First timer.. waxing, polishing, etc

louiey370z

I've always taken my car the self car washes, but I want to make my car shine like a diamond. Looking for a whole kit of products to bring along with me to the self wash and make it look brand new.

Looking to remove swirl marks as well due to express washes :/

SouthArk370Z

See Junkman2008's paint care videos on this site. He goes by Junkman2000 on Youtube.

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Junkman2008

You won't be taking what you need to remove the swirl marks to the car wash. That's a job that you will be doing in your garage. Add to that, the way you are washing your car is why you have swirl marks. So the FIRST thing that you need to learn is how to properly wash your car. Once you learn how to do that, you can then repair all of the damage that is in the paint. The process is not fast or cheap and there is work involved but once your paint has been fixed, you should NEVER have to repeat the entire process again.

Your learning curve starts here. There's a thread at the top of this forum that contains the videos that strictly address the swirl removal process but like I said before, you need to STOP making swirls BEFORE you can think about removing them.

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MacCool

Junkman rules the world of paint care and correction. You can also look at the video series put out by Adam's Polishes. They show pretty much the same concepts, but with maybe a little less charisma. Very much worth the time invested.

The polishing technique that they show, using a high quality random orbital polisher, is necessary to have your car "shine like a diamond". The swirls and micro-marring in the clear coat, even if you fill them with wax, will refract light waves randomly thereby decreasing reflection, thereby limiting the "depth" of shine that you need to get it to really pop. There really is no shortcut, and there's no way you're going to achieve good results by hauling your junk to the local coin-operated car wash. My first 370Z was Black Cherry. It was potentially beautiful, but the paint of a dark car like that looks pretty mediocre after you swirl it up by scrubbing it with your old folded up tee-shirt or (gasp) the car-wash brush that you bought at Autozone.

I confess that my second 370Z is Pearl White. The Black Cherry was beautiful but was a lot of work for anyone with any degree of obsessive/compulsive disorder.

Joker_J

I didn't know junkman was from Louisville! lol
I have some light swirls I need to get rid of.. -_-

Junkman2008

Not just from Louisville, a serious Louisville fan too. You may recognize this year's Heisman Trophy winner?

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"Marines - Making the other guy die for his country for over 200 years."