Newbie Detailing Thread #100...

J

jhigday

New member
I'm sure they're tons of threads about this stuff, and if your going to tell me to use the search button, please don't.



Okay, here we go.



My name is Josh. I'm a seventeen year old who a while got a car.



I ended up getting a 2003 Arctic Blue Acura RSX Type-S. Unfortantly, with my parents being retarded and buying a pool table which takes up all of the garage. My car had to sit outside during an Oregon winter which included, a few days of three inches of rain. My cars paint was beaten up. I got a summer job to get some extra money, and by reading the forums I went to Lowes and got the following:



A Shopvac(i don't know how my parents survived without one)

A Porter Cable.



With that, I decided to go on autotopia car care and purchase about two hundred dollars worth of accessories and stuff that I couldn't get locally.



Now the following products I have bought, and are sitting neat on a table in my garage, even though its not a garage. With the stuff listed above:



Klasse AIO

Meguiars NXT Generation Liquid Wax

Meguiars NXT Generation Car Wash

Meguiars Quik Clay Detailing System

Sonus SFX Foam Polishing Pads

Meguiars NXT Generation Insane Shine Tire Coating

Meguiars ScratchX

Meguiars NXT Generation Tech Protect

a couple Meguiars drying towels



It's a start isn't it? I hope i didn't buy anythign wrong.



Before the winter started my car was perfect, no swirls, not a single scratch, no nothing. Zoom into today, I have minor scratches on the passenger door, and the hood of my car, and minor swirls(im guessing from my poor car washing skills). And with it being summer, I believe the cars paint is never ever cool enough to throughly detail it.



I got all this stuff, and i have no skill what so ever. I feel ashamed driving a beautiful car(in my opinion). and having it be constantly dirty due to it not being waxed, and it having too many imperfections. Help me out. Please. I'm not totally clueless, i just need a little nudge to keep going at it.



Questions that I need answered are:



1) With my car having no shade, It would be a bad idea for me to go out and try to detail my car right?



2) What other products do I need? I know some of you guys have tons of stuff, tell me your favorites of stuff I absolutely need to keep my car in great shape.



3) Now I live in the middle of nowhere, so we don't have any places that sell a decent stock of car cleaning stuff. What are the best places to buy online, besides ofcourse autopia.



Thanks for your time.
 
Here are some pictures.



First one is my car dirty



Second one is a detailed picture of the paint when its clean



Third one shows dreaded water spots I can't get rid of(AIO, Clay etc)
 

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If you never have any shade, just wait for a cloudy day to detail it, or do it in sections. Do some one day shortly after dawn, or shortly before dusk. Then do some more the next day, and so on...



I'd get some Nattys Paste Wax, either the regular or the blue version. They're both very nice. Use Klasse AIO and then Nattys. Or since your car is outside most or all of the time, you may want to invest in a sealant like Klasse SG, FourStar UPP, Wolfgang sealant, etc... It will provide better protection than a wax would.
 
Start with a heavier red clay on the areas with water spotting using the quck detailer AND a seperate bottle filled with a high concentration of good wash solution such as Hyper-Wash .

Then polish out those areas with a yellow pad and M-8312 #83 and also work out your swirls with that same combo , then go up to a green pad and the same #83 and go over it at a slower speed , working a little faster .

Then move up to M-0916 #09 and your green pad ( after washing it out of the #83 ) . #83 is diminishing though so work it until almost dry , moving slowly across those troubled areas .

* Note * you should achieve better results using 3" or 4" pads on your pc to work out those troubled areas instead od normal 5" 6" pads



12 oz size is good , you can get 32 oz if you think youll need it again



Since your car sits outside get a few bug sponges also . You may need to polish out the areas you do again even though teh sponges are wetted before use .

For your washing use only a chenille mitt or sponge , two bucket method or one bucket + a grit guard . rinse with free flowing water and dry with waffle weave . Wash and dry in straight lines , not circles ..

Waffle weave water magnet towel and others are here



Now that you have everything worked out of the paint hopefully , wash it down with a dawn wash to remove the oils from the polishes and use your aio with a blue pad .

Give teh car a quick wash and dry using Meg's wash this time .

THEN USE A SEALANT after car is dryed such as Meguiar's Synthetic Sealant #21 .

Apply it with Applicator Pads

Maybe last coat or two with even applicator pad on MF page .

4 coats of #21 would be awesome , last coat applied with white polishing pad , and you could follow it up after it cures a few days with your NXT liquid wax over top for extra good looks .

Remember to use quality microfiber or one of Meg's plush terry towels ( with edges folded out of the way , not touching car ) to remove product after it is ready ..

A weekly rinse down , bi-weekly gentle washing and a quick spray of your wax should keep it looking good and the sealant will last months without needing a strip down and re-app . 3 months at a time if wax is over top would be a safe bet .



Working at night is ok , find the thread talkign about the sale on PepBoys halogen lights
 
Aren't there some products that are supposed to work OK in sunlight? This isn't anything I've thought about, but I vaguely recall people posting about working in the sun...
 
The SSRs do work very well in the sun, as do all of the PB's products that I've used. Working on a black car in the sun is still not a good idea though.



Oh yeah, ClearKote products are sun-friendly too. I've used both RMG and VM in the sun with no problems.
 
I ordered the SSRs today, hopefully that will help.



When applying wax there are cracks around the body, how do i prevent the wax from going into the cracks around the car?
 
jhigday said:
When applying wax there are cracks around the body, how do i prevent the wax from going into the cracks around the car?
Click to expand...



I use LSPs that don't "cake up" or leave white residue, and I apply them *very* thin. Just not having a bunch of excess wax will pretty much eliminate this problem. Work slowly and carefully around these areas and immediately wipe off any excess wax. The nap of a plush MF will often get down in crevices well enough if the wax hasn't already dried.
 
Everything you have is fine. You might want to consider some leather care products such as Lexol (you can get it at Pepboys). To remove thoes water marks you need to use SSR2.5 with the cutting pad and use the PC at speed 5 or 5.5. Use a slow arm speed to really work in the product. Its OK to work in sun, but its best not to. Your best choice is to wait to when its not hot, like later in the afternoon 5PM or early in the morning 7AM. Direct sun is more of a problem then the sun itself. After you compound you can use SSR1 to remove slight compound swrils or go directly to AIO. After that top with NXT and you'll be satisfied.
 
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