Issue with Ultimate Polish Pre-Waxing Glaze. Am I doing something wrong?

[Spiney]

Today I tried my first attempt of a polish and Wax on my 96 SVT Cobra Mustang Black. I purchased this car used 1 month ago. The previous owner had garage kept it, drove it very little, 39K miles, and maintained it with Maguiar's products. It was scratching easy for me just taking the car cover off and on so I wanted to make sure it had a fresh coat of proper wax. I washed with Gold class car wash using 2 bucket method, microfiber mitts, and gentle pre-soak and rinse. I then was able to remove some scratches with Scratch 2.0. Some were too deep or need machine polished out, I did everything by hand. We dried the car with Sham-Wows and a large Microfiber Towel. All was done in shade on a 74 degree day. Then I started to use the Polish per the instructions. Foam applicator, small sections, overlapping passes, remove with fresh micro-fiber towel. It was hard to remove and when I did after doing 1/2 the hood I noticed the side that was just washed, looked better than the polish. We tried to clean it up using Quick Detailer, that made it better, but it still looked hazy and almost like swirl marks. What might I be doing wrong? A friend happened to stop by to look at the car. He was a detailer for 10 years. He told me my paint looked good and not in need of claying. He said sometimes some paints just don't work with certain products. He told me the polish could work great on my Wife's dark green Volvo, or my Mom's sand colored Camry, but not on my SVT Cobra hi-gloss black. Is this true? I tried going over the area that didn't look right with the Ultimate Gold Class Carnuba Wax. That made it look great. But I'm concerned I'm not getting the best shine and protection I can because only 1/2 of the hood was polished. So I'm looking for some suggestions as to what I should try.

One more question. I've had 3 back surgeries and 1 neck surgery. I also now have tendinitis in my dominant arm. So doing this by hand is a chore. The only buffer I have access to is a Sears Craftsman Random Orbit buffer, about a 9" pad, and it was probably $60 new. One speed if I remember. Can I use this, or am I just asking for swirl marks? I intend on buying a much better DAP like Maguiar's or a Porter Cable, but I spent my money on the car, and the detailing products. So that has to wait awhile. Thanks, Spiney-Dave

[Focus RS]

Re: Issue with Ultimate Polish Pre-Waxing Glaze. Am I doing something wrong?

While I'm excited about ultimate liquid wax, yet I find the results people are reporting, inconsistent and unpredictable. It's a pity because this has cooled my enthusiasm for the product and made buying it a (AUD) $60 experiment I'm not yet willing to make. Megs #26, tech wax 2, gold class wax are all excellent, reliable and consistent waxes and I enjoy using them all. In time, I'm sure the same will be said about ultimate liquid wax.

[gtrspeed]

Re: Issue with Ultimate Polish Pre-Waxing Glaze. Am I doing something wrong?

Uh... I'm pretty sure that he was asking about Ultimate Polish.

Dave - UP is supposed to have a very mild aggressiveness level, so I'm surprised that it's causing swirl marks. Regardless of what your friend said, what did your paint feel like before you started polishing? Even a garage kept car that's as old as yours probably needs to be clayed - I'm thinking that the swirling or hazing might be a result of bonded surface contaminants that your polishing has broken free and is now rubbing around the paint. How does the the condition of the areas that you used ScratchX on compare to the polished portion? Also, how much pressure are you using when polishing?

You mentioned that the polish was difficult to remove. My other thought is that you're working it for too long before attempting to remove it. You could try cutting down on the number of section passes in order to remove the polish before it starts to dry out.

[Murr1525]

Re: Issue with Ultimate Polish Pre-Waxing Glaze. Am I doing something wrong?

Today I tried my first attempt of a polish and Wax on my 96 SVT Cobra Mustang Black. I purchased this car used 1 month ago. The previous owner had garage kept it, drove it very little, 39K miles, and maintained it with Maguiar's products. It was scratching easy for me just taking the car cover off and on so I wanted to make sure it had a fresh coat of proper wax. I washed with Gold class car wash using 2 bucket method, microfiber mitts, and gentle pre-soak and rinse. I then was able to remove some scratches with Scratch 2.0.

How easy to remove? Did the ScratchX leave any swirls? what did you apply with?

Some were too deep or need machine polished out, I did everything by hand. We dried the car with Sham-Wows and a large Microfiber Towel. All was done in shade on a 74 degree day. Then I started to use the Polish per the instructions. Foam applicator, small sections, overlapping passes, remove with fresh micro-fiber towel. It was hard to remove and when I did after doing 1/2 the hood I noticed the side that was just washed, looked better than the polish. We tried to clean it up using Quick Detailer, that made it better, but it still looked hazy and almost like swirl marks. What might I be doing wrong?

