Shane’s Drivel

Time for another car car tip. Last weekend, in the midst of polishing and waxing, I also applied Mothers Back To Black to my trim. And I’ll say this stuff is amazing. Armour All, its not.

This stuff makes faded, oxidized trim look new again. It also seems to work on plastic that’s been, um, whitened by the accidental application of car wax. It works on plastic, rubber, and other porous surfaces. And the trim need not be black to be restored by this stuff. I used it on black and painted plastic and rubber trim and it worked great. A week later, the trim is still looking good. Definitely not a temporary effect like Armour All.

Last year in this space, I’d done some research into polishing & waxing cars. A year later, the info I came up with here and here still seems pretty solid.

The only change I would have made would be with the polish I picked out. While the Meguiar’s #3 Machine Glaze was fine for my 2002 Explorer, my 9 year old Accord could have used something a tad bit more coarse. Next time I buy some stuff, I’ll go with Meguiar’s #9 Swirl Remover for the Accord. According to this chart, that #9 is just a step more coarse than the #3.

I’m still pleased with the Meguiar’s #20 Polylmer Sealant which I apply after the polishing step. The sheen, which I judge by water beading, lasts several months. Some 13 months after applying it, I’m just getting around to putting on this year’s coat.

Ideally, once every 6 months is probably the best schedule for that #20 sealer. Somebody should tell my entourage that. So yearly it is.

The Meguiar’s polish and wax that I mentioned earlier arrived. Before applying these products, the my Accord’s finish felt a little rough to my fingertips but otherwise looked reasonably good.

After washing the car, I applied Meguiar’s #3 Machine Glaze to polish the car. The glaze was applied using an orbital buffer and terry cloth bonnet and promptly wiped off by hand using a flannel towel. I was quite impressed by how easily the glaze came off. No elbow grease required (unless you let the glaze dry too much). After polishing with this product, the finish was about 50% smoother than before. I probably could have used Meguiar’s next coarser polish, Meguiar’s #9 or Meguiar’s #82. But its always better to err on the side being less abrasive to your car’s finish. Nonetheless, the result looked great – like wet glass.

Next up was the Meguiar’s #20 Polymer Sealant. Again, I applied this product with an orbital buffer and terry cloth bonnet. After allowing a haze to form, I wiped the product off with a flannel towel. Again, I was impressed at how easily the wax came off – no elbow grease required. As if the car wasn’t glossed up enough from the glaze, this wax glossed it even more.

Needless to say, I’m quite pleased with the results. I think I could read a Gideon’s bible reflected off my car from 5 feet away.

And it will be interesting to see how long this finish lasts. That poly sealant is supposed to last about 6 months. I assume I’ll wax every 6 months and probably apply the glaze every 12-18 months.

While sitting at home all Saturday long while A/C people slave away in my attic, what better to do than to ponder how best to wax the car. The choices in what to do after washing and drying a car really are astounding. There are compounds, polishes, glazes, and multiple waxes – all of whose label descriptions very poorly define the product. Improves shine, gives a wet look, removed fine scratches, etc. Whatever. To further confuse matters, one brand’s polish is another brand’s glaze and so forth.

Fortunately I’ve found a few websites that explain the differences. One site even has a convenient chart which attempts to re-define products by a common standard.

Basically, a compound is like rough sand paper. A polish is like medium grit. A glaze is like fine grit. All of those are used to clean or smooth a car’s finish. You have to choose the right product for your car’s condition. And don’t ever choose something that’s too tough for the job or you could end up thinning your clear coat and/or paint.

Once your car is properly cleaned (or smoothed) with one or more of the aforementioned types of products, its time to wax the car. Wax actually lays down a thin coat of ’stuff’ on top of your car’s finish. In theory, this coat protects the finish so that future abrasions and such will happen to the wax instead of the finish. Then one could simply re-wax the car instead of re-compound/polish/glaze + re-wax it.

Even wax choices aren’t completely straightforward. There are organic (usually carnauba) waxes and synthetic polymer waxes. Carnauba generally looks best, but wears off in only 3-8 weeks. Polymer waxes won’t produce as much wow factor, but they’ll easily last 6 months or more.

Clay, yes clay, is another product that throws a wrench into the decision making process. After washing, some people are spraying their car with lubricant and lightly rubbing the car with a special clay which is supposed to remove any contaminants that are clinging to the surface of the finish. Some websites rave about this. Some say clay is dangerous. Since the jury is still out, I won’t risk my car’s finish with that product. Not that I had another 30-40 minutes to spare anyway…

My choices? Now I’m still not sure these are the right choices. But here goes… I have a ‘99 Accord and a 2002 Explorer. The finish on both cars is already in reasonably good shape. There are no scratches I’m concerned about removing and neither auto has lost much luster. So for my compound/polish/glaze, I chose Meguiar’s #3 Machine Glaze, which is allegedly the least abrasive of glazes.

For wax, I’d like to have chosen a carnauba but realistically there is little chance I’d wax a car every month or two. So I chose Meguiar’s #20 Poly Sealant.

Unfortunately, my quest for proper car care didn’t end there. The commercial mecca of Jackson, MS has nowhere that sells Meguiar’s products this ’specialized’. So I ordered it from ProperAutocare.com.