Hi, my X300 has quite a sub-par finish right now. There is a lot of light scratches and it definitely doesn't shine as well as it could. Does anyone have any simple procedures for making it a bit better? I don't want to go through a hundred steps to get a showroom finish.

I'm thinking maybe a good clean, bit of a scrub with something to buff out minor scratches and then a wax coat?

Thanks

 

I used a clay bar on mine then ultimate compound, followed by ultimate polish. Then finally ultimate wax. All maguiars products. Looked really good afterwards. My paintwork was really dull and flat before i started. So well worth spending a couple of hours elbow grease.

 

If the clear coat is dull, there are a couple of products on the auto supply store shelf that claim to restore it. A friend tried one and it worked well. If you watched any of the "Chasing Classic Car" shows on TV, you might have seen them in use.

 

I am always using Autoglymm products for every car that needs a shine.

Wash it a couple of times with shampoo and the paint will start to shine more.

When you really want a complete care, do what Rob20087 suggests.

Do the complete car with a detailer and clay bar. The clay cleans and absorbs all the dirt from your paintwork. After the clay job you can think of polishing it.

After polishing when its not shiny yet, perhaps do a better job on the polishing or think about a re-spray.

 

thanks for the replies!

 

If you fancy spending a couple hundred $ on it:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/d...pective-56723/

 

I'm lazy and washed far too many cars as a kid, when we lived on gravel roads - mud caked all up under wheel arches, took serious cleaning.
Now I get familial grief if I 'waste time' cleaning cars for too long, so I have a 'lightning raid' approach to car washing.

1. Buy a soft broom - there are special car wash ones. Quick, and no more sore back (I am 6'3", hate bending below mid-door)
2. big bucket that the broom fits into - doesn't tip over as easily, either
3. good quality car wash. I have Autoglym and Meguair's. Autoglym smells nice... (apples)
4. bottle of Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Wax - it is fast (10 mins whole car) and works really well. I love rain beading off - looks a million bucks. And you can apply the Quik wax in the sun if you move quickly.
5. good spray-on alloy cleaner - easy.
6. Rain-Ex the windscreen quite often

I do the Quik wax when I can be bothered - every 2-3 months. It seems to last longer than traditional carnuba wax-job.

Most of the time I just do a quick wash with broom and carwash in bucket and hose it off. I don't usually chamois it off (I bought a fake synthetic chamois but it's crap, so I might buy a real one - I was trying to save goats, but stuff'em)

 

I to am lazy
I owned a detailing business in the early 80,s but technology has moved on

I bought this machine Car Care Products / Car Care Products / Detailing Kits / All Categories / RO Polisher DAS6 Kit because I got sick of manually applying the polish and removing it now I apply and polish all with this machine wish I had one of these years ago the kit came with three polishes as well

You should be able to get something similar in Canada or the States we use 240 volt AC here in Australia the machine makes light work of polishing and considering I have 4 cars and 5 motorbikes and a scooter the machine is awesome

I also just use the wax with the colour in it I get many comments on my car and its 18 years old and gets driven all over Australia even on dirt roads

the turtle brand with colour even comes with a chip-stick easy to fill paint chips while you are doing it

I do it about 3 time a year needs doing now got back from a 4 k drive a month ago and haven't washed or cleaned it waiting for it to stop raining might even do it this weekend if the weather holds LOL

 

I only use that Turtle wax product for the stick, not for the wax.

The wax is really a useless product! Sorry Doc, but don't mess up your car with Turtle wax.

