Pro detailing newbie

Motogoon

Motogoon

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Hi I'm new to the pro line of car car . I am currently using the meg ultimate lineup and like it but want more. I need some good advice on the brands to use and what to buy. There is so much different products on this site I don't know where to start. I am also thinking of getting a da. The brands if been looking into is poor boys griots and Wolfgang. Any help is greatly appreciated I don't know anything about stripping clear coat or what's safe to use so I'd like to stay in the safe for all use range. Everything from wax glaze sealant undercarriage spray and anything else for the full car care experience.
 
:welcome: To Autogeek Online! :props:

A bit overwhelming huh? :laughing:

Every manufacture offers a wide variety of products to suit just about any detailing need and naturally want you to buy them all. If you stick to the basics and select one product to satisfy each step you'll be surprised how successful you'll be.

Meguiar's is one of the oldest names in the business and produces some of the finest products available. The Ultimate line you mention is their consumer line and is very good!

Basic Steps

  • Wash
  • Clay
  • Paint Correction & Polish
  • Seal
  • Wax
Determine what your goals are but keep them realistic. Maintaining a show car quality finish on a daily driver is next to impossible so keep this in mind.

This link contains articles written by Mike Phillips and has allot of great reading within.

Articles by Mike Phillips

A dual action polisher is an absolute necessity.

I prefer to put my own package together.

Here's some great information that will help you if you need it.


Polishes

 
I agree w BobbyG. Those are very informative links. You can also look into the Meguiars microfiber pad kit. For polishes Menzerna, 3m, Optimum,and Wolfgang is what I prefer. I hate you missed the big DA sell last week.
 
Welcome to Autogeek Online! :welcome:

Motogoon said:
I am also thinking of getting a da.
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Thats a great step in the right direction. Clear coat paints are harder than old fashioned single stage paints and you ALWAYS get better results faster when you work by machine.

I cover this in the first chapter of my how-to book on car detailing.

It's not hard to learn how to use a DA polisher either and we prove that almost every Thursday during our projects as most the people that attend have never used a machine before.

I count Tommy as a good friend ever since we met and have now worked on a number of projects together. When I first met Tommy he had never used a machine to polish paint before let alone his award winning 1970 1/2 Camaro.

Fast forward to last Friday and here he is helping me to remove swirls from one of the nicest street rods we've had in our studio...

1939 Lincoln Zephyr - Swirls Removed - Modeled by Nicole

1939LincolnZephyr044.jpg




Point being... they are safe, easy to use and you always get better results faster than working by hand...


:)
 
cant go wrong with meguiars professional line,optimum polymer technologies,detailers pro,pinnacle or wolfgang products, all are top notch products as is everything AG carries!
 
Great help I really appreciate it. Ill take everyones advice especially the first guy thanks a lot. is anyone in love with the Wolfgang sealant ? Or poor boys products
 
Welcome to the site. I have used all of the Poorboy's World products and am rather knowledgeable about their use. A lot of the Poorboy's line are very safe and user friendly for a newbie to machine polishing. They work well in direct sunlight too, so you wouldn't be limited to using them in the shade or in a garage. As I gained more experience and increased in detailing production the demands that I had to meet had forced me to seek out some not so safe, faster cutting compounds or polishes that require a bit less technique to finish with in less time so I got away from the Poorboy's World line but for a beginner I can definitely recommend them.

I can not blindly recommend specific products without knowing the specifics of what you will be working on so if you'll share with us some information about what you'll be working on such as year, make, model, color, paint condition and perhaps a few well lit photos of the condition of your paint then you'll more likely get useful suggestions for specific products to use with specific pads.
 
Great to know . I do my own car often but I do do such cars as Cadillac escaped 07 black . Mercedes sl500 black 08. Hummer h2 09 blue. And my personal car Chevy equinox 06 with that special laser blue paint. My paint is in great shape for 100k miles just swirl marks
 
I love Poorboys Slick and Wax car wash.
I also love using Poorboys Bold N Bright tire shine. Anything water based works good. Its not greasy.
Meg's products are awesome too. I love Ultimate Detailer, Spray Wax and Engine Cleaner.
You can't go wrong with Optimum, Pinnacle, Wolfgang, Blackfire and Ultima products as well.

Do you live in the Long Island area? If so your more then welcome to come by and try some stuff out to see what is good for you.
 
Pro detailing

OK!!! Did an order tonight due to the sale. I have to say im very unhappy it was extended which i should have known but i rushed so bad and didn't really understand what i was getting because of this :( Anyway here is what i got let me know whats what and how i did. Like i said im using this on a Laser Blue Chevy Equinox very nice paint but many swirl marks.

-GRIOTS 6IN DA: Due to the amount of research i did i found more issues with the Porter than the Griots and im a fiend for warranty's:)

-Lake Country: Flat Pads 6 pack 2 orange, 2 white, 2 black, 1 crimson
-Lake Country Back plate flex DA 5.5 - because i read that switching to the 5.5 ends up working better if you dont mind the time
-Wolfgang sealant 3.0
-Griots undercarriage dressing: IS THIS THE SAME AS TIRE SHINE?


Any other recommendations would be great im placing another order
 
I have Megs ulitmate polish and Newpolish any good? which polish should i grab off here?
 
