For years I’ve been the guy you see outside every single Saturday morning washing my cars inside and out. I use Turtle Wax a few times a year, but don’t really do anything outside of the two in regards to exterior car care. Well, now that I have the Mustang and have spent a good bit of time on this site learning from others, I want to take better care of our cars. So I’ve got some good detailing products and am going to try a full exterior detail this weekend. Since my wife’s Mazda 6 is about 4 years old and has around 40k miles on it I’m going to experiment on it rather than my new GT. My checklist for doing this is as follows:


1. Wash car with Dawn to remove all waxes, grit and grime
2. Dry car thoroughly
3. Clay the whole car with Meguire’s Clay Kit using techniques outlined in other posts
4. Wash the car again with Meguire’s car soap
5. Dry car thoroughly
6. Apply Meguire’s carnuba wax
7. Buff to a shine (possibly repeat depending on results)
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I don’t think I need to polish the Mazda as it doesn’t have any visible swirl marks on it and it’s silver. So, unless someone can influence me otherwise I’m going to skip that step. Other than that, does anyone have any advice around the claying? This will be my first attempt at it an in all honesty I’m a bit nervous to attempt it!

 

i would not suggest using dish soap on the paint a polish will take the wax off so you dont need to worry about that

and a polish is not to just get swirls out it is how you get your shine the better the prep work the better the finish is going to be

 

Dawn is personal preference. It's not always a bad idea to do it, it depends on the type of vehicle. However, I don't buy into the people who waste their time with washing after claying. If you're claying properly than you will NOT have to re-wash. So both of these vehicles don't need any paint correction? They don't have swirls or micro marring? If not than I'd jump to a pure polish like Poorboy's Black Hole and than move onto your sealant and/or wax. It just depends on how much time you want to invest, how perfect you want it, and how much your willing to spend on the right tools and products. Detailing isn't a scienece, it's an art.

 

Well don't you want the wax off before you clay the car?

 

Like I said in my original post, I'm only doing this on the Mazda for the time being. And with it being silver, you can't see any imperfections in the paint except hard water spots if you look realy hard in the right angled light.

Will claying get rid of those water spots? If not... should I polish before or after I clay?

 

I don't ever use Dawn either, there is really no reason. After claying and using a good polish your paint will be clean and ready for your next steps.

The polish should remove your waterspots depending on how bad they are. You want to polish after you claybar.

 

OK, cool... thanks.

 

Using both the clay bar and the polish will remove the water spotting depending on how bad they are. It's possible that the water spots have etched themselves into the paint/clearcoat severely which would mean wet sanding and buffing on a whole another level.

 

Either way, should be an improvement in the overall appearance huh?

 

Of course, without a doubt.