What car polish/ products do you use? I mostly just use autoglym

Chemical goys: ok products but marketing hype
CarPro: Expensive korean shit
Meguiars: Damn good, industry standard for pro products and the HD / Lowes stuff isn't horrible
Griots: Apparently decent
AMMO NYC: Good shit but literal Apple of auto care
Everything else: Probably good. Auto care products are hard to fuck up

When in doubt: Google it out

Plenty of previous car wax threads. The previous one was:

>What car polish/ products do you use?
Beware of word meanings because polish is like the word "shit" in vague meanings. There's polish that is highly abrasive (meguairs pro series) and can remove your clear coat. There's polish that is somewhat abrasive and that can also remove your clear coat. There's polish that is very mildly abrasive and will remove swirls and scratches and although it says it's safe for clear coats, that really means you stop using it when you've ground down the clear coat to where the swirl marks and scratches are now level with the surface. Then there is a polish by Meguiar's that has no abrasives in it. Meg calls it their show car glaze on the label and on the description indicates it is a polish.

So people who blindly go and buy product based upon vague wording could make a big mistake on their clear coats.

>I mostly just use autoglym
On the prosumer carcare forums, autoglym is not a brand they typically use.

>haven't washed my car in weeks. It's covered in bird shit and dirt mud and grime from commuting
At least use the water jet from the hose to shove the shit off. No need for acidic poop to sit on the clear coat.

I once saw a super poopy and dirty car. The owner must have been deliberately parking it under bird spots. He was probably driving it around to irritate other drivers on the road since it looked really really terrible. Personally, that kind of attitude seems sociopathic.

Griot's is pretty good stuff. I got a bunch of it when Advance Auto discontinued almost everything (but brought some stuff back). I like their Speed Shine. I agree with Meguiar's. Their Ulitmate wax was the first thing of wax I've ever used. Super easy and comes of easy, even when I missed spots I couldn't see weeks after.

>polishing your car

kek

i just cum on a rag then smear it on my windows

Meguiars D151 is one of the best polishers you can get it's a decent price too.

Collinite 845 is one of the best waxes you can get it, it's pretty thick and you have to work it in but it's almost like a sealant

>Meguiars D151 is one of the best polishers you can get it's a decent price too.

That polisher D151 uses Meguiar's cutting edge Unigrit abrasive and polymers to create a one-liquid solution that removes defects such as swirl marks and scratches. Remember to not use it too much as it has moderate cutting action on your clear coat. Each time you use it, your clear coat is polished to become even thinner.

Optima compound and polish, lake city pads.

>AMMO NYC: Good shit but literal Apple of auto care
Good for youtube videos of technique only.

>i just cum on a rag then smear it on my windows

That's a pretty TINY window.

>polishing your car
Don't polish the chrome with any Optima abrasive polishes. Cleaning waxes also have some abrasive in them.

That's why, hopefully, you do it correctly the first time and all you'll need to do from there on is wash seal and wax

Gfy

i use autoglym shampoo or whatever that stuff is
for polish i use meguiars something or other

I use Chemical Guys and Mothers products.

same.

not gonna catch me spending $60 for a can of wax.

I don't wax anymore. My car gets dirty so often its not worth the trouble

>I don't wax anymore. My car gets dirty so often its not worth the trouble

The purpose of washing and waxing is not just to look good. The main goal is to protect your clearcoat which in turn protects your paint which in turn prevents your car from rusting. Along the way, most everyone liked seeing the wax shine too and then people started making products that perhaps had more effort in creating a shine than in protecting the clearcoat.

But just because dirt and road grime is on top of the wax doesn't mean it is totally gone and no longer protecting. But it does help to wash and wax again every so often. So don't give up.

I have this stuff but I would never polish with it on the regular for fear of it eating too much finish off each time.

>good enough for the queen, good enough for me
autoglym.com/about-us/royal-warrants

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Royal_Warrant_holders_of_the_British_Royal_Family

the blood of my enemies...gives my truck a nice deep red shine.

Abrasive polishes aren't a thing, the stuff that cuts down into the clear coat is called compound and is nothing to do with polishing

... It's not a polish it says compound right in the bottle, and it's not something you should do regularly

Polish is indeed abrasive, that's why it's not called wax.

>Abrasive polishes aren't a thing,
There's lots of polishes that are mildly abrasive. Even meguiars makes a polish which has abrasives in it yet they call it a polish.

The real problem is that the word polish has become polluted. It no longer means just one thing to all people. There are polishes that have no abrasives. And there are certainly polishes that have a lot of abrasives or mild abrasives. Cutting compounds are even more abrasive and have grit that is too large to really polish something but cuts a lot more instead.

Then there are cleaning waxes which have mild abrasives in them. So one has to pay attention to waxes to make sure it doesn't say it is a cleaning wax. That's a term from the old days when clearcoat was not the standard topcoat. It has survived to the current date because such cleaning waxes continued to be manufactured and used.

Been using auto glym for all kinds of cleaning of my car.

But... My paint is in so poor condition that there is no real reason for using these high end products on it. 18 years & 400 000 driven has done it's job.

