My detailing thread (56k begone!)
03-14-08, 11:57 AM
#1
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My detailing thread (56k begone!)
Well, I could put this in the detailing section, but I figured I'd go step-by-step with everyone from NELOC. I'm going to have this thread be ongoing for a couple days (including pics) of my detailing progress. My car is a filthy pig right now and the wheels/front lip/grill are going back on next week, so I want to get everything ready to go before then. I will be doing the following:
-Full Wash
-Clay Bar
-Dual Action Cleaner/Polish
-Tech Waxing.
Here's a pic of all of my tools:
We have the following (from top to bottom, left to right):
1. Chamois
2. Meguiars Gold Class soap
3. Meguiars Tire Wet
4. Meguiars Dual Action Polisher
5-8. Meguiars Soft Buff 6" pads
9. Meguiars Gold Class Trim Detailer
10. Meguiars NXT Tech Wax 2.0
11. Meguiars NXT Tech Wax 1.0
12/13. Meguiars #83 Dual Action Cleaner/Polisher
14. Bug & Tar Remover
15. Meguiars Quik Detailer
16/17. Meguiars Plastx
18. Liquid Glass
19. Mothers Clay Bar
here are a few pics of the pile:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
As you can see there are some good marks on the car, as well as just grime and buildup just from general wear and tear on the car. It's tough to see the swirl marks on the paint, but I can assure you that they are there, and I intend on getting rid of them. This is also my first time doing a full detail, so some of this is going to be learning by the experience. Hopefully I'll really enjoy the end results, as will you!
-Full Wash
-Clay Bar
-Dual Action Cleaner/Polish
-Tech Waxing.
Here's a pic of all of my tools:
We have the following (from top to bottom, left to right):
1. Chamois
2. Meguiars Gold Class soap
3. Meguiars Tire Wet
4. Meguiars Dual Action Polisher
5-8. Meguiars Soft Buff 6" pads
9. Meguiars Gold Class Trim Detailer
10. Meguiars NXT Tech Wax 2.0
11. Meguiars NXT Tech Wax 1.0
12/13. Meguiars #83 Dual Action Cleaner/Polisher
14. Bug & Tar Remover
15. Meguiars Quik Detailer
16/17. Meguiars Plastx
18. Liquid Glass
19. Mothers Clay Bar
here are a few pics of the pile:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
As you can see there are some good marks on the car, as well as just grime and buildup just from general wear and tear on the car. It's tough to see the swirl marks on the paint, but I can assure you that they are there, and I intend on getting rid of them. This is also my first time doing a full detail, so some of this is going to be learning by the experience. Hopefully I'll really enjoy the end results, as will you!
Last edited by Joe C; 03-14-08 at 12:48 PM.
03-14-08, 12:26 PM
#2
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Wow looks like you're starting the year off with a SERIOUS bang. I might be doing the same thing this weekend. Depends on the weather though. Def post pics of the finished product. 
03-14-08, 01:06 PM
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Stage 1:
Washing.
Well, I'm hoping that the weather holds for a bit, but it's been kind of cloudy/sunny on and off. It's pretty cold (my hands were pretty red!) but I'm glad that it's kind of cold so I can take my time and not worry about the soap drying up on the car. I went from front to back: hood, fenders and bumper; then the doors/roof, then the rear section of the car. I used the two-bucket system (soap and rinsing) to make sure that all the grime didn't stay on my wash cloth.
Just from looking at the car after soaping, one can see how much better the car looks. I can see a LOT of little things that bothers me about the paint, and I will address that. There are a lot of swirl marks as well as chips. My car is in a college parking lot 4-5 days a week, and most people couldn't care less about what they are doing to another person's car.
Some of the things I would like to address:
1. The trim on the lower sections of the doors are comming off (I imagine a little superglue could fix that?)
2. Swirls in a lot of places!
3. A few door dings (nothing that PDR couldn't fix)
4. chips in the paint.
Here are a few pictures:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Here are a few more pictures after drying:
1.
2.
3.
I am just waiting a little bit for the car to completely dry before I start to tackle clay bar.
Washing.
Well, I'm hoping that the weather holds for a bit, but it's been kind of cloudy/sunny on and off. It's pretty cold (my hands were pretty red!) but I'm glad that it's kind of cold so I can take my time and not worry about the soap drying up on the car. I went from front to back: hood, fenders and bumper; then the doors/roof, then the rear section of the car. I used the two-bucket system (soap and rinsing) to make sure that all the grime didn't stay on my wash cloth.
