, it is not agressive at all. Each problem area took a few minutes of work by hand to clear up.

When using the polish you can see the scratches fade out as you work the elbow grease. It's like using sandpaper on something, you can see it work a little at a time. The deeper scratches take more rubbing to remove them so it honestly does seem to remove slight amounts of material as opposed to filling. I looked very closely in bright sun and the scratches certainly appear to be gone, not merely filled.

The slight haze where the new paint was feathered in is gone too. I wouldn't expect that to go away without actually removing material, seems a filler would just make it shine but the blemish would still exist.

My biggest concern was swirl marks from using the polishing compound but honestly it didn't cause any. The salesman told me to use straight strokes for the polish and not circular ones so that's what I did. I polished the entire car in the same direction (front to back) and I don't see any marks caused by the polish.

All this in my humble non-paint expert opinion.

greg schroeder

try this too.

best stuff I've used in 30 years

Rated R1

How does the NXT stuff compare to Zaino?

911GT2

Interesting, sounds very promising. I have a few small scratches, maybe I'll pick up some of this and give it a run. Thanks for the info.

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Damon. If I hadn't picked up a ton of Meguiar's stuff at the beginning of Spring, I'd order some to check it out.

One thing I will say, their website is aweful!

rx7tt95

I have to second the Meguiar's Tech Wax. By far the best wax I've ever used and I have a black car which makes things 4X as difficult. I'll have to try the TFP as well! Thanks for the head's up.

red 7

I was gonna buy some of that stuff just cause there is a FD on it. LOL

esebueno

yea when i detailed my car, i used all meguairs products and it DID make a diff. i used the meguiars high tech polish, nxt, and #26 wax (wax to protect the polymer sealant )
but ya...it works great! i acutally got a shine out of paint that looked like crap! NXT is awesome...helped deepen the color a little too. i let it cure overnight too.

from this:

to THIS:

VTAOE

Hey Damon you might want to try the stuff at Griot's Garage too. It is kind of a little known company who specializes in car cleaners. I would suggest you go here:

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?L1=L1_1000

Buy the detailers handbook. It will cost you around $13. After reading that you will know ALOT about paint care and several ways to keep your car clean.

I know you are not being on buffers, but if you buy the buffer from Griot's he will guarantee that you will not burn your paint as long as you keep enough wax on the paint surface. Lean on it as hard as you want and it won't harm it at all. Trust me I've tried it. My Dad and I use his products on both of our FD's and on his 63 Corvette.

The best way to go is to get the clay and some speed shine and use that first to clean the paint. The speed shine is used to keep the surface of the paint wet and it has some wax in it also. After you clay the surface Griot's makes 3 different machine polishes depending on how bad the paint surface is. After polishing the paint then you use the wax. If you do this properly I guarantee you will have the smoothest paint you have ever felt. I didn't believe it until I used it the first time. We both get compliments on how clean our FD's our. Most of those compliments should be directed to Griot's because they make a lot of good products and stand behind them. Once you order something from them you even get a free catalog in the mail almost every month. Each month has a few new items in it for you to look at.

Incase you are wondering I have NO affiliation what so ever with them and I am not getting paid to say this stuff. I just think it is great product and it is the best stuff my Dad has found in over 25 years to take care of the paint on his Corvette.

- Cody

DamonB

I've heard of the Griot's stuff and of course am familiar with Maquire's. I bought my stuff because I saw it being used first hand and I knew that I could make it work without a buffer. All this merely added assurance because I was standing in front of a guy watching him use it. There was no guessing for me. My biggest fear was ending up with swirl marks. After being so pleased with my results I'm certainly going to investigate a power buffer more closely as it could only get better.

I guess the key is once the treatment for any of these is "done" how long do the results last? Anybody want to try all of 'em?

I still picture all this stuff coming out of one big vat in China. It just gets put in different bottles with different names Nice to see others have brought their paint back to life too. I know it's hard to tell in pictures but my results resemble esebueno's. The color depth really came back.

wickedrx7

iTrader: (14)

I think I am going to use this just becasue it has a rx-7 on the bottle. I think we all should use it.

InsaneGideon

I wonder if the "T" is for "Teflon", which I heard makes repainting difficult? Just hearsay, I'm not a body shop guy by any means...

I bit the bullet and applied some fine rubbing compound (read: ) to my slightly faded R1 wing. I followed with Mag's #9 swirl remover, some #7 and Klasse. It's much better than before. This technique has worked well on a couple of guitars of mine (which have PPG automotive finishes)... so far.