After reading through countless topics started by DIY-ers who don't know how to maintain their cars, I figured it would be nice to share how I keep my rides in good nick. Using mostly products found in Malaysia, this will be a short step by step guide on how to keep your ride shiny whilst dealing with one of our most common problems .... Acid Rain/ Watermark/ Water Etching ....
We start off by looking at today's patient.
This Supra was corrected 5 months ago. By corrected I mean
It was washed, clayed, Polished on a Rotary Buffer using a Lake Country Polishing Pad + Optimum Hyper Compound, then Refined using a Dual Action Polisher using a finishing Pad and Meguairs M205.
It was then Protected with 2 coats of Optimum Opti-Seal, + 2x Coats of Optimum Liquid Spray Car Wax, and 1x Coat of Meguairs Ultimate Paste Wax.
Looks fine from afar, but take a closer look ...
There is heavy water etching. This is mostly due to the heavy downpours + heavy haze. That and also the water in this house has HARD WATER meaning that if you don't dry your car, minerals such as zinc and salt will remain on your car and eventually eat their way through your paint.
So we start off by giving it a good wash.
Because of the heavy dirt and dust, I decided to spray the car down with some left overs Meguairs Wash and Wax car wash. This was just to loosen the dirt and fair bit and I must say did a great job at that. The key is to get the dilution correct, so remember to read what the bottle says
As you can see that even though its been 4 months, the protection from the Opti-Seal and Opti Wax + Ultimate Wax still remain. Yet even with this much protection, it wasn't enough to stop our terrible acid rain.
After that was done, I moved on to clean the whole car with Optimum No Rinse Car Was. I find this product is great for us with hardwater as it softens the water up. This is a new product for me and I must say I'm rather impressed with it. I do still insist that you will need another car wash in case the car is really dirty :rolleyes:
This is the amount that you will need to wash a whole car, but if its a compact you can do with less. This amount will allow you to have approximately 8 liters of wash. I use the two bucket method with grit guards and find that works well, but its up to you how you want to use it.
Easy tip is that the height of two Grit Guards on top of each other is approximately 8 litres of water so you can get away using using a measuring bottle (Did the calculations manually using gf's baking stuff lol ...)
I've found the best way to use ONR is to keep some in a Spray Bottle
Spray the location, and wait for 15 seconds. Then only use a ONR soaked microfiber to wipe it clean. You should wipe in only one direction if possible and change sides immediately after doing so. This will help you minimize a lot of swirl marks. Its more work, but you save time by not having to polish the swirls away.
DSC_0033.jpg picture by Denggi - Photobucket
ONR shows that the car is already quite clean. Shows that the protection is working well.
Clay shows that there isn't much contaminants at all once again proving that if you protect your car well, it will stay clean a lot longer.
Car is the dried and ready for polish
Now the car is already looking quite decent, but I wasn't quite happy with the water etching. Whilst hard to see here as EVERYTHING is bright. It becomes alarmingly obvious the second you enter a shaded area with a strong beam of light eg:from fluorescent bulbs.
So I decided I'll give it a simply quite low cut polish to brighten up the paintwork.
Meet the tools. A Makita Rotary Buffer + Meguairs M105 (in Green), M205 (in Beige), and M80 which is a DAT style polish.
The difference between DAT and the new SMAT (M105/M205) polishers is that they take longer to work. You have to spread the product first, then work the polish till it disappears or as Meguairs say (Diminishing Abrasive Technologies). SMAT's just work, so you don't have to work it as hard.
Having said that, DAT polishers are better on Non Clear Coat paint and I find them easier to work with on SOFT Paint. Especially Honda Soft paint which this Supra is painted with .... (Don't ask why ...)
now a lot of people have told me at this point, the car is fine and the water etching is already quite minimal. Why bother to polish? Well I say it can look better. A few etchings here and there and sooner or later you'll have a horrid car. Don't believe me? Well here's a pic ... Try and see if you can spot which part of the bonnet has been polished :proud:
I won't bore you with the rest of the polishing. The car was finally wiped down with Eraser which removes the fillers from the M80 polish then allowing me to apply the Opti -Seal better.
