in4maous
06-15-2009, 10:13 AM
First off whomever created this site and those that contribute many thanks. I want to learn the correct way to care for my car. 3 weeks ago I had my car detailed. The guy clayed it, waxed, and polished using an orbital all with Meguiar products. My goal is to wash my black saphire 5 series weekly. The tools I recently purchased are a gilmour foam gun, california blade, and wheel brush. Can someone help me put a package together for washing weekly that includes washing, claying, polishing, and waxing? I dont plan on getting an orbital anytime soon.
Many Thanks
Accumulator
06-15-2009, 10:47 AM
.. My goal is to wash my black saphire 5 series weekly. The tools I recently purchased are a gilmour foam gun, california blade, and wheel brush. Can someone help me put a package together for washing weekly that includes washing, claying, polishing, and waxing? I dont plan on getting an orbital anytime soon..
Welcome to Autopia!
IMO the *BIG* thing here is to wash/dry it without marring the paint. Pretty daunting task, much harder than most would ever imagine.
Washing:
-GOOD BHB for initial passes. I`d get the Montana from Autogeek or the one from Griot`s. See my thread comparing BHBs in the Products forum (search on my user-name, I don`t start all that many threads).
-GOOD sheepskin mitts for use on subsequent passes.
-GOOD technique; see my "Accumulator`s Non-marring Wash Technique", which I believe is in the "Articles" section of this website.
-For wheel cleaning I`d use either P21s or Griot`s Wheel Cleaner.
Drying:
-GOOD waffle-weave MFs (I like the Sonus ones and/or the ultra-soft ones from PakShack) or a Danase Water Devourer.
-I like to get most of the water off, then spritz with a good QD before drying it the rest of the way.
Claying:
-Sonus green Ultra-fine clay with Glyde lubricant.
Polishing:
-Wait until you`re ready to buy a polisher. I`d pretty much skip trying to polish by hand. Just concentrate on not messing up the paint since it`s already polished at this point.
Waxing:
-Not knowing what`s on there now, I`d just wait until the current beading/slickness drops off and then apply either Collinite 8458 Insulator Wax or Meguiar`s NXT v2.0.
Note that the above is just an off-the-cuff version of my $0.02 and there are countless other approaches that might work just as well.