Quick intro...
 

Hello all,

My name is Ivan and I will do my best to help out on the forums for the foreseeable future. Greg the owner has been extremely busy keeping up with the growth of Detailed Image (in large thanks to this forum), but didn't want to keep the forums unattended. I'll try to revisit as many threads and messages as possible, but if I miss something I encourage anyone to either post again or send a private message with any inquiries. I am a professional detailer in the Chicagoland area and I have been working with Detailed Image on a variety of projects for well over 5 years now. You can read more about myself as well as some articles I have written over the years on my profile page of the DI Ask-a-Pro Blog. I'm very happy to be getting back into the forum world and hope to assist many of you with any questions on car detailing products or techniques.

Well anyway, enough about me, let's get back on the topic of car detailing!

Ivan @ DI

Hello Ivan, thanks for picking up the slack. I have a new 2014 GT. do you know of some type of starter kit for new cars. I don't want To put any junk on my car and I would love it to shine as best as it can.

Any help would be appreciated.

Pminri

Welcome Ivan. Glad to see more detail pros on the forum. So far the guys here have given great advice to me and others.

Idk what Ivan here (welcome btw!) would recommend but i get alot of products from autogeek.net. I ordered their "forum favorite" kit as well as the Klasse kit. The forum favorite includes one of my all time favorite waxes, pinnacle souveran. Such a buttery smooth finish and suuuuper easy to use. The klasse polish and sealant are (to me at least) some of the best on the market. The klasse high gloss sealant goes on very thin but provides an exceptionally smooth surface making maintenence cleaning a breeze and last a VERY long time. The polish really destroys swirls, micro marring, and adds a bit of slickness to it all.
I had a black 02 gt and that alone was a part time job keeping it clean and swirl free. But with proper technique, you dont really need to buy top dollar products to get great results. My advice, find an old body panel at a junk yard (usually pretty cheap), pick up some decent products at your local parts store, and try things out. Get familiar with the circular motions of your hand when applying polishes and waxes (or even straight up and down for some panels), get used to how a surface should feel while clay barring to know when its time to move to a new section. Get in the habit of knowing how much is too much and how little is too little when applying waxes and the like. If too little, youll know. If too much, it will take several passes to buff out and youll use alot more time and effort.

The most important thing is finding what works best for YOU. Form your own opinions about certain products. I know guys who swear by turtle wax products and others who think its a sin to use it.

Ivan, welcome to the site and i and our fellow mustang owners will be looking forward to your input in making/keeping our ponies looking factory new!

Thanks for the kind words all, glad to be here!

First off, congrats on the new GT! Hope you enjoy it to its fullest ability.

To briefly answer your question, there's really no RIGHT kit, starter or not, especially since there are hundreds of product on the market that are very similar in terms of performance and quality. To better answer your question, I'll need to know two things...

1. What is your experience in terms of car detailing and do you have any favorite products (currently owned or tried in the past)?

2. Do you plan on simply maintaining the car (wash, wax, protect) or do you plan on going further and doing such stuff as claying/decontamination and paint polishing?

Once I have a feel for what you're looking to do, I can put together some links to either already offered kits or something custom put together based on your needs.

To briefly touch on what CCTking said, I agree the Klasse AIO + Sealant Glaze and Pinnacle Souveran are definitely good quality products. For the longest time Klasse Sealant Glaze (KSG) was my favorite protection product, but as with anything, technology advances and products get easier to use, last longer, etc. KSG is still one of the most durable sealants on the market from my experience, but it does take a while to apply properly (I actually wrote an article on it... KSG Guide and Review). Other products these days are a bit easier to apply and still have the good 2-3+ months durability. I still use Souveran on a client's Ferrari 458 as he loves the wax, but I've slowly converted him to the new coatings and only a light spray wax every 4-6 months on his other cars.

In short, there are older products that still work really well and there are newer products that are simply improved, but you can't go wrong with either. As CCTking said, it's best to find what works for you (if you like to wax your car every month, then maybe get some nice carnauba wax, if not, then look into sealants and coatings) and stick with it. However, even then I always encourage everyone to try a new product every now and then, especially to replace something that may be lacking a bit in your arsenal.

welcome Ivan... thanks for being part the team

Alright. Good to see things finally worked out for DI to get on board here. This should be a huge help to promoting proper detailing to the site.

