I invested in most every latest and greatest product discussed on Autogeek, obsessed over details while cleaning. Spent weekends detailing, cringed when it rained, bitched when the wife had to travel gravel. It got exhausting. I still love a finely detailed vehicle but I decided clean and shiny was good enough.

Threw out everything this spring and have gone to turtlewax hybrid solutions exclusively, super easy to use, can be found at most big box/auto stores and inexpensive. I couldn't be happier!

Attached File

This is one of the worst rabbit holes ever.  You can never achieve perfection because you are constantly consuming the object.

autopia and autogeek are both owned by the same parent company

A good rainstorm and once a year with the shop vac.

Terrible forum. It's nothing but guys testing high end detailing products on 1993 Chevy Berettas

Use a lighter to warm up the neck of the various brushes and bend them to working shapes. Be carefull when warming up the bristle area.

Detailed image is my website of choice

The filters are pure magic.  I have a cheaper one from CR Spotless.  I use it on a black car.  I don't even bother drying the car, just let it air dry.  No water spots.  The worst thing that happens is when the pollen is bad, some will fall in the water before its totally dry and stick behind.  But I'm not worried about it for a quick maintenance wash.  I do the leaf blower if I'm looking for perfection.

Just gotta make sure you check the TDS meter and change the filter media before it's needed.

Cleannnnnn.....

And that Mike guy thinks he's the detailing God.

Vossen makes a great wheel. truck looks great!

I went down the rabbit hole when I corrected the paint on one of my Porsches. Poorboys was my go-to

These days, I don't care about exterior perfection, or even cleanliness so much.

Earlier today, I wired some old emblems off a recently-acquired Land Cruiser, and the I goo-goned the residue, washed, clayed, and polished the area. Of course, now I'll have to do the whole damn vehicle.

I'm in the commercial car wash business, but I don't have the temperament or patience for true detailing. I can do what we call express details, but that is closer to a quick car clean up.    

Overall, Meguiars still has a pretty decent line of products that a lot of pros use.  They might not be the best in every category, but many detailers run successful businesses using their products exclusively. Meguiars is one of the few major brands that still have salesmen that run routes.

For a sealant, jescar powerlock is very easy to use and is very resistant to commercial car wash chemistry. Old school collinite lasts a long time too.  

The spray on ceramics (not true ceramics, but polymers btw) are so good now you get great gloss and a slick feel with very little effort. Heck, I just run mine through the car wash now and do a quick polish once or twice a year and it looks as good as a freshly detailed vehicle to 95% of the population.  

I still use my porter cable 7454 from a long time ago. Lake country pads are my go to for the last decade.

I also own a drill brush, Bissell pro carpet shampooer, and a McCullough 1385 steamer.

Been a while since I detailed my car but when I do. It will take 1-2 days for the exterior (I drive an Escalade esv) and half a day for the interior but it will look better than new.

I want to go an ozone machine one day and upgrade my polisher to a new higher torque one but then again the lower torque prevents me from taking off too much or burning my paint

Wet sanding a shitty paint job, great way to learn some technique. Attached File

Attached File

No fancy shinny Shit on this engine bay. Customer was chasing a leak so he wanted to see where it was coming from.

Mequire's fan here.  This ceramic movement is the real deal though.  Use it on anything.

I would recommend using a nanoskin sponge vs clay. Much easier to use. For lubricant I use diluted car wash in a spray bottle.

haha i'm in the same boat. Just got the chrome trim wrapped and then I debadged my 2016 A6 Prestige. Now i've got 5 really nice clean spots on the car and the rest of it looks like ass.

So this ceramic and ceramic hybrid thing is confusing the everloving shit out of me. Currently I just use the Meguiars NXT Gen2 wax. Is their hybrid ceramic much better than that? The prices on the true ceramic stuff is bonkers so I doubt i'll do that on any of my vehicles since everything I have are "dailys" now.

