Sue Esponte

Dish detergent is pretty harsh. If you're going to use it, I wouldn't use it too often. It's made to clean grease off of plates...not dust and grime off of a car. Maybe once at the beginning of the Spring season just to get all of the crud off of a car that accumulated over the Winter months (assuming you're driving in the Winter and in inclement weather) but paint prep and then a clay bar after washing would probably be a better solution to removing contaminants.

Now, if you happened to drive through a plate of spaghetti and meatballs...

Back to the original post, I tend to try different products for washing and polishing but when it comes to wax, I really like Pinnacle Souveran. A tub of it isn't super cheap (it's about $100) but it goes on very easily and, best of all, it comes off with little to no effort and it doesn't seem to stain rubber and plastics if you get a little overzealous in your application. It looks paricularly awesome on black and red cars but I love it on my grey cars, too. Oh, and not that you should choose a wax based on the way it smells but it smells great, too.

-Eric

keytohwy

I'm another new 996 owner and I wanted to treat it right. I researched quite a bit and landed with Adam's. I bought the whole kit which was a little over $300. I figured I get supplies to do it 10 times rather than paying one company to do it once for me. Anyway, I am VERY pleased with the results. After claying, swirl remover, etc etc, it looks awesome. I did it over two days, but could do it in about 4 hours if I had to.

My wife loved it so much I'd catch her just feeling up the 996 as she walked by it in the garage. I got jealous, so I did the same treatment to her car, so she can feel that up.

Two questions for the others:

1) Cab owners - what top treatment do you use?

2) What kind of cheese doodles do you guys eat...that sounds like a pretty good combo.

Dennis C

Agreed - especially if you use microfiber towels.

I use an air blower to get water out of tight spots like under the door handles, inside the mirrors, etc. It works really well.

Slopeslider

I started using the Griot's system clay bar, polish and best in show wax with the orbital. A lot of work but it yeilds stunning results. I am fancying the idea brought up earlier of hiring someone's naked wife to polish it for me .

jdjones2010

Dennis, it was really hard to imagine microfiber towels doing it but believe me they will. And I would think most guys have a leaf blower but if you don't, its even better & I know most of you have an air compressor, just change out the bit & use it & its even better to get up in all the tiny cracks Dennis is talking about. And all this mess about the naked wife, mistress & cheez doodles unless you can produce pics then we need to nip this in the bud, BUT if you CAN produce pics then I imagine this thread will go on & on & on & on, well you get the idea! jmo

Bass Man

Meguires Paint Cleaner
Meguires deep crystal polish
Meguires Gold Class Canuba Wax.
Meguires Quick Detailer ( if it's a bit dusty)

Armor all Wheel Cleaner
Meguires hot Shine tyre spray

Meguires Gold Class leather conditioner for the interior

And she loves it!

Dennis C

Microfiber towels are the worst! I agree.

babylonboots

I use RaggTopp for mine. Make sure you get the RaggTopp Fabric Protectant which is for fabric or cloth tops, which contains wax. I do clean first with the fabric / vinyl cleaner.

keytohwy

Danke

DreamCarrera

You have found that high quality microfiber towels scratch a clean car? I have never noticed this to be the case. In fact, I was under the distinct impression that they are the best/safest thing to use on auto paint.

Of course, this assumes that the surface is clean(or otherwise well lubed) as any grit trapped between the towel and the paint could leave scratches.

alpine003

Yeah I tend to agree with this. The only time it should scratch the surface is if your towels or the surface isn't clean. After all many have been using a traditional towel before microfiber towels came along just fine on all their show cars.

DreamCarrera

Yeah, I know many guys swear by 100% cotton fiber towels but the problem with this is that many supposed 100% cotton towels actually contain plastic fibers which WILL scratch the paint.

Again, I have always been under the impression that microfiber towels were the next best thing to sliced bread when it comes to auto detailing. I have never heard that a good quality microfiber towel, in and of itself, will harm auto paint in any way.

San Rensho

Aerospace 303 works very well also, available at marine stores. But whatever top treatment you use, don't spray it on, that stuff makes a mess of your paint. Just use a disposable foam brush to brush it on. And in this case, more is more. When properly treated, the top should bead water just like the paint does.

Dennis C

I have used very high quality microfiber towels from Griot's Garage and from other sources. I've found that they work very well without scratches the first time that you use them. Once they get washed, it's over. They leave swirl marks and scratches with even light pressure. You can see the scratches immediately as soon as you wipe the towel over the surface of the car. I'm not sure if it's detergent or something else that gets trapped in them, but I don't have this issue with the drying towels/cloths that I use now. I won't go back to microfiber.

DreamCarrera

Ouch!!! Luckily I have not experienced this with any of my cars.

What are you using now? 100% cotton towels?