SamNavy car detailing thread #2... my own advice.
 

Well, I didn't listen to myself and decided to give this thing the works. Although I'm not using any "professional" products except a medium cutting compound, it's all good Meguiar's stuff.

So, the goal today was just to do the hood/fenders.
1. Hosed it off a few times over about 10 minutes making sure the dirt/bugs were soaked.
2. Using the 2-bucket method and a new wool mit, washed thoroughly twice with Meguiar's Gold Class.
3. Then pulled in the garage and dried using brand new micro-weave something towell.
4. New Meguiar's Claybar and Detailer Mist.
5. Worked the cutting goop using foam applicator thoroughly, allowed to dry, wiped off.
6. Meguiar's Paint Cleaner, died wiped.
7. Meguiar's Paint Polish, dried, wiped.
8. Meguiar's Tech Wax 2.0 Liquid, dried 30 minutes, wiped.
Total Time: 1.5hrs.

Then I got curious.
1. Wiped down the drivers door with and damp cloth to get the surface dirt off. Worked in an old bottle of TurtleWax Carnuba that's probably 10 years old and wiped it off still wet. Total time: 3 minutes.

Compared hood/fenders with drivers door... NO FUCKING DIFFERENCE AT ALL in the shade or in the sun.

I kinda hate myself right now.

Pics are of my entire stash of car-care products and a gratuitous "my cars" shot.

I'd be pretty surprised if there weren't swirl marks on that door with the correct lighting. Since my car is black I can't get away doing things the easy way. A full exterior only detail easily takes me 4 hours.

You can hide an elephant against white and silver.

if i'm reading you right and you're applying cleaners and polishes and just letting them sit and dry i would expect them to do exactlty nothing. basically all those things are abrasives just like compounds, just to a lesser degree but still need to be worked into the paint. I'd have to see/feel the car to know what i'd do to it, but white is super easy.

It's white paint, a deep shine you aren't going to get.

+1
I don't think I've ever seen a white car and thought to myself "Gee whiz that's awesome paint!" It's easier to keep looking decent, but the flip side is that it's never going to drop your jaw like an immaculate black car.

I'm sure both of those vehicles have clear coats. You aren't going to polish swirls out of a clear coat by hand, not in 1.5 hours anyway. I'm not sure what you mean by "worked the cutting goop with foam applicator" but that doesn't sound to me like you used a random orbital or rotary buffer. Even with power tools it still takes time to work the polish so it does anything. For example, it takes me 1.5-2 hours for each polishing step (I use M105 then M205 with a random orbital) on the Miata, and it's a tiny car with soft single stage paint.

The reasons you don't see a huge difference are 1) it's white, and 2) whether you used all the Meguiar's stuff versus just the Turtle Wax, your description sounds to me like, in effect, you really only waxed it. Hopefully you should at least be able to feel the difference that the clay bar made.

Also, I see it in your pic so I'm gonna comment on it, Windex is a shitty excuse for a glass cleaner. Try Sparkle if you can find it in your area. That aerosol Spray Away stuff at Home Depot ain't bad either. But Windex streaks like a drunken frat boy.

It's white. I QD my black Miata after almost every event, I haven't washed my silver truck in like 8 months. Both of them make panties drop equally.

WOW! OK, well I guess I had no idea how that stuff was supposed to work. The way people talk about it makes it seem like freaking instant magic. I guess I'll just always need to own white cars or... again, pay somebody to do it.

I used to think I had a nice lloking car polishing and waxing by hand. Then I got a DA polisher. I'll never go back to doing it by hand again.

+1 on the DA. I also started waxing by hand thinking I was doing a decent job. But when I got my porter cable DA and used it with the proper cutting compounds on a black car, I was amazed at how much better it was, like night and day difference.

You'll never be able to match by hand, what a proper orbital or rotary buffer can do. Also on a white car the effects aren't as noticeable as on a dark colored car.

This is why in the future I will just pay someone once or twice a year to do a good job on the paint, and I will just wash it in between. To me it never paid off to do all of the work myself.

There are many other things I'd rather do on my Saturday than detail my cars, but I do it myself because I'm just too much of a cheapskate to pay someone else. I've accumulated probably a bit over $500 worth of supplies including the random orbital, pads, compounds & waxes, microfiber, etc but that's spread out over a period of 5-6 years since I started doing it myself. That same $500 will get you about two sessions from a good professional.