Quik Question

B

Buick_guy

New member
Ok, I'm new here and really am into cars. I am 15, and love detailing my parents cars. I have had a couple of people come up to me and ask who did our Infiniti FX, and when I told them I did it, they asked if I would be willing to detail their cars. They offered me 100 dollars Canadian, so I though that was fair. I usually just do a quick claybaring, and then a coat of cleaner wax.



Now my questions:



What kind of products that I could get for a resonable price, could I use to make sure they won't be dissappointed. I have never really used a "polish" with a cutting compound in it.



Does it make much of a difference?





Also, What kind of wax would you reccomend. I don't think they have the meguiars NXT, so I guess thats out. I have tried the meguiars cleaner wax, and mothers carnuba cleaner wax, but I would really like my customers to be shocked when they see their car.



So,what kind of polish should I use. I have been hearing alot about a "colour-x", or "scratch-x" or somthing like that. Is this good stuff? How much of a effect will it have of paint compared to just doing a cleaner wax?



Also, what kind of product can I use for blackening the wheel wells?



What kind of wax can I use on clear coat rims? I have some mothers chrome polish that I've gotten really acustumed with, and I like, but I don't know about the others.



I don't know what s100 is, what does it do?





Sorry about the long thread, but I really want to be able to do a really good job on my customers cars.
 
If you took a look at their vehicle,does it look like it needs to have any swirl/scratch removal done?From my understanding ColorX is more of a cleaner and ScratchX is a scratch remover.If there is very slightly small scratches then IMO you can use #9.As for your polish you can go either way with Megs,PB,CK.What color is the vehicle you plan on detailing?Light or dark?Sealants look better on lighter colored vehicles and carnauba on darker ones.Look through pics on here and make your decision on what you want to use as your topper.Hopefully others can chime in on this one.



As for the wheel wells you can use Meg's Engine Coat since alot of ppl have success using them or you can use Armor All.S100 is a paste wax that you can get @ HD bike shops.Its just like P21S which is made for cars while S100 is made for motorcyles.Another paste wax you can get is #16 from Meg's.Its similar in looks as compared to S100 cept' that its more durable.



Also try using the search button feature located at the top right hand side of the screen:p
 
There is a ton of great information here, but much of it is already here. Use the "Learn" button above and find the "Acronyms" link on the front page.



The third great tool is the "Search" button. Much of what you ask will turn up in multiple threads.



Above all, we all have different preferences, so "what should I use" questions will have different answers for everyone.



Have fun here.



Buick_guy said:
could somone please help me :(
Click to expand...
 
I did, but I like to have direct answers to my questions, so I don't have to gather little bits and pieces, and then miss somthing important. Thanks for the info.





I still don't know what these #16's and stuff.
 
15, wow, way to start early and already had a good general sense of detailing! (i thought i knew what i was diong, untill i found this place...ANYWAYS, in the upper left corner, click on the "learn" button and start reading! Thats what you do here, read read read. Helped me answer my first few initial questions, then go from there. S100 is a carnauba wax, no cleaners, avaible at your local harley dealers (do they have those in canada)? As far as your wheelwells, lots of members recoment meguairs engine kote, i just got some, ill have to try it out, previously i was using armorall, with decent sucess. As far as the "wow" shine, depends on your budget i guess. The rave about wolfgang products has been huge, i wish i had the funds to try it out, but i have a butload of klasse still left to use up (still an EXELLENT product). I would recmend you go the synthetic route, better durability, and then top with a carnauba wax, such as S100, or megs #16 (better durability). On the chrome rims, you can also use klasse or wolfgang (or whatever you want...). Swirl removing/polishing, get some Megs #82 SFP, and for heavier stuff #83. Ok, ive rambled long enough. That "search" button is your friend, go to some reading and come back with some questions, we are here to help!



