rubberduckee

>>Are you thoroughly pre-rinsing the car before washing? I drive to a self serve place and start off by 'hosing' the car down ($3.00 for 4 minutes) with the rinse option - which is powerful enough that I'm not even sure if its good for the car. I was just reading some article that was released in the UK about the dangers of spraying your car wheels because of the 'micro' holes it creates in the wheels due to the pressure. >>Use ONR and I think you might be rubbing to hard with the soap and mitts or MF towels. Yeah, you might be right - but I mean, if there is 'dirt' how do you even remove it? The moment you In anycase, I'm going to try again - I haven't yet polished the car like until I get this right. I'm waiting for some items to come in and I'll try washing the car again. Here is what I'm going to do: 1) Drive to self service facility and hose the car down with water to get rid of most of the dirt 2) Clean the wheels and rinse. 3) Drive back (its like 1 mile away) and use the two bucket system with Plush mitts and wash the car (I can only fill buckets of water at home as the self serve facility's water pressure is too great for me to even fill a 20 quart bucket - just spills out) 4) Rinse and then dry with Sonus drying towel which I just received today. Will 'dab' instead of 'wipe' Trying to avoid as minimal contact as possible.

Update: I think I"m a moron as I still cannot figure this out. I washed my car today and it ended up having new lighth scratches again and one or two visible scratches. This is getting frustrating. I had separate buckets but did not have the mitts with me, instead i used a couple of MF to wash the car. Perhaps its just the curse of being in Boston and having tons of snow and salt around. I already have my PC and stuff coming in the mail but at the way I'm going, I'll probably end up scratching my car again. The problem is that I don't have a garage or driveway to wash the car and hence I have to go to a self-serve area which has the craziest water spray which even scares me when using. I was stupid enough to try to fill the water in the bucket with the spray - obviously a newbie sight when foam is drenched all over the place. I have to somehow get this right and at the same time, I'm so afraid of damaging the car further. I will try the ONR option and get a bunch of waffle weave MF.

Just thought I'd ask to see if anyone has had any experience with any dealers that have done the VentureShield clear bra in Boston or anywhere in MA? I'm thinking about installing one on my IS250.

Thanks for the tips - really appreciate it. - This time, I'll start from the top to avoid this costly mistake. My reasoning for washing the wheels first was to get rid of as much dirt and rocks as possible but my carelessness in technique caused me quite a scare. I've ordered some Meguiar's Wash chenile and will use it solely to wash the car. As for the wheels, I'll use a brush. As per denslexusgx470's suggestion, I've bought 3 separate buckets so that I can use one solely for the wheels. It snowed quite a bit here in Boston today and I can't wait to go wash my car again. I did find some rock chips on the front part of the car and I'm wondering if I should 'paint' them up or just leave them there. Will it rust?

Thanks! I ordered the following: 1 of: Meguiar's M8332 Dual Action Cleaner/Polish - 32 oz. 1 of: Meguiar's M8032 Speed Glaze - 32 oz. 1 PC 7424 1 Set of Sonus Dual Action Foam Pads. 1 of: Meguiar's G-12718 NXT Generation Tech Wax That should be sufficient right? I intend to do the following: 1) Wash Car 2) Clay Car 3) Wash Car 4) Spot Polish certain areas using M8332 Dual Action Cleaner/Polish 5) Wax entire car. Is that a viable approach? Or is there something else (or product) that I'm missing? PS: I'm not sure if this car has stuff on it prior to the purchase

Ok - Got a slightly used IS250 and made the dumbest newbie mistake in terms of car washing. I've always gone to the automatic washers to get stuff done with previous cars and after reading the forums I realized that I shouldn't be doing that with my new car. Washed it the other day by hosing it down first and then starting with the wheels and later with the body. My mistake was not cleaning the brush and the bucket thoroughly after finishing up the wheels. I later found some scratch marks on my car - not many but its obviously enough to to bother me since I keep looking at them whenever I walk up to the car. What should I do? The rest of the car seems fine (whew) but I have maybe 10 lines on the car that I noticed. I've ordered everything I think I need (from combing the detailing forum here) including the PC 7424. Should I spot polish the car? (Is that even possible?) Or do I need to do the entire car? BTW: As for polishing, One of my biggest disadvantages that I currently have is that I don't have a garage at ,all so my car is parked outside. I know its recommended but can polishing be done under a shaded tree or in the evening? Or will the dust around me really screw things up?

when it comes to used cars, IMO, there is no such thing. I know what you're going through because I went through the exact same thing. I found a deal in NY, it was the car I was looking for (I specifically wanted an IS250 AWD with Nav + LUXURY package - its a rare combo). Two days before the dealer was going to sell me the car, he found a local person. I was totally devastated as I thought it was a hard deal to find as I managed to negotiate it from $34500 to $32500. It also had only 8.5k miles on it. Well I then decided that I'll just wait ... combing autotrader during my free time - two weeks later, I found my car :-) and to make it sweeter, it had less 3k miles and $1000 less than I was willing to fork out. If I come across a deal - I'll let you know :-) Its a fun thing for me - I like looking for the best prices but cars are a hairy thing...

As the previously suggested - try autotrader. I managed to land a slightly used 2006 IS250 AWD (Smokey Granite Mica) with the following: 1) Nav 2) Luxury Package (Xenon, tilting Wheel, mirrors etc..) 3) 5500 miles Dealer had it priced @ 33500 - but when I showed up (Drove from Boston to Connecticut) - managed to walk out for $31500. Not the greatest deal but not too shabby either. Car was only 4 months old (from CarFax VIN) from build date. Owner wanted something nicers so ended up trading the car for a merc. Key to this is being patient - (if you have the time and want a good deal) and check autotrader.com every day. I bought the car 1 day after it was listed (called up first) because I kept checking out the pages. HOpe this helps - Good luck!

I have a question regarding this guide. I'm looking to get an IS 250 AWD - the base invoice price here starts @ $29,141.00. On all the other sites (edmunds ..etc..), the base invoice @ $30,168. Which is the correct one because its $1000 difference. THanks