MnRiverman
New member
I haven't been around here very much as I have been extremely busy with vortex, but I didn't forget about this place. Below is a post I did for the R32 forum encouraging the people to wax their cars before winter (also the very simple explanations of the products). 
Just figured I'd share with you all also!
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I'll start off by saying there must be some chemical imbalance in my head that causes me to be so anal about cars and detailing. I love clean cars, and I have for as long as I can remember. The comments and looks I have gotten from my neighbors when washing my cars in the dead of winter (even when there is snow on the ground) are pretty interesting. On that note, a nice trick for winter washings is under armour cold gear, neoprene gloves, and mixing some hot water your wash water. Anyways....
It has been a bit over 10 weeks with my R32. I bought the car on August 13th and did the first detailing a week after that. The first detailing is always the hardest, as you have the leftover adhesive residue to remove that was leftover from transit/dealer prepping. My first detailing consisted of 3M Adhesive Remover to clean off the areas with adhesive residue, a good washing, polishing with 3M Swirl Mark Remover for Dark Colored Cars (Using a Porter-Cable 7424 and a polishing pad from www.properautocare.com), and then finishing with 3M Show Car Paste Wax. Tornado Red, or all reds in general, are a very rewarding color. Like black, red's show swirl marks fairly easily, especially tornado red since it is a non-metallic paint. However, a freshly polished and waxed red car shines very well, as you will see from the following pictures.
It was a little over two months when I decided to do the pre-winter detailing this past weekend, and honestly, my car sits in the garage and is washed once a week, and I could have stretched it another month before another detailing. However, the weather was absolutely perfect (about 80) which is abnormal for this time of year, so I decided to go ahead and do it.
Since I did the swirl mark remover when I first got the car, and I used high quality washing products for my washings, I did not have any swirls on the car. I use a microfiber wash mitt from CMA, a separate chenille wash mitt for the wheels and fender liners, and another chenille wash mitt for the bumpers and side skirts. By doing this, and by using different wash buckets for the wheels/bumpers and the body of the car, I am able to contain potential damaging dirt to one section of the car and its respective wash mitt. Under no circumstance should you use a wash mitt that you clean the wheels with to wash the body of the car. The separate wash mitt for the bumpers and side skirts is because I am anal, as I explained in my first paragraph.
Given my excellent condition of my paint, this time I used a very gentle cleaner, which many argue is more of a glaze than a cleaner. The product is S100 Shine Enhancing Paint Cleanser, which is the same thing as P21S Gloss Enhancing Paint Cleanser. The S100 is marketed for motorcycles and is sold by Harley Davidson dealers, which is why I bought it as there is a dealership local to me. I also bought the S100 wax, which is the same as the P21S wax (or at least no differences have been identified), but it is also available locally and is half the cost. I use this wax sometimes as it is extremely easy to apply, but does not last as long as the 3M wax, which was not acceptable this time as I need the wax to last until spring (which is already a stretch).
After I finished the car with SEPC, I whipped out my handy $10 3M Show Car Paste Wax that I picked up two years ago and have barely used half of the 10 ounce container, and I went to work. Some people complain that the 3M wax is hard to remove, but I have never had any issues. I use separate microfiber towels to remove both the cleaner and the wax, and they work like a charm. With the 3M wax, you have to let it cure on the paint for a little bit, which is usually about 2-3 minutes based on the temperature. The whole process this time took me only about 3 hours, where as the first detailing took about 6 hours.
I then went up to my favorite local photo shoot location (Algonkian Regional Park) and went to work. The camera is a Nikon D70 with a Sandisk Ultra II 1gig CF card. I was a little bummed to see that I missed most of the fall foliage by about a week, but I was able to get some good shots anyway. As you can see from these pictures, the paint is absolutely spotless and extremely bright. So bright that it actually confused the color balance of my camera a few times!
Unfortunately you don't get those really cool reflections like a black or blue car will give, but it sure is bright enough for me.
- Anthony
Just figured I'd share with you all also!
