So confusing! Waxes, Sealers, Glazes, detail sprays, etc!

cal_gecko said:

Right on, thanks a lot, man!! I'll look into that CQuartz .. I wonder if that is similar to the $600.00 paint protection they offered when I bought the car?

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PatrickGT said:

Mostly related, hopefully helpful:

I can speak to this from an application and livability stand point. I will also say that these high silica coatings are exactly what you want to help prevent the swirls (but really you are doing the swirls yourself, more on that in a sec).

I have applied the following:

-Optimum OptiCoat, lens coat
-22PLE VX1 Pro, 22PLE window stuff (I forget what it is called, don't bother)
-Carpro Cquartz UK edition (don't buy the regular stuff) and Cquartz Finest

From an installation standpoint, and this might piss a few pro detailers off, but these are all probably easier to use than a traditional sealant. They self-level, you apply very thin coats and barely buff before it self-levels, and a couple of them (CQ and 22PLE) can also be applied to plastic trim so you don't even need to worry about taping anything up.

HOWEVER

If you don't have the surface properly prepared to receive the coating, you're going to have an awful time. You simply cannot apply this to "washed and clayed" paint, as you haven't really done a damn thing yet to prepare the surface other than washing your car and picking at a few specs with the clay that you either didn't get or introduced more scratches with.

So here's my method to prep, there are others but there aren't really steps here you can skip:

-Pre-treat car by removing loose dirt with a pressure washer (I use a Karcher something or other).
-Continue pre-treat by blasting car with foam cannon
-Rinse it off again, because you don't want soap drying anywhere
-Wash your wheels with dedicated bucket and brushes/mitt. I use 3 sizes of wheel woolies, a DI nylon 1" brush, and a lambswool wash mitt that is dedicated to wheels in a bucket that I use for wheels only. This is important as the metals/ceramics/asbestos/other stuff in your brake pads is not good for your paint.
-Wash your car using the two-bucket method (youtube if you don't know) with grit guards and a specific wash mitt that ONLY TOUCHES YOUR PAINT. THis mitt does not touch: Wheels, underneath the car, the underside of your side skirts, exhaust. This is important, see above.
-Spray on some IronX. This stuff smells awful. The cherry flavor smells like a sulfur fart after eating cherries for 30 days. The lemon scent smells basically like vomit. It is worth it, though. What this does is remove iron filings and other metallic contaminants from your paint before you pick them up in your clay and scratch them around your car (I believe I mentioned this earlier). You'll spray it on, then see it turn purple red color when it is working. Spray some on a dedicated wash mitt or sponge (don't you dare use the one I told you to keep clean earlier) and lightly wash the car with the IronX. THis is particularly important on all horizontal areas as well as behind the wheels where hot brake dust can embed itself in the paint. Rinse.
-You could clay your car now, because IronX isn't going to get the bird droppings and bug mess off, only metallic particles. You'd be wasting a lot of time, though. I recommend one of those new foam bars or a nano skin wash mitt here, it knocks the time down to about 20 mins because you are just washing your car and not spraying on QD, claying a square, wiping it off, repeat. Just wet the car, get some soap, and wash it with your mitt. They are reusable. Just do this. Save the clay for getting around badges and in crevices, but otherwise you won't need it anymore.
-Wash your car again. I know, what a water waster... but you're preserving paint here so you gotta spill some milk. This ensures everything is properly washed off the paint, including what you loosened in the previous step.
-Dry the car, completely. Microfiber waffle weave towel, leaf blower, air compressor, terry cloth skirt while you twerk it dry... just get it completely dry including in seals etc.
-Tape off your trim (if your car isn't dry, this will fall off)
-If you are interested in doing any wet sanding, mopping, denim pads, etc.. now is the time. Ask questions on this specifically if you need to.
-Polish stage 1. You can argue back and forth with me and anyone else all day about what polish to use here, but I use Meg's 105 and I don't care what you think about that. I have some menzerna stuff I could cut with, but why? I like the Meg's because it breaks down way better, consistently, and let's be realistic here... you're doing a fist pass, this is not the area to show us all how you like to waste your money on a 2x more expensive polish that you're just going to polish over in the next step. Or maybe it is, I dunno, kinda depends on your self awareness I suppose.
-Polish stage 2. I use Meg's 205 here. I will accept arguments as using 205 is what leads me to doing a 3rd stage, however; it does break down better and more consistently than the competition and it allows me to go to a better polish after so it's fine unless you have a consistently better way. Not a huge fan of the dusting of the 205, either...
-Polish stage 3 and final: Menzerna SF 3800 Super Finish Plus. This product has very little cut, very high gloss. It will make the paint super smooth and slick, which is what you were going for when applying your coating. Do your final polish with this, make sure you are breaking it all the way down though and not being lazy because I made you polish 3x... remember all that time I saved you on that awful clay? This is where you get your mirror finish. You absolutely want this on your darker metallic, you can make your own decision on the lighter and brighter colors but I would say you need to do this step on Magnetic, Guard, Black, Ruby, and any of the darker blues if you actually want depth when you are done. If you don't, or you have a light color, skip it. Oxford White will buck this trend as I'd absolutely do this step on that car simply because that finish relies solely on reflexivity and no depth.
-Clean all of the polish out of any badges, seams, anywhere. All of it. Get it completely clean, and you should have taped off anyway so you should be good.
-Remove tape
-Wash the car (I'm calling the city on you!)
-Do an IPA wipedown. I get 90% isopropyl alcohol from the grocer's and dilute it 50:50 with distilled water, use a very deep nap microfiber towel and clean off all polish oils. This seemingly frivolous step is absolutely crucial to getting your coating to bond.
-Get the car completely dry. Completely. Even drier than you thought you had before your polished and the vibration caused your mirrors to drip. Super. Dry. If you have to wait a day and then do another IPA wiepdown, that's your issue. It has to be dry, or you won't bond the sealant.

