Waxing and Buffing

[XSNRGGST]

What do you guys use to wax and buff your car? I followed the Ultimate Detailing Guide from Spiffy Detailing. I ended up with a good looking deep paint, but with a lot of swirl marks from the buffing. I used by hand a foam applicator pad for the application of both Meguiars #2 and #7, and a yellow buffing cloth for the removal. The paing looks a little better, but still some oxidization, and also a lot of swirl marks.
What do you guys use to wax and buff your cars?
Also, what kind of applicators/buffing cloths do you use?

 

[rich3389]

Oh, and, microfiber is your friend
Or should i say...microfibor FTW!!!!

 

[Defiant]

In Arizona? That's not paint. It's a huge potato chip. That stuff's been cooked to death. It's bad enough up here.

 

[oneyedfatguy]

I start with a wool pad and a cutting compound on oxidized or color sanded paint. I work my way up through the 3M Finesse It line and finish with a hand glaze and then several coats of Meguiars carnauba liquid wax. If you stop at the glaze and don't seal it with wax, the shine will be gone and swirl marks will be evident within an hour or two of being parked in the sun.

 

[redeclipse7782]

I'll start with 1 coat of nu-finish, then a month later put a coat of meguiars gold class.

 

[Project2G]

Clay bar first then use McGuires Tech Wax

 

[calreef18]

Wash car with dish soap to take off all the old wax, then clay bar the whole car until all areas are smooth, finally use meguiar's nxt wax to finish it up. Looks great, finish feels smooth.

 

[edenTSI]

i work at a chrysler dealership detailing cars. we buff by hand with a applicator pad and let it sit for a bit. then we take a normal cloth and wipe it off. very nice shine for yet very quick. or on the bosses cars we use a orbit waxer and make it look nice. if you have swirl marks its because your using too much wax. try using less wax on your hand foam applicator and rub in circles. after you let your car sit for a few minutes just use a orbit waxer and go in a up down side to side motion, not staying in a spot too long or you'll burn your paint (i've seen it happen many times did it once on a new v6 charger). after wipe your car down with a clean cloth and you should have amazing results

 

[Indyxc]

I've gotten pretty seriously into car detailing and use. A wash and a hand wax is amateur style. The true way to make a car look great is remove the paint swirls, oxidation, scratches, and particles with polish and pads. Waxing over a dirty service looks ok from a distance, but up close in the sun is terrible.

I use:

-Porter Cable Orbital polisher
-2 Levels of Sonus DAS cutting pads
-1 Sonus Finishing Pad

-Combinations of Sonus polishes
-3M "Professional" Liquid Wax.

If anyone is interested in learning about it, check out this link:

http://guidetodetailing.com/

 

[VanIsleDSM]

I worked in a professional detail shop for 4 years.. and the post above is in the right direction.. hand waxing won't really get you anywhere.. it's more for maintainance of paint in good condition..

First you wash the car very well, then clay it, a 1 stage hand polish after a clay job will leave you with some nasty looking paint, the clay sucks up any crap off your paint into it, and these debris only leave tiny surface scratches because they are embedded in the clay, these however will not come out with a simple hand polish.

You need to use an orbital buffer and a wool pad with some cutting polish to take out the swirls and scratches, then you move on to a less aggressive polish with a semi-aggressive foam pad, then a de-swirling cream with a very light foam pad, followed by the hand wax to seal it all up.. find a good 3 stage product line meant to work with each other, then a good sealer, or get all 4 together... watch you don't burn your plastic moldings with the buffer, and I hope your car isn't black, because if you're a novice you'll have a very hard time removing the swirl marks, white is easiest to start on..

This isn't just something you can pick up and do.. it takes a lot of practice... start by working on very small areas at a time so you don't miss spots, they'll be really obvious when you're done... and make sure you stay out of the sun while you're doing it.

If you wanna go wild you can break out some 2000grit with a bucket of water with 1 drop of soap in it with an aray of different sized semi-flexible foam pads to sand off all the orange peel on the clear coat and get that show quality mirror look.. but you might not have enough clear left for that.

 

[mini zilo]

meguiars gold class all the way

+1 on that I love the stuff. Works great, looks great. Leaves your paint as smooth as a baby's ass.