Foam pads, bonnets, lambs wool, microfiber, LIONS TIGERS AND BEARS OH MY!!!!

I just spent 30 minutes in old threads, I was looking for a simple suggested order of pads and compounds/waxes

I just picked up a electric buffer, 6" that uses bonnets. What are the steps, start to finish, after car is well washed, to buff up/wax paint?

What compounds or waxes are each of the pad materials used for?
Foam
Lambs wool
Microfiber
TerryCloth

What compound do you all recommend to begin with and what pad material?

I plan on using GRIOTS One Step Sealant to finalize, what pad material?

Forget it. Just show up at the NASSAM2018 and you will leave an expert! And if you are lucky, they might just choose your car as a demo. And, I do believe the Denver/Colorado Club does know all the fine points of the process.

Hmmmm tempting until I ran the Google Map trip:

UpState, New York to Denver, Colorado

1,592 miles 23 h 41 min



Looks like it's up to me, SNIFF

This is a GENDER trap...crocodile tears.

Just head SW and pick up I-70 at your choice of location. From there it is I-70 all the way. Can't even get lost now. West of Denver, just drop off I-70 for a few miles to Black Hawk Casino/Hotel. Can you imagine now how everyone will be asking you for advice. You now have a knowledge at no cost that was picked up seeing the USA!! "Is this a great country or what?"

Thanks for the encouragement but 2 days of 12 hr driving causing a weeks worth of stump-a$$ is not my kind of fun no matter how much knowledge and comradary. We need a Harrisburg Pa East coast shin-dig !

Back on point.....Anyone got recommendations on what pad to use to apply the first polish and the last waxing?

https://www.autogeek.net/

You could try their website. While I am not a professional, just a novice in my car cleaning/detailing, these car guys are pro's at it. You can find useful info on their site, they can even suggest and answer questions you might have?

My Sky is not show worth, too many nicks and scratches, wear and tear, a 5 footer. You want the 1 ft. look, the show winner then there are options for you. You-Tube DYI how to.

Just spent the past week going over my car, top to bottom, front to back, still have a few area's I want to look at and clean up this season. The clear plastic bag trick, then clay bar, wash, polish, and wax/detail. Something every other day for me. Again while not show worthy, when I do go out and about, like I was planning on doing this weekend, ( the weather is not cooperating lately ) I like my car to look it's best from my efforts. The current condition of your paint, the thickness left before, any compounding, polishing, wax/sealant finish is applied.

Every owner here has their own methods for cleaning up their ride. The enjoyment we get, after she is all shined up, the window look back I like to call it, the comments from others, is a sense of pride I get that I spent my time enjoying what I do to my car. Thanks Dad for the lessons, he was a nut on his cleaning of the family car before we went anywhere.


As a novice or newbee I would practice first on something other than your Kappa imho. Yes we all want to get to our ride looking specialous before our next cruise or run, some cars and their condition vary. How well was it taken care of with the previous owner. If bought new how well have you taken care of it. Stored in a garage just for fun on the weekends or left out in the open, a DD that has seen better days, your effort into making it look good to your expectations, improve every time you learn something new. A little bit better, little more extra time, elbow grease, more adult beverages, equals some head snapping results for you the owner/operator.

Try the Geeks... can't hurt none. Happy Polishing...


LAC

I don't know what your paint looks like but keep in mind the clear coat on these cars is very thin and you don't want to go through it,the best thing is to clay bar the car first then just use a mild swirl remover polish with the foam pad use the microfiber to remove the polish.I would't use the terry cloth bonnet at all as it will just put swirl marks back in the car. I don't suggest you use the lambs wool only because it may be too aggressive and as I said clear coat is very thin.I also don't know what type of buffer you have or it's speed.
I own a detail shop but use very different polishers and buffers than people buy retail also different compounds so my suggestions are based on what you can buy from your local car store.
Hope this helps a little

Thanks copdriver, I have been Youtubing a lot on the topic and will drop the compound application and just stick to
the Griots One Step with a soft foam disk on the Polisher. It's very mild and will get most swirls out and leave a deep protectant.

Thanks for the info on the lambs wool and terry, I'll leave those for deep stuff.
The car color is Black Onyx. We had it touched up and repainted 2 yrs ago. I don't think there is clear coat.

The polisher I am getting is not expensive or fancy, it's the WEN 6010 6-Inch Waxer/Polisher

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WEN-6010-6-....c100005.m1851

There doesn't seem to be a lot too it, just easy on the amount, don't stay in one spot too long and take your time.

All the stuff is coming next week, I'll post pics.

I used swirl remover with a random orbit buffer on a black car I used to own. It came out fine.

There are many good car waxes.

My favorite is: Turtle Wax T-468R ICE Liquid Wax

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Turtle-Wa...sAAOSwMl9ajc5V

Sometimes I wax the car and instead of polishing it shiny - leave the wax on the car for a few days.

Its good for the interior too.


I also recommend that you get a paint mask and use it when applying the wax.

The wax is serious chemical.


---

For the convertible top I like:

Turtle Wax ICE Spray Wax, 23 oz. T477R

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Turtle-Wax-...UAAOSw3q5abx9p


I'll spray on an entire half-a-bottle on the top and touch up with a fiber cloth.

It looks nice and black.

I leave the Spray Wax in my trunk - and once every few days - for recreation - I shine up the car. So my car always looks very nice.

You got me there... never heard or read or seen that before. Careful what you apply and how much to your top. I use to... apply 303 protector to my top with a foam brush, no longer. It will shrink your fabric some. Now limited amount sprayed on a big foam sponge, then apply to top in long front to back stokes. Even coverage without over saturation to the fabric. Let dry for 6 hours... give or take.