Motogoon said:
I am currently using the meg ultimate lineup and like it but want more. I need some good advice on the brands to use and what to buy.QUOTE]

Be advised, you can save yourself $100's if not $1000's by NOT chasing after every car care product that, gives you more, is better, new and improved etc etc. Meg's Ultimate is an amazing line of products. But since your are gonna buy stuff, do a 50/50 on your hood; Megs versus what you decide to buy. Than after you compare remember my reply!

good luck
Click to expand...
 
Motogoon said:
I have Megs ulitmate polish and Newpolish any good? which polish should i grab off here?
Click to expand...

Hi Joe,

Both Meguiar's Ultimate Compound and Meguiar's Ultimate Polish are the consumer version of Meguiar's M105 and M205 respectively.

Meguiar's Ultimate Polish is derived from M205 but has more oils and slightly less cut so it a fine finishing polish and is actually quite good.

I'm not familiar with Newpolish so I'll stick with something I'm familiar with.. Meguiar's Ultimate Polish :props:

Use this product with a White and Gray Lake Country foam finishing pad. I like the 5 1/2" flat pads is I'm using my Porter Cable 7424 dual action polisher. I keep the speed around 4 to 5 and mentally map off a 2' X 2' section and them on to the next section.
 
BobbyG has pretty much all the info you need.

The Wolfgang Twins are nice also for polish. The WG finishing glaze (part of the twins) is outstanding on soft paint too.

If it starts feeling like your not having fun, slow down and drag it out over multiple days, this will make detailing more fun.

You can spend a lot of money trying different products. The house brands here at AG like Wolfgang, Pinnacle, DP, Blackfire and so on are great across the line so I would recommend picking one of those to start with for sealant, polish, wax and then fill in the gaps with other known to be good products.

I have the Griot's and the PC. I like the Griot's better but both are good machines.

I like 5.5" LC flat pads. 5.5" pads are easier to keep spinning and fit in tighter spaces than the larger size. 2 of each is enough to start but you'll be cleaning them more often. If this is the first time your correcting the paint you'll use more orange and white pads than the others.

The Wolfgang sealant is very nice. And a little goes a long way. Pair this up with the Wolfgang Twins (which is the total swirl remover and finishing glaze-which is really a polish with some fillers-) and your good to go for correction and finishing except for deeper scratches.

The Griot's Undercarriage dressing is a spray that is made to spray in places like wheel wells and the black bits under the car that aren't easily cleaned. This blackens them up. It's rather oily so you wouldn't want to use it on your tires. You'll have to decide if you like real shiny or a more "natural" look on your tires. Popular brands for tires are PERL from Carpro, Poorboys Bold n Bright, Wolfgang, Ultima, and many others.
 
ok any recommendations on the right pads? im thinking the constant pressure pads weren't the best choice maybe the flat LC pads? and is the crimson pad considered a red pad?
 
Motogoon said:
ok any recommendations on the right pads? im thinking the constant pressure pads weren't the best choice maybe the flat LC pads? and is the crimson pad considered a red pad?
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Flat LC pads are what I would recommend to start, it'll cut down on confusion when asking questions and reading directions since they are standard colors. The Cyan, Tangerine, and Crimson pads are a different line than the regular LC flat pads although they are shown on the same page.

The red is pretty much for applying LSP's and I think only comes in the CCS line (which aren't flat). With the flat pads you'll want the blue pad instead. The crimson pad is supposed to be for the same thing in the HT line but from what I have read it has a little cut so I use a blue pad for application of waxes, sealants, and such. The HT line is made for water based polishes and will absorb less polish but they can be used with pretty much any polish. I like the HT pads but they cost more and from what I have read don't last as long. I have both and can't tell much difference honestly.

If using the Wolfgang twins I believe the correct pad choice for standard paint is orange pad with total swirl remover, white pad with finishing glaze, gray or blue for lsp. I have soft paint and move up one pad for each product, such as white pad for total swirl remover, gray pad for finishing glaze and blue for lsp.

You'll want to pick a 2'x2' section on your car and experiment with with your pad and polish to find a good combo to get it looking right. Once the 2x2 section is looking good then you'll use that process for the whole car. Just remember to start out with the least aggressive method first on your 2x2 section and if you still have swirls move down to the next more aggressive option.

One thing you'll learn quickly is the difference between swirls and marring left by the polish. If the swirls are gone but the paint looks hazy then it's time to move up to the less aggressive option of pad and polish.
 
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Thanks.
Im going with the
wolfgang deep glaze 3.0
worlfgang swirl remover 3.0
megs ulitmate compound
and the LC flat pad kit

sound like im going in the right direction?
whats the diff between the finishing glaze and the deep glaze? ill spend the money is the deep glaze better
 
Motogoon said:
Thanks.
Im going with the
wolfgang deep glaze 3.0
worlfgang swirl remover 3.0
megs ulitmate compound
and the LC flat pad kit

sound like im going in the right direction?
whats the diff between the finishing glaze and the deep glaze? ill spend the money is the deep glaze better
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I know of a "deep glaze". If I typed that somewhere then it was a "woops".

The finishing glaze is a fine finishing polish that you would use after the total swirl remover or on it's own if you have very light defects to deal with. Link: Wolfgang Finishing Glaze 3.0, Wolfgang finishing polish, polising glaze, machine glaze

I find it to be very similar to Menzerna PO85RD.
 
correction Deep gloss not glaze. so is this much different than the finishing glaze? and how does eveything elese look? good? i also bought pinnacles pad cleaner and conditioner
 
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