My wife's car is a white 2003 Toyota Camry. I have noticed that in the paint there are these dark gray to almost black cloudy looking stains. I need advice on how to get the paint back to looking new again.

Now that the pollen deluge here (Raleigh, NC) has almost stopped, I intend to give her car a thorough cleaning the first day we have some nice weather (it's been raining the last week here).

Let me state that I know nothing about car detailing. Usually, in the past, I'd wash my car with some sort of concentrated car wash, dry it with a cotton towel, Windex the windows, Armor-All the tires, and use some sort of paste wax about once a year.

Now I want to try to do better. I bought a Mother's clay bar kit to use on the Camry, but I now suspect that the clay bar may not get the "stains" out of the paint.

So, here is the process I have in mind:

1) Wash the car with Meguiar's Gold Class car wash
2) Dry with a microfiber towel
3) Clay with the Mother's clay bar using Meguiar's Quick Detailer as lubricant
4) Wax using NXT liquid wax
5) Finish with the Meguiar's Quick Detailer

I understand the "two bucket" method and will be sure not to rinse my wash mitt in the "clean" bucket with the car wash solution in it. Also, I understand the perils of dropping the clay bar. I also own an orbital polisher, but its a Black & Decker (I think) from the late 80s, and not a Porter Cable, so I assume it should not be allowed to come anywhere near my car. Seriously, I haven't looked at it in a while to see what the pad looks like or anything.

I do not know what I should do if the clay bar fails to remove the stains from the paint. Advice here would be greatly appreciated.

Please critique my action plan, bearing in mind that I don't have an entire weekend to devote to this project, and I also do not have an unlimited budget. I am not striving for professional level work that you pros would charge $200 for, but I do want to get the stains out of the paint and get some good wax on it.

Please feel free to point out the use of alternate products than the ones I have listed. I already have the Quick detailer and the clay bar, but I have not yet bought the Gold Class car wash, the NXT wax, or any paint cleaner.

Thanks in advance.

 

That looks good to me, but I would consider:
using dawn first to remove any old wax etc. Then don't use that wash mit again:
Clay and maybe wash again.
add a polish step before the wax.
And yes I would recommend getting a PC DA. Those old things scare me.

If you are going go through the trouble of claying and prepping the surface, I would go ahead an use a polish to remove towel marks, spiderwebs and possible etching etc before you put a wax on it.

But it looks like you are spot on.

How about some before and afters too?

Note, I think the clay is going to pick up a lot of that stuff. If you are using the white colored clay, it will show you all kinds of interesting things as you use it.

 

If the clay doesn't work and it were me, I'd try some Meguiar's ScratchX to see if that helps take out the stains. It's got some abrasives in it so it may be the ticket if the clay doesn't remove them. Be advised that it does take a lot of elbow grease working it in to get great results, but it's worth it. Also be warned that if you do a few spots with it they might look so good you'll want to do the entire car with it (requiring lots of aspirin the next day LOL).

Give some thought to getting a PC as well, maybe not right now but think about it. It's an investment but really, everyone that gets one wonders why they didn't do it sooner. You can get results with it that are just amazing!

 

My wife used to have a white Camry. It would stain just like you described. Also, the iron stains from the irrigation well we had at the house we were renting was awful. I used a white polishing compound, applied by hand, and it seemed to work well. For some reason Toyota white paint is almost absorbent. I had a white VW and did not have that problem. And, when I worked in the remanufacturing department at Southeast Toyota Distributors, all the lease turn-in cars that were white looked like dung!

 

OK, guys, today was absolutely beautiful here in Raleigh. It was sunny all day long (still is) and the high temperature was about 73 or 74 with a cool breeze blowing. I got started about 9:30am this morning with the help of a neighborhood teenager who wanted to earn some pocket money.

Here was the process:

1) Washed thoroughly using Meguiar's Gold Class car wash and a lot of elbow grease. Dried with microfiber towel.

Many of the stains that had not come out during previous washings came out. I don't know if it was the Gold Class, which I had never used before, or just the extra elbow grease, but the car looked much better after just this step.

2) Clayed the car with both Mother's and Meguiar's clay, using both Mother's and Meguiar's Quick detailer as lubricant.

I had previously bought a Mother's kit, and had planned upon cutting the clay in half as has been suggested here before, but it was so small I decided to go get another one. Of course, neither Advance nor Auto Zone sold just the clay bar, so I had to get another kit, and the Meguiar's kit was cheaper (plus I hoped it had a bigger piece of clay in it), so that's how we ended up with both.

