Wixy

Well - i've been away from my normal home for 3 mths and will continue to do so for another 3. So heck, i brought my detail gear with me just in case i felt like detailing my car - or others. I had a request and so wala. Detail as per documented. Paint Code: 250 Phantom Black - Astro physical finish Paint Type: Clear Coat Class: Daily Driver Detail Type: Ultimate Waiting Time: 8-9 hours (For the client) Did I have fun? Yes and no. Its annoying to see how people use a dirty garage cloth to wash their cars. For goodness sake use lambswool at least. Initial conditions Dirty. Hard to reach places filled with dirt. new car designs are sometimes retarded. U'd never see something like this on...a foreign luxury make. Looks clean hey? Not Very. Hard to reach places on the alloys. a detailer's and owner's nightmare - literally. Tyres dirty. Tyre wall showing signs of cracking already. They are 1 year old. Pretty much like this all through out. Dirt Stained. U have to be real careful with washing. After wash condition. Swirl and cobweb heaven

well well well. can of worms atomic bomb i reckon. im pleased to seee Davo that you didnt put TURTLE WAX hahahahahahhahdwshfsdhfsdhfhs i would have laughed to see a percentage next to that name on the poll. ive always been interested how poorly turtle wax and armorall products perform. its just too interesting. anyway, meguiar's meguiar's meguiar's. primarly because they EXPLAIN to the consumer how their products work, and provide reknowned support. if you ring their customer care here in Aust (which is the same number as the US one) they will put u through to someone, REGARDLESS of whether if it is a saturday, long weekend, etc. i once called inquiring troubleshooting issues with their professional lines, and they put be through straight away to some dude (i suppose its an on call backup guy sitting at home or doing the groceries) and he was able to resolve the issue with ease. THATS THE SUPPORT YOU NEED, AND ITS FREE. you can spend all the money in the world on swissvax, luxury snake oil products, or, you can get some meguiar's and the product lasts you easily years and years to come. i have had the experience of using swissvax, and their awesome products, however its only viable if im doing a detailing jobs on...mm...and audi R8 - which no one drives daily anyway. and even if there are those who drive lovely cars around, the niche detailing market is too crowded with too many detailers using snake oil products. I find mothers to be a good product, in fact the first product i used, and was exposed to the 3 step process - stage 1 through to 3. however, poor support, poor range - esp on the depth of surface preparation products, and their not in the professional market. they are the same in the states, so they have a poor market segment compared to meguair's. on top of that, they rarely win awards. meguair's products are used on cars which always wins.

mmmm UQW, delicious hehe. i think you'll be pleasantly surprised. alot of ppl who have used it have had favourable results. those who havent find that their surface was not properly prepared, or they expect too much from a spray wax (ie. hoping it will last months!). i find that if my existing wax layer has decreased in effectiveness, an application of UQW after a wash help prolong the existing paste wax for at lease 2more weeks before protection plumbs to death. just completed an ultimate detail on the weekend - 8hour one - will upload pictures soon as i get over the side effects of the new flu shot. far out feel like crap.

im sure if you search up teflon engine protectants, you'd find a whole threads with millions of post about people debating whether or not they work. its a grey area so dont expect a straight foward answer, more like - use at your own risk.

if all cars adopted this method, har har oil filters will be cheaper, or, have a dramatic increase in quality for the filter media but charging the same price as manufacturing a whole complete oil filter.

so davo, did u end up getting these? when i first saw these, i thought they looked too similar to the Toyo Teo Plus's and michelin also stated the same benifits and ability to the Toyo's. The toyo's were out a full 3-4years before these michelins. I've had my toyo teo plus on 215/55/16s on for 2.5yrs, and have done around 37,000kms on them, all i can say is, they are absolutely brilliant for $160 or UNDER per pot, made in japan tyres. its unbelievable how much tread i have left seeing i run these tyres to the ground... alot of tyre manufacturers are copying the toyo teo plus pattern tread :( EDIT: oh and btw, very comfortable. extremely silient for the size, and my my, on the eastlink in vic, it always feels like your on air. for a threadwear rating of 300, its incredible. google these and u'll find so many ppl loving these on their rides!

