Compltely new to REAL detailing

[offroadwonder]

Hello all...



I have always enjoyed keeping well maintained vehicles (mechanically and visually), but when the Air Force gave me orders to move to Florida I found myself watching helplessly as my previously nearly perfect paint started to wither away before my eyes. Rust started showing up underneath and small paint imperfections started to turn into major problems.



Since then that vehicle has been traded, but I now have a collection of reasonably nice vehicles that I would like to keep nice enough that I would be willing to take them with me when I get orders to leave this car-eating state.



So, in an effort to restore what I have before it is too late, I googled auto detailing and stumbled on this site. I LOVE IT! I am new and I know it, and I'm here to learn...



My first step is getting all my glass in perfect condition again. The salt and water spots are driving me bananas, and it kills me that water doesn't bead off the windows like it should.



Tips are appreciated... :2thumbs:

 

[Mike_Phillips]

Welcome to Autopia!



If you have next Saturday or Sunday off think about attending this year's Detail Fest here in Stuart, Florida.



Many of the most popular manufactures of products discussed here on Autopia will be at Detail Fest so you can talk to company reps in person.



There will be two machine buffing classes on Saturday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and all the polishers will be out in our brand new Training Garage for anyone to pick up and test out as well as just about every foam pad you can name, wool pad you can think of and of Surbuf MicroFinger pads.



Pictured below and available to test out are,



Porter Cable 7424XP, Meguiar's G110v2, Griot's Garage ROP and 3" Mini Polisher, Flex 3401, Flex Lightweight 3403, Flex 603, Makita 9227C, Dewalt 849 and the Cyclo Polisher as well as Meguiar's new Unigrit Finishing System.









List of Manufacturers that will be at Detail Fest:

PBMA Products- Pinnacle, Wolfgang, DP, XMT, Diamondite Cobra- Robert “Max” McKee

Griots Garage- Jason Killmer, Steve Kovach, Rob Wood

Meguiars- David Pedre

Flex- Bob Eichelberg

Mothers- Forrest Tosie and Robert Marr

Grit Guard- Chris Lamb

Lake Country- Eric Dunn

Menzerna- Jeff Silver

Dewalt

Porter Cable

Dodo- PJ Aass

Optimum- David Ghodoussi

Cyclo- Cody Sutherland

Poorboys Products- Steve Schreier and Chris Grehl

P21s- Bruce Maus

3M- Dennis Povio

Ultima Products- Rick Vaal

Mobile Tech- Kevin Halewood

RaggTopp- Rick Goldstein

Flitz- Chad Goodwin

Covercraft- Brian Schmidt

Metro Vac- David Stern

IAP- Aaron Krause

Black Wow- Richard Linn

Lexol

303

AutoTrader Classics- Michael Boulton







Here's where you can get all the information about this event



Official Detail Fest 2010 Information Thread





If you want to attend one of the machine polishing classes you have to be signed up and you can do that here,



Autogeek Detail Fest Registration





Note that Rich Evans from Huntington Beach Bodyworks will be our guest of honor this year and Rich and his team are the creative talent behind the amazing paintwork on this truck. Myself along with a crew from Meguiar's were in charge of sanding and buffing the paint on both the Meguiar's big rigs and there was plenty of real estate to go around... everyone involved was able to sand and buff to their hearts desire.

Rich Evans is famous for his "Blade Style" of flames and graphics, this is his logo which is in the lower right hand corner of the back of the truck on both sides.

Austin Weiss will also...





Austin Weiss of Streamline Designs at Detail Fest 2010





If you haven't already, clear your schedule to attend this year's Detail Fest!



For all you bike fans, Austin Weiss of Streamline Designs will be at Detail Fest this year with his custom designed bike,



Killin Time!

Stuart, Florida isn't too far from you so check it out...





:sadwavey:

 

[JohnKleven]

Welcome to Autopia, a place to learn. Great first post.





John

 

[Mike_Phillips]

My first step is getting all my glass in perfect condition again.



The salt and water spots are driving me bananas, and it kills me that water doesn't bead off the windows like it should.



Tips are appreciated... :2thumbs:

At Detail Fest on Sunday there is a "Try before you buy" feature where you can try any product you're interested in to see if it works or if you like it or both and we'll have a lot of glass polishing product on hand.



As for the topic of glass cleaning,



Here's a very old thread from 2005 on this subject that is discussed at length, (or to death).



Glass Polishing - Deep Cleaning





I lived in Oregon most of my life and water spot on glass and paint are a regular problem.



As a detailer, here's the deal, you can't buff out a customer's car and make the paint all shiny and then return to them a car with shiny paint but with water spots all over the glass, so suffice to say, I've had a lot of experience buffing on glass as discussed in the thread.



The topic of chunky abrasives is discussed for sure because so many people in that thread kept asking about other products and they just never picked up on what's needed is something kind of chunky that at the same time won't scratch glass.

 

[offroadwonder]

Won't get to make it to that. Sounds awesome though, and it is close by Florida standards. I ride my bike up to Daytona every once in a while, Stuart would be a nice ride too.



And thanks for the window info...