How to prepare the vehicle’s paint before applying Meguiar’s Cleaner Wax
For best results with Meguiar’s Cleaner Wax Paste, start with a freshly washed vehicle. Always use a pH balanced car wash soap like Meguiar’s Gold Class Car Wash Shampoo & Conditioner. Next, run your clean, dry fingertips over the paint. If the paint feels rough to the touch this indicates that you have bonded contaminants on top of your paint. These are things like tree sap mist, industrial fallout, road tar, and paint overspray. Meguiar’s Smooth Surface Clay Kit comes with everything you need to safely remove contaminants bonded on the paint and leave it as smooth as glass. Next, evaluate the paint for below surface defects. If you have moderate swirls, scratches, oxidation, water spots, etchings, or other below surface defects that the Cleaner Wax can’t remove, you would want to use a product like Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound first.