So once you've properly prepped your car, you just grab the applicator you bought with your coating and follow the instructions. 2x2 sections, back and forth motion (I like to go with the wind flow for this, it probably doesn't make a difference but if you haven't caught on that I'm a bit nuts about detailing then you haven't been reading), buff lightly, let settle. Don't drive your car for 24 hours, I personally wait 72 but see above right? If you used the 22PLE or CQUK then you can also coat your tail lights, reflectors, and the trim on your mirrors/skirts/etc. Don't be afraid, but also don't apply it unevenly or it will show. IF you mess up somewhere, just add more product. Seriously. Get your applicator, put a few dabs on, and redo the area. Much like super glue it will release and heal itself, so what are you afraid of? ;)

SO now you're going to take a step back to admire all the hours of hard work you put into your car... and you will be disappointed. Your coating will look distorted, it won't 'pop' or have that 'glass like' appearance. It will look kinda dull, and basically kinda crappy. Just wait. After 3-5 days all of your prayers will be answered and you will know you made the right choice.

After your full cure time (varies by product but no more than 5 days), you can apply something like CQ Reload or another top-coat (22PLE has a finish coat as well but I forget that name too, it's good though. Match your products, also). I actually like to do the following on dark cars, particularly black ones which I traditionally only own: Apply, BY HAND (the palm and fingers with no gloves or applicator, use your hand damn it), some carnauba wax. Your body will help warm it for proper distribution, your skin will feel any imperfections or areas of concern (but really just how smooth your car feels now) and it is a better method to apply. Do the same thing for leather conditioners, except don't use those on your Mustang because you have top coated leather and you're smarter than that right?

