Do you just spray your car down? Do you wash/wax/clay bar/polish/vacuum/shampoo/15 other things? I'm curious what all people do.
1. Drive to @idget's and drop off the keys. 2. Return a day or two later and pick up a perfectly detailed car.
Ok fine, in between detail jobs, I hand wash it when I can, and sometimes clay and wax. I discovered the Nanoskin sponge as an alternative to clay. For the little clay barring that I do, it works great. I follow up with some good ol' turtle wax.
I run it through the touch-less car wash when I get gas and try to dry the extra drips right away with a micro-fiber cloth. Hand wash now and then - I used this last fall: Chemical Guys WAC_111_16 Extreme Depth Liquid Carnauba Creme Wax (from Amazon) and its held up well. It needs a good interior cleaning right now
1 gallon of diesel mixed with race fuel and a torch. Usually I use a touchless wash and hand dry. Shop vac the nooks and Windex the windows.
Careful with that Windex and it getting on the dashboard and plastics. The ammonia in it isn't good for them.
Learned a trick from a tint guy...won't mention any names... @chriswelckle . 30% isopropyl, 70% water, newspaper> than all the things!
Usually I hand wash my car with the two bucket system and than use a blower to dry it - I look like an idiot but I hate swirl marks with a passion! Told myself I would never by a black car again - whelp that didn't pan out haha. I need a severe paint correction done on the new xt! Looks like the previous owner used steel wool to wash the car not sure if I'm going to tackle it like I did on my old forester or take it somewhere to get it done. Just washed it last night - looks good in the shade lol
This sounds awfully familiar. I used to own a lowered black S-10 and after I got rid of it I told myself I'd never buy another black car...but here I am. Black looks soooo nice when it's nice and polished though! I also use a leaf blower to dry my car after washing. I'm certain my neighbors think I'm nuts anyway. I usually give my car a buff/polish/wax each spring or summer. A DA is a must have to keep black paint looking nice.
I've wanted to apply Opti-coat 2.0 (essentially a hard "shell" to protect your clear coat) to my car, but I'm scared. You should to it and let me know how it turns out! Anybody used this before? http://www.autogeek.net/optimum-opti-coat.html
Black cars are a love-hate relationship! It's funny you mention opti coat - I've been looking into it. You would just have to make sure that your paint is perfect before applying it, as you won't be able to correct any defects after applying opti coat, and I think they say it's good for two years. That reason alone is why I think I would want to have my paint professionally corrected and than have opti coat applied. I just know that I need to have something done before the lax cruise
If you want a chance at winning Best in Show/People's Choice and get your pic on next years cake you will!
Used Opti-coat on my 2013 Evo X when I had Chad (Rasky's) do the detail, it held up ok, then he switched from Opti-coat to cQuartz Finest this last year so I had him do a correction and detail on our 2015 STi last winter with C-Quartz Finest, and it has held up 100x better than Opti-coat ever did, plus it's guaranteed to hold up for 3-years using either their CarPro products for washing or just using a std. Optimum no Rinse and Wash, and then you just top the car off with the cQuartz RELOAD, car still looks fantastic after a 2-bucket wash and top off with RELOAD. It was not cheap though, about $1k to do the entire car with the correction and detailing, he did use Opti-coat on the wheels as it seems to hold up better on the barrels, and also included a minor interior clean. Chad is probably one of the top detailer(s) in the US but you will pay and wait for his work.
I've done meguairs cleaner wax and meguairs ultimate compound after a car wash. Then just for kicks I bought some of the 3m rubbing compound and it worked really well and then bought the 3m synthetic wax and thats the best wax I've ever used
Hand wash it once a week. Clay Bar, V36 and 38, Blacklight and Butter wax it every season. V4 it in between because it shouldn't need a full 3-step
I posted before that my car was in desperate need of a full paint correction. So I thought I would post up my results of a quick weekend detail. Products used: Wolfgang clay bar kit, followed by Meguiars compound, Polish, and caranuba wax. The pictures attached show the progress of probably the worst panel. Picture 1 is obviously before Picture 2 is after compound Picture 3 is after polishing I'm content for now, but I still want to have my car professionally detailed. I couldn't get all the scratches/imperfections out, and I'm sure that's because of the products I was using...or skill...
Well shiet I've been doing it wrong all my life... I thought that's what cool people used. Pretty sure the previous owner had a mental deficiency when it came to car washing!!
Twice a year i do the following in order. Spring and Fall. Wash car with dawn soap Clay bar car Wash car with Meguiar's gold Spray car with quick detailer and wipe dry Use S100 Carnauba Paste Wax Rest of the time i just wash it with Meguiar's gold.