cool. make sure you order the wider angle ones. i ordered the shorter and these wider angle types, and must say the wider angle suit more to license plates since they project 120degrees. http://www.brightlightautoparts.com/files/T10LEDI2P.pdf

you can achieve what you want to achieve with constant maintainence of Meg's spray waxes or WashnWax solution. its all up to you, however because you've already got coats of wax on you car, doing the maintainence stage would make your washes easier as well, thats the sole reason why meg's designed the maintanance stage of products, so those who wash weekly can achieve sleek and continual protection without re-waxing. its like saying, you want to continue using a fork to eat rice, but man has invented the spoon to make it easier. both fork and spoon can used when eating rice, but the spoon is so much more efficient so what im saying is: wax your car with 2 coats. then when you wash you car the following week, use WashNWax then followed by a range of Megs LSP products like TechWax, TechDetailer,UQD or ESPECIALLY UQW. Do that (the last 2) everyweek and you'll soon see and feel that it's more worth while following the maintainence stage rather than doing $5 of liquid or paste wax per week. if you use $5 of wax per week that equates to $260 per year, followed by the amount of years you own the car (lets say 4yrs), equating to $1040. $1040 over 4 years...that may not be much to you at all, but you'll save a bucket load if the maintanence stage was followed, and you'll have a spare hour up your selve to do something else while acheiving the same results. in the end, its your call.

using paste or liquid waxes to wax your vehicle's surface once a week is excessive and wasteful on your behalf - in terms of money and effort. but if you get off on that, then dats all good :) if there are already 2 consistent layers of wax on the surface, application of more layers of wax will be redundant, as the new application of wax applied to the surface will have no "non waxed metal" to bond with. so at residue removal, your removing 90-100% of the new wax you just put on - wasting time and effort and cents per application. 3 months is a guideline, but there is no universal rule as to how long your wax will last, it all depends on conditions of your car and the environment your car is exposed to. anyone who tells u any wax will only last a certain amount of time as no idea what they are doing, nor what they will be doing to your car. E.G. If you placed 2 consistent coats of wax on your weekend car (because 2 coats [& not more!] is always better than one), and you garaged the baby, and dont have time for the next 6 months to drive your baby, the wax has no opportunity for it 2b exposed to any harmful contaminants. you'll find that it will last for EONS if kept in a garage. If you placed 2 consistent coats of wax on your daily drive in winter, and always garaged it at night &/or at work, those 2 layers will last you easily 6 months in wintery conditions with consistent maintanence (i.e wash fortnightly with Megs ash&wax solutions). you can also actually test for wax on your surface: 1. get a microfibre towel 2. place on surface, and press gently on the surface and turn anticlockwise or clockwise 3. if it squeaks, the surface has no more wax, if it doesnt squeak - you're all good. This is a tested and tried procedure for any line of waxes. This is also used to decide whether paint cleaners are required in the surface preparation stage. Cheers

i dont think you'd want your car to be perfectly swirl removed...because its your daily drive... so much so as sitting on your car will create a whole heap of swirls and new born scratches, and so the cycle beginnings and before you know it, your clear coat is feeling/looking awfully thin..............

just get ultimate compound please. if you want to get mirror glaze products, order them from your autobarn retailer and use the 20% entertainment vouchers from the entertainment books. thats what i do. makes your m105/205 $75 instead. but ultimate compound is less, something like 30 bucks...

http://www.brightlightautoparts.com/LEDReplacementGlobes.html highly recommend them they may look cheap, but their leds are WHITE. not yellow, purple or blue. WHITE they also havea shop in vic.

lol, no worries. i'll see if i can dig up some photos of some jobs i've done. i tend to not bother about surface removal of my white camry, i just clay and wax it lots. i find that seeing its white, any surface defect removal will go to a waste, as the only time you can see the swirls/cobwebs via a naked eye is in direct sunlight, BUT when you do THAT, the surface is too prestine and reflective, and all you'll do is blind yourself just like looking at a dude wear ultra bright pink shirts. so with nxt 2.0, it conceals most of the swirls/cobwebs and does a gr8 job of it too. the most important thing i find with whites cars are the reflection factor. so wax achieves that a-ok! also, surface removal on white surface is a nightmare. solid white paint is the hardest pigment known to man. solid black pain is the softest pigment. so scratch and swirl removal on white solid paints are pointless, not only are you not getting eye-for-value, but you'll be spending years maintaining the white surface, its ridiculous. white is the hardest paint to remove. oh, and, sorry to burst your bubble....Meg's NXT Tech 2.0 is the same as M21, and vice versa. It was confirmed by meg's training director when it was released. the reason for the different packing and smell was...well...the demand for a non retail product professional looking wax. It is also body shop safe for brand new 1sec old fresh paint applications. so...yea...might just wanna stick to Nxt Tech 2.0 cuz its better for your nose LOL! let me know how the new GC+ is, cuz i've never been a fan of GC Original!

great relevance on this topic. this thread has been around for EONS, but i finally found this sucker. http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4013

thats the way, anything by hand is the safest. nothing worse than a new diy-er with a machine on their new ride.

