Car Detailing Regimen, thoughts? feedback?

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RubbishReview

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Ok, so I thought that I would post my detailing regimen that I use throughout the year and see if I should change how I am doing things. I am pretty consistent with the timing of my regimen so I have broken down my detailing according to time below.

Background Information:
First I will provide you with some information regarding the car that I use this on. It is a Black 2013 Volvo S60 it has had only one owner, myself. I am currently planning on keeping the car for about 3 years so this will not be a vehicle that is going to be kept long term however I do want to take care of it the correct way and I want it to look nice for those 3 years. The car is used as a daily driver, driven about 60 miles per day 5 days a week for work mostly heavy traffic/city driving and of course some light MISC driving on the weekends. I live in the Northeast, Pittsburgh PA area so the winters can be particularly hard on a car due to the large amount of crushed stone, salt, and chemicals that are used here in the winter.

Once Per Year:
Once per year usually around the start of spring, or as soon as winter breaks and the weather is consistently warm. I will clay and polish/compound the car removing as many defects as possible from the paint. In the past I have done this by hand however for this year I have decided that I am going to invest in a dual action polisher. I have listed the tools/items below that I plan on purchasing to accomplish this. Since I am new to using a dual action polisher I have decided to purchase a variety of items so that I have them on hand in case they are needed, that being said I fully plan on using the least aggressive method and working my way up from there if needed.

Tools…

  1. Griot’s Garage 6 inch Random Orbital Polisher
  2. Chemical Guys 6.5 inch Hex Logic Buffing Pad Kit, this kit comes with 7 different pads and pad cleaner. I plan on buying at least two of these kits so that I have extra pads price wise it seems cheaper (plus you get more) to go with one of these kits then to buy the pads separately. The kit includes one of each of the following, Red Pad, Black Pad, Blue Pad, White Pad, Green Pad, Orange Pad, and Yellow Pad.
  3. Chemical Guys V38 Optical Grade Finial Polish
  4. Chemical Guys V36 Optical Grade Cutting Polish, I will only use this if I have to like I said above I just want to make sure that I have everything that I might need, but fully plan on using the least aggressive method and working my way up from there if needed.
  5. Nanoskin 6 inch AutoScrub Fine Grade Foam Pad, in the past I have just used regular old clay but since I am getting the polisher I figured that I would give this a try instead of the normal clay.
  6. Chemical Guys Luber

My plan of attack is going to be as follows…

  1. Wash, for wash method see last step.
  2. Use the Nanoskin Foam Pad
  3. Wash, for wash method see last step.
  4. Polish and Remove Defects using the Griot’s Polisher
  5. Wax using Zymol Titanium
  6. Wash and wax again the following weekend

Once Every Three Months:
I try to reapply wax (Zymol Titanium) to the car once every three months, while this may not be needed for in the summer I like to layer the wax on there in preparation for the winter.

Plan of attack for this…

  1. Wash, for wash method see last step.
  2. Wax

Once Every One to Two Weeks:
Exterior…
Depending on how dirty the exterior of the car is I will wash the outside of the car once every one to two weeks. I use a two bucket wash method with a grit guard in the rinse bucket only.

Tools…

  1. Chemical Guys Chenille Wash Mitt
  2. Two 5 Gallon Buckets
  3. One Grit Guard
  4. Zymol Shampoo, I am soon switching to Chemical Guys Mr. Pink.
  5. Chemical Guys P40 (detailing spray)

Plan of attack for this…

  1. Pre Rinse
  2. Wash, I wash each panel on the car starting at the top of the car and working my way down.
  3. Rinse, I rinse each panel once I am done washing that panel.
  4. Final Rinse, Allowing the water to just freely flow from the hose (no nozzle) I give the car a final rinse. By doing this the water sheets off of the car and makes drying the car easier.
  5. Spray the car with Chemical Guys P40, non-diluted since there is still water on the car from the final rinse.
  6. Dry
  7. Wipe the car down with a diluted mixture of Chemical Guys P40.

So this is pretty much my detailing regimen that I use throughout the year, any feedback or suggestions that you may have would be highly appreciated. Thank you in advanced.
 
I would skip the 'every three months' step by using a sealant, or even better, using a coating. Especially since you only plan on keeping the car three years. You can replace the three month step by using a spray wax/quick detailer to rejuvenate the sealant/coating.

But if you really do love loving your car, do the sealant or coating anyway, and top it with a traditional wax (your three month step).
 
trekkeruss said:
I would skip the 'every three months' step by using a sealant, or even better, using a coating. Especially since you only plan on keeping the car three years. You can replace the three month step by using a spray wax/quick detailer to rejuvenate the sealant/coating.

But if you really do love loving your car, do the sealant or coating anyway, and top it with a traditional wax (your three month step).
Click to expand...

So I have thought about what you are saying and I should have put this in the original post... Even though the plan is to only keep the car for 3 years I want to detail the car as if I am going to keep it long term.

