I have a 1 year old RX, it has only been hand washed and been spray waxed with fake ceramic spray from meguiers. Now I have purchased real Ceramic Coating, I plan on washing it with the chemical guys clean slate to take off any wax, then clay it. Now my question comes in regards to after the claying. Do I need to polish it at all prior to applying the ceramic coating? If I do polish it wouldn't I have to again strip it prior to applying the ceramic coating?

 

General steps are:
wash
clay
wash
paint correction
wash
ceramic coat

You can skip steps if you want but the end result won't be as good. I personally won't ceramic coat without doing paint correction first.

 

Thanks, the paint isn't that bad at all, I will after the clay take some polish to anything I will see then wash and use decon spray prior to applying ceramic. When I first got it either dealer or the factory had buffed some marks it seems, made round swirls. Which I had polished out and that has stayed for the year. I think It was factory as dealer got the car day prior I picked it up and doubt they would have used buffer. It looked as there was over spray and they factory just spun it out but never buffed it back out, it was exact circle on door and hood.

 

No wash or soap or other detailing chemical for that matter will "strip wax" or other sealants. They can weaken or damage the bonds, but not strip it completely. You'd be layering ceramic coating on top of wax and not optimal.

You absolutely want to perform both a chemical and mechanical decontamination before applying any sealant. Chemical decon includes both water spot remover & iron remover. Mechanical includes clay or clay towel (really synthetic polymer towel) Both of these are absolutely critical for best results. If you have wax or other sealant, you absolutely need to polish for best results for the new coating to bond.

Polishing is not necessary for coating to bond, but clean bare paint is, but you may want to polish for best results appearance wise as well as to truly strip any wax or sealants.

This is master-level guidance. I'm in a high end detailing group and this exact advice is the same advice given & taught in said circles, including by one of the founding fathers of detailing science, if not *the* ff.

It's a myth & a con that you can strip wax or other sealants with soaps or other chemicals. so much misinformation and regurgitated old wives tales out there. you can do it and try it without polishing, but if you want best chemical bonding & cross linking, you'll want to polish.

If you want to get into the extreme nuances of polishing, da vs rotary, we can as well. A TON of misinformation that as well.

i did some thorough testing recently on some of these old wives tales. it's incredible & crazy. put it this way, nothing but a rotary is ever touching my paint, especially for extreme extreme gloss. i'm tossing my DA in the garbage.



i go for pure fact, pure science for detailing stuff.

 

I appreciate the feedback, here my question. Okay have done all stripping etc, and have done full polishing. Now what do I do about the polish afterwards, do I need to re strip it or just doing decon spray is enough?

 

Wash the car again then ideally wipe down with 70% IPA. The goal is to have the paint as "virgin" as possible nothing on it. Don't use a higher concentration isopropyl alcohol this can actually damage some types of paint.

 

I'd polish the car if it has light scratches or swirl marks, or if the paint looks a bit dull. Polishing can help smooth out imperfections and bring back the shine. But if the paint already looks great, then I wouldn't bother with it.

 

Would you approach be any different for a new Lexus - less than a month old? The car has not been coated with anything by me; not sure what the factory does; don't believe the dealer did anything other than wash before I picked it up. I have rinsed the car - just to remove pollen; no real detergent used. I guess my question concerns harm I might do to a new paint job with the decons, clay and polishing..

 

Here is my experience, I am not by any means a professional detailer. However I always clean my cars by hand, always wax and use quick detailers frequently. When I saw meguiars came out with professional M888 ceramic coating, that based on there videos and others on you tube tested really good and was very user friendly for non professional I gave it shot. My truck is year only, but I live in NY and even with ceramic spray prior applied, it still would need to be reapplied almost every wash for the bottom door panels.

My steps were following, again my paint was well maintained never machine washed and always spray ceramic on it and little to no light scratches.
1) Wash it with Chemical Guys Clean Slate - Strip that prior ceramic spray / Did this twice as on hood and roof it took a lot to get it off
2)Clayed whole truck it with Chemical Guys Pad / Spray Clay Lube - This removed the only real rough spots I had which were at the bottom of the door.
3)Polished hood as it big piece with meguiars, since this was by hand it was very hard and really so no results. Again keep in mind this truck paint is in very good condition, after hood I check and really nothing else needed it as it was extremely glossy no real scratches or swirls.
4)Then use spray from Chemical Guys Wipe out, did the hood extra time as that is where there was polish on and then did entire truck to get as much off
5)Applied meguiars M888, it went on very easy it's thick so you can see where you applied I did one section at time and then it simply wipes off very easy. Repeated as they said 2 second coat is optional and the only purpose is if you miss spot, but you only have 2 hours so figured why not sure it possible I missed spot. Completed let sit over night
6)Next day I polished the Rims as those definitely needed that, then applied coating again 2 coats as those are rough spots for heat.
7)Applied to all black plastic trim parts and went over headlights and taillights again.
End results is it looks very glossy, and extremely slick. It may be in my head, but it seems the longer time it cured it got more shiny, Again can be in my head. The test will be see how holds up comes winter and first washers how it looks afterwards.

Based on your car, I would do the following, again I wouldn't touch rotary or DA as I be worried about damage unless you have experience with one.
1) Wash it Chemical Guys Clean Slate or any iron removal type wash
2) Run your fingers on the paint, I would assume with just transport you will have rough spots
3)Clay it with a good high quality clay with lost of spray, to remove those spots and you may want do entire car as coming from factory sure there stuff still on it.
4) Rewash
5)Inspect if paint is no longer rough and it looks glossy I go with apply the coating
6)There is really no need to polish if it brand new and you gotten out containments with the clay already - Polish is to remove slight level of clear to get scratches and swirls out
7)Apply coating - Check out M888, what great about it is you can't mess it it up as your see in there video they let it dry for 30 mins and still able to wipe off, in fact my 2 days old and I saw spot and it came right off.

Decons will do nothing to the paint or clear coat it will just remove the wax or sealant if any on the car, carwashes use much more higher level of decons when you go to them that why best to avoid. Think of it just high level PH soap that is all.
In regards to clay bar, just use a lot lube, at times you can cause light scratch if not enough but you need it for new car to remove those factory and rail dust if it was rail or truck. That is where polish would take those away if you see anything after claying which unless you go really hard you shouldn't see it.

 

John89 - thanks for the quick and thoughtful response. I've got the stuff (went with Chemical Guys) to do as you and others above have suggested. I guess I was having second thoughts and wanted confirmation. I have a second car, a '23, and I think I may try the Meguiars for it.

 

What I like about Mequiars, is that its user friendly as even 3 days later if I see spot I missed it simply wipes off. Where maybe another coating wouldn't be so simple to get it off without compound.
I am very much interested to see how it holds up in winter and if it any different then spray on hybrid ceramics I have used in the past.

 

I did want add update, I had the car on road trip it was covered in bugs. Got back and just with hose no pressure washer, all the bugs just slid all off and they were on the car for almost week outdoors. I had also put on my windshield, and they as well just slid right off zero residue.

I know it only been a few weeks, but it does make things whole lot easier. Only frustrating thing is when you use soap it just slides off the panels, so it is very hard to rub it with the mitt as it already slides off. I guess that point not starch it.