My experience in detail work is a wash, wax, vacum, and armorall.

I'm thinking of doing a good cleaning of the outside.

These wheels along with the Patman grille have been making me appreciate the looks of my truck more and more.

So I'm thinking about claying and waxing it up.

I'm also thinking about waxing the wheels. They are the cast black(flat black paint) 7005s.

Which claybar and wax should I use?

Sorry for the newb post.

 

OH yea and I have NAPA, autozone, O'Rylies(SP), wally world, etc to work with

 

Thanks for all the help guy's (just kidding)

well I went to autozone and returned with this,

1) Megs smooth surface clay kit(contents 2 white bars, quick detailer, cleaner wax sample, and Megs suprememshine microfiber towel.

2) Megs deep crystal car wash

3) stoners invisible glass

4) autozone micorofiber applicator pads

5) megs gold class paste wax

 

If you post pics someone may be able to assess your finish and your vehicle in general. Assuming you are speaking of a 2003 vehicle and assuming it has been kept outside you may want to use a cleaner wax at the minimum after the claybar. You should also first do the finger swipe of your finish to determine how much work it may or may not need.

If you shoot the photos in direct sun and attempt to catch the sun in the finish many will jump in with suggestions.

 

I have a feeling that these pics won't do you any good.

Yes it's my 03 and I bought it with 9950 miles on it in spring of 04.

I know that since then it's never been waxed or clayed. (I'm expecting some punishment for that statement)

 

Here's some more I just took with my cell.
Again with this quality they may not help at all.

 

No worries I waited nearly 5 years and over 100k miles before my truck got a proper detail...but I did wax it on a regular basis... Just as black paint is unforgiving the opposite is true of white.

When you clay Make sure you give special attention to the paint around your wheel wells. Over sized tires throw up quite a bit of sticky crap on and around the fender flares. Also since you never waxed you will probably spend quite a bit of time on the leading edges also....

But all in all from what is show in the photos it doesn't look too bad and all your product choices will give you good results.
You will need microfiber towels (wally world will have the cheapest most here hate) to properly dry the truck. What have you been using so far? Cotton towels cause swirls...do you see them?

Since you did not mention it or swirls I guess you don't care about surface correction?

 

Anything is better than nothing and those photos tell quite a bit.
After the clay try the sample cleaner wax that came with clay kit. The cleaner wax has some abrasives and you may notice quite a bit of difference. Depending on how much shine and work you want to do you can just use the cleaner wax or you can step up to more serious correction and shine.
How far or deep down the rabbit hole do you want to go?

 

Yea I used to have a black chevy and I had to wax it all the time to keep it decent. This one I can just spray off at the car wash at it looks "pretty good". I can even drive it down a gravel road and it's not too bad.

I usually let it air dry after the car wash. But I have some of these at home that I used to use. I've used these on every car I had since high school.


I haven't noticed any swirls in the paint. But then again I haven't payed enough attention to the paint to get close and notice anything.

But there's nothing obvious in it.

Thanks for the help Old Dogg.!

 

That's going to need the cleaner wax. Don't put it on thick! It does its work rubbing it on, not removing it.

 

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Not that far!

I just hear about how much claying helps, from people on this forum, so I thought I'd give it a try.

And like I said in my first post, I've made some appearance mods lately that have really made the truck look better so I should help it out more with a good cleaning.

 

The clay kit came with a small Megs cleaning wax bottle.

What about the Megs gold wax? Save that for a second wax down the road after this detail is done? Or take it back and always use a cleaner wax.

 

ergh wish my paint was that good. mine looks great but in sun or under street lights at night it looks horrible ful of swirls etc...it really needs to be detailed with a DA and professional products, but dont have the money for that. good luck with yours, efuehrin

 

hows it coming along?

 

I just bought the stuff at lunch break.

I'll be lucky to get some time this weekend.