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MG TD TF 1500 - Polishing your Pride and Joy

My TF has been semi laid up for the winter and was dusty and covered in oily finger prints. With Spring around the corner I decided to give it a good clean and polish. I had some gift vouchers as a Christmas present and decided to use them to purchase some very expensive car polish specially formulated for "Classic" cars. Also my son has recently moved into a new house and we found an unopened bottle of another brand of costly polish in his garage. After washing and drying the car I polished one side of the bonnet with one of the polishes. The first comment I would make is "what is a microfibre cloth". All I know is they cost £2 each and are "essential" for use with the classic polishes. I regularly cut up old shirts and other cotton based clothing into 12" squares and keep them in a plastic bag in the garage. A bit of a chore when cutting but a god send when you crawl from under the car drenched in brake fluid! I used a couple of these, nice and dry ones, to polish the bonnet side. The results were very disappointing, streaks and a sort of haze in the red paintwork. Use of the other Classic polish on the other bonnet flap were just as bad. However, I had purchased a bottle of Car Plan Wax Car Polish from Asda (Walmart in the US) for £1.50 some time ago to clean off some tar spots on the door of our every day car. I then redid the bonnet with this and what a difference! The shine looks about 2ft deep The so called Classic polishes were over 1000% more expensive and 1000% less effective. Is this another case of Classic equating to same product but much more expensive
J Targosz

Your car is classic but your paint probably isn't (I'm assuming you don't have the original paint). I'm no expert but I would think classic polish has some abrasives in it. Here's what I do know about polish and wax, "The difference between car wax and car polish is that car wax is a paint sealant users apply after washing and polishing their cars, and car polish is a cleaner that prepares cars for car wax..." If your car has been repainted in the last two decades or so I'd use modern polish to clean the car and modern wax to shine it.

Regards

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

Polish makes the paint shiny. Wax protects the shine.

Polish first, doing small areas at a time. Use a dual orbital tool for best results, and follow instructions carefully. You should not get hazing after using polish.
Steve Simmons

Use a good cleaner base polish. I always hand polish and wax . Not knowing how old your paint is, I would not use any power operated buffing equipment.

The paint on my 79 MGB is still original above the "belt line". About every 3-4 years I use a white polishing compound cut with water and carefully do the entire car. After, I use a liquid polish/wax (Turtle Wax) and 2 coats a soft paste wax. I usually let the second coat dry overnight and then hand rub it out with a nylon cloth.

It is surprising to see how dirt and oxidation takes place even though the car is garaged and does less than 5k miles a year.

Cheers

Gary
79 MGB


gary hansen

My car has a base coat of Mothers wax and this is what I use before every show. I have a bunch of first place trophy's and best of shows. I don't use anything else. PJ.

Paul Jennings

This is the paint. Poor photo under florescent lights.


Paul Jennings

I gave mine a quick polish up with Mothers, using elbow grease only and terry towel clothes.

On the chrome I used Quick-Glo a US product, very easy to apply and works wonders. The car has not been polished for 15 years and it is shining up very nicely.

Paint is not perfect, but as soon as the weather improves I will be driving the car, not polishing it.
P G Gilvarry

I suspect that the Classic stuff you used was wax not polish. If the surface is oxidised and scratched from washing and has not been polished for some time the wax is more likely to streak and take some effort to "rub in ". If you really want to make it shine have a look at this website.

http://www.performancemotorcare.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-car-wax-and-car-polish-and-why-it-matters/

It seems to me that wax polish is an oxymoron.

A
A R Jones

This thread was discussed between 13/02/2017 and 18/02/2017

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