okay, i tried to wax my wife's car today. wanted to share some issues that i had and lessons that i learned. i assume that many of these, most of you already know, but still felt like sharing my experience.
first off, my wife took her car to the car wash and they attempted to remove a stain by "rubbing" it out. unfortunately, it scratched the clear coat. since it was her car, and she never really pays attention to it, i didn't notice it until a few weeks went by. so although upset, i knew that the car wash would deny any responsibility so i just tried to "fix" it myself.
i decided to try some cleaner wax. i had two bottles in my basement that i haven't used in a while. my options were meguiar's and zymol. i did some "online" research and decided to try zymol. perhaps retrospectively, should have gone with the other.
anyhow, i washed the car and parked it in the garage to work on it. i had an orbitor, but not the pads. so went and bought some pads. had the option of picking microfiber vs. standard terry cloth. microfiber felt so soft and more expensive, so i figure it had to be better. again, perhaps a mistake.
when i used the microfiber, i noticed once it got "wet", it no longer was "soft" and puffy. again, wasn't thinking when i bought it. anyhow, i decided to go ahead and just lay on the cleaner-wax on the entire car before buffing it out. mistake #3.
mistake #4 was that since the garage door was open, the back end of the car was somewhat exposed to direct sun light. as soon as i put the wax on it, you could see it harden and smoke!
so now i put on a new pad and tried to buff the stuff off. i went straight to the rear since i knew the sun was baking it. man, it was touch getting it off. and by now the entire car was also "hardened". the buffer took most off, but i had to go back and remove the rest off by hand.
don't know if this is a mistake or good method, but i was too lazy to get a towel, so i just removed my t shirt and started using that as my "soft terry cloth" to wife off the excess wax.
another thing that i learned was, for the tires, i wanted a gloss wet look. i had some left over tire dressing. the kind that you actually have to wipe on. it looked "thicker" so i thought it would be better. lesson i learned from this is that it is much more difficult to dress and wipe on without getting your hands dirty. also hard to get the bottom of the tire (near the ground). getting this stuff on your garage floor leaves a stain. lesson #??...what ever i'm at now. i noticed that the spray cans are much easier to deal with and gives you a more even spread. IMO, the results are the same. so in the future, i'll just stick with the spray can. but remember, do it out on the street or some parking lot. NOT in your garage or drive way. it will leave a stain.
as for the scratch that was "rubbed" out originally, the cleaner-wax improved the appearance, but definitely not gone. still obvious IMO. upset, but too lazy to try a new product/method for now. the excess wax removal/buffing wore me out.
the reason i don't like the zymol is even after the entire process, the car still feels gritty. as if i didn't even wax it. i remember when i used the meguiar's, i could feel an obvious difference, before and after. some may argue that my excessive removal technique removed the product, but honestly on the hood, i didn't have to work so hard removing the wax. so i truly think it just an inferior product.
so...lessons learned. feel free to critique and give your opinions.
thanks for listening to me vent.
Buttercup
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