How much product did you use?

A friend happened to stop by to look at the car. He was a detailer for 10 years. He told me my paint looked good and not in need of claying. He said sometimes some paints just don't work with certain products. He told me the polish could work great on my Wife's dark green Volvo, or my Mom's sand colored Camry, but not on my SVT Cobra hi-gloss black. Is this true? I tried going over the area that didn't look right with the Ultimate Gold Class Carnuba Wax. That made it look great. But I'm concerned I'm not getting the best shine and protection I can because only 1/2 of the hood was polished. So I'm looking for some suggestions as to what I should try.

Well, its possible, although usually there is a reason. If the ScratchX went well, the Ult. Polish should... I would think you may have caused some swirls by having to work hard to remove the product.

One more question. I've had 3 back surgeries and 1 neck surgery. I also now have tendinitis in my dominant arm. So doing this by hand is a chore. The only buffer I have access to is a Sears Craftsman Random Orbit buffer, about a 9" pad, and it was probably $60 new. One speed if I remember. Can I use this, or am I just asking for swirl marks? I intend on buying a much better DAP like Maguiar's or a Porter Cable, but I spent my money on the car, and the detailing products.

Hard to say... wouldnt really know unless you tried.

[Spiney]

Re: Issue with Ultimate Polish Pre-Waxing Glaze. Am I doing something wrong?

To Murr1525 and GTR Speed, Thanks for the reply. The Scratch 2.0 went on and off easy, left no marks behind and removed about 50-70% of the scratches I tried it on. I applied it with a foam applicator in a overlapping circular motion on the scratch, and removed using a microfiber towel. Yes I may have left it on too long because I was trying hard to do the 4-6 overlapping passes in about a 1 square ft area at a time. Though we did try getting to it faster and still was hard to remove and left a haze behind. Perhaps I was putting on too much product at a time and need to spread it more thinly. The Wax went on and came off pretty easy and looked great. But I want to do it right before I put in the time to wax the complete car.

I really was prepared to Clay it. But I talked to a local Pro Detailing shop in my neighborhood and he told me he no longer uses clay but uses a Magna Sponge. He told me that claying a black car was not a good idea. I had called him looking to buy some clay because I already have everything in the Clay kit, besides the clay. Felt like I was paying $19 for most of the items I already had. I guess I could mail order some clay. Also Surf City Garage, and Turtle Wax make a liquid that they say replaces the need for clay. Not sure how well and if it works or if it's just hype.

Would you recommend claying a Hi Gloss Black car? Since I already have 2 bottles of detailer, microfiber towels, and wax should I try to find just the clay somewhere, or just break down and buy the kit? Thanks in advance for your responses. Spiney-Dave

[Murr1525]

Re: Issue with Ultimate Polish Pre-Waxing Glaze. Am I doing something wrong?

If the product was dying fast, it sounds like you may not have used enough of the Ult. Polish, or too big of an area.

Yeah, use regular clay. Meguiars sells the 3-bar replacement kit. Although really the full clay kit isnt bad, though not everyone wants more Cleaner/Wax. Can always use more towels and QD.

If removing really becomes and issue, and you want to shine/wax things up while you figure out the best cleaner/polish to use, ColorX followed by wax is always a good option.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Issue with Ultimate Polish Pre-Waxing Glaze. Am I doing something wrong?

Most reviews of liquid products designed to replace clay have been less than stellar. That doesn't mean they don't work, but most reviewers liken them to more typical paint cleaners. Of course, as with anything, your mileage may vary. As for claying a black car being a bad idea, for the vast majority of cases we would disagree. All of our company vehicles are black and they all get clayed as needed. Barry Meguiar has a '57 Chevy with incredibly delicate paint and claying will definitely mar it, and sometimes quite badly. But it's also pretty straightforward to remove those marks. But it's the only vehicle in our "fleet" that responds this way, and we've clayed more black vehicles over the years than we can count!

As for the other issue, it's rare that Ultimate Polish is difficult to remove, but your friend was definitely on to something. We've seen cases where other products gave fantastic results on one vehicle and were almost unusable on another. Again, those cases are rare, but they do happen. You may find that either Deep Crystal Polish or M205 is a bit easier to work with - we'd lean toward M205 though. Personally, I've only ever encountered Ultimate Polish being finicky one time, and that was on the 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Coupe we did in Monterey last weekend. Even then it wasn't horrible, just not quite as user friendly as I'm used to seeing.