I was wondering how often do you guys with VR FDs polish your cars. Its got to be the fastest fading color IMO. My car probably wasn't polished often before I got it and I polished it with the most aggressive polish stuff I could get. It's way better, but still not what I want it to be. I think I'll polish it again and then once again with milder stuff.

Here it is polished (took me about an hour):

 

My car is waxed once or maybe twice a year using Meguire's products. All other washings I use the Meguire's Quick Detailing Mist after the wash.

 

In the world of high end waxes,

polish makes it shine
wax protects

generally, polish will evaporate quickly and must be sealed with a wax.

Of course there are polish/wax combos but a real polish must always be followed with a wax or it'll be gone in a few days.

 

fwiw a good wax will also add depth to the color of your car making it look a little darker.

BTW your car looks great!!

 

Which polished do you recommend and where to buy it?

 

I'd recommend Zaino as a Polish. Did wonders for the looks of my car.

www.zainbros.com

Or they have local distributors if you can find one in your area.

 

Do you guys recommend clay bars? I've never done it before.........

 

I like Meguire's products, however they don't seem to work as well with dark colored cars. The guys I know who have dark colored cars (black, mb) like the Zaino as well.

 

I also use Meguires products. I polish when I wash my car, about every 2-3 weeks. But only at night is when you can see the faded areas of the car.

 

Polishing will not remove the faded, oxidized layer of paint. Only a paint "cleaner" will do that.

You need to follow the three step process of paint cleaning, polishing, and then waxing.

 

Lots of different methods but here's what I do. I use a Porter Cable dual action polisher...


...with a Proper Auto Care yellow pad for compounding, a white pad for polishing, and a grey pad for waxing

Step 1 Clay by hand


Step 2 Compound
Depending on the amount of swirls, I use both the Machine Polish or just the Swirl Mark Remover
More aggressive:

Less aggressive:


Step 3 Polish


Step 4 Protect

and


I have a black car and I didn't like the result Zaino gave, I want my paint to look like deep glossy black hole instead of reflecting everything else around it.

 

I'm a fan of Mother's. But be sure to get a good buffer and good pads. And lots of them. If you're car is pretty dirty and the paint is in not so good condition, then you'll easily go through about 4-6 pads during cleaning and about half that polishing. I'd do the waxing by hand as I think you get better control of ensuring no swirl marks are left. I have a urethene paint. I used Meguiar's early on and switched to Mother's. I've used Mother's before on other cars and wanted to try something new. Definitely better.

 

If your paint is clean and in good shape (not peeling, no swirl marks), try this:

Run a clay bar over it until it feels smooth. The clay bars I've used dont really remove stains. They're really for attacking hard deposits... the kind you can feel with your hand as you run it across the painted surface.

Then apply Klasse all-in-one polish with a microfiber towel. You apply Klasse with a damp cloth, so wet it with a meguiars final inspection spray-on type product. It'll give it a mirror finish and klasse is the easiest to apply polish out there. If you want protection on top of that, go ahead and put a nice carnuba wax on top, like meguiars yellow carnuba wax (I think it's 26), or possibly Klasse acyrlic sealant. Although the all-in-one polish is easy to apply (wipe on wipe off, no drying), the acrylic sealant is a real PITA to wipe off.

Klasse is an acrylic product. It's conductive so it doesn't electrostatically attract dust. It lasts quite a while (they say 6 mo. on the bottle, but that's pushing it). Water will sheet off rather than bead. It looks best on solid colored cars (VR) and especially black cars.

My only gripe with it is that it'll make some imperfections appear worse. Specifically, if you have a silver car with white scratches on it, they won't go away! But this stuff loves VR!

 

If your clear coat has been damaged by acid rain or what not then you may have to remove oxidized paint.

What normally happens to clear coat cars is someone gets nuts with a buffer and strips the clear coat. Or in an attempt to remove swirls a coarse compound is used making the situation worse.


Clay bars are used to remove overspray and large paint contaminants like bird crap. I use the same stuff as above.....over spray remover, but only to remove large stuff and only a little bit in a small area. I would not clay bar my whole car.

The trick is to wax and buff in straight lines, not circles. Under a microscope, a swirl looks like a little valley with sharp ridges. If you move in a straight line, you knock down the edges...if you buff or apply in a circle, you make them deeper. The only exception to this is if you buff with a buffer in successively smaller grits until you get to a mirror glaze...not something your average weekender is going to do. In this situation you are actually sanding away layers of paint to remove the swirls....not my favorite method.

I used zymol swirl remover once a month for a year to get rid of the swirls. One application helps but it does not fix it. The swirl remover also removes all the wax and polish, exposing the paint to damage so I have to rewax every time. Once I got to the point where the swirl remover didn’t make it any better, I stopped. Most of this stuff removes layers of paint/clear coat. Don’t keep doing it or it will make your car look worse. I still have swirls but I never use a polish so you can’t see them until you get under halogen lamps.

I use zymol Japon wax as it is specially formulated for older Japanese cars. It makes a big difference on red cars. I used zymol carbon on my black car. Zymol waxes are supposed to be the least abrasive waxes on the market.

A polish ads shine which will make swirl marks stand out more. Wax ads depth. If you have a lot of swirl marks, don’t use a polish.

Some products fill swirl marks. These products contain silicon. They make the car look great but they "dry out" the paint which makes it look worse in the long run. Look at what silicon products do to tires...turn them brown and cracked after a while.

 

Excuse me, but what is a swirl ?

Thanks for the thumbs up keynote22

 

The correct URL is www.zainobros.com

As far as clay bars go, I would highly recommend them. They make the paint real smooth and you will be surprised how much stuff it takes off the paint that you didn't see.

I have had good results with a mix of products, I use mothers pre wax, mothers polish, and a Meguir's wax. It usually brings out the black on my dsm to a nice shine.

I have also heard GREAT things about zaino, it is more expensive, but is by far the best for auto paint care.

 

Go look at the paint on your hood real close when the car is in the sun.... do you see lots of tiny tiny scrathes that dont really go past the clear coat... Those are swirl marks.... usually caused by contaminants in a towel being rubbed around and around during waxing or drying of the car....

 

The clay bar works wonders. It always amazes me how smooth it comes out. Huge difference before and after.