Part of my new vehicle acquisition, despite dealer prep, is to wash and then polish.
Dealer Prep can be hit or miss and even the [rare] best efforts still leave some to be desired. Especially for an anal detail oriented guy like me. 🤷♂️ Not the least of which, they never seem to address the latent suction cup marks used to lift/position the windshield at the factory.
These days I use a random-orbital machine (Griot's Garage that I got almost when first available, but Porter Cable also excellent) with a dedicated polish pad. I use either Griot's Garage "Complete Polish" or Zaino's All-in-One (cleaner, polish, protectant), the latter in this case. Although there is a protectant component I'll follow up with their Z-2 polish as recommended and I'll just use the Z-2 going forward.
The current Germanic paint jobs are even better than they were say a dozen years ago and those were already quite good. There's almost no "orange peel" in the clear coat which is amazing for mass produced vehicles. But I like to polish anyway.
I also used Griot's glass polish and that too took care of business. I follow the "first do no harm" principle to "paint correction" and glass care in that I use mild products and only advance to more aggressive if necessary in measured steps. Case in point, if the glass cleaning & polish hadn't been sufficient I would have then used 0000 (4-ought; 4/0) steel wool with a light touch. I followed this up with their glass sealant.
The dealer got a little over zealous with their tire shine product application and therefore some "sling" so had to address that as well on the lower valence matte panels and a little on a couple rim faces.
I passed on the dealer-installed Ceramic coating, although I have no doubt that this is a very viable technology. But I had products on hand to use up, and time to do it, and somewhat therapeutic activity.
So, what do others like to do when they get their new baby home?
ps: I told myself I would revert to a more "Jeep mentality" with the ID.4 and thereby less care of this type, but .... not yet, not yet.
Dealer Prep can be hit or miss and even the [rare] best efforts still leave some to be desired. Especially for an anal detail oriented guy like me. 🤷♂️ Not the least of which, they never seem to address the latent suction cup marks used to lift/position the windshield at the factory.
These days I use a random-orbital machine (Griot's Garage that I got almost when first available, but Porter Cable also excellent) with a dedicated polish pad. I use either Griot's Garage "Complete Polish" or Zaino's All-in-One (cleaner, polish, protectant), the latter in this case. Although there is a protectant component I'll follow up with their Z-2 polish as recommended and I'll just use the Z-2 going forward.
The current Germanic paint jobs are even better than they were say a dozen years ago and those were already quite good. There's almost no "orange peel" in the clear coat which is amazing for mass produced vehicles. But I like to polish anyway.
I also used Griot's glass polish and that too took care of business. I follow the "first do no harm" principle to "paint correction" and glass care in that I use mild products and only advance to more aggressive if necessary in measured steps. Case in point, if the glass cleaning & polish hadn't been sufficient I would have then used 0000 (4-ought; 4/0) steel wool with a light touch. I followed this up with their glass sealant.
The dealer got a little over zealous with their tire shine product application and therefore some "sling" so had to address that as well on the lower valence matte panels and a little on a couple rim faces.
I passed on the dealer-installed Ceramic coating, although I have no doubt that this is a very viable technology. But I had products on hand to use up, and time to do it, and somewhat therapeutic activity.
So, what do others like to do when they get their new baby home?
ps: I told myself I would revert to a more "Jeep mentality" with the ID.4 and thereby less care of this type, but .... not yet, not yet.