I just apply nu-finish twice a year to the parts of my car that still have clear coat.

>I just apply nu-finish twice a year to the parts of my car that still have clear coat.

Uhh, since some parts of your car no longer have clearcoat, does that mean nu-finish was unable to stop parts of the car from losing its clearcoat?

if you wax your car gets dirty at a much slower rate and it becomes easy as fuck to clean when you do

What about those combination wash and wax shampoo mixes? Do they actually leave any wax behind?

>using the Once A Year Car Polish™ twice a year

>using the Once A Year Car Polish™ twice a year

The current Nu-finish is not a wax. It's an acrylic type polymer sealant. While some people would say "isn't that a more thinner version of acrylic floor wax?", Nu-finish is formulated with zinc. This gives it some UV protecting ability over other substances. After all, in ancient times before PABA sunscreens, zinc was used as a protectant against sunburn.

S O N A X
O
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I ignored Nu-polish when I was looking for a wax because I didn't want to remove any of my paint... it's still in good condition.

Recently my dad bought some and I read the packaging all over... it seemingly doesn't contain any abrasives and isn't actually a polish. I may try some soon to see if it's better than Meguairs liquid wax. Fucking marketing bullshit

I use this set because I do not do any major buffing/polishing and just putting on the 2-in-1 seems to work great on a weekly regimen. I pay a professional to do way a more thorough detail if necessary. My interest in detailing my car is cleaning wheels and interior, shampoo, and apply a light polish/wax coat by hand.

I used nu-finish once.
The results were actually really good.
I still don't use it.

Nu-finish has no abrasives if you visit their site. It also recommends that you remove all other waxes first. That way it can stick to the clear coat. The FAQ also recommends to re-apply it after 30 days after the first time.

Stuff

That's a nice strong shelving unit for the cost. In the USA, Sam's Club sells the 7 foot tall units for $84 when I bought mine. I got four sets and hooked them together in an semi "U" shape in the garage. Two shelves end to end for one side of the "U", one shelf across for the bottom of the "U", and one shelf for the other side of the "U". That side is short so I can have a nice walking space or open up a folding table in that section of the garage. It takes up one car space in the two-car garage, but the extra storage space has been handy.

Using those small lugs that come in the shelving unit to fasten the other units together made them very rigid. They cannot tip over even in an earthquake unless those lugs vibrate upwards to release the shelf sections. So I got short screws and two different washer sizes. One was the wide flat washer that is too big to slip thru the hole. The other is a lock washer just big enough to fit fully in the hole. I sandwich the lock washer with the two other washers and put the nut on the screw to hold the washer in the hole. That keeps the lug from moving upwards. I cut the screw to be flush with the nut and file the end a little to make sure it is not sharp.

The Sam's Club versions have painted wood shelf pieces.

Sonax, cant beat dat deutsche Qualität!

How do you like that oil pan? I saw something similar at NAPA. If it's full and you kick it, how does it react? Not much spillage? Is it easy to drain fully?

if your car gets dirty a lot thats an incentive to wax..

wax isn't about appearance.

I have a similar one and it's awesome.

It is the only correct type of oil pan. Holds several changes, too.

>wax isn't about appearance.

Some are targeted for certain finishes. You can get paste wax for matte finishes, you can get them for white paint, black paint, bright paint, dark paint. You're not going to get specialty waxes at Auto Zone, but they are out there.

The word "polish" is used too inconsistently. It usually and should mean that the product contains some sort of abrasive in it. But Nu-finish uses the word to attract casual users. Even meguiars has a polish that has no abrasives in it and also polishes that do have abrasives.

Amazing there are no Polish jokes yet from one of the forums two constant trollers.

>if your car gets dirty a lot thats an incentive to wax..

In between wax jobs, you can use that wash-and-wax all in one to help maintain the shine. As long as the soap concentration is not too strong, some wax job residue remains on the car.

I wonder if you can use an electric air blower to blow the water off the car and thus have a lot less water to sop up with the microfiber cloth? It seems like a good idea. You can't use those gasoline-powered blowers though because they shoot out an oily exhaust mist.

Instead of blowing, others mentioned that they used deionized water to do the final rinse. That kind of water didn't leave waterspots.

I like how the place where the oil drains onto is small. That makes wiping up much easier than with the huge landing spot the oil pan at wal-mart has.

Underrated

>I used Zaino Brothers for the longest time, not sure if that is still good. It sure lasted a long time and looked nice.

It's a product from the old days. I assume they will say they updated it, but other products have advanced and are easier to use.

You can get plastic ones at Wal-Mart or menards that hold 250 pounds for $40. 4 tier about 6 foot tall

>I used Zaino Brothers for the longest time, not sure if that is still good. It sure lasted a long time and looked nice.
Zaino's main claims to performance was its super sealant that lasted up to one year and the synthetic wax that lasted longer than those carnauba-based products. Both Meguiars Ultimate and Turtle Wax ICE came out with similar synthetic waxes. Turtle Wax ICE went further and seems to have duplicated the Zaino sealant in a much more economical form. Even the applicator is similar in how fine pored it is.

