Hope I didn't scare you too bad with the title but I plan on doing a major cleaning on the exterior of my Black Monte soon.
I'm a newbie when it comes to waxing, "clay bar-ing" .

I read the Wax thread got some idea's of waxes to use but does anyone have kind of a start here and go here tips? (I'l be doing it all by hand probably until I bring in some money closer to may... I know moocho elbow grease)

My Monte has a few scratches plus a bunch of chips in the hood from driving in Detroit when I went to school in Southfield... now I just want her to shine and look perty . Also hide a bunch of her blemishes.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

I actually have the same problem as you with having a bunch of chips and knicks in the paint. Mine is more so on the front bumper then anything and is you can't even notice it until your kneeling right next to the front bumper. But anyway back to the rest of your thread. As far as a wax I really really like Liquid Glass. My dad has been using it for as long as he remembers and once I saw the shine it puts on cars I have been using it on my cars that I have had so far which would be a whopping 2 cars (only 20 years old). This stuff is kind of hard to find in stores but you can get it on amazon, here is a link,
I managed to find some in advanced autoparts, so you may be able to find some there as well. When I got it the stuff was $24.99 for 16oz and they had 2. I snagged both of them. If anyone sees this and has never used Liquid Glass before I highly highly recommend it. Sorry for the rambling, I hope this helps you out.

 

Any suggestions/ tips you've learned for prep and application?

 

I'm actually still pretty new to the whole thing myself. My first car was a 96 thunderbird which was not the best and i didn't do a whole lot to keep it cleaned. But with my 06' Monte Carlo SS I try to give it a good wash and wax every weekend. After I get done with the wash and make sure the body is as smooth as can be and dried off, I put a dab of liquid glass on a applicator pad and just start putting a thin coat on. I generally Do a section at a time like I'll do the hood and then I will move on to the front bumber. When I finish applying it to the front bumber I will go back and whipe down the hood ( it will start to haze which means it's time to wipe) and then I will go back and wipe the front bumper, and then I will do the front right quarter panel and the door and go back and wipe the quarter panel off and so on and so on until the whole car is done and then i will go back one more time with a clean micro fiber towel and do a final rub down. I will post some pictures tomorrow as it is suppost to be nice out and I will try to take some pictures afterwards to give you an idea of the shine you will get. You quite litterally will see your reflection from like 10 feet back.

If anyone knows of anybetter way to apply wax or polishing compund or a better way to prep for it by all means let me know as well

 

Sounds good can't wait for pictures!

 

Stumbled across this online figured I'd toss it in for readers... leave comments on what you think!

,a thorough two bucket wash (soapy water one bucket, plain rinse water in other bucket), with tire, rim, and underside clean. Plus engine bay, door jam and sills and trim/seals. Make sure none of the water sun dries leaving water marks. Shammy (chamois) dry. Followed by clay bar, then a quick rinse wash. Shammy dry again, then wipe with micro fibre. Hand wax (synthetic wax) being careful to not touch any plastic (dont need to wax every time you wash).

 

You don't NEED to dry the car before you clay bar.

I like to wash the car twice, then claybar. This gets all of the contaminants off the paint and you are left with bare clean clear coat.

Now grab Meguiar's Ultimate Compound and start with that. Rub liberally until it starts to remove itself, then wipe the area clean. Don't let the Compound dry.

If the scratches look much less but still noticeable, compound the area again.

Once you are satisfied with how that looks, get a fine polish. I like to use Meguiar's ScratchX 2.0. This will get all of the finer compound scratches out. Rub and remove like the compound.

Then take a good wax, I use the Meguiar's NXT 2.0 wax and put a coat of wax on the car.

This is the method I use for getting scratches out. One day I found someone apparently sat on my trunk, or put something on it and scratched it up terribly. I was furious, but then I used this method and removed the scratches.

 

Awesome should help huge! Thanks Chibi

 

Dang, I'll have to try that on my front bumber and see if it will fix the little knicks that I have in the paint

 

If the scratches are deeper than the clear coat this method won't work.