Now as far as the recreation part... which I am about to go do right now... it's sunny out for the first time in days here.. ye ha wiped down of the newly polished/wax surface... drop top, let warm up... quick spray wax wipe and off we go into the wild black asphalt....

LAC

How I clean my car up:

1. Wash car with a good stripper wash https://www.amazon.com/Adams-Strip-W...strip+car+wash (you can use Dawn dishwashing liquid but ONLY use it if you can’t find a stripper wash. NEVER use Dawn or any other soap other then car wash soap to wash your car after this step!! Using Dawn or other non-carwash soaps will cause your paint to dry out and crack). This removes all of the old wax and allows you to get right to work on the car.
2. Clay bar or use one of the new synthetic wash mits to clean the car
3. Polish with dual action buffer.
a. Wool pad is for getting out heavy scratches and I wouldn’t recommend using this if you’re a beginner. You can really burn the paint quickly and/or create a lot of nasty swirl marks. Stay away from this one until you have an old beater to work on first and learn.
b. Foam pad. I buy all 3 of the 6” pads for my dual action from Harbor Freight. Buy several of the “cut” pads if you choose to go this way. On a car our size, I use 2 cut pads per product. So if you are using a medium cut, I use 2 for that, then switch to the fine cut…use 2 for that. 1 pad for wax and 1 pad for paint protection should be good enough.
4. Use a “beginners” type of polish. You can buy Meguiars medium cut….it should do just enough for you and is very forgiving. You can still burn the paint if you run too long in one spot. Then move onto a fine cut polish from Meguiars.
5. Move the buffer up/down/left/right and adjust the speed of the buffer dependent on scratches/swirls you are trying to remove. Do not stay in one spot too long with the medium cut. I usually don’t go faster then 60% of the speed on the buffer unless I have a really deep scratches… speed = more heat = easier to burn paint. Basically when you polish the car, you are trying to heat up the clear coat just enough to “melt” it and fill in the scratches. The fine cut can be held in one spot a lot longer as it’s really forgiving.
6. Once done, I usually sit my car out in the sunlight for an hour to let everything “harden” back up. If you’re in a dusty area, don’t do this unless you are going to re-rinse your car before doing anything else.
7. Here is where you have choices. Are you going to use paint protection or just wax? If you are using paint protection, apply here with the waxing pad or microfiber pad cover and the lowest speed possible on your dual action. (Xzilon is awesome paint protection…if a car was Xzilon protected at the dealership, you couldn’t pin stripe it…they would just peel off once dry) Wipe off and buff to shine with a quality microfiber towel. Allow to cure for several hours. You can repeat this process to make sure the paint protection is on your car.
8. Now you can wax. I like Meguiars NXT liquid synthetic wax. Using a different pad (wax pad or mircrofiber cover again) work wax into paint. Let dry to a haze. Work one section at a time and remove with a clean microfiber towel, turning towel after completely removing wax. Buff to shine. When section (usually 2’x2’, ½ hood, door, ¼ panel, etc) is complete, move onto next section using a new, clean, dry microfiber cloth on the next section.

With the above process stated, there is a newer product on the market call ceramic coating. I just did with my new Charger. I highly recommend having this done instead if you can afford to have it professionally done! The shine is 10x better on it and it lasts a lot longer then the above. But the downfall is you have to take it to a reputable installer and it runs about $800-$1200. But, that installer should clean the car up and make the paint look like it rolled off the showroom floor before coating it. This is just a quick overview. There are many videos on youtube that show how to do this correctly. Watch as many as you can stand to watch and then try it on the most inconspicuous area on your car. As a note, black will ALWAYS be the hardest color to detail, followed by grey and red.

A bit more information:
Microfiber – used for taking wax off and buffing to a shine
Terrycloth – most towels are made of terrycloth. Use clean, dry, extremely soft towels (usually the more expensive bath towels) when drying you car.
After you have detailed your car, get a good microfiber wash mit to wash your car. Use the 2 bucket method (I use 3…1 for the tires and wheels). One bucket with your carwash suds, the other is filled with plain water to rinse your washmit and get all the crude off of it. Label these buckets as there will always be residual crude that can cause scratches in the rinse bucket.
1. Follow manufacturer’s directions on car wash soap bottle for best results. If it says 2oz of car wash soap per gallon of water, follow it.
2. Dip washmit in rinse bucket, then in wash bucket….
3. Start at top of car and work your way down one section at a time. Make sure car stays wet before washing and after washing until you dry it. Never wash your car in direct sunlight.
4. Put washmit in rinse bucket
5. Rinse suds off of vehicle
6. Grab washmit from rinse bucket and dip in wash bucket and repeat steps 1-6 until complete.
7. Dry vehicle using clean, soft terry cloth towels. A better alternative to this is to use high pressure air to dry the car. This will keep the paint nicer longer. You can use a silicone water blade to get the excess water off followed by terry cloth towels, but if not done properly you can scratch the paint with the blade.
8. Now do your rims and tires.
9. You can follow up a quik detail mist and microfiber cloth to give your car a shine again if you desire.
**Note – NEVER use any soaps other then a car wash soap for your car. These are harsh and will strip the wax from your car immediately.

Thanks y'all. Good input. Thanks Ghost for the details.
Wet weather here and there this week but I'll see if I can squeek in a few hours of polishing.

I just read the post from ghost and he mentioned terry cloth don't use the one that came with the cheap buffer you bought it will cause swirl marks.I also wouldn't recommend using a cut pad unless your paint is really bad each time you use one you remove clear coat or as you mentioned you're not sure if you have clear coat the way to know is if when you buff the colour of your car will be on the pad if not clear coated if it is there will be no colour on the pad. Keep the wear in mind when doing your car the clay bar is the safest unless your car is bad.