Q's before the big detail tomorrow!

[tustah]

I'm freaking out since I'll start my first detail tomorrow morning and was double checking to see if I have everything I needed to do a 97 Civic that has never been taken care of.

The Process:

EO Wheel/Tire Cleaner w/ Meguiar's Tire Brush and Wheel Brush
Optimum No Rinse
Clay Magic
Optimum Compound via PC (Edge Pad)
Optimum Polish via PC (Edge Pad)
Prime Strong
Carnauba Jett
Natty's Blue (If I feel like it)
PB's Bold & Bright on tires
NXT Glass Cleaner


Would have liked to have Optimum Hyper Compound on hand, but all the products I bought were supposed to be for my 06 Accord Coupe. I'm sure I'll have to work the Optimum Compound in a couple of passes for best results. I'm also debating whether I should stop by a paint shop nearby and purchase a Meguiar's Polishing bottle, not sure which one though since they say it's for Rotory. Any help here?

In order to remove the Polish, is it necessary to have a "polishing" towel? I have a 10 pack of Yellow ExcelDetail towels and I'm hoping that will do the job.

As far as cleaning the pads afterwards, I was planning on throwing them in a bucket of my left over wash water with Optimum No Rinse. After finishing the whole car, I was going to throw it in the washing machine with my Liquid Tide w/ Febreeze and some Simple Green like Spilchy did in this thread, which turned out pretty well.

As far as time goes, I have no clue how long it will take but I will definitely post pictures of the entire process tomorrow.

Regardless of the detail, I'll be purchasing:

PB's Wheel Sealant
Optimum Car Wax
Optimum Hyper Compound
MF Polishing Towels (?)

[David703]

Well, the first thing you have going for you is that you aren't doing an Audi, or Mercedes, with their HARD clearcoat. Depending on how bad the car is, you are going to have your work cut out for you trying to remove swirls with OC. But then again, I no longer use my PC for swirl removal and only use the rotory. Did you mention the color of the car? If its silver be real happy! The excel towels will be fine. Good luck and post your pics!!

[tustah]

Yeah I figured it would be a very tough task to cut out the swirls with OC. I was thinking about buying a strong Meguiar's cutting polish, but I haven't looked into it and how it performs. The Civic is Dark Green, and looks like it has a bit of oxidation as well. It would be great if it was Silver!

[brwill2005]

Dark colored civic's paint usually gets real cloudy/hazy if it is not cared for. Most likely, the OPT compound followed by the OPT polish will make the paint look 100% better. Do not worry about making it look perfect. Just make sure you work each product long enough, and do not use too much. After the OPT polish, apply your LSP and call it a day. Not sure what Prime strong is, but if it is a polish, you do not need it. Good luck.

[Setec Astronomy]

I agree with brwill2005 that the Prime Strong is probably redundant after the OP. Also the CJ and the NB are kind of redundant as well, one or the other should do.

[tustah]

Any comments on cleaning pads? I'll check post before I detail tomorrow morning.