Need some help/advice on my detailing process

[Richard's Detailing]

Hi guys! I’m new here and I want to detail cars and trucks for extra income. I’m planning to do at least 2-3 cars on the weekends and when I get comfortable maybe bump it up to 4-5 cars per week. I already setup an LLC for tax and insurance reasons. I will be starting on my SUV this weekend and then on my family and friends cars afterwards. I was wondering if I can get some advice to get the correct process down before I tackle someone else’s car. I listed below all of the items I have so far. Please feel free to tell me what items you think I need to get so that I can be more efficient in detailing. I know I’ll need more pads but I don’t know which ones to get and how many I should have available since I’m only planning to detail a car maybe twice a week.

Items I have so far:

Porter Cable 7414 w/ 6 inch backing plate

Cleaning products:

Poorboy’s Light Abrasive Swirl Remover SR1
Poorboy’s Medium Super Swirl Remover SSR2.5
Poorboy’s Natty’s Blue Paste Wax
Poorboy’s Spray & Gloss
Poorboy’s Spray & Wipe Waterless Wash
Poorboy`s World Bug Squash 16 Ounce
Poorboy`s World SSR2 Super Swirl Remover
Poorboy`s EX Sealant (32 oz)
Poorboy`s Polish with Carnauba (Blue) Dark color cars
Poorboy`s Polish with Carnauba
Poorboy`s white diamond
4 Clay bars
Meguiars Car wash soap
Back to Black
NXT Tech 2.0 Wax – don’t know if I should use this
Tire dressing – forgot what brand
Wheel Cleaner – forgot what brand
Chrome Polish – forgot what brand

Interior:

Misc brushes
Lexol leather cleaner
Lexol leather conditioner
NXT Tech Protectant

Pads and cleaner:

1 CCS 6.5 inch Gray Dual Action Finishing Pad
1 CCS 6.5 inch Orange Dual Action Light Cutting Pad
1 CCS 6.5 inch White Dual Action Polishing Pad
12 oz. Pinnacle XMT Polishing Foam Pad Cleaner

Towels:
2 Cobra Microfiber Towels, 16 x 16
2 Big (bath size) Microfiber towels – BJ’s
14 regular microfiber towels 16x16
2 Microfiber Wash mitts
1 Microfiber Car duster

Misc:

5HP 6 Gallon Wet Dry Vac w/ attachments
Dual 500w Halogen work lamp
12’ Extension cord – should I buy something longer?
25’ Hose w/ a trial foam gun
Interior brushes
Tire and wheel brushes



I’m planning to go to customer’s place, use their water and electricity for vacuum, PC and Lighting.

Do most of you guys start with the interior first or the exterior?

For exterior detail, what should my process be like using the products I listed above?

1.Wash – Rinse – Clay – Rinse – Dry – Tape emblems and such
2.Not sure what steps for PB and which pad to use. Please help
3.Sealant (using which pad?) – Wax – After buffing wax using PB, do I need to apply anything else?
4.Remove tape and work on emblems and trims

For interior I’m planning to just vacuum, wipe dash, leather seats, trims and wipe inside windows for now. I don’t know which products are good for removing stains from cloth seats, carpets and mats. What does a full interior detail consists of? I don’t have a carpet extractor, just a shopvac with attachments.

Sorry for the long post.

Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

[Poorboy]

It looks to me that you are pretty well stocked to start, but yes you need a couple more pads ...
You should have 2 orange cutting, 2-3 white polishing, 2-3 black/grey finishing pads.

It is really hard to say what process you should follow as each vehicle is different.
Most vehicles I do start with SSR2.5 with an orange pad followed by SSR1 with a black/grey finishing pad.
Then I sometimes go to PwS or PwC finishing pad, Black Hole or White Diamond finishing pad, then Natty`s (Red , White or Blue)

of course this is after washing and clay if needed

[flash gordon]

Sweet Baby JESUS I STARTED MY BIZZ W/ 1-LUX DISH SOAP 1-MOP BUCKET1- DOZEN "red" shop towels,As many bath towels as I could get my hands on. 1-Can Turtle Wax Polish 1-Can Turtle Wax Compound 1-Windex 1-can of Bug-n-Tar... And oh yea this really cool NEW product Armor-All. Course this was 30 years ago. Sounds like you definetely have enough to get your feet wet. Good Luck.

