Meguiars spray on wax ??

Meguiar's has many great products. Personally, I'm using the liquid NXT for my base 'wax'.

But, you need to get rid of the swirl marks before you apply any wax. You might want to >is it any good ?

Ok, here is my secret recipe for washing my car. Don't tell anyone but I developed it about 4 years ago after piecing together what I read on the net. I only wish I thought of it sooner. It will probably make your car need a lot less wax (but I'd still wax). I can't give you exact quantities but I don't think too much will hurt the car finish.

I use a decent car wash soap (ie: Meguiars is fine), vinegar (guessing about 1/2 cup) and "Jetdry" (4 or 5 squirts) into a bucket of water and wash.

Note: where I live, the water is very hard; I don't know if vinegar and Jetdry need to be both used but I do it and am very satisfied with results.

Then I use the same minus the soap into a garden sprayer (less vinegar and less Jetdry mixed with water in attachment) attached to my water hose to rinse the car. Then I dry it with decent cotton rags (tho by this time it needs little).

The result is my newer cars (3 of them, oldest is about 3.5 years old and isn't garaged ever and we have HOT summers) need less waxing and the wax goes on / off easier. They shine as nearly as when they left the dealer. And the water just seems to stay repelled off the paint finish even to this day. And I looked real hard in the sun at the 3.5 year old car (solid white color) and I can barely see a water spot anyway nor swirl marks from waxing.

Good Luck.

ps-- I'm no expert on car products but I do like Meguiar products. I won't say they are the best but I would say they are very good. And I have 2 polishers (I think a 9" and 6") and I'd recommend the 6" first (less weight and easier to deal with around rounded shapes) but the 9" is probably better for flat hoods, trunk lids over larger flat areas but the 6" can still do it fine (maybe just take a little longer).

Take a look at Mothers brand. They have a great detail PDF on thier website.

Good luck, unless you're very lucky that will not remove the swirl marks, it will only re-arrange them. First off you need a buffer, not a polisher, with the correct pad (s). Second if you don't know which finishing compound to use such as 3M you are headed for a problem. Talk to the local automotive paint supplier to find out how to do it correctly.

One comment, when you rinse the car do it with an open hose and flood the water over the entire surface. It will sheet off and leave less water to wipe off. In other words, don't spray rinse.

Dad, your way is much easier but I'm hesitant to do this because of the "hard" water we have here. I'm trying NOT to have the hard water touch my car so I try to always dilute my hard water before it touches my car whether it's the soap application or the rinse.

Perhaps your way is fine if you don't have very much hard water??? Back when I lived in NY, there was no need to use this special solution... just car wash soap and garden hose water did well. Of course, I still waxed then.

Incidentally, you are correct and I was mistaken. In my first post I mentioned about a 9" and 6" polisher but I should have said buffer!! And mine are electric and seem fine but I think (??) the pros use air powered.

Thank you Dad !!

Doesn't matter, hard or soft, it will sheet off by flooding versus spraying.

The way I spray, it does flood it and then runs off as you said. I won't take the chance of the hard water even touching my newer cars and you can bet when and if I do buy a vette, it will be the same way.

And in case anyone asks, no I don't bring my cars to car washes ... in fact the last time I did was about 27 years ago and I almost lost my antenna (when they were a stand alone mast).

Spray does not sheet off, run off, yes, but do it your way. No need to just try it once and see what it does. Not to long ago I had a black Seville, a black C5 and the black '72, when I washed all 3 on a warm day it was easy to sheet the water off and not get streaks. Oh, by the way, all I use is Dawn dish soap.

You use a slow stream of water (no connection on the end of the hose and the water just coming out) to get as much water off the car before you wipe it dry. The less beads of water on the car the faster you can dry it before the water dries on its own and you get the hard water spots. If you seem them happening, hit them with an instant detailer. If your real anal about it, get an inline filter for your hose.

Dawn Dish Soap... that's one way to take off the wax and possibly leave a nasty residue. You should always use a car wash product made for washing cars.

why? because the car wash products advertising says so :-) its written that way to sale car wash products made for washing cars.

my2¢

Old wives tale, your chamois takes off as much wax as does Dawn soap. Been using dish soap since the '60s and have seen no ill effects yet. As far as leaving a residue, make up your mind, first it takes everything off including the wax and then it leaves a residue? I have a picture of my Eldorado that I washed in Dawn for 9 years and 118K miles that still looked new when I traded it in, waxed it maybe 3 times. Use what makes you feel good, after this long I doubt I'll change because it scared you.

For what it's worth, the vinegar breaks up the minerals in the hard water and the Jetdry (used in dishwashers washing glasses to prevent water streaks) makes the water more slippery.

That said, my way works FINE for me and after 3.5 years of observing it, I won't change anything about it now BUT as Dad said, what ever makes you happy, do that way instead.

If you knew how the products worked you would soon change your way of thinking.

Its not an old wifes tale. You shouldn't use a chamois either, you should use terry cloth or microfiber towels to dry a car. Yes it takes of everything then leaves a residue. You clearly don't have an understanding of how dish soap works on automotive finsishes, but you won't change because your too cheap.

One of the many things the company I worked for was to supply pumps to all sorts of automotive operations. Mainly heavy mastics, paint, grease, oil, anti-freeze, transmission fluid, paint fillers as powder, and materials in other industries such as perfume, blood, guts, corn mash, acid, ink, resins, driveway sealers. Among the specific product lines were OEM equipment suppliers for car wash chains, about 12, and laundries for big hospitals, about 18. For me to spec and build the pump or system that they bought and used, a fair knowledge of the materials in the pump and what it was going to pump was mandatory.

I still have a list of all of those companies, about 220, so if you need to check some of that out, let me know. Some that I was in, Softrol, Sun Automation, Autech, Brite-O-Matic Mfg, Gin San, KO Inc., & Mark VII. WOW, was I stupid, that file was created 7 years ago and very early in the morning, going in early and working late got me an early retirement, actually that was a good thing, don't miss it at all.

Let me know what I missed about how the products works so I can change my mind.

Old and grouchy,

So you built pumps... how does that apply to automotive finishes applied to cars?

Didn't say I used a chamois, I said "your" chamois. Help me with my "understanding" and use some facts please.

If you mean cheap as not spending money on needless items, I'm guilty.