-Bryan
 
s100 is a popular wax



a popular method for wheels is to apply klasse to them



color x seems to be a strong cleaner wax with synthetic properties to it... thats what I remember at least. Im sure that it would work well for you.



scratch x will remove swirls better than color x. It is a bit more abrasive. It was made for hand use. There are a lot of great products that would work well for you. Look at scottwax's posts. He does his work by hand and has excelent results. He mentions some good products to use. I would mention them, but I forgot what they are exactly :nixweiss





Other than that, just look at everything that you can on this web site. There is a ton of good information.
 
thanks man. It helps out alot when people are nice and friendly. I know some people that I have had replies just said, " didn't you ever hear of the search button?" That kind of puts you off on a forum, since its kind of a general stereotype you develop when you first go somewhere.



Thanks again.:wavey



What would you reccomend me doing? I am going to be doing a mossy green 2003 ford escape that has never been waxed or anything. Should be some bad looking paint. Any thing that I should look out for with paint? What kind of products are there for a detailer on a budget. Keep in mind that I'm just working out of my triple garage, so I don't have shop.
 
have lots of towels (microfiber or cotton... which ever you use) for removing wax and all of that. If you run out of towels when working on your own cars it doesnt really matter... you can just wash them and resume when they are clean. But you want to get a customers car done right away. Thats a problem I had... those extra towels are good "just in case".
 
thinksnow said:
There is a ton of great information here, but much of it is already here. Use the "Learn" button above and find the "Acronyms" link on the front page.



The third great tool is the "Search" button. Much of what you ask will turn up in multiple threads.



Above all, we all have different preferences, so "what should I use" questions will have different answers for everyone.



Have fun here.
Click to expand...



Hmm tried helping this guy out too but for some reason still felt the need to start 2 new threads to his question?:rolleyes:
 
first of all, bookmark this page:

http://www.autopia.org/display.php?file=acronyms.htm



It has all the acronyms us autopians refer too, I use it regulary. As far as having towells, I second that. Right now I only have 4 MFs (12"x12") and 2 Big Blues, which is fine for one car, but if you start doing multiples your going to need more. www.pakshak.com has great MFs, from what ive hear, never tried them, also check out www.properautocare.com and topoftheline.com for lots of detaling products. As far as a budget detailer, get some Megs FD in a gallon, its only like 17 bucks, and works great. Get a few MFs, depending on how many cars you will be doing at once, get some good washing mitts and soap (what are you using?) or try out QEW if you dont want to use a hose. (do a search on QEW, TONS OF INFO). If it were me for products, I would get a bottle of megs 82, 83, 16, and 22 i think, whatever the polymer sealant is,. There are great products out there, ie i use klasse, but all megs products makes for ease of ordering if you have too. Im sure others will chime in with their recomendations, you really cant go wrong, btw, famous and TRUE saying, "90% of the final result is in the prep," or something like that. Keep the questions comin...good luck on that escape. Why dont you give us a rundwon on your normal detailing process, so we can help you critique it for better results. Ok, another long post, ill take a break, CSI is on....





-Bryan
 
doooooode, i was in detailing product discussion, and i see your post, read the remarks, pretty much same as mine, and im like dooooode, thats not me, where did my post go? I spent some good quality time on that:D . ANYWAYS, try not to post 2 threads on the same topic, although it was cool, kinda tripped me out. O ya, if you dont post pics after your detail, its grounds for an automatic autopian ban!:D



-Bryan
 
if they like what you did to your parents car so much that they came up and offered you money then do what you did to your parents car on theirs. I think you should use stuff your familar with or have at least tried yourself before you experiment on customers cars. Just my opinion though. Good luck
 
Hi there. I suggest checking out the Learn! link near the top of the page. There's also more articles at the autopia-carcare.com site, but I believe they overlap a bit.



You really should be equipped with a fairly wide range of polishes if you're dealing random with "client" cars. If you try to take on all the jobs you may get while unequipped to perform as much correction as is needed, you will probably get quite frustrated and disappoint your customers.



You should have "a few" carefully chosen polishes ranging from very mild to fairly aggressive, and know how to use them, so that you can deal with most paint problems that come your way.