I liked the Meguiar's clay better. I thought it was softer and more pliant and I think it picked up more stuff. The Mother's Quick Detailer smelled like cinnamon, which was cool. I think the Meguiar's Quick Detailer smells like bubble gum.

3) Rewashed and redried the car, same as in step 1 but with less elbow grease.

4) Polished the car with Meguiar's Deep Crystal Polish.

I know it says it is for dark colored cars (my truck is Dark Shadow Grey) but I figured it would be okay to use on white. Applied it with my orbital polisher/buffer, which it turns out is a Craftsman, and not Black & Decker. The pad on it was nice and soft, I put a new plastic liner on it and a new terry cloth cover. Used the buffer to put it on, and removed it with a never before used microfiber cloth.

5) Rinsed the car (both to remove any dust and also to cool the surface as I didn't have any shade) and dried it with a microfiber towel.

6) Waxed the car with Meguiar's NXT liquid wax.

Same as with the polish, I put it on with a new terry cloth cover, and removed it with a new microfiber towel.

7) Waxed the car with Meguiar's Deep Crystal Carnauba Wax.

Put it on with the buffer and a clean terry cloth cover. After alowing it to dry a while (we needed a break) we put yet another clean terry cloth cover on the buffer to remove the carnauba wax.

8) Cleaned the windows with 20/20 aerosol glass cleaner.

9) Dressed up the tires with Black Magic.

10) Did one last pass over the car with the Meguiar's Quick Detailer.

I always like to finish with the Quick Detailer.

Today was mostly about restoring the paint. I didn't go all out on things like the weather stripping or the grill. We didn't do anything at all to the interior (that's another day) so the windows don't look so clean. I do think the paint looks much, much better.

Here are a few pictures, all after. Sorry, I had a huge brain fart and forgot to take before pictures.









There are a few others in my gallery in you are interested.

Whew! Time to light the grill!

 

Looks good!!! Congrats on a job done right!

 

Hey, RockPick, do you see anything about my process that I should not do to my 2006 Dark Shadow Grey F150?

 

I see no holes in your system... the only suggestion would be two coats of NXT... of course, this adds a time factor for curing (minimum of 12 hours or so between NXT coats).

I think that would be a good approach on your truck...

-RP-

 

Looks great!!!

I how did the 20/20 glass cleaner work for you??? A friend of mine tried it, but he never got a chance to tell me about it before he went into some meeting...

Also-- If I was you, I'd copy your pics into paint first, then you can take the color of your choice and cover your liscense plate #. I'm sure it's not a problem, but it's something everybody seems to do here, just as a preventative measure...

Again, looks great, and the reflections out of white (which is difficult as it is) look very nice (said in best Borat Voice)

 

Hey, f150sport03, thanks for the compliment.

I like to use 20/20, or any aerosol glass cleaner, on car windows because I think they streak less than an ammonia based cleaner like Windex or Glass Plus. When I use Windex, I have a tendency to use too much, and I have to wipe and wipe to get it all off. Usually I leave some and have streaks. Aerosol glass cleaners that foam up on contact with the glass, in my opinion, are easier to remove and don't streak.

This is just something I learned with my first car when I was a teenager. I am no expert on care care though. Maybe you should ask RockPick or one of the professional detailers here if there is a reason I am unaware of why you shouldn't use an aerosol glass cleaner.

 

20/20 is a pretty good glass cleaner. I like a few others better but, overall, it's not too shabby IMO.

 

hey that looks good, sorry for the slow response, been in orlando since monday.

RollingRock

 

There's nothing wrong with an aerosol, except the fact that they have a lot of overspray. I like the foam they get better, and when they're full, they work great, but when they're approaching empty, they start to spit a lot. Also, they don't seem to hold as much, and always have lesser control than the trigger.

 

If you're going to use an aeresol... try Stoner's Glass Cleaner. It's on the shelf at your local Wally World and it's pretty good stuff.

I prefer a pump sprayer over aerosol (SAVE THE EARTH! REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES! ) but, I used the aerosol up until early this year...

Like you, I preferred the 'foaming' action in that it stayed put but, after using the Stoner's in the pump spray, I prefer it over the aeresol... It's all in an opinion...

-RP-