Just from looking at the car after soaping, one can see how much better the car looks. I can see a LOT of little things that bothers me about the paint, and I will address that. There are a lot of swirl marks as well as chips. My car is in a college parking lot 4-5 days a week, and most people couldn't care less about what they are doing to another person's car.
Some of the things I would like to address:
1. The trim on the lower sections of the doors are comming off (I imagine a little superglue could fix that?)
2. Swirls in a lot of places!
3. A few door dings (nothing that PDR couldn't fix)
4. chips in the paint.
Here are a few pictures:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Here are a few more pictures after drying:
1.
2.
3.
I am just waiting a little bit for the car to completely dry before I start to tackle clay bar.
03-15-08, 04:45 AM
#7
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Thanks for the responses guys, glad to see you appreciate it!
Alright, Part 2/3/4
I didn't stop working on the car until about 7:30 last night, and by that time I made dinner and everything so I forgot to post! I woke up at 6:30 this morning to upload the pictures of my progress and get a good head start on the day.
Since I realized how long this was taking, I decided to only work on the front bumper, fenders, and hood for parts 2/3/4, But I figured I'd post up some shots.
I started part 2 with Clay bar. This makes a HUGE difference in the way the paint feels. It is difficult to truly appreciate what clay bar does unless you are in person, but I love the results. Remember to make a patty that is roughly the size of 3-4 fingers, and apply even pressure. The surface must also be sprayed pretty thoroughly so that you don't catch the clay anywhere. I found that just doing a 1x1 square worked very well, and you could actually see some of the crap on the detailing spray just coming right off of the paint!
If you look near the passenger headlight, the reflection is a bit more noticeable, and on the top of the hood near the sprayers you can see the spray that you must use for the clay bar.
After the clay bar, I went to step 3, which was the Dual Action Polish
I realized that using less than I think is generall about the amount of polish I want to use. I also put the polisher on level 3. I don't have really deep swirl marks on the front end, so I figured 3 would work well (and it did!). The hood took me about 15-20 minutes alone, and the bumpers/fenders took about 1/2 hour total. I went with a roughly 1x1' square again, going first in an up and down motion, then side to side. Once I had completed about 1/2 of the hood I stood in front of the car and took long sweeping passes going from the front of the hood to the water sprayers. With the fenders, I made sure (as I did with the rest of the job so far) to go with the lines of the vehicle. It is really important to go with the lines of the vehicle, as swirling motions create a lot more noticeable marks in the sunlight. By going (if looking at a side shot of a car) right to left, there aren't as many chances for a large swirl to reflect light.
Here are a couple pictures after using the #83 dual action polish
1.
2.
Since the lighting wasn't the best it was difficult to really see the difference, but if you look the fender does look a bit brighter.
After was Step 4, which was waxing! I used the Meguiars NXT Tech Wax, and let me just say that this stuff is smooooooooth! I've used many different kinds of wax in the past, and I definitely put this up there as one of the nicest and easiest to apply and remove. I also used the Orbital Polisher for this (using a different pad than for the DA polish, obviously) and applied a simple thin layer onto the car. A heads up when putting the wax on: at first, it may not seem like there is any on the pad (you should apply in an "x" design on the pad) but once you wait a few minutes and pull off that wax... wow! smooth as glass.
Here are a couple more pictures of the front end:
1.
2.
(yes, I know there is adhesive on the bumper, when the front lip got ripped off in a snowstorm it was never warm enough to get it off!)
3.
I know it's a hazy day, but you can see a bit of how much better the reflection is!
Here's one of the person that deals with me being outside in the garage all day:
That's her '07 JK in the back, which I will be detailing sometime within the next few weeks as well (that paint is going to look amazing!)
And now she's back in the garage...
That's all I got from yesterday, but I will take a few more pictures of the polish/wax/clay bar on the car, so that maybe you can get a better sense of all the crap that is still on the paint after washing!
Few things I learned:
-Do NOT drop the clay bar, or anything for that matter that you will be touching the paint.
-Make sure to kneed the clay bar every once in a while to make sure that you can ensure even cleaning
-Don't overdue the amount of product you put on the pad.