----------------------------------------
I'll start off by saying there must be some chemical imbalance in my head that causes me to be so anal about cars and detailing. I love clean cars, and I have for as long as I can remember. The comments and looks I have gotten from my neighbors when washing my cars in the dead of winter (even when there is snow on the ground) are pretty interesting. On that note, a nice trick for winter washings is under armour cold gear, neoprene gloves, and mixing some hot water your wash water. Anyways....
It has been a bit over 10 weeks with my R32. I bought the car on August 13th and did the first detailing a week after that. The first detailing is always the hardest, as you have the leftover adhesive residue to remove that was leftover from transit/dealer prepping. My first detailing consisted of 3M Adhesive Remover to clean off the areas with adhesive residue, a good washing, polishing with 3M Swirl Mark Remover for Dark Colored Cars (Using a Porter-Cable 7424 and a polishing pad from www.properautocare.com), and then finishing with 3M Show Car Paste Wax. Tornado Red, or all reds in general, are a very rewarding color. Like black, red's show swirl marks fairly easily, especially tornado red since it is a non-metallic paint. However, a freshly polished and waxed red car shines very well, as you will see from the following pictures.
It was a little over two months when I decided to do the pre-winter detailing this past weekend, and honestly, my car sits in the garage and is washed once a week, and I could have stretched it another month before another detailing. However, the weather was absolutely perfect (about 80) which is abnormal for this time of year, so I decided to go ahead and do it.
Since I did the swirl mark remover when I first got the car, and I used high quality washing products for my washings, I did not have any swirls on the car. I use a microfiber wash mitt from CMA, a separate chenille wash mitt for the wheels and fender liners, and another chenille wash mitt for the bumpers and side skirts. By doing this, and by using different wash buckets for the wheels/bumpers and the body of the car, I am able to contain potential damaging dirt to one section of the car and its respective wash mitt. Under no circumstance should you use a wash mitt that you clean the wheels with to wash the body of the car. The separate wash mitt for the bumpers and side skirts is because I am anal, as I explained in my first paragraph.
Given my excellent condition of my paint, this time I used a very gentle cleaner, which many argue is more of a glaze than a cleaner. The product is S100 Shine Enhancing Paint Cleanser, which is the same thing as P21S Gloss Enhancing Paint Cleanser. The S100 is marketed for motorcycles and is sold by Harley Davidson dealers, which is why I bought it as there is a dealership local to me. I also bought the S100 wax, which is the same as the P21S wax (or at least no differences have been identified), but it is also available locally and is half the cost. I use this wax sometimes as it is extremely easy to apply, but does not last as long as the 3M wax, which was not acceptable this time as I need the wax to last until spring (which is already a stretch).
After I finished the car with SEPC, I whipped out my handy $10 3M Show Car Paste Wax that I picked up two years ago and have barely used half of the 10 ounce container, and I went to work. Some people complain that the 3M wax is hard to remove, but I have never had any issues. I use separate microfiber towels to remove both the cleaner and the wax, and they work like a charm. With the 3M wax, you have to let it cure on the paint for a little bit, which is usually about 2-3 minutes based on the temperature. The whole process this time took me only about 3 hours, where as the first detailing took about 6 hours.
I then went up to my favorite local photo shoot location (Algonkian Regional Park) and went to work. The camera is a Nikon D70 with a Sandisk Ultra II 1gig CF card. I was a little bummed to see that I missed most of the fall foliage by about a week, but I was able to get some good shots anyway. As you can see from these pictures, the paint is absolutely spotless and extremely bright. So bright that it actually confused the color balance of my camera a few times!
Unfortunately you don't get those really cool reflections like a black or blue car will give, but it sure is bright enough for me.
- Anthony
I live here in the Ashburn area, 15 minutes away from Algonkian, we will have to meet up some time and detail, I totally forgot that Algonkian would be a killer place for a photo shoot, duh! Anyways keep it clean, if you see a Clean Aegean Blue Acura CL-S, that would be me, and dont try to race me if u do----I dont want be embarrassed 
jk haha.