[Troy@Protekt]

Sounds like you are enthusiastic about it and that`s good. I wouldn`t start out trying to do high end details perfecting the paint through multiple steps. Start out with maybe a clay, polish and protect approach. Make sure you`re fairly comfortable with paint polishing before you step up to more extensive details.

[flash gordon]

As far as where to start on car.If tha car your working on needs shampooing do that 1st (allow more time 4 carpets to dry) Interior/exterior which ever 1 you least enjoy,that is where I would start....Good Luck

[Ronkh]

Since your name sounds like you`re a medic..........

Good luck. Sounds like you`re on the right track.

[Richard's Detailing]

Thanks for all the advice! Keep `em coming though. This is my suv that I`ll be working on this Sunday. Has some swirl marks and today I found a light scratch (on clear) by the rear passenger door.
Should be a good scratch to practice on.

I work at the hospital but I`m no medic though. My wife chose the profusion name.

[Ronkh]

If it`s a light scratch, the 2.5 should make short work of it.

Remember pics are required through out the entire process, so that we can live vicariously.

[Richard's Detailing]

Finally made my very first detail using Porter Cable 7424. All I had was 1 orange pad, 1 white pad and 1 gray pad. I was struggling on the other side of the car because I only had 3 pads and I dont know where to use the gray pad.

Steps I did:

Wash
Rinse
Dry
Clay
Rinse
Dry
PB SSR 2.5 - Orange pad
PB SSR 1 - White pad
PB Polish
PB EX
Natty Blue

Total time: 4.5 hours - Most of which where spent trying to get use to the PC.

QUESTIONS:
1.) After using the PC on 1 side of the car, the PC starts vibrating a lot. I had a hard time trying to hold on the the PC because of this. My hands would be so red after each pass with the PC. Almost like it an unbalanced wheel. Very difficult to hold onto. Is this normal? Is it tha pad or the PC?

2.) When do I use the Gray Pad? Do I use it with the Polish, Sealant or wax? Or do I apply Polish by hand, then buff with Gray? Sealant by hand then buff with Gray pad or wax by hand then buff with Gray pad?

All of my before pictures are from the driver side.

Before


After


Before: Light Scratches


Before: More scratches


After: No more scrtaches.... almost, I think I should have made a couple more passes


Some swirls


Swirls on hood


Swirls


Taped up


50/50 shot - I need to practice more on taking better pictures


Another 50/50


More after photos:









Hood up close - I really need the Yellow pad... which I just ordered.


Macro of paint


Next detail will be my brother`s QX56. How much should I charge him?

More Lake County pads are on the way. I also bought an EZ UP canopy yesterday. Should be here by the end of the week.

[flash gordon]

Man that looks AWESOME...although me and you both need to go to Wierd Wally`s Taping School.

[Poorboy]

I`d say pretty good for a first attempt with a PC ... there is no set number of passes a person can do. Each car and panel may be different. Some may require 1 or 2 others may take 10. Overall I`d say

[tmacsad]

Nice work! What speed did you use the PC on? It is normal for the PC vibrate.

[Richard's Detailing]

Thanks guys!

OMG! I checked the videos on youtube again on using the PC and mine was not like that at all! I bought mine brand new and it vibrated the very first time I used it. I figured it was normal so I used it as it is. Literally my hands would be red and numb after using the PC for 2 minutes. I can`t even hold it with one hand. What could be wrong with my PC? There is a half moon shape on the PC, looks more like a weight balancing plate. Should this be a half circle plate or a full one? If I new this wasn`t the way it`s suppose to run, I would have been done a lot sooner plus my hands would not be hurting.

[tuscarora dave]

Though I do not own a PC I have heard a lot of talk about a counterbalance weight that should have been included with the PC. This half moon shaped thing that you speak of, Does it appear to be removable? It sounds to me like the counterbalance weight is either missing, the wrong balance for the pads or the pads are off center on the velcro backing plate. Maybe if you post a picture of your PC with the backing plate removed a PC user could advise a bit better. I have some problems with my hands to begin with and I am sure glad I got the Cyclo instead of the PC because that kind of vibration would kill me. the Cyclo is limited to dual 4 inch pads only though but has very little to no bothersome vibration. I guess that there is pros and cons to whatever we use. Good luck with getting it straightened out though and welcome to DC. By the way Excellent first detail, TD

[artman4life]

sounds to me like that is your counterbalance plate, it should only be a half moon type plate. is the velcro comin off your pads or backin plate at all? that will cause more vibration and eventually will blow the pad right off.