please help, very easy subject...

[Zaks]

yesterday i cleaned my car with dawn, clayed it, washed with dawn again, used the 3M swirl mark remover, then put a coat of Meguiar's wax. MY question is, if I want to put another coat of the wax, do I use the 3M before i put the wax on, or is that bad ?? I basically want to put another coat of meg's wax and was wondering if i should just put on the wax after washing the car or put 3M then wax ??

[bimmerZ5]

yesterday i cleaned my car with dawn, clayed it, washed with dawn again, used the 3M swirl mark remover, then put a coat of Meguiar's wax. MY question is, if I want to put another coat of the wax, do I use the 3M before i put the wax on, or is that bad ?? I basically want to put another coat of meg's wax and was wondering if i should just put on the wax after washing the car or put 3M then wax ??
most of meguiar's waxes have cleaners in them. this means that you can't layer the wax on top of each other; the cleaners in the new wax application will simply dissolve the old wax. the 3M swirl remover is an abbrasive that removes swirls by cutting a thin layer off your clearcoat. hence, if you use it again, it will also cut into the wax you just put on.

if you want to layer, you have two options, use a synthetic sealer or use a wax that contains no cleaners at all. you may have heard of Zaino, very popular these days.. that can be layered since it's a synthetic polymer which cures and then another layer can be applied on top of it. Mother's also has a new "top coat" wax as part of their "reflections" line of products. It's just a wax product with no cleaners in it. A lot of recent wax products seem to contain mild cleaners as it helps to remove swirls/oxidation/etc. Probably an industry trend because not everyone preps the surface enough before waxing.

[Eurospec]

As a side note, I'd advise you to use car wash shampoo rather than dawn in the future. Costco sells Meguiar's shampoo by the gallon for under 10 bucks.

Dawn is a :nono

[donoman]

Why is dawn a no-no? He clearly wanted to strip everything off before going at it with the swirl removers.

[Eurospec]

Misread his post :rolleyes

[Zaks]

Misread his post :rolleyes

yea, i just wanted to strip the old stuff. it was my first time detailing but I know to use other than dawn in the future. thanks for lookin out

[uansari1]

Just an FYI for you guys... if you wash your car with a good shampoo then take care to polish it properly, the old crap will be stripped off of it. The polish will take it right off, and your paint won't lose the oils in it.