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Black car wash and wax tips.

16K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  Kegomatix 
#1 ·
Hello I just got my new G5 GT and it's a black car. I told myself after my 2004 Nissan Sentra I would never get another black car because I failed miserably in washing the thing, but this G5 was to good a deal to pass up.

Just wondering if anyone could offer some good tips as to how to wash and wax the thing without leaving swirls and scratches? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
#2 ·
Start with a good old wash, use regular dish soap to get rid of any other previous waxes. Be thorough. Rinse, and dry with a good sham. Use Maguiers Scratch X, cover all painted surfaces in a tight circular motion. This will buff out and fill in any light scratches and blemishes in the paint, and gets rid of the 'orange peel effect'. Once MAY NOT be enough. It will be a lot quicker, and easier if you have access to use a random orbital at this stage. Allow to dry to a haze, then remove. (best applied and removed with micro fibre clothes, which is normally what comes with the purchase of an orbital). Remember, this may have to repeated.
Once you are satisfied with the condition of the paint, apply wax. I find from personal experience, with my own black G5 and my room mates black BMW, that Auto Glym Wax is the bees knees of waxes. But you pay for it.. just over $50 for a small tin, however, the tin will last a long time. We've used ours 9 times, and still have half left. It comes with the applicator sponge, and removal micro fibre cloth.
This wax should not be applied with the orbital, so be prepared for hand cramp.
Apply in a small tight circular motion. No more than 3" diameter, and be sure to slightly overlap, to ensure good coverage. Cover all painted surfaces in this motion.
By the time you finish, the point that you started at should be dried to a haze, and will be ready for removal. At this time, grab the micro fibre cloth, and rub it off. No particular motion is required, but make sure it all comes off... if it hasn't dried enough, it will smudge and feel 'tacky'.
When it has all been removed, you're done. Enjoy the results...
The more this is done, the better. The BMW we have looks phenomenal, if you go to my profile page, i will upload photos of the results after we did this process to it... the photo of the reflection of the tree is the best.

I hope this was useful. Like i said, you have to spend a bit of money for these items, but they last, and they work damn well.
Since i live in Ontario, we do this to our cars every 6 months, due to the extreme weather changes... it's up to you how often it gets done.
 
#3 ·
Great how to with the waxing :) I will try this, this spring. By the way, what kind of car wash soap do you use normally? As when you are not doing this process?
 
#4 ·
Use Meguiars Gold Soap wash... it's good stuff, just not regular dish soap, else you will strip the wax off.
And to top up the wax when you wash it regularly, maybe think about getting Auto Glym Rapid Detailer. It's in a spray bottle, spray it on, rub it in, and away you go... like i said, it just helps keep the wax topped up
:)

Glad i could help
 
#5 ·
I left out one little tip, sorry:

When you wash the car, it's best to have two buckets, one with the hot soapy water, and the other, just regular cold clean water... obviously, use the hot soapy stuff to wash the car, and each time you go back to the bucket, rinse the sponge/cloth/mitt in the cold water... This will minimize the transfer of shit... lol
I know all this seems a little geeky... but i guess we love our cars.. and i've done this a few times before ;) .. i know it all works
Best of luck
 
#7 ·
For Bird crap on the paint I take a wash cloth soaked with hot water and lay it over the crap spot to soften and break it down prior to wetting the car down to wash it, So that way the paint doesn't get scratched while using a sponge..

I have hard water and I use a leaf blower to dry the car, I get a lot less spots that way.. Followed by 3M Quick wax with a terry clothe
 
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#9 ·
A clay bar can only remove surface contamination not swirls and scratches because those are below and into the actual paint surface.
 
#8 ·
This is gods gift to black cars, the liquid is actually black, best black polish hands down :)
http://www.turtlewax.com/main.taf?p=2,1,4,5
+ this
http://www.turtlewax.com/main.taf?p=2,1,4,28

and these instructions



Step 1- Choose a good, high lather soap. Right now I am using Turbo Wax's car shampoo that can be found on their website here-

http://www.turbowax.com/cat/car-shampoo/

Step 2- Make sure you read the directions and use the correct amount. Mix in one bucket (preferrably a 5 gallon).

Get a good cotton wash mit from somewhere such as NAPA.

Also, have another bucket full of clean water only. You will use this bucket as a rinse bucket for the dirty mit once you wash off part of the car. The key in washing is to use the soapy mit, clean one surface, dip the mit in the clean bucket until you see little to no dirt on it, then redip in the soap bucket and do another portion of the car.