It's way way cheaper to buy "zaino" in the turtle wax ICE form at wal-mart. And the formulation seems easier to apply too as it was idiot-proofed for mass sales.

If those are the ones with the plastic tubes as vertical supports, be careful about putting any weight on the upper shelves. That's because if you bump the plastic tubes on the bottom with anything hard, the tube can suddenly crumple under the weight and the shelf will tilt over and fall down.

>You can get plastic ones at Wal-Mart or menards that hold 250 pounds for $40
Like this plastic one:
samsclub.com/sams/resin-shelf-24-deep-36-wide/prod8800234.ip

The individually adjustable shelves that mightyBenz has in his post at is no longer at my store but was replaced by these reasonable $65 USD ones:
samsclub.com/sams/5-level-shelving-muscle-rack/prod7620023.ip

It is made in china and uses much less metal than mightyBenz's shelf (which I also have). It claims to support 500 chinese pounds per shelf for a total of 2,500 chinese pounds simultaneously. I say that is totally false. The shelves seem to be a melamine formaldehyde paint over which a plastic spray was done to seal the surface and make it seem artificially "hard and smooth". My version claims on the box NSF certification but the new boxes don't so the chinese company got caught and had to take the fake certification off their printed signage. Makes you wonder about chinese oils that claim SAE and API certified values. Is it really 5W20 virgin full synth? Or was it chemically bleached mucilage thickened runoff water from Britney Spear's hotel showers when she was doing a set of concerts in china.

Is there a recommended model for making deionized water for the purpose of car washing?

My current car is recently purchased and I'm doing touch-ups before I get a pro to do an in and out detailing job. After that I'll be thinking of investing in car care products. I'm pretty sure I'll use Meguiar's stuff, anything I have used of there has only done good things, and their window cleaner smells like pure fucking sex.

In summary: none.

If you get an easy to use product, then you don't have to keep hiring others to detail your car. In between the waxes, you can simply use an all in one product such as wash-and-wax from Meguiars or Turtle Wax.

Both Meguiars Ultimate and Turtle Wax ICE are super easy to apply and remove because they don't stain trim due to using purer synthetics instead of the old standby of palm tree carnauba wax.

Paying people to detail the car gets pretty expensive. Pretty soon you've spent enough money to have bought fairly fancy gear. With deionized water, you simply spray the deionized water stream on the car to rinse off the hard water sitting on the car. The deionized water can dry in the sun without leaving any waterspots.

Paying for detailing can be risky to the car because they apply wax and that hides all the problems and new scratches they caused. For example, at Good Chevrolet in Renton Washington, I watched their two detailers wash and dry a car. The drying was done with a synthetic chamois cloth that could be wringed dry and quickly reused. It should be washed before reuse but that was not done due to speed. They wanted to get done fast. The other detailer was doing final wipes with a large microfiber cloth and wiping fairly briskly on the closed car door seams and bottom panels to remove any grime the wash and fake chamois missed or smeared. Real detailers open the door. Anyways, he would let the cloth touch the ground as he wiped (as much as 1/3 on the WET ground). A fresh coat of wax covers up scratches so no problem since he was just trying to get done as fast as possible.

So, getting a detailer to work on your car doesn't mean they won't treat it as just a task to get over with as fast as possible. Talk and saying all the things you want to hear are different from how people actually work - we know that is true with tedious tasks. If people think they aren't being watched, their methods often get slack or uncaring. Just like at Good Chevrolet detailing. No wonder I had those swirl marks on the new car (I bought from them) once the wax was removed. Annoying! You can pay the Good Chevy dealership $199 for full detailing service too. Ahh, no thanks, I've seen enough and it makes me feel squeamish inside and a bit angry.

If you can secretly observe your detailers before you hire them, that might be good.

I occasionally pass by these amateur car washing fund raisers. I would not dare let these anonymous youths scratch up my car. I wonder if they are even legal since runoff water could be classed as polluted.

At one of them, they use sponges and some sort of blue liquid soap from a big gallon size bottle. Is it DAWN? Just kidding. They had that fluorescent pinkish red car wash liquid. But I object to the sponges.

I guess I'll just get an inside job done then and do all the exterior work myself. I was just going to get it done once so the canvas was fresh, easier to maintain something clean than clean something messy, you know?

Also, another question. I have a little bit of paint missing on my front bumper and side mirrors. If I color match and fix it up and then use wax will the shine hide the difference in color, or make it more apparent? (27 year old silver paint, pic related the stuff I have left to do.)

>I have a little bit of paint missing on my front bumper and side mirrors. If I color match and fix it up and then use wax will the shine hide the difference in color, or make it more apparent? (27 year old silver paint, pic related the stuff I have left to do.)

In my experience (and yours), the shine from wax and the silicone oils actually hides a lot of things for dark colored finishes. It's the non-white light ones like silver that are hardest to match. If matched, the wax shine will hide the difference even more, but it will not hide a change of color along a straight line as the human eye notices lines of color color change.

With silver paint touchups, it usually has to be feathered at the edges to blend in any differences in the way the new paint reflects light versus the old paint. Wax would even out that reflection difference.