Attempting 1st "detailing"

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agarabaghi

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So this might not be considered a full detail to most of you but I wanted to get my hands dirty and car cleaned this weekend.

How does these steps sound:

Car: 2010 Land Rover LR4 HSE LUX

1) Wash tires with bristle brush and soap and water
2) Wash wheels with Sonax or equivalent color changing wheel cleaner and bristle brush.

3) Wash car with Duragloss concentrate car soap
- Dry with microfibers (if I can find some locally) or shammy
4) Clay car with clay bar and clay lubrication
5) Compound several light scratches / Maguiar Scratch X 2.0
6) Hand wax / buff with Maguiar polish
7) Apply 303 to all outter body black trim (bumper window etc)
8) Rain X windows

I have to look at what I have available in my garage tonight and what I will need to order buy just checking if my steps seems ok for a basic detailing?
 
its a start buddy...
don't use bristles on wheels ..might scratch..use on tires
people will frown with the Rain X..but I used it when I started ..will change when it runs out
problem is you read and read and then you want and want .....
read and note for future

but hanging out here with be addictive and eventually cost money :eek:

how are the swirls?

got pix?

Mike
 
These are the only pics I have from recent... taken with an iphone 5 so not the best...

They show the scratches im trying to fix though:

rpx.jpg


bwqe.jpg

5ji3.jpg
 
I applied 303 to the plastic and it looks much better already.
 
Same happened to me. I would be using good quality otc stuff such as mothers and meguiars and I expanded to opti bond, chem guys and iron x
 
Yea, I will be placing an order when I get back in town in a couple weeks, but id wanted to attempt the clay bar cleaning and wax and leave the garage in the garage for when I return.

I need to find some kind of quick detailer spray locally to use with my clay bar. As well as some good wheel cleaner locally.
 
Well I ran up to AutoZone to grab some stuff so I could at least attempt to start the detailing today...

Meguiars Gold Class Car Wash - Got some decent reviews on here, and the only on I could find locally.

Meguiars Hot Rims Aluminum wheel cleaner - same as above.

Meguiars quick detailer mist & wipe - which is what they include in their clay kit, so I figured I could use it with my clay.

Meguiars Hot Shine Foam for tires - I like the wet look =D

Question ... Griots garage yellow clay safe on windows? I know they sell a blue clay specifically for windows, but can I use the yellow one anyway?
 
agarabaghi said:
Question ... Griots garage yellow clay safe on windows? I know they sell a blue clay specifically for windows, but can I use the yellow one anyway?
Click to expand...

You can use the yellow on the windows, but it's really soft. The harder clay does a better job IMHO. That being said, I am a big fan of Griot's yellow clay. (Although I don't use much clay since I bought my Nanoskin pad.) ;)

On another note, not sure what you'll be able to do with those scratches by hand. Talk about a deep random scratch? :eek: OTOH, you might be able to pick up some 2500 or 3000 grit and do a bit of wet feather sanding around them and mitigate the way they look. Should be able to take out 3000 grit marks by hand with a decent pad, some compound, and a lot of elbow grease.

Good to hear the 303 gave you nice results. My wife makes me put it on her running boards because it isn't slick. Durability is sketchy when it rains a lot, but it's cheap, and REALLY does do a great job bringing things back to life. UTTGP will do a lot better for results and durability, but at darn near twice as expensive. By the ounce I'd say it's well more than twice as much, but BOY is it nice! (Same thing for Wolfgang Trim Sealant as well, and I think is even more expensive... and have all three in my garage btw, along with 4 dilutions of PERL.) :laughing:
 
Cardaddy - Yea, the scratches are random, but that is to be expected with a 3 yrs old car that is new to me. I will have to try the UTTGP and Wolfgang.

Here are my results from today:

Cleaned wheels / Tires with soap and water. Applied Meguiars Aluminum Wheel cleaner. And took a tooth brush to the wheel. I really need to get a Dayton and lug nut cleaner. I was not that impressed with the Meguiar wheel cleaner as it did not seem to clean as I expected. I then dried the wheels and applied a layer of Meguiar quick detail. Will try Sonax next.

Before
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After
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Body:
Washed entire car with Meguiar Gold Class. It def sudds up better than the cheapo blue off the shelf car wash. So that was happy.

Dried car, and procced to clay the entire thing. This was my 1st time claying and I just went section by section and it def picked up dirt and grit on the bottom of the clay. It was much easier than I expected.

I took a somewhat abrasive compound and buffed out a few nicks and scratches though I couldnt fix the deep ones.

Then I went ahead and applied Rain-X liquid wax as it was the only wax I had on hand.

Overall im pretty impressed with how much the clay cleaning actually got rid of abrasions and grit.

d41p.jpg


s9j1.jpg


hoc7.jpg
 
I'd say it looks pretty damn good, not to mention it's your first detail! :applause:
 
Looks great!

If you'd like to try a DA in person sometime, send me a PM. I'm traveling for the 4th and will be back mid-July, but would be glad to share some products if you want to take a run at some of those scratches by machine.

Nice work!

Rob
 
Sorry, DA = Dual Action orbital buffer. Like a Griot's, Porter-Cable, etc...
 
Oh nice... I haven't even looked at motorized stuff... I do use my dewalt sander with a buffing pad and meguiars compound on my boat hull.. But I feel like that would destroy the LR4 paint.
 
agarabaghi said:
Oh nice... I haven't even looked at motorized stuff... I do use my dewalt sander with a buffing pad and meguiars compound on my boat hull.. But I feel like that would destroy the LR4 paint.
Click to expand...
You are right, I would not try the sander for your car paint. Likewise, don't try the wetsanding suggestion either. That is an advanced technique.

I would take advantage of rms64's offer. Having someone with experience show you how to work with these tools will be a valuable opportunity. Then you can decide if you want to invest the money and time it takes to do this hobby with machines (btw, once you use machines, you will rarely do anything by hand).

Good luck. Looks like a pretty good start.
 
Anything i should do besides applying a liquid wax after claying?
 
agarabaghi said:
Anything i should do besides applying a liquid wax after claying?
Click to expand...



You could sit back and enjoy a job well done, or if you're nuts like myself, and probably many others, find more things on your car to clean!
 
Toy_Cam_Ed said:
Did you compound the whole car by hand?
Click to expand...

No the only things I compounded Saturday were the scratches and a few little areas which need some marking removed. There is too much car to do it all by hand haha.
 
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