My first detail

[JonRC]

My car is a few years old and I decided to give it a full detail. I always thought it would be a cool hobby. And I pulled up to the same car, same color 2 weeks ago and it had a show room finish. The color was super deep and wet looking.

It's a 2013 Scion FRS (Burnt Orange metal flake) driven all year in Toronto Canada (less snow then buffalo). I don't use it for work and it's in a garage when not driven)

While I was very happy with the interior , I wasn't that pleased with the exterior finish. Here is a list of my products and the order in which they were applied.

A) what products at a mid-low range price can give me the deep and wet look I want?

B) did I mess my order up. Or use the wrong combination of products?

C) can you recommend good multi purpose products that work better then what I used?

1. Wash
2. Mothers clay
3. Meguiars ultimate polish
4. Meg scratch x or Meg ultimately polish again (as needed)
5. Mothers stage 2 glaze and seal

I was pretty happy at this point. Paint looked good. Not really deep but it looked glassy. I think I screwed up the next step.

6. Autoglym extra gloss protectant. (I didn't get a chance to rub this off after an hour. I took it off 24-36 hours later) it didn't harm the paint. But whatever oil step 5 glazed with was gone. Lost a bit of the glassy look. Repels water like crazy.
7. LSP was Meguires ultimate wax

8. Autoglym bumper and trim on all the rubber and plastic on the exterior. It looks good. But didn't 100% dry after a day. Not practical for a daily driver.
9. All the interior plastic and vinyl got turtle wax ice. (I should have used a dedicated cleaner first. This took longer but still looks good)
10. Diluted folex 1:1 on the seats and shop vacced.

[DaveT435]

Some pictures would help. I've never used Autoglym before...sounds like maybe that left a little haze.

[JonRC]

Not really.. it was a clean look. Just not a wet look. The meguiars ultra wax brought the wet look back. It just isn't deep.

[shagnat]

From that distance, it looks pretty good to my eyes. And especially your first time I'd say it's darn good.

But why the Autoglym AND Ultimate Wax. Wax and sealant do the same thing albeit different chemical makeup. They're both protectants, nothing more, however if the wax helped bring back more of what you were looking for, I'd skip the sealant your next go round.

[Britsdaddy]

It's a 2013 Scion FRS (Burnt Orange metal flake) driven all year in Toronto Canada (less snow then buffalo).
What's up with the crack at Buffalo? At least we don't mandate snow tires here.


Nice job. Car looks nice but if your looking for depth I'd go with a wax over the sealant.

[JonRC]

I had the ult wax from last time so that's why I used it, I was hoping to end it with the autoglym. Tbh. After reading a lot more this week I might try a few coats of dark car carnuba. If I use the autoglym egp again I will use it before the glaze and then seal the glaze with my wax.

2 sealants might work well for me during winter.

Any thought on a reasonable priced carnuba that might look good on my paint color?

Btw Didn't mean anything by the buffalo crack. Sometimes I say toronto and people think it's always snowy. We don't need snow tires ether. In toronto we get less snow but 1h North of here and it's worse than you guys.

[Setec Astronomy]

I think you've got too many products you're trying to use at the same time. Scratch-X and UP are doing the same thing, and I'm not familiar with that Mother's step 2 but it sounds like an oily glaze.

The AutoGlym EGP won't play nice on an oily surface, arguably it won't play nice over UP, that's why they make SRP, to prep the surface for the EGP. If you can get the surface clean enough for the EGP, I'd just go straight to the Ultimate Wax without using the glaze. Keep in mind that Ultimate Wax is really a sealant, not a wax.

[JonRC]

So you would just use up and uw.

I did notice a better finish after up with the glaze. But that's because it was my first time and I wasn't trying to fix everything on the surface this time. Do you think uw would interfere with the mothers glaze

[JonRC]

Or would you use a prep like srp, egp and then uw or a real wax

[Setec Astronomy]

You're trying to do too many things at once. Glazes were popular back in the days before clearcoat because they "fed" the paint, and they were popular after clearcoat but before the era of common machine use because you couldn't remove clearcoat defects by hand so you would hide them with a glaze.

The glaze looks good because it's got oils that will evaporate and/or be washed off if they aren't protected. If you've already done all the defect removal with the UP that you're going to do, there's no point in using it again (near-term). Use your glaze and top it with UW or the Mother's step 3 or something else. Just don't expect a pure sealant (like EGP) to bond over the glaze. "Waxes" like UW have some cleaners in them to allow them to adequately bond over oily glazes (like you can use Meg's #7 under their "waxes" which are actually sealants).

[TRDTACO]

Buffalo, cmon i live in the snowiest city in the USA , Syracuse NY (unfortunately) . I have a 2 year old Tacoma and with all the salt they put down around here im disgusted with all the rust allready starting underneath my ride.Vehicles that are 5 or 6 years old around here usally have the bubbled paint , rotting , rust starting around the outer wheel wells/ fender areas. Its a battle ive never seen any wax or sealant win. It seems like its winter here 6 months a year. Weather forcast for the next 6 months, cold and shitty. The Carolinas are looking better and better every day.

[JonRC]

You're trying to do too many things at once. Glazes were popular back in the days before clearcoat because they "fed" the paint, and they were popular after clearcoat but before the era of common machine use because you couldn't remove clearcoat defects by hand so you would hide them with a glaze.

The glaze looks good because it's got oils that will evaporate and/or be washed off if they aren't protected. If you've already done all the defect removal with the UP that you're going to do, there's no point in using it again (near-term). Use your glaze and top it with UW or the Mother's step 3 or something else. Just don't expect a pure sealant (like EGP) to bond over the glaze. "Waxes" like UW have some cleaners in them to allow them to adequately bond over oily glazes (like you can use Meg's #7 under their "waxes" which are actually sealants).

Ok thanks, since this is my daily driver i don't plan on polishing again until next year. And even then only for prepping the surface for wax. Looks like EGP will sit on the shelf for a while.

I guess my biggest flaw was buying a few thing before planning it all out and then trying to work with what i had on hand. I will give myself a little credit, it's much better then last years nufinish which lasted a long time but required buffing white flecs and cleaning painted trim for over a year.

[barkeater]

Barf-alo!!! We don't care if it snows, just don't go for the last wing or I'll break your arm ;)

[Britsdaddy]

Buffalo, cmon i live in the snowiest city in the USA , Syracuse NY (unfortunately) . I have a 2 year old Tacoma and with all the salt they put down around here im disgusted with all the rust allready starting underneath my ride.Vehicles that are 5 or 6 years old around here usally have the bubbled paint , rotting , rust starting around the outer wheel wells/ fender areas. Its a battle ive never seen any wax or sealant win. It seems like its winter here 6 months a year. Weather forcast for the next 6 months, cold and shitty. The Carolinas are looking better and better every day.

Calm down. Winter sucks here in NY for everyone. I was just pointing out that he called out Buffalo over Toronto. Those same paint and body issues that you pointed out are here as well. I have a brand new GMC that went through one winter and had light corrosion on the thunderbolt. Unless you have the ability to rinse out your truck ever time you drive it in the winter, it's going to happen. We've been thinking about the Carolinas, too.