So these coatings will last 12-24 months in the TX and AZ sun. I garage my cars, so they see more like 24 months. Oddly, you are still very much protected at this point from UV and environmental droppings but it starts to dull and you'll want to redo it anyway because you haven't detailed your car in 24 moths and that makes you feel depressed. You just notice the shine is dulling, maybe you see a swirl or two (that you caused) or you just notice the hood doesn't look the same as the vertical sides... either way, strip and redo... but 1-2 years is serious performance and you shouldn't be complaining about that though I'm sure some of you still can and will. I have a preference for the CQUK over the 22PLE (the opti isn't really the same these days imo, but I still use the lens coat) simply because it performs the same and costs half as much, for this reason it is the market leader. The UK formula is important as well because it is actually a stronger bond with higher silica to combat their constant rain which also happens to work very well in the sun for the same reasons.

So now all you have to do is maintain the shine, which is easy if you really do the 2-bucket method properly which is a 3 bucket method anyway:

1. Wash your wheels with DEDICATED media, DEDICATED bucket. I use Sonax Full Effect wheel cleaner and regular wash soap (I think I use some Gold Class? It honestly doesn't matter and CG stuff is kinda junk FYI, just don't use Dawn).
2. Rinse your car. If you don't have a pressure washer and are unwilling to get one, use your hose and get a better job so you can get a pressure washer.
3. Foam cannon? Maybe. If your car is really dirty. If it is just a thin coating of desert moon dust like mine you probably don't need to do this but once every several washes to get wheel wells etc.
4. Buckets. You should have 2 left. They should have grit guards. They should NEVER EVER EVER be used for anything but these tasks. Label them, one for rinse and one for wash. Never use the rinse bucket to wash, or the other way around. Just keep them separate, learn it now, train yourself and you'll be fine. Use a dedicated wash mitt, I use only lambswool and I get them from Detailed IMage. I like the ones with the thumb because they are more versatile for getting smaller areas. You're only going to use this a few, maybe 10-15 times, on your paint before you throw it in with your wheel stuff and trade out your old one for new. Just get used to it. Sure, it costs you a few bucks but it's less than paint and remember you are doing the swirls yourself, they don't just happen from nowhere no matter how hard you try to justify yourself.
-Wash your car. Wash one section (like half the hood, half the roof, the trunklid) at a time from the top down. Always cleanest to dirtiest so for example if you have someone take a dump on your hood and then the rest of the car is clean you'd want to wash that first, and also stop pissing people off because that's hella aggressive and I'd like to know what you did to them to get this reaction.
-Rinse. You should be rinsing as you go along, then do a final rinse with your sprayer, then take the sprayer off the hose and do the sheeting method. This involves pouring undiffused (regular hose) water on your car top-down and allowing the surface tension of the water to pull itself off of the surface. Science!
-Dry. Blow out your grille, mirrors, any areas that trap water with a leaf blower or compressor. Dry the car with the microfiber waffle weave towels that I mentioned earlier that you don't ever use for anything else and never wash with anything but other microfiber with no fabric softener (if you're reading this and have done any of these things, throw out your towels and get new ones because you've ruined them). The goal is to touch the paint as little as possible with your drying towel (throw away your absorbers and other junk, please) and still remove all the water. Touching = swirls, that you cause from your own actions (you need to know that).
-Dry door jambs, under hood, trunk area, etc
-Pull car back in garage and do a final wipe on anything that has drips.
-Enjoy

That's about it. If you have any specific questions or issues that you feel I could help with please feel free to ask.

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cal_gecko said:

Holy. crap.

I can't imagine spending that much time to do this. that's an entire weekend of work - and then, NOT being able to drive the car for 1-3 days??? Am I supposed to take vacation time from work? Hell, I'm the guy who uses the windshield squeegee at the gas station to clean the bug splatters off my bumper and front of my hood after my commute to/from work (on my previous Mustangs), LOL ... although, with the DIB, I may have to stop doing that. I've never heard of a two bucket wash method or a foam cannon - I'll google them, but doubt I'll go that route.... this definitely sounds like an overwhelming and unmanageable process from a time standpoint, so maybe I'll just stick with the touchless drive through car wash and spray detailer in between washes... or some mixture of ideas...

Thanks a million for the details though - it is very helpful and gives me something to think about!

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