Detailing 1101

[Jonno34]

Detailing 1101!

Hey everyone, I hope this will helpeveryone get a good understanding of detailing and its products and help them improvetheir wash techniques and see some great results on their paintwork.

Products and explanations

1. Wash Solution – Any better brand will do, but in general most off the shelf products advertise HIGH SUDS in their wash solutions … Suds aren't all too important to be honest, what you do want is a lot of lubricity in the solution, so that the dirt will simply glide off your car.
2. High Pressure Washer – This is really useful, it gets the majority of dirt out before you even do anything, is invaluable in cleaning wheels and engine bays as well as inside door jambs etc, and saves water! In fact I believe in the eastern states they do require you to use one to wash your car? Not too sure.
3. Wheel Cleaning solution – this is usually some slightly acidic substance which eats up brake dust and removes it nice and easily for you. I have found most off the shelf products to be rather ineffective however.
4. Soft Bristle Brush – very useful on wheels to agitate and remove brake dust without causing any scratches to the wheels (scratching the wheel bad enough can sometimes make brake dust stick to that area and be very difficult to remove)
5. Wash Mitt – Microfibre preferable for body, any old thing will do to use on wheels – get a good quality one thats nice and plush to ensure some good protection on your paintwork.
6. Silicone Blade “squeedgee” - its basically a silicone blade, make sure not to be stingy on this if you get it .. get a good quality one so you're not scratching your paint. With this you can just slide it along panels and remove all the water!
7. Waffle Weave Microfibre drying towel. (Some prefer chamois but I find this easiest) – absorbs a ton of water and makes drying a breeze.
8. Clay Bar – Removes surface contaminants and leaves you with a very smooth surface. Very important for good prep before applying protection, and also helps make applying wax or sealant easier and last longer!
9. Polish – there's so many uses for this word. In my world I refer to a polish as a cutting compound. This is used to remove any swirl marks or minor paint imperfections to leave you with a brand new paint surface that will look amazing once completely detailed! This can be done by a machine (A Random orbital machine is recommended – such as the Bosch GEX150T or Festool Rotex – but please note that this costs a whole ton. A bosch unit costs 350 or so, a rotex costs around twice this much or even more) Be careful, a lot of off the shelf products refer to a polish as a glaze, or a wax even or some sort of cleaner … I have no idea what half of these products are since I have not used them and dont plan to! If you plan on doing your polish by hand, P21S make a special polish that is meant to be used by hand.
10. Paint Protection – Provides a layer of protection on top of your paint. Different types and quality of products give different amounts of protection and duration of protection. They also give a nice glossy surface and a nice smooth feel to the car which we all love.
    1. 1. Sealants – fully synthetic waxes – these last a long time, even up to 2 years on a well maintained surface. In my experience these are relatively easy to apply. However, they do not provide as much gloss as carnauba waxes, but this can easily be correct by applying quick detailer/carnauba waxes on top of the sealant! However, be sure not to apply any wax with “cleaners” in it on top of the sealant as the “cleaners” will most likely remove some of your sealant!
       2. Semi Synthetic waxes – an example of this is the very popular meguiar next gen tech wax! These are easy to apply, provide a good amount of protection that lasts for a good amount of time (around 3 months before there is a need to reapply), and give a nice glossy surface that is smooth to touch. Basically an all around wax. However, there are a large amount of variations of this kind of product
       3. Carnauba Waxes – these are in my opinion quite difficult to apply, and don't last very long. However, you will most likely get unparalleled gloss from these!

[*]Maintenance of protection – You can use either quick detailing sprays or quick wax sprays (provided they dont have cleaners in them!) quick detailers give the car a nice glossy look, but do little in the way of protection. Quick waxes provide an okay amount of protection and gloss, but of course, nowhere near as glossy as a real carnauba or as much protection as a real sealant, but they do an alright job considering their incredibly easy to use!

