I personally used Natural Shine before, gives a natural look, not too glossy, so I would recommend that for dashboard and interior door panels.

But for leather areas like seats, I prefer to recommend Gold Class™ Rich Leather Cleaner & Conditioner

Generally white cars will look dirty faster than other colours, and depending on the brand of car u buy, there is a possibility of the white paint turning yellow-ish over time. However, advantage of white car is most of the time u wont be able to notice any swirls or fine scratches on the paint unless shine under specific type of lighting.

Grey cars dont look as dirty so fast, but generally grey cars wont significantly stand out compared to other colours even if after polishing and waxing/coating.

With proper maintain coating/wax maybe it wont turn yellow, or at least not so quickly. Maybe polishing 1 time a year helps to bring back the whiteness also.

What I notice is European cars have a much better quality white paint and clearcoat, least likely to turn yellow.

Grey car scratches wise maybe more obvious, depending on the tone of grey (whether dark grey or light grey). In general, white cars easiest to see dirty but hardest to see swirl or fine scratches, black car hard to see dirty but easiest to see swirl or fine scratches. So it generally applies to grey the same way.

What u can do is check out the car colour u want in open air and also underground carparks, or even at the service center of the car brand u want to buy. See if u are comfortable with the colour and scratch visibility. Thats what I usually do to assess car paint condition for fun. Hehehe

I think it really depends on what is your results after compounding. If after compounding your car shine is back with no holograms or swirls, then it is probably okay to wax after that. If u are a generally careful car washer, then actually u may not need to compound also, just polish and wax will do just fine as u remove less clear coat that way.

More importantly, please clay before compounding/polishing. There is alot of stubborn dirt that wont get removed from just washing alone, so claying is a very important preparation step before compounding/polishing.

The stubborn dirt can appear due to many reasons, especially if dirty water dry on your bonnet and the heat from the engine and sun bakes the dirt into the paint. Rather than compounding/polishing such stains off, I believe claying or wax cleaner should also do just fine.

Great sharing session! Pleasure to meet u bro!


May I ask how u currently do your compounding? By hand or rotary?

From my experience, wax durability is up to the wax itself. I always prefer to apply 2 thin coats of wax compared to 1 thick coat, because the excess from thick coat just dries up and gets wiped off, so doesnt help to protect the car and is wasted.

Yes, generally always try the least aggressive method first, which in this case can be wax cleaner. If wax cleaner cant remove then move on to polish, if polish cant remove move on to compound, if compound cant remove move on to wet sanding.

Correct, apply 1st layer, cure, buff off, then apply 2nd layer, cure, buff off. This method takes more time and effort, but results are much more even layers of wax and less buffing off effort. Durability also lasts abit longer.

I have used Skill 9082 before, its good especially using small pads for tight spaces and also glass polishing, but abit harder to work with on other general body panels.

I have tested the Bosch GPO12CE before, its lighter in weight compared to other standard rotary polishers, but personally find it abit noisy.

Try claying, that is usually a good place to start.

Try reading back the last 3-4 pages of this thread. There was a discussion on this white vs grey topic just recently.

IMHO, no, u dont need to get 2 sets of polishing/wax products for 2 different cars.

If u do have interest to compound/polish, I would strongly suggest getting machines to ease your task abit. Perhaps it is best to clay and wax first, see if u still have interest/stamina to do more beyond that.

Agreed. The so-called 3M claybars are really rubbish. I tried them before also, performance far worse than clay cloths. Locally consumer level either go for PG or Meguiars or Osren.

While I cant really tell the problem based on the photo, I have a few suggestions of processes to take:

1) Try to strip all protection from the problem area with diluted IPA
2) Clay again the problem area, use plastic bag wear on hand to feel and make sure its smooth as butter
3) Clean again with diluted IPA after claying
4) If problem area still shows, try hand polishing the problem area with any basic polish and hand pad (or compound if polish doesnt work)

As the problem looks very surface level and affecting the clearcoat, I suspect it should clear off after polishing/compounding at worst case. Then apply again your sealant/wax of choice and see if the streaks come back after the protection dries.

Try AEON or AEON Big.

Minyak tanah is abit harsh for paint. Perhaps next time u could try diluted IPA (rubbing alcohol), should work just fine. Alternatively is to clay the affected area, should also work.

Erm, is that on your window? Can take a clearer picture?

If that is your window then your window is having water streaks, which is a more severe form of water spots. U can try to polish it off but I would not suggest autosol as that was made for metals like brass.

Please avoid from using acid to clean the window, especially the front and back windows, as from my knowledge that will ruin the window and wipers wont be able to work.

Refer to your coating dealer recommendation, but usually the answer is no.

Isnt Meguiars D300 a system with pads as well?

Just my 2 sen experience, both of u are correct in some way about coating. I have bought Camui coating to apply on my car before. It is a 2 layer coating with basecoat (which is hydrophilic) and topcoat (which is hydrophobic). Once both layers are applied, regular washing maintenance is much easier, that much is true.

However, the topcoat durability isnt as long as the basecoat based on manufacturer's instructions, thus require topup/maintenance every 6 months. In terms of scratches, it is also true that if u get scratches that are deep, u will need to re-polish and reapply the coating. However I have read some forums before that finer scratches usually are on the coating instead of the actual paint itself, so much easier to buff off without reducing paint thickness.

In terms of stone chips, that depends on coating quality, hardness and thickness. My car with Camui coating had very few stone chips after over 1 year of application. However, due to the properties of coating that technically turns into a thin layer of glass, I have heard some coating may have very obvious stone chip marks even for the smallest chips.

Never used PG's quick detailer before, but personally I clay with Meguiars Quik Detailer or Last Touch (diluted) on dry surfaces, but work on half panel at a time and wipe off residue before it dries. Maybe try diluting your PG quick detailer 1:1 ratio and see if it still have wiping off issue.


Yes, big difference if u are comparing against those china-mari no brand types are untested by local distributors. There are numerous potential issues I had encountered before buying those cheap pads, such as the pad density/firmness is the same regardless of their description (say one for compounding and the other for polishing, but both too soft to do anything), pad size not compatible with backing plates (cutting too small end up too close to edge of backing plate), some pads doesnt absorb the polish properly end up everything sandwich on the pad surface, etc.

I personally would recommend to at minimum buy pads from local distributors that got do their own testing of pads before selling, or like Osren that have done all the testing and custom manufacturing of their own pads. At least if the pad has some issues u can refer back to these guys for replacement.

I personally think investing in good pads for home detailers can last very very long because u wont be polishing daily/weekly. I use to have a set of Lake Country CCS pads that lasted me 5-7 years when home detailing. In shop detailing those pads only lasted 2-3 months, hehehe...

For water marks/spots on paint, try polishing with any car polishing cream. If that doesnt remove the spot, then try compounding.

For water marks/spots on window/windshield, polish using glass polish.

Yes, clay bars and clay cloths can be reused over and over again. However, the best practice is to throw away clay bars that dropped on the floor and picked up dirt from the floor.