-The pads are re-usable, so put them in zip-lock bags and write what they were used for!
-Clean the pads before putting away, as well as when you use them again.
If there are any questions or suggestions, feel free to post them up. Also, I have no problem taking request for certain pictures or anything.
Alright, Part 2/3/4
I didn't stop working on the car until about 7:30 last night, and by that time I made dinner and everything so I forgot to post! I woke up at 6:30 this morning to upload the pictures of my progress and get a good head start on the day.
Since I realized how long this was taking, I decided to only work on the front bumper, fenders, and hood for parts 2/3/4, But I figured I'd post up some shots.
I started part 2 with Clay bar. This makes a HUGE difference in the way the paint feels. It is difficult to truly appreciate what clay bar does unless you are in person, but I love the results. Remember to make a patty that is roughly the size of 3-4 fingers, and apply even pressure. The surface must also be sprayed pretty thoroughly so that you don't catch the clay anywhere. I found that just doing a 1x1 square worked very well, and you could actually see some of the crap on the detailing spray just coming right off of the paint!
If you look near the passenger headlight, the reflection is a bit more noticeable, and on the top of the hood near the sprayers you can see the spray that you must use for the clay bar.
After the clay bar, I went to step 3, which was the Dual Action Polish
I realized that using less than I think is generall about the amount of polish I want to use. I also put the polisher on level 3. I don't have really deep swirl marks on the front end, so I figured 3 would work well (and it did!). The hood took me about 15-20 minutes alone, and the bumpers/fenders took about 1/2 hour total. I went with a roughly 1x1' square again, going first in an up and down motion, then side to side. Once I had completed about 1/2 of the hood I stood in front of the car and took long sweeping passes going from the front of the hood to the water sprayers. With the fenders, I made sure (as I did with the rest of the job so far) to go with the lines of the vehicle. It is really important to go with the lines of the vehicle, as swirling motions create a lot more noticeable marks in the sunlight. By going (if looking at a side shot of a car) right to left, there aren't as many chances for a large swirl to reflect light.
Here are a couple pictures after using the #83 dual action polish
1.
2.
Since the lighting wasn't the best it was difficult to really see the difference, but if you look the fender does look a bit brighter.
After was Step 4, which was waxing! I used the Meguiars NXT Tech Wax, and let me just say that this stuff is smooooooooth! I've used many different kinds of wax in the past, and I definitely put this up there as one of the nicest and easiest to apply and remove. I also used the Orbital Polisher for this (using a different pad than for the DA polish, obviously) and applied a simple thin layer onto the car. A heads up when putting the wax on: at first, it may not seem like there is any on the pad (you should apply in an "x" design on the pad) but once you wait a few minutes and pull off that wax... wow! smooth as glass.
Here are a couple more pictures of the front end:
1.
2.
(yes, I know there is adhesive on the bumper, when the front lip got ripped off in a snowstorm it was never warm enough to get it off!)
3.
I know it's a hazy day, but you can see a bit of how much better the reflection is!
Here's one of the person that deals with me being outside in the garage all day:
That's her '07 JK in the back, which I will be detailing sometime within the next few weeks as well (that paint is going to look amazing!)
And now she's back in the garage...
That's all I got from yesterday, but I will take a few more pictures of the polish/wax/clay bar on the car, so that maybe you can get a better sense of all the crap that is still on the paint after washing!
Few things I learned:
-Do NOT drop the clay bar, or anything for that matter that you will be touching the paint.
-Make sure to kneed the clay bar every once in a while to make sure that you can ensure even cleaning
-Don't overdue the amount of product you put on the pad.
-The pads are re-usable, so put them in zip-lock bags and write what they were used for!
-Clean the pads before putting away, as well as when you use them again.
If there are any questions or suggestions, feel free to post them up. Also, I have no problem taking request for certain pictures or anything.
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03-15-08, 04:47 AM
#8
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Oh yeah, after I saw Apex's thread, I had to copy a little bit...
I'll be putting these on after I paint the calipers next week. Don't mind the dirty base of that monitor, that was just out for the day (working on my music server)!
I'll be putting these on after I paint the calipers next week. Don't mind the dirty base of that monitor, that was just out for the day (working on my music server)!