 

Hi Maraud good to hear from you

There are differing opinions on the turtle product

I only use the chip-stick that came with the turtle colour polish when I looked in the shed its actually T-cut colour polish T-Cut - T-Cut Color Fast I have been using
I also have a blue Kawasaki motorcycle I use it on as well I have a blue bottle of it and a black for the Jeep

After owning a detailing business in the early 80,s
I am still pretty good a cleaning cars and bikes of course there are better products out there but if you are trying to keep an 18 year old car that gets used looking reasonably good with little effort the T-Cut is pretty good I wouldn't use it on a new car or a car that's had an easy life but for paint that's old and neglected its pretty good

I originally would use the T-cut colour fast then put a coat of nu finish Nu Finish Car Care | Nu Finish over the top but I am to lazy for that now as I get older

I also have a black Jeep Grand Cherokee for the wife and have had a few black motorcycles

When I use the normal polishes no matter how much they cost and what brand the black cars and bikes always had what looked like spiders webs on them when you looked at them in the sun at certain angles

The colour polish is the only one that gets rid of these reflections makes the Black Jeep look respectable again only did it a couple months ago needs doing again the problem with black cars they always look dirty so quickly!

I drive and ride all my vehicles all over Australia sometimes on bad roads well actually most of our roads are rubbish we only really have a couple decent highways in Australia the rest are goat tracks hard to believe but true

They might be big but they are rubbish its nothing for me to do a thousand k,s in a week

Just yesterday I had to pull back from being behind a dump truck as he was dropping rocks and dirt all over me that's on a major highway

 

So Doc, what should I do?
I am happy with my paint. In certain angles in direct sun it appears scratched and I assume there is a clear coat with miriad scratches - it looks good most of the time however. I am not **** about paint, but not quite in the Alan Clarke school of cosmetic neglect..

Is it possible to polish out these thousands of fine scratches easily?

 

Al the reality is any polish is better than none
I have lots of half bottles at home so am going to from now use them all up and start from scratch
I just happen to have a litre of the blue T-cut colour restorer and am pretty happy with it my car is probably worse of than yours

It lives under a car port at the back of my house gets the western sun all afternoon and I live a kilometre from the northern pacific ocean on a hill facing the ocean not good climate for cars everything rusts here finally got my first spot of rust under the back window rubber smother it with lanolin spray that will hold the rust at bay

Been thinking of updating to an XF diesel or 03 onwards XJR but don't like the thought of V8 engine the price of registration and fuel consumption and I love big sixes they are the best of both worlds LOL

 

My car have a good service history, but the paint is still 18 years old. A few days ago I spent half a day washing and clay bar'ing, before I applied Auto Glym Super Resin Polish and Auto Glym Extra Gloss Protection. Now I have very dark, shiny and smooth scratches

Yes, it did polish up nicely, but all the scrathes are still there. Perhaps a more abrasive polish would help, but I think machine polishing is the only thing that will really make a paint job this old look nice.

 

Everyone has their favourite wax, but I've found that Collinite (476s IIRC) lasts aaaages. I need to sort out my rusty front wings before I worry too much about that sort of thing on my X300 though. Once I've done that, I'll have to find time to set at it with the clay bar, machine polisher etc... but the chances of me finding a spare day are slim!

 

I have never removed a good scratch before without using a machine polisher.

Just rubbing with some cloth is not enough and easily gives you swirls.

Nothing wrong with the product you use btw.

 

I hope this helps as I did this:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...56/#post773723

 

I'll need to dig around the garage, but I bought a polish for my wife's black SUV to fill some scratches.

in 2008, she took the kids and the puppy to the school bus stop. While parked with the kids outside the car, and the puppy's front paws hanging out of the driver's door window, the puppy really scratched up the paint when the kids left on the school bus.

Once the polish arrived, I washed twice with dish wash liquid (Dawn), clay barred the door, used this polish by hand (five coats, I believe), then used a Meguiar's final polish and the scratches are still invisible, this many years later.

 

I would suggest using a multi-speed orbital with an abrasive wax to float the paint a little bit, but you have to be carefull not to burn the paint.

 

That's why I didn't use a machine, I've burned paint before, now I'm gun shy...LOL

However, I'm assuming all the scratches were only in the clear coat. They were deep enough to feel with your fingers.

 

Found it!! I used Zaino

• Z5 for dark colors
  
• ZFX to allow multiple applications in one day