[grannyknot]

For the past 40 yrs I have washed with one buck, dried with some old bath towels and a coat of wax once a summer.
Now I want to evolve bit and see if I can bring the paint back to something half decent.
It's a black car so everything shows, there are scuffs, lots of swirls and minor scratches, that was before I brought it in to the garage for a full tear down and rebuild this winter so it is now also covered with a thick layer of shop dust.

So, I have assembled a water de ionizer, bought a good foam gun and some nice products I've been researching.
I need to get this muck off the car so I can start to work on the paint without making it worse.

Here's the procedure I have laid out, I'm certainly willing to change anything depending on what you detail gurus advise.

1 Roll the car out and spray foam it with Adams strip&wash, let that sit.
2 Pressure wash that off and rinse.
3 Spray with Iron buster, let sit then pressure wash the rinse.
4 Spray foam it with Adams strip&wash, hand wash with 2 bucket method.
5 Pressure wash the rinse.
6 Clay bar with fine clay.
7 Spray foam it with regular car soap.
8 Rinse with de ionized water and blow dry.
10 Now I should be down to the bare clear coat I can compound with heavy, med or fine cut depending on how bad it is using a 7" rotary or 6" DA orbital sander.
11 Final polish with a microfiber pad on the DA orbital sander.
12 Buff/clean off the polish with a microfiber towel.
13 Spray foam the car with Sonax foam & seal.
14 rinse off with de ionized water.
15 Blow dry and touch up with TW Ice seal & shine.

What do you think, did I miss anything?

[ultrared93]

Originally Posted by grannyknot

For the past 40 yrs I have washed with one buck, dried with some old bath towels and a coat of wax once a summer.
Now I want to evolve bit and see if I can bring the paint back to something half decent.
It's a black car so everything shows, there are scuffs, lots of swirls and minor scratches, that was before I brought it in to the garage for a full tear down and rebuild this winter so it is now also covered with a thick layer of shop dust.

So, I have assembled a water de ionizer, bought a good foam gun and some nice products I've been researching.
I need to get this muck off the car so I can start to work on the paint without making it worse.

Here's the procedure I have laid out, I'm certainly willing to change anything depending on what you detail gurus advise.

1 Roll the car out and spray foam it with Adams strip&wash, let that sit.
2 Pressure wash that off and rinse.
3 Spray with Iron buster, let sit then pressure wash the rinse.
4 Spray foam it with Adams strip&wash, hand wash with 2 bucket method.
5 Pressure wash the rinse.
6 Clay bar with fine clay.
7 Spray foam it with regular car soap.
8 Rinse with de ionized water and blow dry.
10 Now I should be down to the bare clear coat I can compound with heavy, med or fine cut depending on how bad it is using a 7" rotary or 6" DA orbital sander.
11 Final polish with a microfiber pad on the DA orbital sander.
12 Buff/clean off the polish with a microfiber towel.
13 Spray foam the car with Sonax foam & seal.
14 rinse off with de ionized water.
15 Blow dry and touch up with TW Ice seal & shine.

What do you think, did I miss anything?

Personally I would start with a plain water rinse to get some of the thick shop dust off. Then the strip wash might be more effective.

On the steps where you "let sit", just don't let the sprayed-on chemical dry on the surface prior to rinsing off.

I also wonder if a final polish using a microfiber pad (as opposed to fine foam) will produce the maximum potential gloss in the finish.

Finally, I think this is a lot of prep work to end up using a sealant. Did you consider ceramic or graphene coating? The Sonax product may be fine, but I just don't know much about it.

[spazzz]

I wash and rinse the car using 1 bucket of soap with 8 or so chenille mitts, never touching the water after initial dunk...same as Gary Dean method.
I save a chenille mitt to use as my clay lubricant and go at it with the clay. This mitt I may redunk.

I don't bother with the foam anymore because it gets in every crevice and doesn't want to leave. You will be polishing road grime and old sealant off anyway so why foam.
Clay,rinse, IronX, rinse, dry then compound/polish.
Don't forget the wheels.

What polisher will you be using?

[willywilson]

After you compound and polish you need to use a Panel Wipe (e.g. CarPro Eraser) to remove the residue from the broken down polish.

As stated above- I'd coat with a ceramic (e.g. Quartz UK 3.0) to protect all this hard work. It's easy to apply- just watch Youtube vids. The graphene product is a newer option. Adam's gets good reviews. I'm getting ready to do a car with double coat UK 3.0.

[spazzz]

My order was wrong.
Wash, rinse, Iron-X, rinse then clay and rinse.

[grannyknot]

Originally Posted by ultrared93

Personally I would start with a plain water rinse to get some of the thick shop dust off. Then the strip wash might be more effective.

On the steps where you "let sit", just don't let the sprayed-on chemical dry on the surface prior to rinsing off.

I also wonder if a final polish using a microfiber pad (as opposed to fine foam) will produce the maximum potential gloss in the finish.

