Thread: HOW TO: Detail your car!

Just got my Armada back from the painter, wanna come to MD and make some money? . It looks like the lotus before pic, and I want it to look like the after pic

Step 4 rough draft is done. I'll try to go back and add some pictures and stuff.

Haha, sure Cliff, we'll do it like a beam bending party!

30% off everything in stock @ Autopia Car Care Products - Top Car Detailing Supplies, Car Wax, Car Polishers, Auto Detailing
for Black Friday, would be a good time to buy a buffer!

To clear up some confusion on the Autopia Car Care website, they have listed an Ultimate Detailing Machine XP and a Porter Cable 7424, the Ultimate is a 7424XP with a different sticker, otherwise it is the same. For some reason the XP is $25 cheaper than the standard model, the XP is the better choice. It has more torque and buffing power with less errant vibrations. I'm not sure why they have their pricing set up the way they do.

I am going to keep a close eye on this I have some experience but learned alot from reading through your write up. Having a "detail" bay behind my shop I sometimes see them doing some of the things you don't suggest. Such as washing a car with a brush.

I don't really detail my daily other than washing it once a week and vacuuming the inside and dressing all interior plastic. I do that myself but once my project car is done I will be using a ton of the tips you suggest. I figure for a few hundreds I can get a good setup to achieve great results with out damaging my cars finish.

I do have a question tho. I remember getting a hood recleared and the guy telling me to not wax it for 60 days because the clear coat needs to harden and waxing would remove the clear coat because it wasn't "Cured". Any truth to this?

I don't think the wax would physically remove the clearcoat, but I believe the clearcoat does need to be exposed to the atmosphere so that the UV resistant part of it can set up properly. I dunno, I'm not a body shop expert and nor am I a professional detailer, just a serious hobbyist who gets paid.

Bump. I'm hopefully going to be finishing and proof reading this thread over the next month, just in time for a spring detail!

Here is a 135i I detailed recently. This was mainly an exterior job with 10 hours spent cleaning, buffing, and waxing and about 2 hours spent on the inside.

The owner of the car enjoys driving the car more than he does cleaning it, which is pretty evident in the pictures. This thing gets beat on regularly and was doing 150 MPH on the Autobahn even before the break-in period was over!

Here is the car as I began, VERY dirty with some serious scratches. Not good for a car that is barely a year old.






Here you can see some light hologram swirls.




More swirling.


Some of the more noticeable scratches.


The worst of the scratches, I had to use a 1000 grit wetsand > 2000 grit wetsand > 3" PFW M105 > 5.5" Blue LC HydroTech M205 in order to get it to smooth out. In non-detailer speak, I had to polish the **** out of it. There were similar deep scratches found on the trunk.

The car was given an ONR presoak,
ONR mitt wash,
Engine bay rinsed and degreased,
Dried with a Monster Shamrock MF towel,
Stoner Tarminator applied to the lower portion of car and bumpers,
Clay bar on lower portion of car and bumpers,
Wetsanding where necessary,
3" PFW M105 applied via PC7424 where necessary,
5.5" Orange HydroTech M105 via PC7424,
5.5" Blue HydroTech M205 via PC7424,
Wheels sealed with M21,
One coat of Blackfire paint sealant applied by LC 6.5" Black finishing pad via PC7424,
Two coats of Pinnacle Signature Series II paste wax applied by hand,
Door seals treated with 1Z Gummi Pfledge,
Interior surfaces cleaned and protected with Lexol (2 step),
Glass cleaned with ONR and protected with M21,
Convertible top cleaned and protected with 303 cleaner/protectant,
Plastic trim and tires treated with Griot's Garage rubber/vinyl trim dressing.

This was done from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., and the results speak for themselves...

^ looks good, owner must have been like 'WOW'.

how much did you charge him ?

stratton.