...this week. washing, then, mothers claybar, then re wash, then meguiars goldclass. ill be using the foam meguiars pad to apply the polish. i have soft white no name towells i bought at autozone that seem very soft and have been used and washed once. i need tips to get good results and i have never clayed before. also are there tricks to waxing? i basically just use mild pressure and go in small circles up and down the panels. i need help to get my car looking good with what im using. also will my swirlmarks go away with clay?

 

Instead of going in circles, I have always gone back and forth working in the direction of the wind (front to back.) I also use a MF towel (small size) wraped around a foam pad. Seems to work great and I bunch up so the MF towel forms a type of handle in the back.

 

No clay will not remove swirls. Clay is for cleaning the paint and removing surface contaminants. Most consumer grade clays have no abrasive material that would remove swirls, nor does it have anything that would simply cover them up. The Gold Class won't do much for the swirls either. It may hide them temporarily, but after a rain shower or a couple of washings they'll reappear like clockwork. If you have a swirl problem, you need to use a swirl remover like 3M 39009 or Meguiar's #9 first, then apply the GC wax.

With those towels though, you are basically shooting yourself in the foot, if you use a swirl remover. Those types of towels will cause more swirls and marring in the paint. Kinda pointless to use a swirl remover first and then use tools that induce more swirls.....so that's up to you. You need high quality toweling, at the least, to remain swirl free.

You can apply the GC wax either in circular motions or straight line motions. Circular motions generally ensure that you have complete coverage on the surface and help buff in the cleaners in the GC wax. Straight line motions work good for nonabrasive products since there are no cleaners or abrasives to break down.

And the biggest downfall is that the car will look good for a very short time with the GC wax since it has arguably the poorest durability of all of Meguiar's products.

HTH!