I was at Auto Zone yesterday and saw that they had what Meguair's called a 3 step system. The first bottle was a Paint Cleaner, the second a polish, and the third a wax. What I was wondering is the first step a replacement for a clay bar approach? If so, which is easier and/or better, the clay bar or the cleaner in the 3 step system . I was wanting to use it on my wifes minivan, the hood has very slight oxidation and the top is rough to the touch, both symptoms I have learned thru the search feature mean use clay bar. Any advice is appreciated!

Mark

oh yeah, here is a link to the cleaner stuff i saw
http://www.meguiars.com/estore/produ...eaner&sku=A-30

 

clay bar will work better than the cleaner....but I actually use the cleaner in addition to the clay...the clay will remove and smooth ur surface...the cleaner will not.

 

Clay bars won't do much for oxidation, so I would recommend a paint cleaner. Probably a paint cleaner, and THEN a polish, along with a machine polisher would work best chewing away the oxidation. I don't know how doing it by hand would turn out. And then once the oxidation is cleared up, go over it with a clay bar. Clay bars take much longer than paint cleaners or polishes but hold their own special job

 

There is nothing easier not yields better results than the MOTHERS 3-step system. Although I do add in FX between two and three (last year I did NXT since FX wasn't around).

Increable! Professional results for us morons!

 

Clay removes surface contaminates.

Chemical paint cleaners remove below surface contaminates, and loose surface contaminates.

I highly recommend using both.

 

So is it paint cleaner then clay?

 

My very next question! Clean and clay or clay then clean?

Mark

 

Clay then cleaner then polish, clay removes surface contaminates, prepping the surface for any chemicals you're going to apply. I never realized how much crap clay removes until I did my tailgate. Just running the clay over the surface, I could feel it picking up little specs and bits and pieces. When everything was said and done, the surface itself was smooth as glass.

 

Liny,

I'd do it the other way around (and have). I would do as someone else suggested and insert a wax like NXT after polishing effectively making it a 5 step process

Clay
Cleaner
Polish
Wax
Wax again...

Post some pictures of your finished beauty!

 

Thanks for the replies. I have used clay before but never in combination with paint cleaner. I'll let you know how this works.

 

I agree!

 

I would agree with claying, then using the three step method, but using NXT and #26 for the waxing part

 

Ok next follow up question
What if time allows to only do 2-3 steps on one saturday and the others the next, is this ok? If so at what step can you stop, drive the truck to work for a week then finish? Or do you need to just figure out how to get it all done in one big swoop? (just seems like a couple of long days and massive carpel tunnel problems for one weekend)

Mark

 

Good question Mark...

I'd try to do all of it in a weekend or over a couple of days... here's why.

You're going to polish it to add depth and to remove surfical problems. That polish adds no protection to your paint.

So, you polish, expose it to the environment and allow it to, potentially, dull out a bit and loose some of the luster. The wax will seal in that luster and shine. Beyond that, the polish won't provide any protection if you were to get bird bombed or similar.

While it's not a tragedy to wait a day or two, I wouldn't go a week.

RP