Dealing with a car that’s never been waxed

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What recommendations would you have to spruce up the exterior of a 10 year old vehicle that's never been waxed. Would a clay bar be a good way to start? This situation is probably common when buying used cars. Thanks.
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Wash, iron decontamination, clay bar, and at a minimum an all in one as an LSP.

Originally Posted by JLawrence08648
[censored] n Span, scrub pad, polishing compound as a cleaner, polish, wax, then a detail spray wax.

What.
 
Originally Posted by rooflessVW
Wash, iron decontamination, clay bar, and at a minimum an all in one as an LSP.

Originally Posted by JLawrence08648
[censored] n Span, scrub pad, polishing compound as a cleaner, polish, wax, then a detail spray wax.

What.


Hard to believe they censored SpicNSpan which is a legitimate cleaning product.
 
Clay bar is to remove stuff that washing won't remove easily. Used mostly for higher end cars or for ones you want to look really sharp. If it already looks pretty good after a wash, a cleaner/wax may be all you need depending on how much work you want to do.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Clay bar is to remove stuff that washing won't remove easily. Used mostly for higher end cars or for ones you want to look really sharp. If it already looks pretty good after a wash, a cleaner/wax may be all you need depending on how much work you want to do.

Clay bar is for removing above-surface contamination that is not removed by washing.

It has nothing to do with the value of a car or appearance; it is an important step prior to applying any protection or any abrasive.
 
All depends on the condition of the surface and how much work he wants put into it. A cleaner/wax could get it looking 90% as nice as someone going through all the steps over a 6-8 hour detail.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
All depends on the condition of the surface and how much work he wants put into it. A cleaner/wax could get it looking 90% as nice as someone going through all the steps over a 6-8 hour detail.

Even for a beginner, a proper wash, Iron-X, clay and hand-applied traditional sealant should not take more than 3 hours for any passenger car.
 
What does the clearcoat look like? Hazy? Spotty?

It will depend on the history of the car. Garaged? Climate it was exposed to? A number of variables.

If the clearcoat is affected then a good polishing may be needed. We would need more info and maybe some pictures to really know.
 
I'm not a kid anymore but it took me from 9am to 5pm to do the paint on my Wrangler that was already pretty clean. Washed yesterday but clay, polish, topcoat plus did the plastic windows. Now that wasn't 8 hours straight, but 15-20 minutes working, 10-15 minutes sitting at the computer or eating something. Could have have done it in 2 hours with an all-in-one product.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Could have have done it in 2 hours with an all-in-one product.

I don't think you understand the purpose of an all-in-one (AIO) product. AIO products are intended to provide a small amount of paint correction (from the abrasives) and leave short-term paint protection. The product is not designed to replace proper surface preparation (i.e. clay, Iron-X).
 
For me, it would be taking it in for a full detail. Just not interested in doing something like that myself anymore.
 
I understand that and OP says he wants to spruce up the exterior, not restore to new condition. Maybe once he mentions his specific goals, we can guide him better. Clay and Iron-X are great but fairly new to the car care scene. People have been using cleaner/waxes before they showed up, and got great results.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
All depends on the condition of the surface and how much work he wants put into it. A cleaner/wax could get it looking 90% as nice as someone going through all the steps over a 6-8 hour detail.

Claying a car should take less time than properly washing it, and waxing should take less time than claying.

If the car has never been waxed, it definitely needs clayed, and it almost certainly needs correction.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
I understand that and OP says he wants to spruce up the exterior, not restore to new condition. Maybe once he mentions his specific goals, we can guide him better. Clay and Iron-X are great but fairly new to the car care scene. People have been using cleaner/waxes before they showed up, and got great results.

Fair enough. A cleaner wax (with its abrasives) can probably remove a limited amount of above-surface contamination but a clay bar (or equivalent) will do a much better job for this task.

With most things, including detailing, processes improve over time. There's no reason to settle for detailing a vehicle to 1990's standards when better options are available today.
 
Originally Posted by Snagglefoot
What recommendations would you have to spruce up the exterior of a 10 year old vehicle that's never been waxed. Would a clay bar be a good way to start? This situation is probably common when buying used cars. Thanks.
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Snagglefoot,

Do you have experience detailing cars and have you ever used an electric car polisher? Any chance you can post a picture of the car?

In general, I would start with this:

Presoak with a strong detergent wash followed by rinse.
Bucket wash with detergent using a separate (2nd) bucket for rinsing the wash mitt. Use a micro-fiber wash mitt. If you have detailing wash brushes, use them.
Clay-bar the car.
--- If you know how to do a paint correction with an orbital buffer, do it.
--- If you don't know how to do a paint correction, use a cleaner/polishing wax like this (Collinite 325) https://www.autogeek.net/collinite-sapphire-wax-ss126.html and buff it by hand as evenly as you can.
Wax the car with any one of a million decent waxes. I like Collinite 845.

At the bottom of this link, https://www.autogeek.net/detailingtips.html there are a bunch of how-to guides.

Ray
 
Clay Bar is well over 25 years old, not new technology. It was first promoted to me as a fresh over spray paint removal system without buffing the affected panel. I preferred the "My" foot in the painter's helper rear for tape leakage, Clay Bar didn't remove fresh over spray very well, but later on we found it removed a lot of contaminants on top of painted surfaces, and really worked well on solid colors including White with rust contaminants that literally grow on top of White due to the pigment in all White paints "Titanium Dioxide" (PW6), that grows rust barnacles unless it is clear coated. Mid 90's all manufactures began clear coating all colors, metallic's and solids. No more faded oxidized Reds, no more faded oxidized rust covered Whites.

Clay Bar even if you are going to polish with rotary, Oooooorbital "I Have Never Touched One", or by hand. Clay Bar even if you are going to just wax so you can properly remove surface contaminants, it really does make a world of difference.
 
Thanks everyone. As for specific goals, all I want to do is decide If I can make the paint look newer. Presently there is nothing wrong with the paint on any of my vehicles and actually I am amazed how well they look with their factory clear coat. I have not used any power equipment on the paint, so no, I am not an expert with buffing. Lots of good advice here. Thanks very much.
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