Such as...?

Poorboys, adams polishes, wolfgang, detailers pro. These are just some more well known brands that do wonders on paint finishes.

Check em out online

Also your preferred product may vary if you use hand application or a random orbital or dual action polisher

Will do, thanks

Collinite is a great wax that acts like a sealant. Collinite 915 was my weapon of choice on the black cars i worked on. Was a pretty hard wax and needs to be applied in a pretty thin coat in order to buff off easily. Water sheets and beads for months and months. I did a durability test and it lasted 6-7 months here in south texas before needing a new application.

I recommend searching autogeek to start. Theyve got a huge variety of everything car care related.

I can't really say carnauba waxes have "improved" per say, so I'm speaking mostly about the newer polymer waxes/sealants that have longer durability and look less stale (like some think of KSG) and more like the warm carnauba look. Blackfire Wet Diamond and Menzerna Powerlock come to mind in terms of great looks and durability. Even the Optimum Car Wax is a major improvement over older spray waxes. I have seen it last a good 1.5-2 months on an almost daily driven car, whereas you could only hope for 2-3 weeks from some older spray wax.

Car Pro's Reload spray sealant is a great step up in terms of spray-on protection, but it is a bit picky in terms of requiring a fairly clean surface before application. Then you have your coatings, like 22PLE and Opti-Coat 2.0, both of which are available to consumers and somewhat easy to apply.

Hope that clears it up a bit. I'm not putting down any of the "old timers" and still find myself reaching for Collinite, KSG, Souveran, etc. on my personal car and bike as well as some clients, but the newer products are normally easier to apply, last longer and look great, so it's hard to avoid wanting to use them more and more.

Ivan @ DI

Thanks, always looking for ways to reduce detail times while maintaining good results. (Trying out Croftgate's tire shine currently. Certainly goes on easy.) Should I be buffing on a certain schedule? Planning on buying a DA polisher soon. Garaged DD.

The way I see it, there's really no schedule for anything in detailing. Whether it's washing or thorough paint polishing and correction, it will depend on a lot of factors such as how often it's driven, how it's stored, paint type and resistance to defects (swirl marks, water spots, etc.) and of course your expectations of perfect the paint needs to be. If it's a daily driver that you don't care too much about in terms of swirl marks because you know it will see a bad car wash here and there, then I would say polishing is fine every 1.5-2+ years to simply clean up some of the deeper stuff and restore some gloss. If on the other hand it's a weekend/fun car and you want it looking great, light polishing a couple times yearly is definitely not out of the question.

Same with washing... if it gets dirty often (due to amount of driving or weather conditions) then you may need to wash even more than once a week. Clay bar decontamination will be necessary 2-4 times yearly if you have to park near a railroad in an open parking lot. I think you catch my drift :).

Generally speaking, I think following the following routine is a good starting point, but it will really depend on a lot of factors I just named and you have to decide for yourself once you see how the car progresses over time. Routine... Washing every 1-2 weeks, waxing every 2-3 months, claying every 6-12 months and polishing every 12-24 months.

Hope that helps!

Ivan @ DI

Mines a DD but i detail top to bottom once or twice a month depending on the weather which also plays a factor in the detailing "schedule" per say. Humid climates bring a good amount of morning and evening dew which can allow dirt, dust, and even bugs to settle on the car as it sits. As it all dries up it can deposit all that onto the paint which could potentially cause light marring or chemicals deposited into the clear coat. Dry climates can bring sand which can get in all sorts of places. Wind, sun, rain, all of these things can factor in for a detailing routine.
Lots of sun would need more frequent protectant layers compared to more cloudy regions. Windy could warrant the same protectionary caution as well as it could blast particles onto and across the surfaces leaving behind small scratches or "marring."

Great points! I think at the end of the day it simply comes down to how anal you want to be with the car, whether it's a 2005 Accord or a 2010 458 :).