I just found this article:
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/maintenance/articles/43777/article.html

I've only skimmed over it, but it looks OK for anyone out there looking for some tips....

The polish I use also says "do not let dry"... interesting...

Also, does anyone find that the car becomes static?

I polish my car, 10 mins later, it is ocvered in dust

so ANNOYING!!!!!


ps - is there any good products for window cleaning? or just clean them with car shampoo?

cheers

My dad has most of the mothers range, we gave my sisters car a good going over, for an 88 model pintara it came up pretty damn good, polish, back to black, bug and tar remover etc, the whole shabang, and most of the things come with a nice scent, but they are all easy to use, simple to follow instructions. so i would recommened mothers products.

the point of polish is to be able to wipe the dust off your car, not keep it off!



Meguire's Glass Cleaner is by far the best product I've ever come across. It doesn't streak, and it will take off things like rego stickers with 1 spray and a gentle wipe! <--HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

With all this talk of cleaning, I just finished washing my car...

Thanks for that chicken, Ill give it a shot...

And I wipe the dust off, but its like its statically charged, so it just sticks back to the car... should I use like an antistatic or something?


Cheers

Yer, after i finish polishing the entire car, its covered in dust horribly half the time - thing is to use a microfibre cloth (attracts dust REALLY well and HOLDS it) run it over the car easyily once, no 2nd go its all gone and no more will stick to it..
I honestly find once ive polished it and gotten rid of the 1st layer of dust from the polish that anything else that settles on the car slides off or blows off in the wind, good eh!

lol, sounds good, microfibre cloth.. guessing thats at any auto or house cleaning section of coles/woolies?

Ill give it a shot, thanks for that.

Cheers

Yep, i got mine from either auto barn or repco or s**t auto...kmart would have em too, all places that sell cleaning stuff these days!
You will find prices cary a bit too, ive got one or two from my dads work(used to detail trucks) worth like 50+bucks, and its no better than my <15bucks ones, PFFT!

Well i went at it again tonight, by hand

come up really well. Used some pretty decent cutting compoud (meguiars) and thought it was all over for me, my microfibre cloth just wouldnt get the dry polish off (the buff would have but i was too lazy to find a extension lead). Eventually i figured out that by applying some swirl remover (again meguiars) over the top allowed the cloth to get everything off, leaving a really nice finish

Only thing is, it took me 3 hours just to do the bonnet, one half of the roof, one quarter panel and make a start on the bootlid...

One thing i did notice, if im staring directly at the paint, the shine on the paint is awesome. If i look at the car on a angle and under fluroescent light, you could see some swirl marks where I had been a little lazy. Im thinking that you would more than likely get that on a lot of cars in sunlight, fluro light just really makes imperfections stand out???

But anyway, the areas i did properly look awesome now...should really look good in the sun. And one thing I hate about polishing, apart from the effort, is how well stone chips and deep scratches stand out! Is there any product i can use to touch them up a little? My car is regency red...and i dunno how well I'd go touch up with a pressure pack

Cheers.

Its better to do it by hand imo.. i do both out cars with meguiars liquid wax and use the applicator to put it on. Comes up heaps good.

My car is red as well (Le Mans Red), those chips and scratches really do show up on a polished red surface!

I went and bought myself a product that you use to fix scratches and chips. I got it from Big W, but I've seen it at Repco etc as well. I can't remember the name, but it's a bottle of polish in a coloured bottle (eg red) that comes with a "Chipstick" (looks like a lipstick, but it's coloured wax). Basically, you rub the 'Chipstick' over the scratch/chip gently, til the while/black colour is gone, and it's red. Then you remove the excess (wipe with a cloth), and polish using the coloured polish! I did my whole car with the red polish, and it came up great! (Went from pale pink to bright red!).

The first time I used the Chipstick, I noticed a NEW (*shock*) scratch across my boot, where it looked like someone had scratched a needle longways across the surface. I treated it with Chipstick and coloured polish...and.....voila! Bye-bye scratch! You have to look REALLY closely, from directly above, too see that it's there!!

Yeah i have seen the products your talking about, and i can also see how they would work well with Le Mans red (cos its definately red)

I have this poof a*** colour called regency red, i dunno how it would work. I might go get a paint pen and give that a go, apparently they actually make regency red in paint pens

I also use that chipstick thingo with the coloured polish/wax - im pretty sure its turtle wax and about $17.00 all up.
I used it on my green fairlane all the time, works 100% great, havnt got one for the red yet, so i might see if i can find one tomorrow

Daniel is your red the same as my red?

Regency Red (pearl version so im told, changes bright red/gold colour in sunset and sometimes direct sunlight)
Anywho, yer both regency red so same colour yes..lol!