Scratch removal 101 If the scratch can be caught by a fingernail, the scratch can not be removed. only wet sanding paint removal, and new paint application can solve the issue. dig here :) FAQ & How To Articles use the search function also. Davo and Djkor are right, if the scratch isnt smoothed out (in other words, removed), its your technique or the non know how of what it means to remove a scratch. from the sound of things, it might be the fact that the scratch you have might be the primer of your paint job. if thats the case, the use of aggressive solutions will only enhance the "scratch" area. why dont you provide pictures to better aid us in helping you. ScratchX 2.0 is one of the most aggressive products. it does not need waiting time. remove residue IMMEDIATELY goodluck, as said, pictures would be wonderful.

you should dig a little further next time, though i know this is a forum, the descriptions of the 3 pads in the 3 links above say: Black pad = finishing polish pad - ideal for after harsh polishings White pad = light polishing pad - ideal for mild polishing (probably good aged clear coats) Orange pad = moderate polishing pad - ideal for oxidized surfaces. Green pad = heavy polishing pad - just because its used by merc doesnt mean its right for everyone. the problem with german paint on german cars is that their clear coats are thick and hard for surface removal of swirls and cobwebs, hence why dealers will use heavy polishing pad. after the use of the heavy pad they will then switch to the black finishing polish pad to fine out the surface after the use of the green "heavy" polishing pad. you should test on a section of your car before doing anything. detailing might look easy to diy but when things go wrong its all over, you need the know how and more importantly the experience. its one thing to apply cream on your machine then work on your car, its another to know what pattern to follow (with the machine) when working on your car, what pads, what materials and what you exactly want to achieve. you also need to be aware of the paint thickness. if you take too much paint off...it would be very costly. tip - jap paints on jap cars are thinner than your german counterparts, so just be aware. tip 2 - its not ideal for you to remove ALL the swirls on your daily drive - because new ones will ultimately be created through washing, rocks, dirt, so the more HEAVY swirl,cobweb,light scratch removal you do, the thinner your paint surface will be. if you have a solid stage paint that maybe ok, but if you have a clear coat.... tip 3 - save the 100% swirl/cobweb/scratch removal for your weekend rides. tip 4 - waxes aid in hiding swirl/cobweb/scratches, so the more your wax, the less they will be apparent. there are loads of forums out there where the comparison of how before and after waxing dramatically changes the swirl/cobweb/scratch capture by the camera, and to the naked eye - in direct sunlight. tip 5 - be careful with the green pad you purchased. cheerio

M205 and M105 are the best combo you can get and achieve the best results with your G200/Megs DA. I still have my 105/205 half full eventhough i've used it thousands of times its ridiculous. just doesnt seem to run out. Megs Aust sell M105/205 here but its still currently a non DA approved version, in which case when you do use it with a DA, its a tad hard to rid the residue. id have to agree with the 205.. best stuff ive used... however i do disagree on the non da approved statement... i ordered mine through repco here in perth and it is the current bottle, with instructions for use with DA? wixy - id be interested to hear what your take on m16 is... from all accounts on the MOL forums it seems to be a great wax, but discontinued and hard to find a place that will ship it internationally.... i purchased mine when meg's australia first released the m105/205, and both werent da approved. at that point in time the states just released a new formulation with m105/205 da approved, hence i have the retarded version 1.0 non DA business. it still works ok with a DA but as said, non DA approved, so residue is hard to rid even with a HQ microfibre. the version 1.0 also clogs up your polishing pad much easier than the version 2.0 apparently, as it took megs australia YEARS to start selling the 7' polishing pads (which are machine washable) as supposed to the original 6.5' non machine washable. they are avaliable now but geezz im sure megs states have a new 7' pad that can be ultra efficient. m16 is good, but in winter can be a tad hard to use as if your wintering waxing makes the wax set in can. need to warm it up a tad to achieve optimum results lol. i've only used it once in summer, and it lasted all summer with UQD between washes. i did the squeak test everytime i washed to see if the m16 was still there, and yes it was. the most durable wax prolli ever made by megs, in controlled conditions i wouldnt be surprised if it lasted 6 months on a daily drive with little maintanence - hence i dont use it often because its the best. u'll need to find someone willing to sell u a tin from the states, someone who went out and purchased around 50tins (there are ppl like them out there). i think the states have finally stop selling them via exclusive traders due to stock. EDIT: its a pitty we both have white cars

