Hey guys, I have come to the conclusion and realization that I need to strip my car's paint down and give it a real cleaning. I'm extremely **** with keeping it clean and last week while I was waiting to get my tires rotated I took an Armor All Orange degreaser wipe and I proceeded in wiping off some of the residue created by my exhaust. To my surprise it started making my paint whiter and I realized that it started to oxidize the crap the was on there. I saw that the car was completely dressed with this black flimy, residue almost like a coating of wax. So my question is what should I do to get all of this stuff off? I work at Advanced Auto Parts so I get 20% off all products, so I was looking to spend around $25-35 on everything. I was thinking about getting Meguiar's 3 Step cleaning products or just using whatever would get this black residue off and then I'd use Meguiar's NXT wax. I just need some suggestions on how to get this crap off my paint and to get this car looking as clean as possible.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Clay bar it. It's a pain but does wonders. You may want to use something on the exhaust stains first, just to get it decently clean. Then clay bar it. You will be so suprised how good of shape your paint is probably in. Then wax it. Since you have to wash, claybar, wash, wax, and add any detailing, it should take you most of a day. But your car will look much better, even if it looks great now.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by talontsiawd &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Clay bar it. It's a pain but does wonders. You may want to use something on the exhaust stains first, just to get it decently clean. Then clay bar it. You will be so suprised how good of shape your paint is probably in. Then wax it. Since you have to wash, claybar, wash, wax, and add any detailing, it should take you most of a day. But your car will look much better, even if it looks great now.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree with all of the above..... if you had a buffing machine, you could use some "heavy duty compound" before doing the clay bar on it to remove marks, surface scratches and such...

 

My biggest concern is getting that black residue off, do you guys recommend any certain products additionally with the clay bar, cleaners, and/or wax products?