Ok this is the first darker colored car that I have owned in 10 years. Hell even swore I wouldnt do it again after owning black. But the Deep Impact Blue was too heavenly to walk away from. So...

Oh my fig newton is this thing a pain in the bumper, I get swirl marks, water marks, and the stupid micro fiber towel leaves well fibers or something all over it everytime i try to use a detailer.

So easy and simple what do you guys use for rags and car products I need to retool my inventory.

 

I use a good mitt to wash first and foremost. Meguiar's makes a nice microfiber mitt. I don't use the two bucket method unless something is absolutely filthy. I just don't let the mitt sink to the bottom of the bucket. I use Meg's Gold car wash as well, but most will do the job. I save the bottom panels for last since it is usually the place where you will find large bits that will get stuck in the mitt. And I always use a completely different mitt for rims.

To dry I first use an electric blower the get the majority of the water off the car and out of the crevices where it will eventually run out of. I finish drying with a clean, 100% cotton towel. I've used a lot of things over the years, but these seem to do the best job for me. I bought a whole bunch of Fieldcrest Royal Velvet towels 10+ years ago before they quit making them here in the US and still use those. If I were shopping for some now I would probably look into white Supima, Made in USA, cotton towels. Import towels tend to be hit and miss. Microfibers are really hit and miss. I always wash my towels after use and use no fabric softener. Throw white vinegar in the rinse cycle.

I never use a quick detailer product unless the car just has a very few pieces of dust on it. I use the same towels for that and turn them frequently. If it's coated in dust I'd leave it dirty before wiping it down like like that.

Edit: On the towels, I won't recommend any particular store-bought towels without testing. Zymol used to make some nice ones. They might still. LAZAINO.com sells some too.

 

First rule of thumb with a dark colored car. Wax it in the shade. Second rule of thumb is put the wax on in a circular motion but then remove the wax in straight motions only, forward and backward, front to back.

That is the key to no swirls on a dark colored car. Do not take the wax off in circular motions. That is a no no. :-)

 

Oh no.... A detailing question...

Must...

Resist....

Urge....

To....

Respond.....


Giving in..... Arrrrrgh

 

Oh come on, I need all the help I can get here fellas

I take any and all advice, be as specific as you want.

 

Good advice!

 

every time i buy a new bag of microfiber cloths I rip the tags off and wash them asap. It gets the excess fibers out instead of leaving them clinging all over your car.
I also use a very plush terry towel dragged across the car after washing to get the majority of water off, then microfiber dry it, then a quick detailer like mcguires.

 

Do what I did...trade in the dark color for silver....my stress dropped immediately. ...

 

You want this.

 

Those intrigue me beyond words, but im scared to crap of using one. And doing some seriuos damage. Anyone live near by wanna hold a class?

 

It would be really hard to do any damage with a PC. About the only risk is dropping it on the car. There's a video somewhere of a detailer sitting in one place with a cutting pad and aggressive compound and not hurting a thing. That said, I have one and hardly ever use it.

 

Adams Polish site
watch their videos

 

I absolutely agree with this. Great information there. After getting my 2014 I have entirely revised my detailing routine. It starts with the wash. Actually, early today I sent my brother an email on this exact topic. I had given him a set of products to get him to adopt what I was doing. Here's a snippet of it:

Basically, I got him the Microfiber Madness Wash mitt, a microfiber waffle weave drying towel, two grit guards and some Optimum car wash.

As recommended, testing towels is important. When I read about this people recommended the "CD" test. If, like me, you have no idea what that is it is literally a "CD test". Use the towel on a CD and see if it scratches it.

 

I have the adams stuff and a polisher. Don't be afraid of them, just don't get polishes on the black plastic bits. I remember even the thought of clay baring my car terrified me (well it still does, but only the effort).

I really do a good cut polish, conditioner and then sealant every season. Then every weekend i use the mcguires quick detailer to lightly spruce it up. Only takes about 10 minutes to do that stuff to the car.

 

I have too many (see sig) to not have one, it's impossible to keep them all looking decent without it.

 

Your sig is not showing up for me for some reason.

 

1) Wash car in the shade (never direct sun!) with two bucket method (two 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot) and have a grit guard in each. Wash from the top down, and I personally use three microfiber sponges - one for most of the body, one for lower body, and another one dedicated for wheels. If you have a foam cannon to presoak, even better. I should say there are times when the car is too dirty IMO to even think of dragging a sponge across the paint, even after a foam presoak; in these instances I do go to a gentle touchless automatic wash immediately beforehand to get the car clean enough to hand wash. The car should be pretty clean before you even handwash it IMO, so consider the touchless wash a necessary evil at times.

2) Use a handheld blower to dry the car. If you don't have that, use microfiber towels (a lot of people like waffle weave microfiber towels) to dry. The less you touch your paint, the less damage you can do. I'll dry the entire car with the blow dryer, except for the door jambs I'll use towels on.