The final wax you use is less important than having a good selection of polishes and being effective in using them, because prep is the crucial thing. You really have to (or really should) perfect the paint before continuing on to the wax stage.



For clear coated wheels, you should really just treat them like body paint. Do NOT use chrome polish or any other metal or wheel polish that does not say it is safe to use on clear coated wheels.



Acronyms and Meguiar's numbered products are found here (on the homepage on the left): http://www.autopia.org/display.php?file=acronyms.htm
 
:welcome to Autopia



~One man’s opinion / observations ~



I’m sure that your beginning to learn by now that detailing is quite an involved process, the best advice I could offer to someone starting out is to read “Autopia Guide to Detailing� by DavidB is available as a free download on this site. Read the book, if you have questions that a search / learn icon doesn’t answer I’m sure someone on this forum will be glad to offer help / advice.



I wish you luck and admire your willingness to learn (and earn money while doing so) :xyxthumbs





~Hope this helps~



Experience unshared; is knowledge wasted…/



justadumbarchitect *so I question everything*
 
Thanks man, I like to hear the "happiness" for lack of a better word on this site. I will read the guide, and I'm going to go and buy some different polishes. Thanks again.
 
Nice to see a bit of young enterprise.

Try and understand exactly what they expect from the detail ie if they have a SUV that hasn't been washed for months with scratches, swirl marks etc and they want a near perfect finish at the end then maybe $100 is not a good offer. If they want a wash and wax and have never noticed swirl marks then going to the extreme is not really in your interest.

To remove swirl marks you really need a PC as by hand is hard and time consuming so I would :



Use at least 2 buckets (wash and clean)

get a decent shampoo (eg Meguiars Gold Class)

and get lots of decent MF towels, waffle weave etc

get a couple of good wash mitts



Wash carefully

clay

wash again

cleaner wax (maybe not needed)

polish with fillers eg 3M IHG (help hide the swirls)

either a polymer sealant or carnauba (eg S100/P21s) OR both



make sure wheels/tyres (meguiars have decent products)and glass (I use Autoglym but not sure on availability over there) are spotless as this makes the car look 10x cleaner.



For a $100 I think they will be getting a very good deal!



steve
 
SP 325i said:
Nice to see a bit of young enterprise.

Try and understand exactly what they expect from the detail ie if they have a SUV that hasn't been washed for months with scratches, swirl marks etc and they want a near perfect finish at the end then maybe $100 is not a good offer. If they want a wash and wax and have never noticed swirl marks then going to the extreme is not really in your interest.

To remove swirl marks you really need a PC as by hand is hard and time consuming so I would :



Use at least 2 buckets (wash and clean)

get a decent shampoo (eg Meguiars Gold Class)

and get lots of decent MF towels, waffle weave etc

get a couple of good wash mitts



Wash carefully

clay

wash again

cleaner wax (maybe not needed)

polish with fillers eg 3M IHG (help hide the swirls)

either a polymer sealant or carnauba (eg S100/P21s) OR both



make sure wheels/tyres (meguiars have decent products)and glass (I use Autoglym but not sure on availability over there) are spotless as this makes the car look 10x cleaner.



For a $100 I think they will be getting a very good deal!



steve
Click to expand...





Hey, I have a random orbital polisher, would that work close to a PC? I also didn't think you could use cleaner wax, then put on a coat of somthing else, after reading these threads. Interesting, thanks for the help.
 
Quote: Hey, I have a random orbital polisher, would that work close to a PC?



~One man’s opinion / observations ~



PC is acronym for Porter-Cable a company that manufactures a professional grade random orbital polisher; it has a motor of 3.7 amps and an adjustable speed range of 2,500 – 6,000 oscillations per minute. I don’t know what you have available but I’m sure used with care will give you the result your looking for. Many of the members of this forum apply detailing products by hand, so a machine is not 100% essential .





~Hope this helps~



Experience unshared; is knowledge wasted…/



justadumbarchitect *so I question everything*
 
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