polish and wax

Ok I know this seems silly but I have never really fully polished and waxed a vehicle. I just Polished and waxed and my moms 4 runner for mothersday and while its super shiny and nice I see some swirls and smudges at certain angles. When I do my tacoma ( metallic gray) I would like to avoid this. Did I just used too much polish or wax and it wasn't buffed it correctly?

 

You probably didn't use a true polish that levels clear coat. Also, removing scratches and swirls by hand is practically impossible.

Here is some good information on paint restoration. http://detaileddesignsautospa.wordpress.com/

 

Thanks for the info excellent article. I just got my truck in november its 2011 I have only washed it a few times, but never used a clay bar or waxed it yet. Going to do this in a few days when I get some time. Just trying to avoid any swirls or smudge marks that I can. Thanks for all the help.

 

I ONLY use McGuires.

Try using Swirl-X to remove those swirls.

 

I guess I wont know if I have swirls in the paint until I polish it and wax it first. I would like to use a machine but I don't really want to pay the 200 dollars for a good DA right now. I will just polish and wax and If I get swirls I will try the Swirl X and if the problem persists I will have a professional detailer look at it. The paint shouldn't need to be fixed proffessionally if the truck is only 4 months old. I would hope anyway!

 

Sears sells a good Craftsman product for under $90. Worth looking into; especially if you charge several friends to polish their vehicle.

 

There's a good write-up here: http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126755&highlight=detail

 

The Porter Cable 7424 XP is well liked amongst the proffesional detailing crowd.
It is about $150 from Chemical Guys.
http://www.chemicalguys.com/Ultimate_Detailing_Machine_Dual_Action_Polisher_p/buf_100.1.htm

 

Hopefully you haven't used towels or other junk to clean your car previously. Get some terry cloth or microfiber to use on the car. Regular bath towels can scratch the sh*t out of your clearcoat, giving you swirls and scratches. Meguiars and Mothers both make great products. I have even heard the new Turtlewax Ice is nice. My truck is a month old, and I just hand waxed it last night; no polish. It took me about 2 hours and turned out awesome. As long as you use the right tools for the job, you should be alright.

 

No towels used on this truck. When it was washed it was washed twice on the 2 days it was above 35 this winter in a touch less car wash. I did use a 100% Egyptian cotton towel to dry my moms 4 runner other day before I used a clay bar. I hope I didn't scratch it Thanks for all the info on the polishers I will look into it more when I get my bonus next month!!!

 

Agreed about the porter cable. Please trust me here. Do NOT waste your money on the "orbital buffers" from sears, home depot, pep boys, etc. They will do absolutely nothing for you if you plan to properly maintain your finish. Aside from a lack of power, the availability of proper pad selection is practically non existant.
The porter cable has the ability to swap backing plate sizes, and the amount of pads available for it are endless, allowing you to fine tune the polish, compound, glaze and wax applications.

That being said, if you polished your mom's ride by hand, the swirls can be a few things. For one, it may be some surface marring that you induced by using poor applicators/towels. Another may just be that the product wasnt fully broken down, resulting in the holograms that you're seeing. Either way, it'll be easy to remove if you wanted to re-do it.

You can get really carried away w/ the available products and application of them, so I recommend doing a little research on the detailing websites first. Assess what you truly need and go from there.

 

Chris thanks for all the info! I am really looking at the porter or maybe I might go all out and get a flex if there is a lot of difference? I used

$18 duragloss 901 red car wash concentrate - 16 oz.

duragloss 901 wash, meguires clay kit, meguires color x polish and used the the new ultimate liquid wax. I tried to use the best over the counter products. I have a lot left over and plan to use these on my tacoma as well. I think I may have just used to much polish and wax I dont think I applied it very thin in some spots and that may be part of the issue.

 

I've had every machine on the market, and imo, the easiest to use is the porter cable. Although the extra power on the flex is nice, I dont personally believe its worth the added $$. Once you use up your current products, you may want to look at detailed image. They're in upstate NY so you'll get products the next business day.

 

Thanks for all the info Chris! Porter and cable it is. I actually live in upstate new york so I will definitely check them out.

 

I picked up a porter cable a couple weeks ago and i love this thing.I have never really polished a car/truck with a machine before always by hand but the porter cable 7424 did a great job,very easy to use and i didn't have to worry about burn through the clear-coat

I got it from
They also have package deals for pretty much anything you need to do ..

 

Thanks Johnny I am going to get one just want to wait until my bonus gets here. between all my summer trips and all other expenses. I am just going to do the first polish and wax by hand but I will get one! Thanks for all the info guys. What polish and wax did you use? what color is your truck?

 

If anyone is interested EBAY has a few NIB

$139 7424xp , Gray

7424xp porter cable from top sellers for 118.00 with free shipping. I would imagine that's a pretty good deal.

 

Amazon has them for $119 shipped also. Make sure you get a velcro adapter though, as most of the "good" pads are hook and loop type. This usually brings the price back into the price range of the other vendors listed above. After you add pads and other stuff you are then back into the package price ranges.

 

Lurkin thanks for the all info! I will most likely get one of the packages from autogeek and just make sure i get the velcro adapter.

 

Yea, sorry, I should've mentioned that. You want the flexible backing plate. 4.7/8 if you want to run a 5.5" pad (which I'd recommend). You can use a 6" pad, but I personally find it too large for the pc. If you need to fit in to tight areas, a 3.5" backing plate w/ 4" pads is the setup.
Remember, with a PC, the smaller the pad, the more heat it will generate, which is opposite of rotary polishers, which have increased heat as you increase pad diameter.