Washing car prior to detailing

[99blackSE]

Okay ive read some threads about using dawn to get off the layer of wax currently on your car so your waxing will be most effective blah blah whatever right. Ok well i was wondering if i ahve this stuff do i have to do the dawn wash?

http://www.meguiars.com/estore/product_detailpage.cfm?product=Deep-Crystal-System-Paint-Cleaner&sku=A3016&sectionID=11301

[master]

I don't do the dawn thing. Yes it removes the exsting wax but it also dries out the clearcoat a bit. I just use the Clay Bar. It's the best thing for removing all embedded particles to make a super smooth glass-like finish without stripping the clearcoat. THen just polish where there are scratches or swirlmarks and wax to your heart's content.

One piece of advice though: dry your car in a closed garage after washing and then do a dry wipe to remove any dust just before you start detailing. Otherwise you may get dust particles in your polish/wax pad and end up scratching the paint even more.

[Tommy00GT1]

Another vote here for the clay bar. My nephew is a auto detailer, and he did my car for me and the results were amazing. He showed me the crap he pulled off the paint; I couldn't believe it...
Lots of junk that was hard for the eye to detect on the paint; particularly brake dust and something called "rail dust" ( railroad tracks in the general area..)

Tommy

[slowbird]

I tried the clay bar and it didn't work so well.

I kept the surface lubricated but every so often the clay would get stuck...leaving a really bad stain on the paint that I had to buff out.

I also noticed that I seemed to get a better shine and more dirt off with using the Mothers Pre-Wax.

I don't understand what I could've been doing wrong with the Clay-bar...it's pretty straight forward.

[Subtle_Cynicism]

It is extremely straightfoward. Make sure you don't underlubricate the surface, or go farther than you sprayed.

IF you do, you'll run into the problem you described.

[slowbird]

Yeah...I had it pretty lubricated. Even still. It didn't seem to pull out much from the car. The mothers pre-wax seemed to do more.