Detailing outdoors - no garage

Silva51

Silva51

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Alright gents, need some advice. I have a driveway but no garage. I just bought a DA polisher and all the pads and chemicals to go with it. I know some of you guys out there dont have garages either, how do you do it???

My concern is the car will be baking in the sun and the temperature will not let the products do their job.

Any suggestions? Thinking about buying some kind of canopy to work under, any body doing the same?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks guys.


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There are some polishes and compounds that can be used in the sun. Many others cannot. In both cases I'd suggest getting a canopy to detail your car.
 
I use the Easy-up tent and I work according to where the sun is positioned.
 
Either a canopy tent or use poor boys products.
 
can you work at night? might not be a bad idea, esp. if you can set up lights to handle the various areas.

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and...i'd work piecemeal. do a nice deep decon/cleaning for the entire car, get started on the first area then when you have to do the next area the next day or whatever, just do a rinseless for that area and go to town. repeat as necessary until the car is done.
 
Just work in smaller sections if doing paint correction. The myth that you can't detail in sunlight is so overblown it's not even funny.
 
I don't have a garage (it was confiscated by the wife) so I have to detail in the driveway and over 90% of the cars I detail on the side are done outside. Next to my driveway though are several trees that provide shade for a large area of the driveway in the first half of the day, so that's when I clean & detail my car or others. SO I try to detail in the first half of the day, or in the late afternoon-evening when it's cooler and the sun is going behind my garage.

BTW, much of Megs Ultimate line is developed to work in direct sunlight.
 
I've never had a garage, so I've made do with working only in the morning or early evening, and only sections at a time. That said, when I did have the opportunity to use a garage for a few weeks, I finally was able to coat my Honda Element. With the weather here in the D.C. area, I would never feel comfortable about installing a coating without being able to keep the car within a more controlled environment for at least a few days.
 
If you can like others said, try to start very early like 7 or 8 am.
i also rotate the car according to where the sun is shinning.
 
Yep. Like the others said, I use shade from the house. It starts covering my driveway about 2 PM so that's when I start washing.
 
I do Rinseless Washes outside in the summer and I use ONR with a Lowes Sponge and wipe the car down with spray detailer and a microfiber towel and it looks great.
 
This is great info guys...Thanks!


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If you purchase a portable canopy, make sure you buy weights to hold it down. Unfortunately, I didn't do so and mine flew on a windy day. The legs can potentially harm the paint!

Otherwise, I would try to tackle panels facing the sky either first, before the sun directly shines on it, or last, when the sun is setting. I would work around the doors, fenders or bumpers when the panels aren't hot.

The most important thing is to stay hydrated. Wear sunblock if needed.
 
Joengo said:
The most important thing is to stay hydrated. .
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I can't agree with this enough. I was working on a co-worker's truck last summer, when suddenly I realized that I had stopped sweating a while back (it was an 80*+ day). I only noticed because I wasn't dripping sweat onto my glasses anymore. I didn't think much of it for a few minutes, then I just suddenly felt weak. FORTUNATELY I had come to the point where a had planned to stop and take a break.

As I was sitting in the house drinking some water, it hit me ... SUN STROKE, DEHYDRATION. I was very lucky, my guardian angel had given me a slap upside the head making me realize I needed water.

So I took an extra long break and drank a lot of water (slowly so I wouldn't get sick) and after a few hours, I was up to finishing the truck ... but I took a gallon jug of water with me, so I could sip at it frequently.
 
Good information guys....I have a garage but it isn't a good workable garage. It's old and not sealed well so allot of the elements from outside get inside. No real lighting to speak of. I rent so I refuse to put money into it.

I do most of my minor detailing outside as well and as others have mentioned it's learning the specific parts of the day when sun isn't overhead.

Since I plan on learning the polishing aspect of detailing this summer I am worried because I live on the corner of 2 busy Route's. The sun is less worrisome to me than the contaminants (pollen, dust, etc), that is airborne. Not trying to highjack OP's thread but I am sure this could be a concern of his as well and would like to get advice.
 
kecko said:
The sun is less worrisome to me than the contaminants (pollen, dust, etc), that is airborne. Not trying to highjack OP's thread but I am sure this could be a concern of his as well and would like to get advice.
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If you're referring to airborne dust , pollen, dirt etc landing on your car while you're polishing, just go panel by panel or section by section at a time and use a quick detail spray to clean off each area before putting a buffer to it (or polishing by hand).
 
As obvious as that is I did not think of that. Thank you. Polishing is so new to me I have to realize I can do a quick wipe of the car, since I will be correcting the paint.
 
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