(Continued from the previous message)


>4) I have a 1974 450 SL that is silver with clear coat. What is the best thing I can do to make it look Concours "wet"? (It looks great, but I don't have my Smoke Silver 300E "wet look" yet!)

Is this the original paint? After you wash it, and then rub your palm across the finish is it as smooth as glass?

Without seeing it, to make any paint look "Concours" wet, the guaranteed way to do this is by machine cleaning and machine polishing the paint. You just can't develop a "polishing effect" on hard paints like clear coats by hand.

If you feel little bumps and bonded contaminants on the finish when you rub your palm across the finish, the you need to clay the finish first. Then you could try the Meguiar's ScratchX, followed by your choice of wax and the final application of the #7 Show Car Glaze.

Try to use your cleaners, polishes and protectants using straight-line motions, rub in the direction of the length of the car or the direction of the length of the panel, which ever I longer and/or makes more sense.

( I wrote this on the web back in 1991 and explained in detail why to do this instead of circular motions, now everywhere I visit I see people recommending this procedure and now I feel like I am merely jumping on the bandwagon but I did start posting "How-To's" on the Usenet newsgroups as early as 1991 on this specific subject. Considering the world wide web didn't get into the hands of the average Joe Consumer until approximately, 1995/1996 I would have to say I had already been there and done that).


>5) How come the more coats I put on of Gold Class, the better it looks, when the Meguiar's people say layering Gold Class does nothing?

You can only push so much product into the pores of your finish. The wax on the surface is for the most part wiped off. Sure you leave a microscopic layer, but if you were to actually start "Layering" you coats of wax, pretty soon you wouldn't be applying subsequent layers on top of your cars paint, but would be instead applying new layers on top of previous layer of wax, not paint.

I don't know if this is a good idea or makes sense. You want the "paint" to look gook, not a "layer of wax". Does that make sense, after enough coats you would be in essence, waxing your wax.

It's like you are trying to duplicate what the painter, (or should I say robot), did at the factory and that is to develop a film-build of clear protection over the cover coat. Only, most waxes are not as clear as clear resin, i.e. clear paint.

I believe two thin applications of anybody's product will leave behind more protection than one thick application. The most important thing about waxing a car is "how well the surface is prepared to accept the wax".

That's not to say that if you are happy with the results your getting. then by all means continue the practice. We want you to be happy. I just want to be honest about it at the same time.


I'm not sure where you live, but I will be starting a project here at Meguiar's called…

"Meguiar's Garage"

At Meguiar's Garage, we will be doing "How-To's" on any and all types of projects. Projects like your car andwhat you would like to do with your finish and things like removing a scratch in Mom's grocery getter caused by a shopping cart when she went to the store last.

I like to buff on all kinds of strange stuff so there is no real limit to what we will and will not work on.

Stay tuned, I will update you in the future as this project progresses. Right now I am busy writing the script for a new video for Meguiar's on wet-sanding, cutting and buffing.

>P.S. This is not a daily driver...I'm talking sunny weekends and car show driving.

Thanks
Mike Klem

__________________
"Find a product you like and use it often"

Jack Anderson
Paint Instructor for PPG paints