3) Clay the car if necessary (and generally I use two kinds of soap, one for maintenance washes that is safe for wax, and one for stripping all wax off when I want to clay/polish). Generally you should not need to clay that often if you keep the car full of wax/sealant, etc. I've never clayed an entire vehicle, only spot clayed where necessary (again don't touch the paint any more than you have to).

4) Polish if necessary, and absolutely as infrequently as possible. Clearcoat is a non-renewable resource, so every time you polish you remove a few microns of clear you won't get back so you really don't want to do this any more than absolutely necessary. A Porter Cable or other dual action polisher will not do damage to your paint - they are designed to bog down if too much pressure is applied (and it doesn't take much to bog down a PC) and the dual action motion prevents burning the paint due to heat. A rotary is a different story, and can do a lot of damage in the hands of the kid at the dealership who preps your car (...). Any holograms/swirls you've seen came from a rotary in the hands of someone inexperienced, NOT a dual action polisher...they are perfectly safe for beginners. I got 90% correction on a 15 year old black Mustang my first time ever using it, and that was on speed 6 with an orange cutting pad, medium cutting polish and a pretty good amount of downward pressure. Car didn't have any holograms when I was done, it looked great. If you do need to polish, use 3M blue painter's tape to tape off all the trim, headlights, taillights, etc. Start with the finest polish/pad you can and see if that corrects the paint. If not, then go to the next heavier polish and/or pad. Again, the idea is to remove the minimum amount of clear necessary to correct, so start light and go heavier if needed. If you need a cutting polish, there's a good chance you will need to finish down with a light finishing polish/pad.

PROTIP: The best thing you can do for yourself as a detailer is get yourself a $30, 1000W halogen flood lamp from Home Depot. You absolutely should not be polishing without proper lighting, and one of these will show you *everything* so you'll know when the paint is corrected. I also cringe when I see body shops (and even detailing supply companies holding classes) polishing either out in the sun or just under the crappy shop lights. One body shop I had my wife's car at used a sun lamp, what a joke when I got it home and put it under my halogens. Sadly, I didn't even need to put it under the halogens to know they didn't know how to use a rotary, I could tell under dark parking lot lights.

5) Once polishing is done, you can glaze the car (optional). I like to use an acrylic glaze that is designed to go on clean paint, but underneath an acrylic sealant. Some glazes have lots of fillers to fill in swirls (old bodyshop trick to hide their garbage rotary finishing work...) and other do not. Some glazes are purely to jewel the paint and add depth. Some people will argue if you achieved 100% paint correction, you should not need any glaze with fillers, and that would be correct. Personally I like glaze for the extra depth it gives. If you have very very light swirling, I think you're better off sealing in a good glaze with fillers than you are polishing; again if you can buy time with glaze to avoid polishing until it's really necessary, do so. Glaze can be hand or machine applied, but usually needs to be worked in until dry, so a Porter Cable helps here. Use a lighter pad and medium speed with a little hand pressure to work the glaze in until dry. That said, I glazed my new car by hand last week.

6) Time for sealant, I like to do two coats. Can be done by hand or machine, does not need to be worked in, just applied. If you use a machine, use a finishing pad and no pressure on the machine - let the machine do the work. This can be considered an LSP (last step protection). I still like to wax over it though for beauty - sealant for real protection long-term, wax for short-term beautification.

7) Wax, I like to do two coats of paste wax by hand. I personally would never wax with a machine, but that's purely personal preference.

8) I like to seal and wax headlights and taillights, you may or may not. If so, make sure to remove the tape on those areas when you get to the sealant. After all of this stuff is done, then you can hit the tires and trim with some dressing, and I find I always need to clean up all the glass on the car when I'm done. I also like to put two coats of sealant on my wheels, and finish them up with a spray sealant or even a couple coats of wax (wax is probably unnecessary on the wheels).

My general routine is to strip wash/spot clay/glaze/seal/wax 1-2x per year, and do two coats of paste wax every other wash with my wax-safe maintenance soap, which helps make sure that the sealant and glaze never get exposed really until I strip them off or feel it's just time to do it again. I will avoid polishing unless absolutely necessary (I've polished my Camaro once in 15 years, and that was two years ago, it's a weekend toy though and only sees 1000 miles per year). I also glaze/seal/wax all the jambs on the car. With my new car, since I didn't have the dealer prep it, there isn't a swirl to be seen so I just did very light spot clay behind the wheels and then did the glaze/seal/wax detail.

 

Www.autogeek.net

Watch all the vids. Maybe buy some stuff.

 

Thanks everyone, puma that was a ton of info wow.

I feel I can tackle this now, im well prepared.

 

What about waterless wash stuff? like croftgate? I'm using that.. but it's soo freaking windy lately that literally like an hour later the car has dust everywhere.. and since it's DIB, it's very visible