I bought my 944 with some pretty heavily faded Guards Red paint. I used Meguairs 3-step system on my car and managed to bring back most of the shine with the exception of about 1/4 of the hood where the paint is faded heavily.The 3-steps involved a paint cleaner, polish and obviously wax. I was wondering what is a good technique for cleaning the car reguarly (every 1-2 weeks).

I ususally start with just a wash with Mother's car soap, then i use the Meguairs paint cleaner to remove and stubborn things that didnt come off with scrubbing. I next dry the car, then wax with Mother's Pure Caranuba after ever 3-4 washes (or every month).

I recently bought a bottle of 3M Imperial Handglaze, but have not used it yet. Are you suppose to use the handglaze before or after waxing the car?

Can anyone give me an idea of a regular 'schedual' to keep with caring for the cars paint. Like i know you should only wax once a month, but should i be doing anything else on a scheduals basis like polishing...etc?

 

I'm in the same boat, almost exactly. I spent this weekend trying to revive my own faded red paint. I went from this:



to this:

 

Okay, so not a super-dramatic improvement. I used the Meguiar's body scub, then clayed the paint with their kit, then used the paint cleaner, crystal polish, 3M hand glaze, and finally their gold class carnauba. I then used SOS pads on the wheels and polished them with Flitz. All rubber was dressed with Meguiars Shine rubber and vinyl treatment. I had the same question about product order and the gang on www.autopia.org said the glaze goes on before the final wax.

The car looks better, but the 6 hours I spent on it mostly proved that the pint can't be saved. There are rock chips to the nose and rockers, as you can see, and the ones up front has surface rust starting th develop. The front and rear bumpers were painted at some time, likely for the same problem, but the color is off either due to the different materials or just poor matching. The car is my winter beater, so I'll leave it as is for now and get it painted this spring.

Emanuel

 

Red paint is particularly prone to fading. You can wax it often to bring some luster but you'll soon be tired of it.

The permanent solution is just paint it over if you plan on keeping the car for a while. Otherwise, just leave it and watch the surface rust.

 

Modern tech has made red less of a problem than it used to be - my other two Porsches are red and spend lots of time outside in the sun with no fade, but they have newer 2-stage paint and stay waxed with UV-resistant waxes. My 944, on the other hand, is a single stage paint job from the factory and was left outside for a couple of years straight (PO stopped driving it).

Emanuel

 

Same with my 944...it was left out in the sun for a few years while the owner enjoyed other cars. He miracuously used a sunshade in the windshield with the rear of the car parked up against the house. The interior is in almost perfect condition except for a little wear on the shift ****. The paint was badly faded on the roof, but with some elbow grease i managed to get that to a pretty decent shine back. The top of the front bumper was also heavily faded and i was able to bring it back to life somewhat. The worse area however is the hood directly infront of the drivers seat. The paint has turned a slight hint of orange in this area due to the fading. I am considering having it resprayed...but would hate to as about 3/4 of the paint on the hood is still good with a nice shine...but just that 1/4 of an area is really faded. Plus that leaves me with a great looking hood, and a decent looking 'rest of the car'. Im tempted to use a higher quality wax and polish like Zaino to see what it could do...but honestly im sick of buying more car cleaning supplies when i could be spending it on more fun items such as suspension parts! I have an entire shelf of stuff almost in my basement....half the stuff i dont even use anymore!

 

Handglaze is basically polish. Do it before waxing.

Basically, i try to wash my daily car weekly. (sometimes its every other week though depending on my schedule) I just do a wash with meguiars gold class soap and then dry. Every other wash or so, i wax a different section of the car. So hood and roof one time, doors and rear another time, and fenders and bumper a third time.

I use a paint cleaner, a polish, and then a wax coat.

 

Hello,

In order for you to get your paint back to near "show room" shine, or even better considering most dealers have no clue about proper polishing, then you must get fairly aggressive with your paint.

The steps for this would be:

Possible wetsanding - This is very safe and effective if done properly by a professional

Claying of the cars surface

Paint is then leveled with a high speed rotary, proper pads and products - "Leveling" means you abrade away a micro thin layer of paint, the paint layer that holds the swirls, halo scratches and oxidized paint. This leveling stage also polishes the paint and may include as few as 1 or as many as 5 steps. Those steps taking you from a cutting pad all the way to a fine finishing pad.

Last steps will include your final sealer, whether it be a polymer sealant and/or wax. Then you finish out all the fine detail work, trim, moldings, chrome, etc.

Polishing is always done BEFORE waxing. The reason for thsi is because most polishes contain cleaners of some sort and they will, if used after waxing, remove your wax. One should wax at least once a month and polish as needed.

Proper washing and drying is the key to a lasting finish.

Hope that helps,
Anthony