Finally got a polish, stuff the paint protection

d40 finally got a polish on saturday night, after 13 months of beleiving that paint protection was worth having, all the stubborn water marks, tar, bug guts, and last but not least, overspray, finally got the better of me!
i think it was meguires hitec yellow (borrowed it from work years ago in a fanta bottle).
come up bloody fantastic, soooo happy with it, should have done it ages ago!
light scratches still show up, some more than others, stone chips appear a little more obvious but the shine far outweighs all of the blemishes.
even did the wheels, mirrors, glass (get water marks off glass heaps good), and grille, even cracked out the silicone tyre shine spray. looks better than the day i picked it up!
mind you, started it at 8:30 saturday night, 8 stubbys and a bottle of red later and next thing i knew it was 12:30, needed a little wipe over on sunday morning, once the red wine haze wore off!

I use a meguires polish on mine (very occasionally) and I have some quite nasty scratches on mine, its amazing how many of them it hides!

flashum1 said:

started it at 8:30 saturday night, 8 stubbys and a bottle of red later!

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Top effort.

Ill second the comment on the paint protection not worth having, will have to get my D22 buffed soon. Been meaning to get it done.

Dave.

i prefer mothers over meguires, just find after alot of trial and error on different cars brought up a old sun faded Toyota corona upto brand new. but i do the full steps strip the car down of any waxs and tar and so on then use a pre wax, then a sealer and glaze then finally a carnuaba wax... next time i wax my car probley this weekend mirror shine on it and i find that if i do this maybe once every 2-3 months keeps the car nice and shinny all i do is wash it and give it some quick detailier and it comes up like magic

yeah, i'm really looking forward to the wax job, the car that is!
just going to look into sorting out these scratches & stone chips first.

does anyone else find their paint quality quite poo? mine scrathes way too easily!

53ANO said:

i prefer mothers over meguires, just find after alot of trial and error on different cars brought up a old sun faded Toyota corona upto brand new. but i do the full steps strip the car down of any waxs and tar and so on then use a pre wax, then a sealer and glaze then finally a carnuaba wax... next time i wax my car probley this weekend mirror shine on it and i find that if i do this maybe once every 2-3 months keeps the car nice and shinny all i do is wash it and give it some quick detailier and it comes up like magic

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Damn you are enthusiastic! I struggle to keep mine washed!

Matt76 said:

Damn you are enthusiastic! I struggle to keep mine washed!

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I can relate to that, mines had three washes since I brought last year. Although wash day might be next week given its currently covered in dust, mud and cowshit on the outside and similar such lovelies in the tub with the addition of leaking diesel jerry cans.

I'm sick of every leaf, bug and small insignificant object leaving scratches on the 'top notch' nissan paint work. So i am going to bite the bullet and give Grimlock a wash and mega wax this weekend. Just need to decide which wax is best.

Is there a recommended wax out there that will at least resist some of the drag marks down the side from trees and bushes?

i pranged me commodore years ago and the panel beaters poured this "white stuff" on the bonnet and got the buffer out and started to buff and came up fkn awesum...so they didnt have to apply that white powdery stuff then buffering it off later...does anyone know what this liquid be?? i have a motorised buffer but cant find the liquid to simply pour and buff straight up.

If you really want to get the best finish for your polishing effort, claybar your truck first. I've still got to do mine, but its amazing the crap that gets embedded into the paint surface, that polishing etc just will not remove.

Have a look on you tube for either mothers or meguires clay demos, makes sense what they say. I'm going to do mine soon, because black is a bitch to keep looking good, so better off starting with as clean a base as possible before the polishing/waxing.

Hoo Roo

Maguires tech wax is good that's what i use, Autoglym is great too i use alot of there products and find them great,

man that clay bar action would take a while on the nav. lot of truck to clean.

Might hit the LAS and grab me some clay bar and some heavy duty wax for the weekend

this is the best, Just Wicked - Wicked Car Care Products i've used meguires autoglem etc over the years but wicked is a step above, easy as and awesome finish. meguires is overrated in my view.

3M make some brilliant compounds, very few people I know have ever used them but they are very well known in the marine industry. They wouldnt buff a $20mil boat with rubbish!

Have used perfect it rubbing compound and finesse it finishing compound before with great results
Automotive and Marine : 3M

I use a wax fee kitten wash, and a kitten wax. much cheaper than most brands mentioned here, and it seems pretty good.

Maguires are a little over rated, but i do believe that Autoglym are the best! IMHO

Another vouch for Autoglym. Best overall range of products I have ever used.

Their protectant (Extra Gloss Protection) is by far the hardest, longest lasting protective layer I have ever used. After 6 months, the water still beads beautifully on both my vehicles. The application process is a charm - apply with one cloth - wait for it to dry completely, then wipe off with another cloth. No scrubbing or hard work necessary.

Bear in mind that polishing and protecting are two entirely different things however.