Newbie Needs Advice What Should I Do Next?

[tsquare]

Would like to say hello and thank you for all the tips and advice I have read in this forum over the last few months. It inspired me to purchase a Porter Cable DA Polisher kit from Autogeek and do a complete exterior paint detailing to my Black 2002 E55 AMG.

The following in the list of steps I did:

1. Washed car - With Maguiers Gold Care Car Shampoo (2 bucket)
2. Clay Bar - With Maguiers Clay Bar Kit
3. Taped off Trim
4. Compounded with DA Polisher - Using Groits Complete Compound
5. Polished with DA Polisher - Using Klaase AIO
6. Sealed by hand - Using Klaase Sealant Glaze (2 applications 12 hours apart)
7. Waxed using DA Poisher - Using Dodo Juice Supernatural

thanks to to what I learned on this forum my E55 came out beautiful. Smoother than liquid black glass and reflective like a new black mirror.

Now. I could use some advice.

1. I wash my car every week, I was thinking about switching to Wolfgang Auto Bathe from my Maguiers Gold, does any one feel this is necessary upgrade on washing?

2. After washing in the past I would use Turtle Wax Black Spray wax, it would do a nice job hiding minor imperfections. Now since I applied the Klaase products and Dodo Juice Supernatural wax I would like to preserve these products as long as possible. What should I use after my wash to give the car that protection, shine and to not remove the products I just applied? I have the following in my garage, Sonas Glanz Spray Sealent, Sonas Acrylic Spritz quick detail spray and Wolgang Deep Gloss Spritz Sealant - which one of these should I use, or is their a better option?

I appreciate any advice - and thanks to everyone for all the help up to this point.

[dcjredline]

Gold class is a great soap for maintenance washes. What I would do is make sure you have a nice clean wash media. The majority of the swirls come from the sponge or mitt people use. Meguiar's makes a very nice (and inexpensive) MF wash mitt and they sell it here on AG

If you like that spray wax just keep using it. That should help protect the DDJ wax some.

[Eldorado2k]

Absolutely nothing wrong with Megs Gold Class. I used nothing but that for like 18 straight yrs. up until recently. No complaints.

[mwoolfso]

First off, congratulations and glad to hear you got the results you are looking for. You do not need to switch from Megs to Wolfgang soap, both are good quality soaps. As mentioned already, it's the wash media and also the drying towels and approach you need to be careful with.

Any time you rub something against your LSP, you are wearing down that layer. It cannot be avoided. If you want to keep the protection on the vehicle then don't disturb it; let it degrade natually. That's not practical though because you want to see the fruits of your labor; that gloss and shine rather than dirt/pollen build-up. Especially if your vehicle is a daily driver.

Consider this also, you had 2 layers of KSG which is probably phenomenal in and of itself. Then you muted those benefits by putting a premium wax to protect that sealant layer, and to protect that wax layer you are considering another premium product which is either another wax or sealant layer. This approach invariably layers a lot of premiums over one another and since each premium product has unique characteristics of gloss/shine/slickness, you are losing the characteristics that make each premium product stand on its own; and probably spending more money than required and not getting max benefits from each.

My suggestion would be to try rinseless washes every week; and a full wash with very lubrious soap dilution once per month. I like Wolfgang and Megs but I prefer XMT Wash; which is now McKees. Second, keep your maintenance regimen focused on avoiding a sealant over wax; it's just a waste of product. As part of the drying process on the rinseless wash, use a spray wax/sealant as a drying aid. This reduces the wipe-downs on each panel by one each time you do this. Accelerate the wash step if the vehicle picks up significant layers of dirt and grime.

I would also say you have too many premium products that you want to use consistently. More power to you if this doesn't matter to you.

I could close this with some more words but I get the impression you are intelligent; so you can fill-in the gaps in my overall response with some additional research and questions. Enjoy, sir and I hope this helps.

[tsquare]

Gold class is a great soap for maintenance washes. What I would do is make sure you have a nice clean wash media. The majority of the swirls come from the sponge or mitt people use. Meguiar's makes a very nice (and inexpensive) MF wash mitt and they sell it here on AG

If you like that spray wax just keep using it. That should help protect the DDJ wax some.

Thanks for the advice, Maguiers has been great through all the years I have used it, just wanted to make certain I wasn't missing out on something better.

Absolutely nothing wrong with Megs Gold Class. I used nothing but that for like 18 straight yrs. up until recently. No complaints.

Thanks for the feedback, just confirms I do not need to waste any money unnecessarily.

First off, congratulations and glad to hear you got the results you are looking for. You do not need to switch from Megs to Wolfgang soap, both are good quality soaps. As mentioned already, it's the wash media and also the drying towels and approach you need to be careful with.

Any time you rub something against your LSP, you are wearing down that layer. It cannot be avoided. If you want to keep the protection on the vehicle then don't disturb it; let it degrade natually. That's not practical though because you want to see the fruits of your labor; that gloss and shine rather than dirt/pollen build-up. Especially if your vehicle is a daily driver.

Consider this also, you had 2 layers of KSG which is probably phenomenal in and of itself. Then you muted those benefits by putting a premium wax to protect that sealant layer, and to protect that wax layer you are considering another premium product which is either another wax or sealant layer. This approach invariably layers a lot of premiums over one another and since each premium product has unique characteristics of gloss/shine/slickness, you are losing the characteristics that make each premium product stand on its own; and probably spending more money than required and not getting max benefits from each.

My suggestion would be to try rinseless washes every week; and a full wash with very lubrious soap dilution once per month. I like Wolfgang and Megs but I prefer XMT Wash; which is now McKees. Second, keep your maintenance regimen focused on avoiding a sealant over wax; it's just a waste of product. As part of the drying process on the rinseless wash, use a spray wax/sealant as a drying aid. This reduces the wipe-downs on each panel by one each time you do this. Accelerate the wash step if the vehicle picks up significant layers of dirt and grime.

I would also say you have too many premium products that you want to use consistently. More power to you if this doesn't matter to you.

I could close this with some more words but I get the impression you are intelligent; so you can fill-in the gaps in my overall response with some additional research and questions. Enjoy, sir and I hope this helps.

Thanks for through reply, really appreciate your advice. After the detailing I had a feeling I probably did overkill, just hoping it will be easier to maintain a nice finish for the year. Also, regarding the Dodo Juice Wax, after the Klaase SG it looked great, but as others have described not as warm a shine as compared to the wax, I was very impressed with the look after I used the wax. One thing for certain the DA Polisher is great and was very happy I had it to use this time around. Will try some different products in the months ahead, I am also going to order some Rinseless wash and see how that works as a fill in between the hose and bucket. I was considering ordering the Pinnical Spray Wax sample bottle, any thoughts? Thanks again for your help.