New to Detailing, trying to get my technique down.

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slonison

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Really brainstorming what my technique is going to be upon the first good sign of weather. Here is where I'm at.

1. Rinse Wheels with pressure washer.
2. Foam Wheels with pressure washer and Chemical Guys Citrus with Max Suds (let sit 3 min)
3. Rinse Wheels with pressure washer.
4. Foam Wheels with pressure washer.
5. Use those bad ass wheel/rim brushes (that I still don't have) to agitate.
6. Rinse wheels with pressure washer.
IF that isn't enough:
7. Use 1:1 Meguiar's Wheel Brightener and agitate.
8. Rinse wheels with pressure washer.


1. Rinse car with pressure washer.
2. Foam car with pressure washer and CG Citrus with Max Suds (let sit 3 mins)
3. Rinse car with pressure washer.
4. Foam car with pressure washer and CG Citrus with Max Suds
5. Use the 2 buckets method with some CG citrus in the was bucket and agitate from top to bottom. Using one mitt for the top and a separate mitt for the bottom.
6. Rinse car with pressure washer.
7. Detach pressure washer and sheet the car.


This is pretty much for the regular wash regimen that I want to start up for each weekend.

What I'd like to know is the following: If I'm planning on claying, correcting and sealing/protecting, would I use a different soap to strip the protectant on the car? what soap and when in the steps above would I use it?

Also, If you're splitting up your detailing into two days. Let's say on day 1 you get halfway through your 1st step compounding and call it a night and the car is in the garage. The following morning, do you do anything to make sure there is no dust on the car before continuing?
 
Wow, that's a lot of steps, especially on the wheels. I'd skip 2 & 3 on the wheels, although it wouldn't hurt anything to let it dwell a couple minutes and refoam before you use your brushes, I don't think you have to rinse between, the foam will do the rinsing. Unless you have like 3 years of dirt on things.
 
No need for any "different" soap as your claying and buffing will remove any old, leftover LSP. I use ONR if i stop at some point in the process and leave it garage kept until the next day. That's to remove anything that settled on the paint overnight.
 
Puckman said:
No need for any "different" soap as your claying and buffing will remove any old, leftover LSP. I use ONR if i stop at some point in the process and leave it garage kept until the next day. That's to remove anything that settled on the paint overnight.
Click to expand...

Pardon me asking, but what is a ONR?
 
Forget all that rinsing... unless you like to sit in water while you clean your wheels! :dunno:

Better off to get a few of those "bad ass wheel/rim brushes (that you still don't have) to agitate" and a good spraying of wheel cleaner, along with a DEDICATED wheel bucket with soap in it.

I'd suggest the big and little Daytona brushes along with the large and medium Wheel Woolies. Those 4 brushes will do most everything you'll run across. You'll REALLY love yourself if while buying, you get the 1" plastic handle boars hair brush for wheels/trim also.

Something as cost effective as Meguiar's Non-Acid wheel cleaner (in the gallon) is a MUST HAVE in your arsenal. Combine that with a good APC and you should be good to clean most any wheel out there. You might want to splurge a bit and try the DUB wheel cleaner as it does an EXCELLENT job and is half the price of competing (iron dissolving) cleaners. (Especially when you find it for $5 a bottle like it recently was in retail stores.) :)

The easiest, (non sitting in the wet driveway) method would be to get your brushes, your soap in a bucket, a spray bottle of wheel cleaner (and possibly another of APC) and wet the wheels inside and out along with the wheel wells with the cleaner(s). Then take your brushes and go to town. Start at the bottom, work to the top. Do the wheel inside and out, then do the wheel well, rinse, then move to the next wheel.

About the only way you'll end up sitting in water this way is if you wash the wheels that are up-hill from you first. Start on the downhill wheels first, spray, scrub, rinse and move around to the others. If you need to repeat, you *can* go back but if you used cleaner(s) and soapy water you'll probably get them pretty darned clean the first time around.

The one thing I WOULD NOT SUGGEST is to use Meguiar's "Wheel Brightener @ 1:1" on pretty much ANYTHING!

That stuff has a CRAPLOAD of hydrofluoric acid and can - and - WILL damage (all but chrome) wheels! It's not that you shouldn't use it (at times) but that you have to be VERY careful when, and at what strength/dilution you use it. Anything more than 1:4 is honestly too strong. Plus you need to be careful not to put it on dry wheels even at that strength. Might do the above cleaning method(s) and if you really feel you need the "wheel brightener" mist it on the WET wheel @ 1:4 and quickly agitate with soapy brushes then rinse.

Also, if you get that product make sure you get sprayers that are acid rated. I had it destroy a 1 gallon pump using it one time. Used the pump to fill the spray bottle, did one vehicle, went back to the pump and the ball inside was destroyed. The sprayer was also toast after 2 uses, even though I rinsed it with clear water after each use.

Claying and stripping you really don't need to worry about the soap to strip as once you start compounding it'll be as stripped as it's gonna' get. ;)

On the multi-day question:

First make sure you've taped up everything so that compounding/polishing dust doesn't get into the trim, cracks/crevices, between your window molding and the glass.

Any dust you have that second day you can remove with compressed air as well as a microfiber towel and a QD spray such as Meguiar's D114 or Optimum No Rinse (ONR) that doesn't leave anything behind.

You could also use some sort of panel wipe solution. Be that Eraser or a D114/alcohol mix or even one of the solutions from Autogeek.
 
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