Thats because the successor of M83 is the wonderful combo of M105/205. another useful one is D151 Megs detailer line paint reconditioning cream. it is, if youre crash hot for time, the best with your DA/G220. its originally for dealers and mass production detailing shops, but it works wonders because its a one stop shop for scratch/swirl removal and then wax protection - kinda like the Megs cleaner wax line and products, but much more effective. it also uber on headlights and sidemirror plastics - as documented on MOL with pro's trying it out. if you have a light coloured car, it also rids grey metal stains instantly! so usually if you want optical clarity under 30mins, D151 followed by UQW or Nxt Tech 2.0 and that thing will bead & protect for months with constant maintainence.

order your x2 200g megs professional claybar from the states, $90AUD including shipping thereabouts + get a gallon (4.7L) of megs last touch, 1:1 dilution making 9.4L of lub, get from auto retailers = claying your car for the life of the car. Refer here i've used other claybars avaliable on australian sites, australian stores. 3 words = they all suck FULLSTOP. the ones that dont suck cost 40-50AUD claybar itself. having said that, x1 50g claybar should last you a year if you know how to use it efficiently.

M205 and M105 are the best combo you can get and achieve the best results with your G200/Megs DA. I still have my 105/205 half full eventhough i've used it thousands of times its ridiculous. just doesnt seem to run out. Megs Aust sell M105/205 here but its still currently a non DA approved version, in which case when you do use it with a DA, its a tad hard to rid the residue.

Where did you source the products from? usually you need a relative, or in my case, i just made online geekery friends with some on Meg's Online Forums. Those who detail cars as business will be more than happy to help you post stuff here, because as far as they are concerned, they make more $$$ off us Aussies than selling their stock to normal people. Costco and Walmart there do CRAZY deals on Meguiar's gear. Like....really crazy. They usually source their Megs gear from autodetailingsolutions

i purchased mine from the states when the AUD was at 95cents per 1USD. I have a forum friend there who is more than willing to do it for me. of course he would charge a premium for the trouble and organisation to ship it here, but the premium he charges and shipping costs STILL outweigh the individual cost of products purchased here at retail or distributor level. For instance, Meg's Retail Clay Bar here can only be purchased with a Clay Bar Kit at RRP 35AUD. I use another of Meg's lubricant at cheaper prices, e.g. 1:1 Dilution of Meg's Last Touch, which incidently is the same as Meg's Quik Detailer, bar the lubrication concentration, colour and smell. You can purchase Last Touch via ordering from any Auto retailer. I then purchased 4 tubs of Megs Mirror Glaze Mild Clay Bar from the states at $25AUD each (2months ago) including shipping, and each of these claybars are exactly the same to the retail level, but they are 200G instead of 50G. Do the math, its tons cheaper. AutoBarn & SuperCheap want $90AUD for this because that's what Meg's Australia want them for. In the states, they are 12.99USD or less each. I find when the Aussie dollar is strong, i go on a mass Meg's shopping spree before the AUD dives again like it is now at 83cents per 1USD I also purchase alot of other non australian released products from the states, and they are valued as Gold Collectables here because we will never get our hands on them i.e Megs M16,M19&M26 tins, M08 tin, & GC tin. Ebay can be a good source.

This product works best if there is an already fresh existing wax application on the surface. prior to this product, i would use Meg's NXT TECH wash for my washing solution. It did a great job, but i would have to follow up with Megs UQD (Ulti Quik Detailer) to enhance the results. now, i just use this. if i really have time, i would follow it up with Megs UQW (Ulti Quik Wax). Yes, you are washing your car with QW&W but following up with UQW would further cover the areas missed by QWW alone. results are spectacular when you have recently: Removed all paint defects, and Clayed the paint surface, and Applied 2 even layers of NXT Tech 2.0, or Meg's other premium waxes such as M25. With constant maintainence of your car with proper maintainence products from Megs, your 2 even layers of wax applied will last you beyond 3months easy.

Gday folks, Long time since i've been on here. I've noticed there's lots of meguiar's related or general detailing related questions. We'll this may defeat the purpose of having a detailing sub-forum, but if you are unhappy with the answer to a specific question, go to: http://meguiarsonline.com/ I'm not advertising the forum, but just thought people might wanna check it out, because some of the questions i've seen posted are classic, basic and asked to death questions that have been answered by Meguiar's online detailing pro's who work for Meguiar's. Here's the Frequently Asked Questions in the Meguiar's forum. Remember these are trained detailing professionals working for Meguiar's who answer the questions, so most of the time you'll get very...very detailed answers to some questions.