For example, here is a soap bucket I used after detail-



And here is the rinse bucket-



Step 3- Next you will clay the car. You need to be careful doing this and might want to expirement on the correct technique on a small portion of the car. Right now I am just using a Mequiars clay kit you can get at NAPA. The key to claying is to use LOTS of lubrication and fold the clay over often. If you run out of detailing spray you can just mix up soapy water in the bottle and use that (thats all I do anyways). You want to work in small areas until you get to be more experienced with the clay. In some spots you will feel the clay stick or hit gritty areas, this is good and the reason you are claying in the first place. Slowly rub the clay over and fold it over until the paint is smooth all over the car. Yes the car will look like shit at this point, its ok you will be washing it again.

Step 4- Rewash the car.

Step 5- Drying. You need three things for this to be done well. Shade, California Water Blade ( http://www.autogeek.net/calwatblad.html ), and good microfiber towels. Some local places will surely sell some, and there are different qualities. Typically, for what ive done the ones I have from Sam's Club actually do pretty damn well.

Step 6- Prepping the car. Make sure you get all the water off and get the areas you dont want wax on taped off. I prefer the green 3M painters tape.

Step 7- Compounding. Now you are getting into the harder, more time consuming part. I use a Porter Cable 7424 for all waxing steps, ( http://autogeek.net/po.html ). Now unless you have some serious clear damage, a regular cut compound such as Optimum Compound will be adequate ( http://www.autogeek.net/optimum-compound.html ). Depending on how deep you need to go you will start with something such as either an orange light cut pad ( http://www.autogeek.net/orlowpr55inp.html ) or a White CCS finishing pad ( http://www.autogeek.net/lc-ccs-6inch-pads.html ) for less deep perfections. It is important to read up on compounding techniques and Autogeek has some good videos to teach you how ( http://autogeek.net/dual-action-polishers.html ). For most jobs I have to start with the orange pad, make two complete passes over the car, and then follow with the white pad for 2 more passes. This will take a good while and MUCH longer than polishing and sealing the car off. If done correctly your paint will show no clear coat scratches, swirls, or really any imperfections after this step. Remove all the compound after each pass with it with microfiber clothes. Take caution and think about what you are doing. You are taking off clear to get past the imperfections, so take your time and be patient.

Step 8- Polish. Polishing is what will bring your color and depth out for the most part. I choose between two products for this step, either Turbo Wax Swirl Remover ( http://www.turbowax.com/cat/swirl-remover/ ) or Optimum Polish ( http://www.autogeek.net/opt400.html ). I use a CCS grey pad for this step ( http://www.autogeek.net/lc-ccs-6inch-pads.html ), and you should only have to make one pass. Again, watch the videos to help you with this step. Remove all polish with microfiber clothes. After this your paint is ready to be sealed and/or waxed. This step will also remove alot of "swirls" and light scratches if done correctly.

Step 9- Sealing/Waxing- Again, I choose between two products for this step, either Turbo Wax car wax ( http://www.turbowax.com/cat/car-wax/ ) or Poorboys EX Sealant ( http://www.autogeek.net/pbex16.html ). A CCS blue pad is used in this step ( http://www.autogeek.net/lc-ccs-6inch-pads.html ). I let the product sit for around an hour before removing with microfibers clothes. I find the sealant lasts for around 2 months with alot of washing.

Step 10- Tire shine. I can not stress how important this is, its like cleaning the inside of your car without vacuuming. Mainly a user choice here, but you want something that will not sling.

It is important to note that there are a wide variety of products you can use for all these steps, and it is really just personal preference once you get into these good products. I will never argue with someone over which they like best once they start getting into the good stuff because they really all do a pretty good job. I listed the products I like using and have shown absolutely great results. Here are some pics of cars I have done all of which were in need of some serious work before I worked on them.















 
#12 ·
#11 ·
i wsa thinking cut polish my bad
 
#14 ·
Thanks for all the tips guys! I used the clay bar. I had an unused one laying around, love those things. Then I went out and got the TurtleWax Black Box. Wow! That stuff is AMAZING. I couldn't believe what it did to the swirl marks. I spaced taking pictures and now its covered in pollen -_- I need to find a good way to get a spot free finish so I can rinse the pollen off every once in a while.
 
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