Thanks! I can't even begin to explain all the cars we had come in where people ( even dealerships!) had tried their own hand at a wax job and let me just say, 95% of the time it was horrible, leftover wax everywhere, wax that was forgotten to be wiped off that had hardened and had to be scraped off. Wax in the door cracks, emblems, just disgusting.
Ill explain the process that we did, hopefully it will help some guys out!
Now being that i worked at a detail center/car wash, we had very high pressure water, the best chemicals for removing brake dust, tar, grease, tree dirt, tree sap, etc during JUST the wash process. My boss didn't mess around.
Step 1. Wash car as good as you can ( obviously )
Step 2. Before any towels even came close to the car, we used a clay bar for best results. This removed any road grime, tar, excess stuck on dirt, just stuff that you could not get off in the wash process. If you have never used one, BUY ONE!!!! you will not be dissapointed at all. Just make sure you keep the car wet, you don't want to be leaving streaks of clay all over your car.
Step 3. Towel dry, easy enough.
Step 4. We would let the car sit and drip dry in the spots the towels could not get ( door handles, emblems, mirrors, stuff like that) Good time for you to do a quick inside detail to the car, or sit back and have a cold one.
Step 5. Once that was pretty much dry, we would use a tar solvent on the bottom half of the car ( or any obvious spots) to remove the pesky chunks and small dots of road tar, grease, brake dust, stuff harder to see while your washing, but easy to see up close. This usually happens in the wheel well lips, bottoms of the doors/rockers, behind the rear tire, and what you wouldn't expect...the whole rear end of the car! Weird i know...
Step 6. Wax away! We would start on whatever side you want, on the front fender and half the hood. What some people might not know is, you dont have to wipe it off right away, but don't let it sit for ever either. Then we would continue to to the whole front bumper, etc etc, you get the idea. But wipe off each panel before you move onto the next one, ( that just how i always did it)
Step 7. Check over for any excess wax
Step 8. Take a cruise through town and make everyone's jaw drop!
Now i'm not telling people to do it my way whatsoever. Just throwing out some ideas I have learned over the past that worked out great with rarely any complaints.
Enjoy!!!