marquez93

You don't need Americana, but you can use it if you want to. It should give you a little more shine but other than that, it's not necessary. The PS and HGG will give you plenty of protection. And the HGG provides amazing shine as well. If it were me, I wouldn't bother with the Americana. Especially if it's outside all the time.

Tape it up before the polishing or put VRT on the trim. It will keep polish and wax from soaking in. Skip the HGG and do it in a few weeks. I would do 2 coats of LPS though. Other than that, looks good. But I also wouldn't use a cover. Just keep it well protected with product. Covers outdoors will blow around and scratch.

If that's an air bubble, it must be one hell of a bubble because it doesn't come across that way to me, even zoomed in. And if it's Xpel and it's a good installer, they shouldn't be doing any cutting. You can get pre cut pieces from Xpel (or I think your own cutting machine) for pretty much any car. Much better than having cut lines in your paint if you ever remove it.

If you're okay with it, then it's okay to leave it. It's on plastic so rust will never be an issue. If it were mine, I would get a really fine brush and try to get some paint in there. If you mess it up, you can wipe it off with some solvent.

Fibers look fine and this might just be an illusion but that pad appears to look like one that I have that I overworked and overheated while doing some heavy paint correction. It feels like the foam support is all broken down near the center but firmer around the outside. Does it feel like that at all? If the foam breaks down and is less firm, it would be harder to apply even force or the right amount of force to the paint. If that makes sense.

I assume the dealer is banking on the fact that you're not going to remember to bring it in every 6 months and you'll lose the warranty. But most people don't file warranty claims anyway, so that doesn't make much sense either. I think it's a dumb plan by the dealer to have all these cars coming back in every 6 months and tying them up when they could just do what most dealers do and sell you something that doesn't get reapplied. Even if the product is nothing special, it's good for the cars to get it reapplied, but not great business sense for them compared to other options.

I'm certainly not implying that it is stripping protection or that it is a bad product in any way. Just that it rinsed off differently than anything else I have used. And it did seem to look good, but I pulled it in out of the sun right away to dry it. I'll have to use it more to be able to compare it to HGG, because that stuff leaves an amazing shine.

I guess mine must have just sheeted a bit slower than you two causing me to think negatively instead of positively. Maybe I used less product. I'm used to still using the red pump on my regular soap.

I guess I never really pay much attention or think about how the water usually rinses off, but it was different enough this time that I noticed immediately. I guess I can't say for certain how much water ran off, but it just seemed slow. I'll have to wash my car with it some night this week and I'll try to pay close attention and maybe try a few different ways of rinsing and report back again.

The leather is amazing, but it doesn't last that long either. I'm sure they're probably all that way.

OK, I do need to be more clear. It was closer to staying on the car as a sheet. I was rinsing the sides with a spray and it was kind of slowly running down. When I did a sheet rinse, it did mostly run off, but not really fast like you would hope for with a hydrophobic sealant.

I used the new Wash and Wax today on my wife's CR-V. Her car always seems to bead like crazy even if I don't do much to it. Today it had at least 2 month old HGG on it, not to mention 2 months of dirt and the water still beaded and ran right off as soon as water touched it. The Wash and Wax worked fine as a soap, seemed to have enough suds. But when I rinsed, the water sheeted instead of beading, almost like there was no protection anymore. And no, I did not use Strip Wash. I'm hoping it has to cure or something and it will bead better if I get it wet again, but I was surprised at the lack of beading while rinsing compared to other products. I'll be interested to hear other people's experiences once they get a chance to use it.

Yep, definitely smells. But at least you can still work with it. With heavy wheel cleaners and acids, you can't and shouldn't even breathe around them. So they're much harder to work with.

Without knowing your technique, all I can say is make sure you are spraying enough on to fully wet it. Then wipe it thoroughly and then flip the towel and buff until dry. Don't let it dry on its own.

The DS is just for a drying aid, so you can still do it the same way. It's just for lubricating the towel, so you would still be doing that just after you blow off the excess water.

Hmmmmm... Sounds like I need paint protection film for it as well

With all of this talk about glass towels, I have a related question. I just received my order yesterday of wash and wax, 2 glass towels and I got the coffee mug. I'm ready for a cup of coffee this morning. So, does the coffee mug work best before or after washing it? Should I wash all my mugs together? Or separately? ????????

Or is it orange peel? Does it look like the textured finish like the surface of an orange? If so, you would have to wet sand it to smooth it out.

Not sure if this is the same as what you are talking about, but this is what often happens to wheels that are machined finish with no paint and just a clearcoat on them. If you have some curb rash or even just a small chip in the clear, moisture can get under it and start to corrode the bare aluminum. If you don't do anything about it, it keeps spreading. This should not happen to chrome wheels. The main problem with chrome is if you don't take care of them, the chrome can start to peel off.

The main purpose of a wax or sealant is to protect the paint. Making it shine is just an added bonus. So you should still use it even if you are not going to polish. It probably won't help the way it looks, but it will help keep it from getting worse.

Nice riding. Not a great starting position, but it looks like you're in another league in terms of corner speed and braking ability. Did you ever catch that last guy?

This is true. Especially if they ever take a train ride on the way to the dealer.

Welcome. If you want to spend less money, skip spending money with a detailer and just use that money for your products. The truck will survive while you wait for an order. And you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it all yourself.

You sure about that? You said you haven't cleaned your suede, but do you use LC on it? Because Alcantara has a similar look and feel as suede and I wouldn't think LC would be good for it.

My dealer actually is one of those rare ones that offers coatings, but yeah, it's because the local detailer does it. It was ceramic pro, but now he's doing GTechniq.