Detailing& Undercarriage 13 Evo MR Am I doing it right? Feedback?

I try to do as much reading as possible and I am starting to get an idea of what I`m doing so here is my plan. I would like someone to look over the steps and give me any feedback. Unfortunately I cannot do any correction because the machine is too loud ( Griots DA) in an apt building and I don`t have time to do it by hand.

1-Popping the wheels off and cleaning with Sonax Plus and then waxing them or should I use sealant? TONS of brake dust! Can I put a product on the caliper too?
2-ONR Garry Dean wash with Chinchilla MF towels presoaking the car and towel
3-Clay with ONR`s recommended dilution
4-IPA wipe 50/50 dilution and 16x16 Chinchilla MF
5-Wolfgang Deep Gloss 3.0 Sealant
6-Nxt 3.0 Wax
7-Meguiars Quick Detailer in between washes
8-Undercarriage? I live in the N.E. and would like to keep the undercarriage clean how can I do this without taking the car to auto washes? The car too low to access at self serve washes as well. Was thinking of jacking it up and cleaning it that way, but what a pain.

Thanks!

Overkill on the protection side and underachieving on the prep side IMHO. ANYTIME you clay, you need to follow up with a polishing step. And I wouldn`t use Meg`s QD in between steps. Just after.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David Fermani

Overkill on the protection side and underachieving on the prep side IMHO. ANYTIME you clay, you need to follow up with a polishing step. And I wouldn`t use Meg`s QD in between steps. Just after.

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^_^ I agree I wish I could use the DA. Would you suggest I do a polish by hand then? Is that what you are referring to? I meant Megs QD between washes not steps my mistake.

If you can`t follow claying with a fine polish, I would strongly suggest doing a test spot to see the extent of marring the clay is producing. Depending on the level of marring you get will determine how aggressive you`ll need to polish afterwards. Light marring can be removed by hand with something light like HD Polish or HD Speed, but again doing this by machine is ultimately the best option. I personally don`t care for Meg`s QD due to how it really coats the paint with silicone, but that could be a decent thing in your case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David Fermani

If you can`t follow claying with a fine polish, I would strongly suggest doing a test spot to see the extent of marring the clay is producing. Depending on the level of marring you get will determine how aggressive you`ll need to polish afterwards. Light marring can be removed by hand with something light like HD Polish or HD Speed, but again doing this by machine is ultimately the best option. I personally don`t care for Meg`s QD due to how it really coats the paint with silicone, but that could be a decent thing in your case.

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My main concern right now is protection and ease of washing next time around not the dazzle aspect yet ( WIll tackle that in the spring). With that said should I skip certain steps, maybe the NXT? Maybe I can do the Wolfgang sealant and then Colinite 845 on top of that? I`m trying to keep the snow slush from being to hard to clean up when it snows.

Skip the clay and go with 845. Top with a spray wax every wash. Done.

Xtian85- I`m with David Fermani on this, rethink your approach a little bit.

Here`s how I`d do it in your situation as I understand it (leaving the Winter thing aside for now):

I`d wash hit, and then go over the car with an All-In-One and then top that with FK1000P. Maintain with a spray wax or "leaves stuff behind"-type rinseless wash used as a drying aid when you wash and maybe refresh the wax when the beading changes.

DO NOT TOUCH IT WITH A QD BETWEEN WASHES! You`ll just mar it up if you try that.

If you don`t have an AIO and don`t want to buy one, just skip that. If you already have 845 and don`t want to buy FK1000P then just use that (I`ve used Collinite for decades, it`s OK). Skip the NXT, skip the Wolfgang sealant. Skip the Meguiar`s QD. Just keep it simple and don`t waste time/effort on things that won`t really yield any benefits. Seriously, most of my sealants just sit on the shelf because they`re not *really* all that special. Nothing wrong with 845, although it doesn`t last as long as their 476S. While I do think FK1000P is in a class by itself, my older Audi still wears Collinite and it gets through Winter OK.

I agree with David about the claying- in your situation you may well mar up the paint and make polishing more necessary.

Yes, I`d pull the wheels and clean things up properly. I`d probably wait until Spring if you`re dealing with winter now. For the time being just keep things flushed out and clean as best you can with the wheels on.

(Thought- are you running winter wheels/tires? Sorry to go off-topic but I`m a fanatic about that, even on my 4WD/AWD vehicles.)