03-15-08, 05:39 AM
#11
Joe, amazing job on the car. I see that you too are a Liquid Glass user. I absolutely love this stuff, despite the almost $20 price tag for it. You will definately like the shine of it when you finish the entire process and apply this. Only thing that I didn't like about it when hand buffing was that it creates a fair amount of dust residue that you hve to remove. However that shine factor is like having a coat of armor on and you dont have to use it but every so often. Car looks amazing!!!!
03-15-08, 05:49 AM
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Joe, amazing job on the car. I see that you too are a Liquid Glass user. I absolutely love this stuff, despite the almost $20 price tag for it. You will definately like the shine of it when you finish the entire process and apply this. Only thing that I didn't like about it when hand buffing was that it creates a fair amount of dust residue that you hve to remove. However that shine factor is like having a coat of armor on and you dont have to use it but every so often. Car looks amazing!!!!
I have found that with detailing it is better to just purchase what you like (regardless of price) because some things that are more expensive or marketed more aren't always the best. Although it is not pictured here, I have been using KarKraft products for general cleaning and detailing of my car for years and their dressings are far better than the meguiars.
http://www.karkraftsystems.com/
03-15-08, 06:14 AM
#13
Exactly!!! I got hooked on it at a very young age, when I would go to the car show (World of Wheels) and notice that alot of owners was using the stuff. It is one of the products I use on my LS and people still think that I have had my car repeinted, when it is clean. As for the dust, once done removing, I normally just take a damp cloth/towel and re-wipe the entire car down again, and then take a dry microfibre cloth and re-buff to shine. I do like the KarKraft products and have known about them for years, however I am an impatient one, so I WANT IT NOW!!!! LOL!!!! So in this case, Meguiars, Mother, Liguid Glass, etc it is.
03-15-08, 06:26 AM
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hahaha yeah, thankfully I know someone that works in a shop, so i used to get hooked up with his ordering so I could get some KarKraft stuff.
Anyways, time to take a few things out to the garage so I can get started! The weather is supposed to be clearing a bit within the next hour so hopefully I can get a head start in the garage, then take it outside. If anyone wants specific pics or anything, feel free to send me a message on AIM, I'll have my laptop with me
Anyways, time to take a few things out to the garage so I can get started! The weather is supposed to be clearing a bit within the next hour so hopefully I can get a head start in the garage, then take it outside. If anyone wants specific pics or anything, feel free to send me a message on AIM, I'll have my laptop with me
03-15-08, 01:16 PM
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Well, I am almost finished with the paint on the car! I still have to do the roof. I have been taking my time, and between lunch/breaks I'm pretty happy with the speed I have been going. Clearly I could've gone faster, but I was taking each panel at a time.
Things I've noticed:
I don't believe that the pads I am using have enough "cutting" power. I am using meguiars 9006 pads which I believe are finishing pads. I had ordered (2)8006 and (2)9006, but yet again meguiars screwed up on my order (it took 5 months just to get the DA polisher!) I still see some swirls, but for a car with 105k on the odometer I'm pretty happy with the results. The paint itself feels like it's a new car. Once I have completed the whole car (which is no more than an hour from now) I intend on putting on the second coat of wax. For the second coat on the whole car I will be using the Tech Wax 2.0. Some other things I'd like to do would be polish the headlights again, as well as start to get some cleaner and protection on the glass. This car will be going from my place here in CT back up to MA on wednesday and I would rather not have the job incomplete (especially if it is supposed to be bad out!) I will update with a few pics in a little while, but I want to get this done!
Things I've noticed:
I don't believe that the pads I am using have enough "cutting" power. I am using meguiars 9006 pads which I believe are finishing pads. I had ordered (2)8006 and (2)9006, but yet again meguiars screwed up on my order (it took 5 months just to get the DA polisher!) I still see some swirls, but for a car with 105k on the odometer I'm pretty happy with the results. The paint itself feels like it's a new car. Once I have completed the whole car (which is no more than an hour from now) I intend on putting on the second coat of wax. For the second coat on the whole car I will be using the Tech Wax 2.0. Some other things I'd like to do would be polish the headlights again, as well as start to get some cleaner and protection on the glass. This car will be going from my place here in CT back up to MA on wednesday and I would rather not have the job incomplete (especially if it is supposed to be bad out!) I will update with a few pics in a little while, but I want to get this done!