Hi :wave:
Ok.. the "life coach for idiots" thing is a bit of fun and more a depiction of my view of the 'life coach' philosophy, not an indication of my reason for being here. I should really put an asterisk next to it or something for a disclaimer it seems...
The reason I posted what I did was not to be a smart arse or "rant off on a tangent" - it was to hopefully stop someone being disappointed when a product doesn't live up to the hype of its marketing - by offering a reason as to why it won't. If you look at the Magic Mother's 3 Step Programme For Automotive Greatness, as optioned by the good doctor, which consists of a chemical paint cleanser (step 1), a glaze (step 2) and carnauba wax (step 3). There's nothing wrong with it - if the paint on your car is in good condition. If the paint is crap, it will still be crap after going through those three steps. The cleaner has no cut, and is quite light - so will only remove very minor oxidation and water marks and have zero correction (swirl, marring, haze removal). It will however, remove old wax, various contaminants that should have really already been removed by a claying step which, incidentally, should be the first step after washing of the magic mother's ... whatever. The glaze, will gloss the paint up nicely, it will help to fill in or hide some minor imperfections - for at least a couple of washes - and that's about it until the fillers wash out. The third step, the carnauba wax, will help to seal in the fillers for a bit longer than 5 minutes and protect the paint from further damage - for maybe a month - ish. I am not putting the kit down - it does exactly what it is designed to do - which is a short term improvement - the same with basically everything marketed through places like repco, autobarn, etc. But if you're trying to revive a neglected finish, this is not the product range for you. To achieve real correction and long lasting results, you need to look towards products designed for this purpose - there is no miracle cure, as with everything else, you get out of it what you put in. Some products are easier to use than others. Some work better with some paint systems than others. However some of these products are quite aggressive - so care should be taken not to do more harm than good - there are techniques and methods for all processes - the biggest thing being a touch of common sense.
We're very lucky on this forum to have Car Care Products as a sponsor, as they are one of the few Australian companies who import and offer genuinely good car care gear. There are others - but given that CCP are sponsors, I will only mention them and their product lines here. It's worth having a look through their lines, reading the descriptions and the write ups done by CCP beneath each product - you will find it very informative - if your goal is to get the most out of your car's paint. Have a read through their section of this forum too, as there is an immense amount of info there.
I'm not trying to put anyone off the idea of caring for their car by writing this - far from it - it isn't very hard to maintain a car in reasonable condition (and it doesn't have to cost the earth or consume all the hours in your life) - but a little knowledge and understanding can go a long way. So to reiterate, it's not so much the products that are important but the prep and processes that will make the difference.
I could keep going - but would only be touching on the info that is in the CCP section of the forum - so just have a flick through that if you're interested. If not, you probably haven't got this far anyway. :rofl2:
I should point out, too, that I am in no way affiliated with CCP. I buy some of my gear from them and that is as far as it goes.
All the best.