I'd start out with their Ceramic Spray Coating, that's whats on my wife's Tiguan.  It's a little less involved to apply than their full-blown Ceramic line, but will still last waaaaaaay longer than almost anything else.  My old F-150 there has H20 Guard & Gloss on it.  It's about the absolute easiest product to apply but it won't last as long as any of their ceramic products.

I just bought a griots garage DA buffer last week. My old snap on was just took big.

It really works well. I flip cars and motorcycles every know and then so that was the main purpose.

I've been dabbling in detailing (my own vehicle, not as a business). Did a lot of research over the winter and bought up supplies, getting ready for spring/summer. Got my first new vehicle at the end of last year and want to keep it looking new for as long as possible. All previous vehicles were used and I didn't put a whole lot of effort into washing, besides hitting the automatic car wash on occasion. My current vehicle won't ever see an automatic car wash, if I can help it. I did go to the self service car wash about once a week during the winter to spray the salt off as best I could.

This is what I settled on for gear/supplies and routine:

-Karcher K1710 Cube electric pressure washer (stock parts for now, besides quick connects on all hoses, but I do already want a longer hose and live swivel on the gun)
-P&S N26 wheel cleaner
-Generic wheel brush
-Generic grit guard and bucket
-Chemical Guys Mr Pink car soap
-Generic foam cannon from Amazon with a 1.1mm orifice (I know foam cannons are controversial, but hear me out in my routine)
-The Rag Company microfiber wash mitt
-Car Pro Iron-X to get rid of the "rail dust"
-Meguiars clay bar kit with their Quick Detailer for lube
-Chemical Guys microfiber applicator pads
-Meguiars Hybric Ceramic Wax spray
-Sprayway glass cleaner
-303 Aerospace Cleaner
-303 Aerospace Protectant
-Various microfiber drying towels and some general use ones from The Rag Company and some cheap microfiber towels for the windows, wheels and door jambs

My wash routine:

1. Spray N26 on wheels, agitate with brush, rinse
2. Spray down vehicle with just water and let dry a bit
3. Use foam cannon to cover vehicle with Mr Pink soap suds (I use this step to turn the traditional "2 bucket method" into a 1 bucket method)
4. Wipe top to bottom with wash mitt, rinsing in clean water bucket with grit guard after each section
5. Rinse vehicle and dry
6. Spray down with Iron-X, let sit, rinse off and dry
7. Clay bar treatment
8. Apply Meguiars Hybrid Ceramic Wax in a traditional "apply with applicator, let haze slightly, buff off with microfiber towel" manner
9. Clean windows
10. Blacken the tires with 303 Aerospace Protectant if needed (I really only bought this for the interior, but it works fine for this purpose, too)

I've only done step 6 with Iron-X for the first wash of the spring time, as there was quite a bit of "rail dust" build up. And I don't clay bar the vehicle every single wash. Step 8 was only required for the initial use of the Meguiars HCW, to get a foundation. All washes from there only require you to spray the vehicle down while it's still wet from the final rinse, then you rinse again which spreads the HCW and then you dry with a drying towel. I believe that the Iron-X removes most waxes/polishes as it does its thing on the iron particles, so when I need to use it again, I will reapply the Meguiars HCW in the traditional "wax on/wax off" method.


That's what I settled on and I'm happy with the results. I'm always open to suggestions, though. Like I said, I'm already wanting to upgrade some parts on my pressure washer. A longer hose so I don't have to ever move the machine, and a live swivel on the gun so I don't have to deal with untwisting the hose.


Edit: Oh, and learn from my mistakes and DO NOT open the Iron-X in the house. It smells like a mixture of a woman's hair salon and sewage and will take days for the smell to go away.


I forgot to blacken the tires before I snapped this pic. I hadn't known at the time that 303 could be used for that, and didn't have any tire shine.

I use Zaino Car Wash
Z2
CS
Z6