Finally, I think this is a lot of prep work to end up using a sealant. Did you consider ceramic or graphene coating? The Sonax product may be fine, but I just don't know much about it.

Thanks guys.
Fine foam, yes good point.
I've just started diving into the ceramic coating world and learning curve is all over the place, so many different opinions, from the best thing possible to, it's crap, don't waste your money.
I haven't sorted the facts from the BS yet but it does sounds very promising.

Originally Posted by spazzz

I wash and rinse the car using 1 bucket of soap with 8 or so chenille mitts, never touching the water after initial dunk...same as Gary Dean method.
I save a chenille mitt to use as my clay lubricant and go at it with the clay. This mitt I may redunk.

I don't bother with the foam anymore because it gets in every crevice and doesn't want to leave. You will be polishing road grime and old sealant off anyway so why foam.
Clay,rinse, IronX, rinse, dry then compound/polish.
Don't forget the wheels.

What polisher will you be using?

HA, because I spent a lot of money on a foam gun and I want to see what it's like
I have a 7" rotory machine with variable speed and a 5-6" DA random orbital machine with variable speed.

Originally Posted by willywilson

After you compound and polish you need to use a Panel Wipe (e.g. CarPro Eraser) to remove the residue from the broken down polish.

As stated above- I'd coat with a ceramic (e.g. Quartz UK 3.0) to protect all this hard work. It's easy to apply- just watch Youtube vids. The graphene product is a newer option. Adam's gets good reviews. I'm getting ready to do a car with double coat UK 3.0.

A panel wipe, I didn't know that but it makes perfect sense.

[Techno 9000]

Originally Posted by grannyknot

......
I need to get this muck off the car so I can start to work on the paint without making it worse.

Here's the procedure I have laid out, I'm certainly willing to change anything depending on what you detail gurus advise.

1 Roll the car out and spray foam it with Adams strip&wash, let that sit.
2 Pressure wash that off and rinse.
3 Spray with Iron buster, let sit then pressure wash the rinse.
4 Spray foam it with Adams strip&wash, hand wash with 2 bucket method.
5 Pressure wash the rinse.
6 Clay bar with fine clay.since you have damaged paint (swirls etc) a medium clay would work more quickly with no downside
7 Spray foam it with regular car soap.
8 Rinse with de ionized water and blow dry. again the paint has damage and you're intent on correcting it, so contact dry for speed
10 Now I should be down to the bare clear coat I can compound with heavy, med or fine cut depending on how bad it is using a 7" rotary or 6" DA orbital sander.
11 Final polish with a microfiber pad on the DA orbital sander.
12 Buff/clean off the polish with a microfiber towel.
12a the panel wipe mentioned by a contributor above would be a good idea
13 Spray foam the car with Sonax foam & seal.
14 rinse off with de ionized water.
15 Blow dry and touch up with TW Ice seal & shine.

What do you think, did I miss anything?

I think you're pretty much on the money, but suggest the above in blue italics.

[grannyknot]

Just to finish up this thread, this is 8 months of shop dust.
Pressure washed the worst of it off then let it soak in the foam.


Pressure washed the foam off and sprayed the car down with rust buster, let it sit for a few minutes then rinsed off and foamed it up again and did the first hand wash. After rinsing I brought it into the shop and clay bared the entire car.
Back outside for one more foam hand wash using a strip wash and a final rinse with deionized water, back into the shop for drying.
Here it is in just the bare clear coat ready for paint/clear coat touch ups, a few chips on the edge of the wheel well.
Tomorrow I'll decide if I'll start with compounding or go straight to polishing.


The next day I got the whole car compounded with Meguiar's Pro Speed compound, wiped down with 50/50 ISO/water then polished with The Final Polish and a DA orbital, then coated it with SONAX foam&seal.
Final rinse with deionized water, blew it off and let dry in the shade of the garage.

[diirk]

Looks great. It's especially satisfying on a dark car.
I did something similar with a 15yo Mini I picked up that had been neglected.
I had very good luck using the Boss system that matches pass to polishes for great results.
Super easy for a novice like me and the results were amazing.

[LivingInSalt]

I thought this was a really good video that explains each step of the paint correction process and how to do each

[grannyknot]

Originally Posted by LivingInSalt

I thought this was a really good video that explains each step of the paint correction process and how to do each

Looks like I did it in the right order, although after watching that I might go back and do a little more of the polishing stage.
Thanks

[Jrock645]

Pressure wash first. Then foam cannon. An air dryer is handy to have- less touching of paint.

As for heavy decon and claying… Finish Kare and ValuGard both have a 3 step decon system that’s better than clayin most cases. Needs good drainage as it’s pretty harsh stuff but it saves some work.

A simple all around Polish with Rupes uno or wolfgang total swirl remover should clear the paint enough with the right pad combo unless you’re dealing with a lot of defects.