Hello all! I hope you are all having an enjoyable weekend. For the past couple of weeks here in the "Sunshine State", we have had rain almost every day making it hard to find a good time to clean the cars. Today is the first day in a while that it has been sunny out so I figured it would be a good time to do so. The paint on my Accord is single stage Taffeta White so it does get dingy over time even when keeping it washed and waxed on a regular basis. I try not to polish often since this paint is already thin from the factory so I figured I would clay bar it to see if that would remove some of the darker patchy areas that form. These areas I assume are mainly from dirty rain water that ends up sitting on the paint after a rain storm, the dirt ends up staining the paint since there is no dedicated clear coat on top. They clay did not remove any of the dark spots but it did get rid of all of the black / brown specs on my rear bumper and trunk that were imbedded. The bumper alone must have taken 35+ minutes, it was very time consuming.
I figured since I had already clayed it that I would go ahead and polish it as well. I was going to get the Meguiars polish out of the shed then saw some old NuFinish, I figured I would try that instead since it is less abrasive and I wouldn't have to wax or apply a sealant after for protection. I was already 3 or 4 hours into the detail so I was ready to be finished. Turns out, NuFinish works great! It got rid of oxidation and the staining without being as abrasive as polish or compound and leaves good protection behind.
So the routine went as follows: wash, clay (used water, quick detailer, or car shampoo for lube), dried, washed, then "polished" with NuFinish and my Harbor Freight dual action polisher. Here are the results!
Here you can see the discolored areas...
After polishing one half with NuFinish
That shine!
Bonus pic! Detailed the Jetta too...
I figured since I had already clayed it that I would go ahead and polish it as well. I was going to get the Meguiars polish out of the shed then saw some old NuFinish, I figured I would try that instead since it is less abrasive and I wouldn't have to wax or apply a sealant after for protection. I was already 3 or 4 hours into the detail so I was ready to be finished. Turns out, NuFinish works great! It got rid of oxidation and the staining without being as abrasive as polish or compound and leaves good protection behind.
So the routine went as follows: wash, clay (used water, quick detailer, or car shampoo for lube), dried, washed, then "polished" with NuFinish and my Harbor Freight dual action polisher. Here are the results!
Here you can see the discolored areas...
After polishing one half with NuFinish
That shine!
Bonus pic! Detailed the Jetta too...