New, looking to make detailing silver worth it

Justin - you might want to check out a post in the "Good Deals" section entitled "Sample Exchange". Autopia members exchange samples of various products. 1 sample should be more than enough to test on your car, and that way you can test a few different products before you end up buying one.



A few products I'd suggest trying



Finish Kare Pink Wax (I use this on all my details that don't ask specifically for a sealant)

Klasse AIO + SG (PITA but worth it)

Poorboy's EX-P (Less of a PITA, looks pretty good too)

Mother's FX Synwax (OTC, available locally, easy to yse)

Zaino (some people care for it, I don't, but I'll put it on here because you might).



Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
 
Justin don't drop the money if you are not comfortable with it. Now as far as the best investment to make is to get a PC at Lowes for $99 and buy a pad kit from one of the online retailers. IMO the key is the preperation and removing the defects. As far as the products to use, I think most polishes can acheive the same results in any product line. I mean Meguiars, Poorboys, 1Z ect. can get you that nice smooth defect free shine your looking for. I find I can get the same results with 1Z, Meguiars, Menzerma so buy what is easiest and reasonably priced for you. Something reasonably priced $10, veristle, and OTC is Mothers Power Polish which abrassive level is dependent on the pad. So if you need a medium cut use a cutting pad. A finial light cut use a polishing pad. As far as LSP it depends what are you looking for. Ziano last long , but its a little finiky to work with and some may not like its shine. It might be to your liking. Carnuba stuff adds deepth, but its not as important in silver. Autopia has Pinnacle signature on sale $25 which is suppose to be great on silver, but as most carnuba they don't last long. As others said you might want to get some samples from other members of stuff you want to try. As for me I don't have a silver car, but my father who still ask me to polish his silver Benz (amazing since he has lots of money to pay for a detailer and I am 35yo) I usually use AIO and S100 as LSP. Thoes products are not too much money about $40. I like the look personally.
 
Justin, people are dropping a lot of product names here on this thread. While they are all excellent products, buying a bunch of different waxes, sealants and glazes really isn't going to do too much to improve your shine.



If you aren't happy with the shine after your prep/polishing steps, then most likely you aren't going to be happy after sealing that shine in with a wax or sealant.



Most of these people here that experiment with different brands and combinations of glazes, sealants and waxes already have paint that would put many showroom detail jobs to shame. It sounds to me that your focus should be more on how to step up your prep work to get your paint to this level first, and then worry about which combination of LSP to use later on. But I also guarantee you that your DCS step three will look terrific on your car after you've done a thorough prep job that includes (at a very minimum) claying, some light compounding by machine followed by a polishing step.



I think jetskie makes some excellent suggestions. We all have our preferences, but any good quality compound or polish will do a terrific job with proper technique and a good quality polisher.
 
Ya, don't buy 3 waxes that do the same thing. Just go with your instinct, and buy 1 polish, 1 glaze/wax and 1 topper(optional). Then go see how you like it. If you don't try something else.
 
Okay, so this is my first post. I have a millenium silver GS430 and the pics below are my results after washing/claying/meg's polish/meg's gloss/meg's yellow wax. I'm very new to serious detailing. Will the boutique products that I've read about on these forums make a drastic difference in my results? After my attempt at detailing this past weekend I felt the car was okay but not stunning as I had hoped for. Anyone out there with any recommendations? I'm looking for a super glossy wet look.





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First off when you say polish and gloss which one are you using as meguiars has lots of them. It depends as I said earlier the prep work is more important than the final wax. What may be you lost is the swrils that are on your paint are deflecting the light and your gloss is not as bright because of this. Removing swrils by hand can be difficult so you should consider a PC. As far as polish I recomend either Meguiars #80 or Power Polish from Mothers as a starting point. Then glaze with #7 or the consumer product you're using will work. The LSP you're using darkens the paint, so you might want to try a synthetic like Mother FX, NXT, or S100 (from a Harley dealer). All of these product can be bought locally (#80 excluded) at parts store so you don't have to go get botique mail order stuff. I find the advantage of botique items are usually in longevity of the wax or makes work easier to do. IMO botique items may give you a better shine, but the in the order of maybe 10% better. You can get great results with OTC stuff these days, but the durability may not last.
 
LT. LEX said:
Okay, so this is my first post. I have a millenium silver GS430 and the pics below are my results after washing/claying/meg's polish/meg's gloss/meg's yellow wax. I'm very new to serious detailing. Will the boutique products that I've read about on these forums make a drastic difference in my results? After my attempt at detailing this past weekend I felt the car was okay but not stunning as I had hoped for. Anyone out there with any recommendations? I'm looking for a super glossy wet look.





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Your car looks great but I do think it can get better. Do a search for products used on silver and you'll likely see a bunch of pictures with the threads.
 
A litle off topic(Sorry), but what do i use before AIO+SG as a polish to remove some swirlmarks? Megs 80 and/or 83? I have heard that 80 and AIO don't mix very well.

And can I use the SG over Megs 80?

Thanx
 
Mark77- You shouldn't really need a finer polish after the Meg's #80; it'll leave a ready-to-wax finish. You could try something like Menzerna FPII or SSR 1 if you want to.



The problem with using AIO after #80 is that the AIO will clean off the oils/fillers that the #80 leaves behind. This can make some hidden marring "reappear".



KSG won't bond well to the #80 due to the #80's aforementioned oils/fillers. That's why you should always precede KSG with AIO.
 
Accumulator- Thank you.

I know Meguiars suggest using NXT over #80, but i would like to use something more durable than NXT. I also like the look of AIO, but it doesn't remove any swirls. I need a polish that removes swirls and can be topped with something like SG or Lahega 35( a very good LSP, that's easier to remove and protects better than SG IMHO) or any other good sealant.

I am really confused about all the products available.:nixweiss
 
Mark77- Whenever I'm gonna use the Klasse twins I use something oil/filler-free such as 3m PI-III RC and MG.



Oh, and FWIW, the last time I really paid attention to a durability experiment I got over a year's worth of protection, on a year-round daily driver, from six layers of KSG despite frequent spot-claying. At the 12 month point it was still beading and you could still feel the KSG on the paint. I gradually redid it panel by panel, the last one (the roof) was still beading more than sheeting at *18 months* and it *still* had that "plasticy" smooth KSG feel.
 
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