Lets not forget applying a sealer:
I usually spend the best part of a day doing mine...(3 times yearly).
1: 2 bucket wash,with second bucket having an ultra fine (.0002 micron) "float filter to trap fine particle debris as I dip in bucket 1 for a fresh application of soapy washing water.
2nd bucket is home water (reverse osmosis) for rinsing as I go along, final rinse is through my power washer (reverse Osmoses,in fine mist spray.
2: I do not use a chamouis on paint work at all EVER!, it's only used to clean and dry interior....after washing, it's air blown ( 2 water traps installed inline) with an air nozzle.
3: Start at roof and work down to window level....front hood and finally rear end, I use Mother's clay bars exclusively ...below belt line, I use an older clay bar for lower panels at wheel level....6 uses and I chuck it.
All this gets done on a cool car in my garage...
My Candy Apple Red has ZERO swirls or they will be addressed...with varying cutting compounds and my wolf pro polisher...
4: This is when I apply a high quality paint sealer, 2 thin coats, one hour apart so I give it time to glaze.
5:High definition Auto Glym wax is my weapon of choice, very very high concentrated Carnuba wax in this product,which I like because it lasts through a bunch of washes.
6: Final pass is a molecular paint sealer that has a harder tougher shell when cured....that gets lightly sprayed, this final stage I am working with dual 6,000 Kelvin spots sitting at 45 degree angle to the paint part I'm working on with my
#5 finishing cotton bonnet,my final pass is then hand done in linear motion (rather than circular, which causes pronounced swirls) front to back.
I can pour a full glass of water on ANY part of the car and it ALL beads right off, literally not a drop remains, this also stops ambient fine particle dust to NOT attach to the paint work,for weeks on end while driving...seriously, show quality finish!
Couple of additional notes:
Garage has "Rockwell ceramic floor finish over existing concrete, in my roof gables, a front indiction 2' round turbo prop fan that feeds cold dual filtered air into the garage ( zero dust particles) at rear, same diameter 2' extractor turbo fan going through a rubber shroud....both are directly wired to come on simultaneously for induction/extraction.....all 3 garage doors have full rubber membranes on all 3 sides, including a 4 inch floor rubberized threshold.
Water feed to the garage is hooked to our reverse osmoses whole home system, which is what I use for my car care needs.
I have won 1st place ribbons, so far 4 times at various car shows best in class, glossiest finish, and best overall smoothest paint finish....the last one we pretty much took down the factory clear coat to base colour coat, applied new BSAF water based clear coat anew micron filtered from can to spray paint holder, and ended up with 6 highly hand rubbed finishes, each coat was water sanded to remove the slightest "orange peel" till it was perfectly flat...clear coats were applied with an inverted low pressure pass eon charged trick gun, in a full downdraft spray booth.
Candy Apple Red paint has 3 levels of flake courses to a total of 5 coats,painting this specialized paint is at best, tricky.....the gun used for the pigment/flake coats has an agitator paddle that runs off a small motor at the base of the paint holder...the first coat (coarsest flake) has to be kept in constant motion or it will settle and create different flake thicknesses,remaining coats using finer flake finish the application of base coat ......ANY Candy Apple paint gets pricy because of the level of work involved.....Saw a jet black Candy Apple that took my breath away at the last competition I entered in Mississauga ,it also was a flip flop trick application.....from the front, looking toward the rear,it switched to a deep amber purple....from the back toward the front...it turned into the wettest deepest hue of absolute black with hues of flake playing in the light.....guy and his brother are pro painters and that paint job would set you back close to 15 large.
long post but thought I 'd share some of my secrets in paint care/washing/waxing.
So cool!
