meissenation

iTrader: (2)

Also -- a really great tip that I heard once and have always religiously done since... when it's time to dry your car and you're done washing, do this:

Remove the nozzle off of the hose you're using so the water will flow freely out. Then take the hose and take it to the top of the car, angle the hose a little bit so you're letting the water flow with the lines of the body. You want the water flowing freely out of the hose, onto the top of the car, and down the sides. The water when it has unrestricted flow like that actually sheets all the water together off the car. When you get the hang of this, you can practically dry the entire car just by using the hose correctly.

I've been doing this for awhile and I've gotten good enough at this that by the time I'm done sheeting the water off, all I have to dry are the t-tops, windows, and under the spoiler and then the cracks and stuff... the body panels all air dry perfectly doing it this way and don't leave waterspots.

Transam427

I'm planning on just getting this stuff from the local Canadian Tire. How do you know if it's a waffle weave towel?

meissenation

iTrader: (2)

It should say on the packaging what kind of weave it is. If not, ask.

cthomas

Yea I do that too meissenation. It makes drying the car go much faster. Good tip

ZaneO

You might have trouble getting some of this stuff from a local distributor. Look for the new Meguiar's Gold Class towels.

cthomas

Yea O'reilly's has them. They also sell Viking too, which are pretty decent OTC microfibers, compared to like Wal-Mart, Target and other ones i've seen.

Transam427

I've just found a local auto shop that carries the 3M line of car care products, I think these are the best i can get around here, but which ones should I all get?

98A4LS1

iTrader: (1)

cthomas, thanks for the detailed explanations. Small world, my mother lives in Scottsville, actually Halfway. I normally read other forums but I got to thinking about my '98 (my son has had it for the last 3 months in Bowling Green) and I bet it looks bad and needs attention so I thought I would check this forum to see what products would be the best to use. I bought it in May 2004 mostly garaged until this spring. I washed it several times but nothing else since it was not driven much and was inside out of the sun.

cthomas

cool:-).......look me up sometime, i'm always going to the Sante Fe cruises on Monday nights, Beech Bend sometimes, just went to the Somernights Cruise last week, always looking to get more f-body people together to go to these things.

98A4LS1

iTrader: (1)

Will do. Hopefully, I'll get the car back sometime this month or early August.

WicketMike

iTrader: (13)

Great info in this thread,
Ive never used some of this stuff until yesterday because of reading this thread, but i have a question about the polish, i dont have a buffer so i had to do it by hand. Are you suppose to keep rubbing it in until its gone? I kept getting some left over cuz it was getting dry, so id use a microfiber cloth to wipe the excess off.
Please advise

thanks!

Mike

cthomas

I rub untill it gets just past the gummy stage (using ScratchX) then i'll put some more on my applicator and usually go over the same area at least 1 more time, and then move on. As far as ScratchX goes, it has what's called "diminishing abrasives" which basically means the abrasives break down as soon as you start rubbing it in, untill they are so small they are'nt taking anything off. So when you put it on, rub it pretty hard to take advantage of the abrasives before they break down. If you just try to gently spread it around, your not going to see much difference, but if you put some back into it, you'll see a big difference. Just about any polish is going to take some hard rubbing to take out scratches by hand (clear coat is VERY hard), but some products use cleaners to polish and some use abrasives, some have wax in them, some don't. So alot of it depends on what you use and what the "polish" has in it.

EDIT: Oh yea another tip to try with polish, try using a terry cloth towel to apply it, instead of a foam applicator, the terry cloth is alittle more aggresive in removing dead paint, oxidation, swirls, etc. than the foam is.