Washing and Drying Procedure

1. Rinsing: Firstly, rinse the whole car from top to bottom with water, a high pressure spray is really useful here (You can get cheap units for less than 100 bucks, although I recommend Karcher ones as they do have a filter inside).
2. Wheels – Wet wheels using a high pressure if available. Preferably use a wheel cleaning solution and let that set. Agitate the solution with a soft bristle brush if necessary and then spray wheels again. I also like to follow it up with an old wash mitt or rag with some car wash solution on it to ensure all the dirt is off .. if you came up with a clean mitt/rag then you know you've done a good job!
3. Pre Wash Technique (Only if using Final Inspection Paint Pampering Body Shampoo): FI Product users have a great advantage here. To do this spray one spray of PPBS on the top of each panel of the car and then high pressure it off from bottom to top. This gets rid of most excess dirt and will help reduce swirl marking during your wash process.
4. 2 bucket technique – most of us I assume will not be using PPBS and so will not have their soap in a spray bottle! Therefore, the next best alternative to keep swirls away is to use the 2 bucket technique. Basically have one bucket with Hot water (around 60 degrees) and one bucket with cold water in which you make your soap solution. When making your soap solution, to accurately measure out the water, instead of pouring the soap solution in the bucket and then spraying water, spray the water in the bucket first, pour the soap solution in and then mix it up. This ensures the correct ratio of soap solution to water. To properly measure the amount of soap solution you will need, get a disposal cup or anything you can throw away, measure out the amount of soap solution the manufacturer recommends per X Litres of water (for example 5ml of solution per 5L of water – in this case pour 5ml of water into the cup) and then mark that spot with a permanent marker! From now on you always know just how much soap solution to measure out
5. Wash – I like to start with glass first. Basically work your way down once more bottom to top. Keep your wash mitt well soaked in wash solutions. Each time you need to get more soap, rinse out the soap, and wash the mitt out in the hot water bucket, then dip it into the wash solution before going back to wash more paint. Also, do not apply heavy pressure to the paint and try to avoid overlapping excessively – no matter how good your products and wash techniques are, everytime you wash your car, you will create swirl marks. Don't forget to open up your boot and doors and petrol lid to get in the jambs and whatnot of your car (if their excessively dirty maybe just use a rag instead of ruining your wash mitt)
6. High pressure or rinse all the wash solution off the car or panel by panel if you are working on a warmer day – self explanatory. Don't forget to rinse out your jambs and petrol lid!
7. Dry – I like to use the silicone blade squeedgee .. I believe turtle wax sells one in most Super Cheap Auto's. This cuts my drying time by more than half. Quickly remove all excess water with the Waffle Weave cloth or shammy if you prefer.

Products I use

• Wash solution: FI PPBS
• High Pressure washer: 250 dollar karcher unit
• Wheel Cleaning solution: FI PWC
• Soft Bristle Brush: Random one from bunnings or SCA
• Wash mitt: I still use my meguiars microfibre ones for body and a cheapy for wheels
• "Squeedgee": Mine is imported from US and is called the T BAR but just get the turtlewax one
• Waffle Weave Drying Towel: meguiars one is fine
• Clay bar - FI Extra Fine Clay and Lube
• Polish - The FI Range
• Sealant - FI SEAL
• Semi synthetic wax - Meguiars NXT Tech wax 2.0
• Carnauba Waxes - I dont use these but P21S Have a good range of well priced carnauba
• Quick Detailer - FI Gloss Boost
• Quick Wax - Used the meguiars spray wax up till now, FI will be releasing a new spray wax soon. also many people recommend OCW

Hope this gives everyone a good start to detailing!

If theres anything i've missed out on or got wrong please let me know

[Hanaldo]

Will read in more depth later, just wanted to comment on the drying part... I hate drying my car with things like squeegees and chamois. They need to be quite stiff to do their job properly, so they can scratch your paint.

I prefer to dry my car with water. Will only work if your paint is in good condition though.

[Jonno34]

Yeah if you have a real nicely waxed surface I love doing the dry with water ...

The T-Bar I have works pretty well ... i do get a bit worried its scratching my paint though but it seems to be doing a good job without doing any harm. .. I just use it on the glass/roof/bonnet where the water collects, for the sides my WWDT is good enough

[SS8_Gohan]

a squeegee is probably the last thing i would think about using on a painted surface, no matter the quality. Ask for trouble IMO

IMO, the best way to avoid excessive contact with a wet panel is to blot dry first. I actually lay out the WWDT over as much of the panel as possible (generally only required for the horizontal panels) and let it soak up the water. I'll do that on all the horizontal panels first and then ring out the WWDT if need be. This helps with a couple things; firstly it removes almost all the water, two it 'primes' the WWDT be getting it wet to be more effective and less chance of marks to be made and three, eliminates a good amount of actual 'wiping' of the panels as most the water is already soaked up. The less wiping motion, the less swirls. Simple

As much as i believe in saving water where you can, if you have tank water or water saved from the shower, you can use this as part of the drying process. But for it to work well, you need a well conditioned paint surface and you need to pour the water out in a stream, as opposed to what you get with a HP unit. This promotes the water to sheet off much more than a HP ever will.