Come Spring, if your calipers show through the wheels I`d try sealing them and see how that goes (I seal the ones on my S8 and it works OK). But don`t then wash them with something like Wheel Cleaner that`ll clean off the sealant. Eh, I only do that on one of my vehicles, the others (when I can get to the calipers, can`t on two vehicles) I just wash the calipers each time I wash.

I`d coat the wheels (front and back) with one of the new coatings; waxes and sealants don`t work as well and don`t last long unless you pick something that layers and then get >4 coats on there. Or just do a quickie with a user-friendly product (e.g.,- wash thoroughly each time and wipe on something that`s easy. Yeah, you`ll have to do it every wash but it`ll only take a moment). It`s all a matter of how much you care and how involved you want to get with it.

Just how involved *can* you get with this at every wash? I always jack mine up and do their undercarriages properly. Yeah, every wash. But it`s sure a big production! You should at least flush out the wheelwells and any areas that can retain snow/salt/crap so it doesn`t sit there and lead to corrosion. Look at vehicles similar to yours and see where they rust out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Accumulator

Xtian85- I`m with David Fermani on this, rethink your approach a little bit.

Here`s how I`d do it in your situation as I understand it (leaving the Winter thing aside for now):

I`d wash hit, and then go over the car with an All-In-One and then top that with FK1000P. Maintain with a spray wax or "leaves stuff behind"-type rinseless wash used as a drying aid when you wash and maybe refresh the wax when the beading changes.

DO NOT TOUCH IT WITH A QD BETWEEN WASHES! You`ll just mar it up if you try that.

If you don`t have an AIO and don`t want to buy one, just skip that. If you already have 845 and don`t want to buy FK1000P then just use that (I`ve used Collinite for decades, it`s OK). Skip the NXT, skip the Wolfgang sealant. Skip the Meguiar`s QD. Just keep it simple and don`t waste time/effort on things that won`t really yield any benefits. Seriously, most of my sealants just sit on the shelf because they`re not *really* all that special. Nothing wrong with 845, although it doesn`t last as long as their 476S. While I do think FK1000P is in a class by itself, my older Audi still wears Collinite and it gets through Winter OK.

I agree with David about the claying- in your situation you may well mar up the paint and make polishing more necessary.

Yes, I`d pull the wheels and clean things up properly. I`d probably wait until Spring if you`re dealing with winter now. For the time being just keep things flushed out and clean as best you can with the wheels on.

(Thought- are you running winter wheels/tires? Sorry to go off-topic but I`m a fanatic about that, even on my 4WD/AWD vehicles.)

Come Spring, if your calipers show through the wheels I`d try sealing them and see how that goes (I seal the ones on my S8 and it works OK). But don`t then wash them with something like Wheel Cleaner that`ll clean off the sealant. Eh, I only do that on one of my vehicles, the others (when I can get to the calipers, can`t on two vehicles) I just wash the calipers each time I wash.

I`d coat the wheels (front and back) with one of the new coatings; waxes and sealants don`t work as well and don`t last long unless you pick something that layers and then get >4 coats on there. Or just do a quickie with a user-friendly product (e.g.,- wash thoroughly each time and wipe on something that`s easy. Yeah, you`ll have to do it every wash but it`ll only take a moment). It`s all a matter of how much you care and how involved you want to get with it.

Just how involved *can* you get with this at every wash? I always jack mine up and do their undercarriages properly. Yeah, every wash. But it`s sure a big production! You should at least flush out the wheelwells and any areas that can retain snow/salt/crap so it doesn`t sit there and lead to corrosion. Look at vehicles similar to yours and see where they rust out.

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Thanks a lot for your response I`m going to go back to this shortly. So far I removed wheels washed clayed and waxed with what I had, which was the Colinite. It took me forever. Also cleaned wheel wells by hand and a Echo sprayer haha it worked pretty well. The Sonax I used on the wheels worked AMAZING but the ODOR is way too strong had to open everything up for a while to vent it.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7500/...c49e61df_c.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7570/...3d2172bc_c.jpg

Xtian85- That`s looking great!

Given how long that took, probably a good thing that you didn`t try to do more. Nice to see the floorjack in that last pic, it`ll be handy for keeping the wheelwells clean.

Gotta say that I shudder to think of your brake rotor hats being subjected to winter salt though....I think I`d try some kind of rust preventative on the vulnerable-looking fasteners (and anything else you don`t want rusty).