Josh what wax brands/types do you recommend for each step? Thanks in advance!
Depends on what you're wanting to accomplish?
Carnuaba's tend to give a more "warm" and more depth type of look but only last a few weeks, polymer sealants tend to give a more "glassy" look with longer last results 2+ months. Some inbetween waxes that have fillers, carnuabas and polymer resins tend to give a nice wet glossy look, but again only last a few weeks......
Remeber everything is about the prep work. You just can't put a ton of make up on an ugly girl (paint finish) and expect her to look sexy....
For maintaince I highly recommend two bucket washing, this is the key to not getting swirls on the car already, along with a high velocity electric leaf blower to dry and then touch up with a MF towel and a good polymer detailer such as Zaino Z8 or Meg's Ultimate QD after each wash, this will increase the slickness and longevity of whatever wax/sealant you use.
After a thorough two bucket wash, now comes the prep stage and you'll need to clay it with a mild clay. Meg's makes a good OTC white clay you can buy as a kit with a MF towel and lube at any auto store.
After claying, if you have swirls (which 99% of cars do) you need to either polish it with a mild abrasive polish to help relevel the surface the remove some swirls. You will need a PC (porter cable random orbital buffer ROB) for this to get good results. A rotary will give you great results and perfection if you know what you're doing, but wouldn't use it unless you have an understanding of the dynamics at play.
There are soooo many polishes out there that work differently and give different results it's hard to recommend one. I really like the Menzerna line for serious correction. For lighter less cutting polishes, try something like Zaino Fusion and follow up with Zaino AIO.
Then you'll be ready to seal/wax it. I do not use carnuaba's unless requested as they just don't give long lasting protection. Carnuaba's typically last 3 weeks or so. Alot of other sealants and carnuabas and glazes use sylicones and oils to help there products "look" better by filling in defects, but these same oils rinse off after a few washings and thus cause the protect to rinse off with them since they're all mixed together.
Most great polymer sealant products I've seen and heard about last up to 2 months 3 at best and they seem to be the water based polymer sealants with no oils.
The longest lasting protection I've used is the Zaino line sealants.
So for Carnuaba's, it's up to you, there's tons of them out there. I hear a lot of good from P21S 100%.
For sealants, again tons of them out there, but my favorite is Zaino for it's durability but needs a good warm environment for easy application.
For interiors 303 Aerospace is a great product.
For leather, Leatherique is probably the best rejuvinator (if you follow directions) Zaino Z9, Z10 are also very good for just maintaince cleaning and conditioning.
For exhaust tips, #0000 steel wool and Blue Magic Metal Polish is excellent for cleaning up blackened tips.
Again there's tons of good car care products out there. Meg's has a huge line with lots of good products, so does 3M...... try
www.Autogeek.net, they are a great online vendor with tons of info on each product.
Sorry this is so long, you asked for names, brands and types and such, so I did my best to thoroughly answer your question....:biggrin:
Josh
They work fine for me and it worked fine w/ me when I had a black car. I guess it depends on the type of wax or detail job done before.
