Do I need to polish a brand new car before ceramic coat? Any specific coats for white cars?

[dannieboiz]

The car is 2 weeks old, Pearl white, today, I decided to foam washed it, then clay the whole vehicle then put a coat of Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid Wax on it. I did the work in the garage with a bunch of florescence lighting above and did a walk around and found no swirls.

Although it looks clean, no swirls, no blemish it only look "new" but it doesn't look "wow" you know what I mean? Thinking about using cquart on the car on the next round. Do I need to do any polishing if the paints look good? It got one wash from the dealer before delivery and a couple washes by me with gentle care each time.

Before ceramic coating I'm thinking about

Wash
Clay
Ceramic coat

do I need any step in between?

[Hammer77]

I am sure someone with more knowledge that myself will come along. I would always polish before coating, polishing will give you that WOW. It will gloss it up, and kind of clean the surface. I would recommend Wolfgang Finishing Glaze, as its more of a very fine polish. It what I used prior to coating as like yours, my car had a few very mild imperfections. Polish will amp it up IMO.

[Hammer77]

BTW, Welcome to AGO, and what kind of new ride did you get?

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Before ceramic coating I'm thinking about

Wash
Clay
Ceramic coat

do I need any step in between?

Yes, you will probably want to use something like CarPro Erasure to wipe down the panels and ensure they are free of anything that would prevent the coating from bonding to the surface.

Having said that:
This question comes up often and when it does, it usually causes a stir, as there are two camps.
Camp 1 = always do some form of correcting
Camp 2 = If the swirl finder light doesn't find anything, proceed to prep and coat.

Camp 3 is a hybrid of 1 & 2 = Here is where it gets tricky. Usually there is some random scratch... you could just spot polish those. However the argument of "uniformity" comes up. I prefer to have uniformity.

Also, one could argue that if you clay too aggressively you may cause some marring, and thus polish after.
If you use a fine poly clay and good lubricant, you should be fine.

The real answer is "Inspect the paint" after you've done your wash decontamination process.
Using a light, sun works best (and it's free), or other swirl finder light of choice, carefully inspect the paint. If you find nothing, proceed to prep and coat.

If you are going to use CQ, you can always go over the vehicle with CarPro Essence.
CarPro Essence Xtreme Gloss Enhancer 500 ml

This is (for lack of better terms) an all-in-in-one which will work nicely as a prep stage for coating.

Hope this helps.

[boomdone]

I'd do a test spot on the trunk lid/hatch and tape off the area you are polishing. Once you remove the tape you'll be able to see a 50/50 split of polished vs unpolished areas and whether there's a noticeable difference. If so then just keep right on going. If not you can stop (or finish the rest of the trunk lid/hatch for completeness if you're OCD like me). I think this is the only way to truly know IMO.

[Salmonbum]

I just bought a new White BMW and before it even hit the road I Iron X, clayed it, then polished with Essence before 2 coats of Cquartz. BMW paint is usually pretty clean from factory, so I used some light clay and pulled almost nothing off the paint. But the Essence really made the car pop. Really glad I did that.

[TMQ]

((Although it looks clean, no swirls, no blemish it only look "new" but it doesn't look "wow" you know what I mean? ))

With what you said above---

Yes, you need to polish.

Tom

[ronkh57]

Not polishing is like taking a shower and not washing your feet, thinking the running water and soap will clean em........

[DavidAl]

Not polishing is like taking a shower and not washing your feet, thinking the running water and soap will clean em........

Wait, what? I've been doing it wrong all these years?


Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app

[Desertnate]

I'm firmly in the, "polish it first" camp.

Not long ago I detailed my mother-in-laws brand new white pearl car and hit it with an AIO that contained mild abrassives. Despite only being about two months old there was a noticeable difference in the car when I was done. The paint was much "whiter" and had that freshly fallen snow gleam to it that wasn't there before. The swirls were nearly non-existant, but simply deep cleaning the paint and polishing the surface made all the difference. Go over the car with a mild polish will give you "wow" you're looking for.