Just bought a Meguiars clay bar and I'm going to do it for the first time. Here's my plan:
1. Wash with dish soap to remove old wax
2. Clay bar the car per instructions
3. Polish with Meguiar's #9 with Porter Cable
4. Meguiar's #7 Show Glaze
5. Meguiar's #26

How did I do? Any advice or anything you would change?

Thanks for the help!!!

 

Sounds good! I would throw on a coat of NXT Tech Wax then top with the 26. That just how I do it and I'm really happy with the results.

 

Unless you've got a compelling reason to use dish soap (i.e., the paint is filthy dirty), I'd just use car wash -- but that's just a personal preference and there's a lot of debate on this.

I simply prefer to not strip the life out of every surface on the vehicle, so that's my reason to not recommend ersthe dish soap thing... it's just that in theory, between the clay and your polish, you're already doing two things that are removing wax.

I'd add a step 1b, and that's to dress the trim before you clay and polish -- use your favorite vinyl dressing, or if it's aged, I like Back-to-Black -- but it'll help prevent any product cling problems during polishing and waxing.

It sounds like a sound 3-step system... you didn't mention the color, age of the paint -- or any paint problems -- or which pad you're using, so... it's hard to say too much.

But I have a hard time thinking that there's much benefit from an application of NXT in addition to the Show Glaze and then #26, but it's worth a try... in a case like that I'd do half the car with and half without just as an experiment. Some paints might see a difference; some probably not... but then again, take this from a guy who has not used Meguiar's paint care products in quite a while.

 

Great advice Jim! I'm not a fan of dish soap either, but I have seen it done before. The detail shop my friends owns does it on first time clients. They use a mix of car soap and Dawn. The reasoning behind it is, they don't know what was used on the vehicle prior to coming there. After using the mix and polish they have a clean slate to start with. The NXT will leave a deep, wet look and the 26 over top does two things. First it provides more protection and second it will soften the "bling" of the NXT. It's a real nice combo, especially if you have a darker color ride.

 

I am sold on using NXT...it is great on my black paint...

 

Thanks for the answers. Paint color is torch red on a 2004. Paint is in good condition but the car has not been clayed since the dealer did it when I bought it. I will be using yellow pad with #9, grey pad with #7 and white or by hand with the #26.

 

I wouldn't start out with that aggressive of a pad. Always start out with the least agressive pad. If you don't get the results you are looking for move up to the next aggressive. I would start out with the white polishing pad and if you still have swirls move up to an orange light cutting. I can get most swirls/scratches out with the orange pad. The yellow is pretty aggressive and you shouldn't need it unless you are dealing with pretty bad swirls. The gray pad with the #7 will work fine.

 

Thanks Juztang. I meant orange pad not yellow. My goof. I'll try the white first, good advice.