Washed/Waxed, Scratches and Swirls Gone

So after almost 8 months of not washing the FJ, I decided to take care of it on the outside.  I noticed that the dealer that I bought it from fixed some deep scratches and buffed the whole FJ.  This buffing left swirl marks all over which were visible when the sun hit it.  I had a few branches fall on the sides as well, which put in some minor scratches.  I read up on detailing info. on how to fix the swirls and came across some stuff from Meguiars - Scratch X 2.0.  So I bought a bottle seeing that the instructions were fairly easy - rub until there is no more in any direction you like.  I gave it a thorough wash and then proceeded to rub the Scratch X in the areas where I could visibly see the scratches.  Then I proceeded to use it on the areas where I saw swirls.  Once I was done I put a nice coat of carnuba wax on it.  It looked 10x better than when I bought it!  All the swirls were gone and the scratches were not noticeable.

It did such a great job that I used it on the wife's silver Volvo.  She had scratches everywhere.  Even a foot long one on the hood, which is not visible now.  All the minor scratches were easily taken off.  Her's looks at least 100x better than when we bought it.

Larger scratches were on the bump out right above the rear tire.

Alarm system

So after I forgot to lock my doors and I left my iPod in the truck it was gone the next day.  I decided to buy an alarm system.  I found a great price on the factory system and had it installed a few days later at the dealership.  I read through the instructions but it was way too much work for me to install.  They had it done in about 3 hours.  They worked around all the aftermarket wiring and didn't charge me extra for it.

It was a real pain to put in all the settings I wanted.  You have to go through so many hoops to make it work that I finally had it down after the 6th time!  After all the settings were in place it worked great and I liked the motion sensor.  Now if I forget to lock my doors it passively arms.  Didn't get much of a discount on the car insurance though.