Final Shot
I would like to thank everyone on ZTH and other detailing forums for teaching me how best maintain the cars I love. But a forum is only as good as the people who share information on it, so if anybody requires more information about a certain topic feel free to ask and I will try to do my best to help out our little community :)
We start off by looking at today's patient.
This Supra was corrected 5 months ago. By corrected I mean
It was washed, clayed, Polished on a Rotary Buffer using a Lake Country Polishing Pad + Optimum Hyper Compound, then Refined using a Dual Action Polisher using a finishing Pad and Meguairs M205.
It was then Protected with 2 coats of Optimum Opti-Seal, + 2x Coats of Optimum Liquid Spray Car Wax, and 1x Coat of Meguairs Ultimate Paste Wax.
Looks fine from afar, but take a closer look ...
There is heavy water etching. This is mostly due to the heavy downpours + heavy haze. That and also the water in this house has HARD WATER meaning that if you don't dry your car, minerals such as zinc and salt will remain on your car and eventually eat their way through your paint.
So we start off by giving it a good wash.
Because of the heavy dirt and dust, I decided to spray the car down with some left overs Meguairs Wash and Wax car wash. This was just to loosen the dirt and fair bit and I must say did a great job at that. The key is to get the dilution correct, so remember to read what the bottle says
As you can see that even though its been 4 months, the protection from the Opti-Seal and Opti Wax + Ultimate Wax still remain. Yet even with this much protection, it wasn't enough to stop our terrible acid rain.
After that was done, I moved on to clean the whole car with Optimum No Rinse Car Was. I find this product is great for us with hardwater as it softens the water up. This is a new product for me and I must say I'm rather impressed with it. I do still insist that you will need another car wash in case the car is really dirty :rolleyes:
This is the amount that you will need to wash a whole car, but if its a compact you can do with less. This amount will allow you to have approximately 8 liters of wash. I use the two bucket method with grit guards and find that works well, but its up to you how you want to use it.
Easy tip is that the height of two Grit Guards on top of each other is approximately 8 litres of water so you can get away using using a measuring bottle (Did the calculations manually using gf's baking stuff lol ...)
I've found the best way to use ONR is to keep some in a Spray Bottle
Spray the location, and wait for 15 seconds. Then only use a ONR soaked microfiber to wipe it clean. You should wipe in only one direction if possible and change sides immediately after doing so. This will help you minimize a lot of swirl marks. Its more work, but you save time by not having to polish the swirls away.
DSC_0033.jpg picture by Denggi - Photobucket
ONR shows that the car is already quite clean. Shows that the protection is working well.
Clay shows that there isn't much contaminants at all once again proving that if you protect your car well, it will stay clean a lot longer.
Car is the dried and ready for polish
Now the car is already looking quite decent, but I wasn't quite happy with the water etching. Whilst hard to see here as EVERYTHING is bright. It becomes alarmingly obvious the second you enter a shaded area with a strong beam of light eg:from fluorescent bulbs.
So I decided I'll give it a simply quite low cut polish to brighten up the paintwork.
Meet the tools. A Makita Rotary Buffer + Meguairs M105 (in Green), M205 (in Beige), and M80 which is a DAT style polish.
The difference between DAT and the new SMAT (M105/M205) polishers is that they take longer to work. You have to spread the product first, then work the polish till it disappears or as Meguairs say (Diminishing Abrasive Technologies). SMAT's just work, so you don't have to work it as hard.
Having said that, DAT polishers are better on Non Clear Coat paint and I find them easier to work with on SOFT Paint. Especially Honda Soft paint which this Supra is painted with .... (Don't ask why ...)
now a lot of people have told me at this point, the car is fine and the water etching is already quite minimal. Why bother to polish? Well I say it can look better. A few etchings here and there and sooner or later you'll have a horrid car. Don't believe me? Well here's a pic ... Try and see if you can spot which part of the bonnet has been polished :proud:
I won't bore you with the rest of the polishing. The car was finally wiped down with Eraser which removes the fillers from the M80 polish then allowing me to apply the Opti -Seal better.
Final Shot
I would like to thank everyone on ZTH and other detailing forums for teaching me how best maintain the cars I love. But a forum is only as good as the people who share information on it, so if anybody requires more information about a certain topic feel free to ask and I will try to do my best to help out our little community :)
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