Polish Or Wax

[detaildoc]

This is probably a stupid question, but since I have never detailed my car myself, I have no clue what goes first. Should one polish or wax first? What polishers and wax do you guys recommend, especially to remove light surface scratches from carwashes.

[smooth1]

This is probably a stupid question, but since I have never detailed my car myself, I have no clue what goes first. Should one polish or wax first? What polishers and wax do you guys recommend, especially to remove light surface scratches from carwashes.

Polish, then wax. But if your gonna polish, you should probably wash the car with dish detergent and use a paint prep to make sure you have gotten all the layers of cheap wax, and residues off first. Then clay bar it, then use a #3 polish. And then wax the car, maybe a second coat would be good also. If your not going to wax the car regularly though, and you run it thru car washes, then I wouldn't use a carnuba wax, You should probably use a paint sealant instead. Then you can use a one step sealant and also skip the polish step, as the one step has the right polishes in it. Also, if you clay bar the car, and use a paint sealant, make sure you wash the car with dish detergent again before applying the sealant.

[mburnickas]

If you use polish, it wil remove the old wax. The re-wax

[SW03ES]

This is probably a stupid question, but since I have never detailed my car myself, I have no clue what goes first. Should one polish or wax first? What polishers and wax do you guys recommend, especially to remove light surface scratches from carwashes.

Polish, then wax. But if your gonna polish, you should probably wash the car with dish detergent and use a paint prep to make sure you have gotten all the layers of cheap wax, and residues off first.

mburn beat me to it, a paint polish will remove any old wax.

Also, the detergent washes aren't as neccisary as a certain sealant manufacturer would make you think. The detergent wash strips oils, if you use polishes that have no oils theres no need for a detergent wash.