I did a very neglected car the other day that needed a lot of work.

Decided to use part of Meguiar's Deep Crystal 3 step + clay bar + the new NXT 2.0 wax.

Please comment on my choice.

Step 0: Wash
Step 1: Paint cleaner
Step 2: Clay bar
Step 3: Wax

What does the step 2 bottle (polish) really do? I ran out of time, otherwise I would have done it after the clay bar. Should the clay bar go before the paint cleaner?

Overall it came out great. The 2.0 wax is definitely a step up from the old stuff. I am looking forward to using in on my car.

 

yes, clay is usually before polish... but interesting experiment.

in the old days we didnt have clay. polish did the trick. with clay, most surface borne (stuck) contaminents are removed which makes the polishing a bit easier and focused only on imperfection removal (swirls, etc.).

dont know what step 2 bottle is unless you mean like a fine cut polish. usually you would go fine cut first and then step down to the paint cleaner (or swirl remover).
if your paint was in good shape with some mild haze, the paint cleaner was the right choice.

btw, i would change your choices as follows:

step 1 waxh
step 2 ---inspection---
step 3 clay, if needed
step 4 polish, if needed
step 5 synthetic and/or wax

got pics for us??

post up some pics and then pm me for your badge if that car is worthy!!

 

Well here's my reasoning.

This was a car that was picked up from someone that apparently never washed it. This led me to believe that the paint was as contaminated as you could get it. Therefore I decided to remove all the dirt first.

Here's Meguiar's 3 step process (I didn't dive into the pro stuff):
Step 1:


Step 2:


Step 3:


Of course, you don't have to follow all the steps but I simply didn't find another paint cleaner at the local parts store. Again, it seemed to me that cleaning would be more important in this case. I did inspection after wash and the sourface was very rough, begging for clay bar. So I did step 1, then replaced step 2 with clay bar, and replaced step 3 with the NXT2 wax.

I didn't have time to take pix as it was 11pm when I finished. It looks great

 

hey, not to late to get pics...
or dust off the car gently with a duster and do a detail spray of it-
then snap the pics, post em up and beg for the badge (just like everyone else here has done)!
gonna make you one of us yet-

 

So say I were to do this again in the future, what would the proper order be?

1. Wash
2. Paint cleaner
3. Clay bar
4. Paint Polish
5. Wax

Right? Not 100% sure if 3 goes before 2.

 

wanabe is far too nice to tackle this question... I on the other hand already have enough close friends.

Throw that 3 step system in the trash. It's junk.

Now that we got that out of the way, start asking questions.

 

2nd this process.

 

This is a stupid question, but I'm going to throw this out there, even though I am pretty certain about the answer...

Do you guys recommend claying before polishing?

I say yes, because if you wash, but your surface is still contaminated, when you use your PC or UDM, whichever, the contamination's can cause damage from being swished all around your paint.

 

I usually clay a car that isn't taken care of first, then polish. We never used to do it that way however.

I haven't used clay on mine in 6 years.