i was wondering how most of you guys with white cars clean them and keep them looking good?

when i bought the car it had some grease marks, cant get them off. i washed and used turtle wax but not too much luck. little better but not gone.

also i tried taking the factory stripes. they done come off, and when they do they leave marks.







should i try clay and polish?
ive NEVER used either so any tips? this is the plan i have in mind:

wash
usingthis kit pretty much

This post has been edited by Malhar95: Nov 18, 2012 - 10:26 PM

Clay bar is never a bad thing. It's pretty easy to use.

That stuff is my best friend when it comes to my white Celica. It gets rust out of the finish, grease, stains, leftover gunk and sticker residue... it's amazing. As always, go over the areas with wax afterwards.

Turtle makes ****ty products that don't work. Just because they've been around for forever, it doesn't mean they actually do as advertised. Zymol is the best cleaner wax I've ever used, and Meguiars makes the best paint restoration system I've ever used.

There are videos on youtube on how to use it, but what I've found is if you use a terry towel with plenty of pleats and fibers, it grips and polishes better. Then you go over it with a microfiber to finish it off.

Wax isn't for making paint look better. It's for preserving the work you did to make it look better.

Some consumer waxes/sealants include paint cleaners which do help remove chemical deposits, but to get a proper clean you need to use the proper products.

General dirt and grim: wash with a wool mitt or chenille mitt (avoid flat microfibre as it doesn't have enough knap to keep grit away from the paint)
Mechanically bonded contaminants: clay bar
Chemical contaminants (basically, stains): paint cleaner
Scratches, swirls, holograms and significant oxidation: abrasive polish or (for the deep scratches or sanding marks) compound
Prevent oxidation: non-abrasive polish
Preserve finish: sealant (carnauba wax, acrylic or polymer sealer)

Some of these steps can be combined -- a compound will take care of paint cleaning, and a good quality abrasive polish will cover cleaning, levelling paint and the non-abrasive polish steps -- but but as with almost everything in life the more generalised the product the less capable it is at accomplishing each individual task.

Meguiar's Ultimate line is a pretty good collection of products for the consumer which can be applied by hand or with a random-orbital polisher. Go easy with the Ultimate Compound, as it is extremely aggressive. Good rule to follow: use the least aggressive method first. Generally, you don't have an issue applying it by hand, but don't consider a compound something you should use every month before waxing.

well i used the meguir's paint restoration kit.


started with this:








started 1st with washing with my normal usual shampoo/wax
then used as followed (in order)


1.Meguiar's gold class shampoo.
cleaned it nice but still lots of imperfections.
then dried with the microfiber towels provided in the kit.








2. tried clay bar but the one provided in the kit was really tiny and it wasnt helping the issues MY car had. so i didnt bother much and went to the "Ulitmate compound"
dried that. had some issues where i didnt tape up the rubber seals and i was spreading the blackness onto my paint. YOU HAVE TO BE REALLY CAREFUL IN THIS AREA

3. then just applied the liquid wax provided and dried that. not really a fan of the wax, it was really easy to come off and didnt leave the slippery feeling like the old turtle one i used. maybe its just me.



ending like this:








(same door handle from above picture)









did a mini noob photoshoot. posted pictured in my project thread.

overall REALLY satisfied.

Meguiars never seems to fail me. Glad it helped heh.

Looks like it needs a bit of a respray though. That paint is pretty haggard.

The paint still looks good, but it's got chips and that ugly pinstripe that won't come off unless you re-spray... But painting isn't exactly cheap where I'm from, dunno about you guys.

>
I know a guy :x

sorry to thread hijack but would you say the same would work on this (mainly the doors look faded compared but the rest is looking a bit flat





I really can't afford a respray but am just thinking of changing the doors to some from a newer model as long as it's still 040

Sorry again and cheers

malhar use a hair dryer to try and heat the pin stripes to peel them off. It will take time but its how I removed mine. Follow that up with some goo gone and then polish it. I have pictures of my car in my profile. I used a porter cable random orbit polisher withe meguiars 105/205 system to polish and the paint looks almost new.

As for the door handles you can remove them and then respray. An easy way to get rid of the small rust spots is to go to walmart and get a bottle of The Works toilet bowl cleaner in the blue bottle. Then put some on a rag and dab it on the rust spots. It has hydrochloric acid in it and it will eat the rust and leave bare metal. Just make sure to wash the area good after and wash you hands good as well. After that just use some touch up paint

sr666 using a good polish should remove the oxidation and bring back the shine. It will take some time but will be worth it

>
Try the paint restore kit. It's worth a shot when considering the price. Your doors are beautiful compared to mine hahaha.

cheers TRD I'll give that a go next then I think

Gotta be worth a shot

SOMEONE likes Celicas. Paint looks much better now. I like me some Meguiar's.

Is it bad if I re-do this process again? Is using compound and wax often bad for the paint? I worked on the car and it for some grease marks on again that's aren't coming off.

Thinking about doing everything again, also about to install my replica extensions so want the car to look pretty!