I do have questions regarding the sealant and it is something that I am somewhat interested in adding to my process, but I think I will start another thread for those questions. Don't want this thread to get to far off topic.
 
Washing after clay is debatable. I choose not to as I feel the initial wash then clay have removed everything. I doubt you would have any clay or lube residue if using a nanoskin pad.

IMHO, using a coating would be overkill if you are not keeping the car after 3 years.

You may want to add a step for decontamination with Iron-X, TriX or a solvent to remove heavy build-up of tar/grease and iron. In this case a second wash is advised.

You may want to elaborate on how you plan to treat your wheels/caliper etc. and how you plan to address trim, rubber and plastics.

Do consider a sealant.

A spray wax application after your normal wash routine will add serious longevity to the overall protection on the car. I'm not sure how P40 stacks up, but there are many other options in this category if P40 doesn't fit the bill.
 
I wash after I clay. But that is because I don't wipe up all the clay lube when I'm done...I will spot check certain areas after claying by drying and with the baggie test, but other than that I clay and leave the lube on the car. Then rise/wash, dry, proceed to polishing. idk, seemed like a faster way to work when I did it. Would I do it again? Not sure, it still took a while :D If you wipe up the lube then you shouldn't need to wash I wouldn't think.

I would add an iron decon step. Just for peace of mind. I used the Dodo Juice Ferrocous Dueller or whatever it is called, and it worked well. One thing - it did dry on the paint quickly. I applied it on the car outside with heavy cloud cover, and it dried decently fast. By the time I sprayed the entire car it was starting to dry where I started. I would buy Iron-X next time just to try out.
 
Audios S6 said:
Washing after clay is debatable. I choose not to as I feel the initial wash then clay have removed everything. I doubt you would have any clay or lube residue if using a nanoskin pad.

IMHO, using a coating would be overkill if you are not keeping the car after 3 years.

You may want to add a step for decontamination with Iron-X, TriX or a solvent to remove heavy build-up of tar/grease and iron. In this case a second wash is advised.

You may want to elaborate on how you plan to treat your wheels/caliper etc. and how you plan to address trim, rubber and plastics.

Do consider a sealant.

A spray wax application after your normal wash routine will add serious longevity to the overall protection on the car. I'm not sure how P40 stacks up, but there are many other options in this category if P40 doesn't fit the bill.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information.

Wouldn't the nanoskin pad remove the tar? I don't really have any grease build up on there so I never really put to much thought into this... I suppose that instead of washing the car with the regular car wash soap that I could hit it with the Chemical Guys Bug and Tar soap, that stuff will even help to take the wax off.

The Chemical Guys P40 is great! Or at least I love it, by far the best quick detailer that I have used and I really like the fact that it is carnauba based so I don't have to worry about it taking my wax off.

Trim, Rubber and Plastics:
In regards to the trim, rubber, and plastics I usually clean those with a diluted mixture of the P40. I typically treat the trim and plastics with Mothers Back-to-Black. I don't really treat the rubber at this time, any suggestion on what I can use on that?

Wheels and Calipers:
As far as the wheels and calipers go I have been washing those with regular car wash soap and hitting the harder stuff with Meguiars wheel cleaner when needed. I have not been treating or coating the wheels. Although I have been looking at using Chemical Guys Jet Seal for the paint and for on the wheels.
 
RubbishReview said:
Thanks for the information.

Wouldn't the nanoskin pad remove the tar? I don't really have any grease build up on there so I never really put to much thought into this... I suppose that instead of washing the car with the regular car wash soap that I could hit it with the Chemical Guys Bug and Tar soap, that stuff will even help to take the wax off.

The Chemical Guys P40 is great! Or at least I love it, by far the best quick detailer that I have used and I really like the fact that it is carnauba based so I don't have to worry about it taking my wax off.

Trim, Rubber and Plastics:
In regards to the trim, rubber, and plastics I usually clean those with a diluted mixture of the P40. I typically treat the trim and plastics with Mothers Back-to-Black. I don't really treat the rubber at this time, any suggestion on what I can use on that?

Wheels and Calipers:
As far as the wheels and calipers go I have been washing those with regular car wash soap and hitting the harder stuff with Meguiars wheel cleaner when needed. I have not been treating or coating the wheels. Although I have been looking at using Chemical Guys Jet Seal for the paint and for on the wheels.
Click to expand...

The nanoskin will remove tar, but depending on how long it's been there, a chemical cleaner work better/faster. I choose to do this as a chemical pretreatment step before washing to help loosen build-up. That way much of the tar is removed during the wash step leaving less work during claying.

There's a lot better stuff than mother's back to black, it used to be the only thing that looked good on my mirror housings, until I found Gtechniq C4.

Cleaning the plastics with P40 or similar detail spray is a common practice - nothing wrong with using what you like often. Also consider a dressing with UV protection to maintain rubber/plastics.

Do consider protecting your wheels with a sealant, it will making cleaning much easier as well as add some protection.
 
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