I'll add a few other points to your write up Jonno if you don't mind

[Jonno34]

Hmm I've never tried Blotting before, I usually either dry with water or just use squeedgee for the horizontal surfaces, but I was always worried it may be a bit harmful to my surface but I havent seen anything bad yet .. http://www.turtlewax.com.au/accessories.htm if you go down to the bottom of the page there will be one called "zip dry squeegee" or something like that .. similar to what ive been using

I'll give blotting a go next wash

When I pour water I usually just disconnect the Nozzle of the hoze and let the water stream out that way .. seems to work okay? Perhaps more effective with a bucket though but it seems to be alright for me, but my surface is constantly very well waxed/sealed

Sure mate add as much as you can!

[SS8_Gohan]

hose method is one of the best, more effective than a bucket and much less wasteful - if it's a HP unit, you can disconnect the secondary 'lance' bit and hold your hand over the end and hold the trigger down, or if you're in a state where you can use a trigger hose, then yes, a direct from mains stream is a fantastic way to 'dry' the car

[Jonno34]

on my karcher i can just turn the pressure off and take the lance off and it streams out a nice steady stream of water too

[pac34r]

Hey guys would a clay bar remove these scuff marks (see pic)?

[pac34r]

Hey guys would a clay bar remove this scuff mark?

[Jonno34]

Ian I cant see any pic unfortunately, but no i dont think a clay bar would remove a scuff mark in general id go for a good polish perhaps .. need to see the pic though

[89CAL]

Yeah clay bar is more for removing impurities from your paint. If its a proper scuff mark its likely that its slightly damaged the paint and may need a slight buff

[Borci88]

Following up on the 2 Bucket technique, I strongly believe in it and use it everytime. First picture is the soap that I use and the second picture shows the clean water (before use) that I rinse out the mitts with. You can see I've used sponges but they are only for the Rims as I'm not so picky on those. Imagine if all that dirt in the clean water was back in your soap bucket and you scratched it all over your car again!

Soap Bucket:

Clean Rinse Bucket: (look at all the dirt around the edge!)

[Borci88]

Following up on the 2 Bucket technique, I strongly believe in it and use it everytime. First picture is the soap that I use and the second picture shows the clean water (after use) that I rinse out the mitts with. You can see I've used sponges but they are only for the Rims as I'm not so picky on those. Imagine if all that dirt in the clean water was back in your soap bucket and you scratched it all over your car again!

Soap Bucket:

Clean Rinse Bucket: (look at all the dirt around the edge!)

[Borci88]

Following up on the 2 Bucket technique, I strongly believe in it and use it everytime. First picture is the soap that I use and the second picture shows the clean water (after use) that I rinse out the mitts with. You can see I've used sponges but they are only for the Rims as I'm not so picky on those. Imagine if all that dirt in the clean water was back in your soap bucket and you scratched it all over your car again!

Soap Bucket:

Clean Rinse Bucket: (look at all the dirt around the edge!)

[Jonno34]

^ triple post for emphasis?

but seriously 2 bucket method is a must! or at least some form of pre rinse to get the majority of the dirt off depending on what wash solution you use.

Also, i use warm water for the clean water bucket to rinse mitts off in, it apparently helps get the dirt out better

[Borci88]

Haha oh wow... Yeah everytime I pressed Reply it came up with an error, I'll send a mod a PM see if he can delete the last two.

Agreed I use warm water also and it works awesome! Also keeps your hands warm in the mitts I suppose

Edit: And yep came up with the same error saying I couldn't post in here, exited out and came back into the thread and what do ya know my post was in here.

[SS8_Gohan]

^ triple post for emphasis?

but seriously 2 bucket method is a must! or at least some form of pre rinse to get the majority of the dirt off depending on what wash solution you use.

Also, i use warm water for the clean water bucket to rinse mitts off in, it apparently helps get the dirt out better

warm water helps open up the MF fibres (if using MF) so as to release more of the dirt particles.

Warm/hot water is must IMO, much much better results especially for pre-rinse.

I use 2 x CLEAN warm water buckets and 2 x mf mitts, and apply shampoo solution via a pump-pack onto the panel and mitt