Greetings all... perpetual amateur detailer here. Guess it's in my blood. My grandfather has always been hyper-particular about his cars (he always had a "sunday" car that never got dirty). My father owned a body shop til I was about 6 or 7 years old, so he'd spend a week cleaning & detailing the family car before taking it on vacation (& then getting it totally trashed). It seems to be an inherited trait... I've always ended up washing & waxing my boss' cars through the years, for some reason. I even worked as a detailer at an auto dealership while in college. For some reason, I always avoided using buffers & polishers tho... I guess because my dad got careless a few times & burnt the paint off of a few seams & body lines. (oops!). I'm hoping to get over that fear now & really step my abilities up a notch. Am slowly working my way up to the starting gate. Have a couple of rides now that I'd like to maintain as good as possible. Granted, it's not easy in southern California... especially in the high desert with blistering heat & a LOT of dust/dirt- but I guess it's better than the salt-covered roads of Ohio where I grew up.
My rides aren't necessarily anything spectacular, I just want to keep them looking as good as possible. Daily driver is an '04 Saturn Vue V6 in Rainforest Green (5500 miles so far)... a really nice color (wasn't my first choice), but will be a challenge to keep such a dark color "moisturized" in this hot, dry climate. I swore I'd never own another dark-colored car again after I sold my '96 moonlight blue thunderbird sport, but the satty was exactly what I wanted (except for the color). My spare/toy is an '01 Mustang GT convertible (31,500 miles) in triple-white that I just bought a few weeks ago. The white convertible top has proven to be a major challenge. It's so dusty around here & it gets ground into the top when I put it down. Want to hit it a few more times with Ragg Topp before I apply the protectant. I USED to have an ultra-rare '98 Lincoln Mark VIII LSC spring feature edition (1 of 117)- that I sold last fall with 26,000 miles on it, but it spent WAY too much time just sitting in the garage.
Have used most of the off-the-shelf products, but most frequently use Super Glaze by the Waxx Shoppe. Has a bit more solvent content than I'd like, but is SO fast & you can go right onto the black trim with it. Doesn't powder-up either. I did the Saturn start-to-finish in less than 2 hours. By the time you've got it all applied, you can start taking it off. Sheesh... being a homeowner sure cuts down on detailing time... a typical wash job takes me about 2 hours per vehicle. I've avoided the high-end products becase I'm CHEAP! Who knows, I may yet overcome that as well...
My rides aren't necessarily anything spectacular, I just want to keep them looking as good as possible. Daily driver is an '04 Saturn Vue V6 in Rainforest Green (5500 miles so far)... a really nice color (wasn't my first choice), but will be a challenge to keep such a dark color "moisturized" in this hot, dry climate. I swore I'd never own another dark-colored car again after I sold my '96 moonlight blue thunderbird sport, but the satty was exactly what I wanted (except for the color). My spare/toy is an '01 Mustang GT convertible (31,500 miles) in triple-white that I just bought a few weeks ago. The white convertible top has proven to be a major challenge. It's so dusty around here & it gets ground into the top when I put it down. Want to hit it a few more times with Ragg Topp before I apply the protectant. I USED to have an ultra-rare '98 Lincoln Mark VIII LSC spring feature edition (1 of 117)- that I sold last fall with 26,000 miles on it, but it spent WAY too much time just sitting in the garage.
Have used most of the off-the-shelf products, but most frequently use Super Glaze by the Waxx Shoppe. Has a bit more solvent content than I'd like, but is SO fast & you can go right onto the black trim with it. Doesn't powder-up either. I did the Saturn start-to-finish in less than 2 hours. By the time you've got it all applied, you can start taking it off. Sheesh... being a homeowner sure cuts down on detailing time... a typical wash job takes me about 2 hours per vehicle. I've avoided the high-end products becase I'm CHEAP! Who knows, I may yet overcome that as well...
