When to do what?

[billy2shots]

I hace had my Pirelli Gti for nearly a week now and want to give it a bit of a clean this weekend. However as i bought it from a main dealer it was washed and polished when i collected it.

so..... Should i just give her a wash or is their any benefit in polishing?

Also when to wax? Do you just wax after you have polished or can you wax after a shampoo and dry?

[icenutter]

Waxing will almost certainly improve your cars appearance if you apply a half decent product carefully.

It will look infinitely better if you clay the paint before applying a wax though. A cycle of wash, clay, wax can take 4+ hours but is definatley worth it in terms of ease of maintainance and looks.

And then start the slippery slope to detailing obsession...

[Mandy]

When I brought my car a few weeks back, I gave it a shampoo then clayed the whole car to give the body a glassy smooth finish and get rid of any surface crap. Then I polished it, glazed/sealed it and then waxed it.

All I tend to do now is just shampoo it every 1-2 weeks and give it a quick wax. Makes it shiney again!

I highly recommend claying your car, the difference is qute amazing. 

[S2 Ant]

This will quickly become a slippery slope for obsession if you like a clean car lol
Ive got an almightly collection of bits for the car now to keep it clean and shiney and smell nice!

Mandys info sounds good tho! The first time you give it a really good going over, give yourself a whole day, as it will be very time consuming to go over the whole car thoroughly

Everytime i get back home and see if sitting there in the dark with the streetlight gleaming off the polished monza's i just think to myself how good it looks lol

[stealthwolf]

Depends on what the dealer did. In all honesty, get it properly detailed and then keep it topped up on a weekly basis.

[billy2shots]

So even though it was polished a week ago should i still wash then polish then wax. Or just wash then wax. Sorry to be a pain but dont want to over polish it if its not going to make any difference.

[Richn83]

It would depend what your going to use Billy, would be worth putting up waht product you have or have in mind to give people an idea of what your likely to do.  If your fairly new to detailing probably worth giving the sticky at the top of the detailing thread a read, as that might answer some of your questions.

[billy2shots]

My plan is to shampoo useing the remainder of some Autoglym (i know ) then polish with some super resin polish then wax with some Dodo purple haze pro. Wheels i will go for Poorboys sealer.

The thing im struggling with is do i need to polish given it was polished 6 days ago. Also if the answer is no dont polish this time, will waxing be ok or do you only wax after a polish.

[stealthwolf]

The question is how did they "polish" it?

[Richn83]

So using some super resin polish wont hurt anything, it has virtually or no cut to it and will just fill in any swirl marks, and so will only be worth while doing if the dealer did a rubbish job.  

AS for the wax that will certainly be worthwhile as I doubt the dealer used anything that good, it would obviously be better if you didnt already have a layer of wax down to help with the wax bonding, but there is no reason why an extra layer of wax will be a bad thing.

[Boothy]

From experience the dealers will have used some cheap arse polish/wax combo product like Turdle Wax so I would get rid of that then apply some quality products like the ones you have suggested. I'm still in Kindergarten in terms of detailing compared to some people on here but can testify to the difference claying, polishing, waxing has on a car. Even if you think you already do a good job, that lot will improve it.

Have a look in the reflection section (http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4219.0.html) and you'll see what a bit of TLC can achieve!

[billy2shots]

Ok thanks for the replys i will give her a wash, polish and wax. Then i know exactly what was done when and can maintain from that point on.

[Tuffy]

What colour is your car Billy? If its a dark colour then i would use poorboys blackhole for polishing .
Easy on and off with a fantastic finish. Then top with a quality wax such as collinite.
If your going to wash the car fairly regular then maybe use something like dodo juice born to be mild.
For more help and pointers have a look here   http://www.detailingworld.com/

[stealthwolf]

That's why I asked about the dealer "polish" - not likely to be proper stuff, in which case do what you want!