ihaveacamaro
New member
- Jun 16, 2012
- 3,048
- 0
So as many of you know, I've been detailing for a few years, but really got into the scene this past summer. With time has come experience, and I thought I would break down what I like to use as a hobbyist/part time detailer for anyone who is interested. Had I had this list when I started, life would've been ten times easier!
I am going to break it down into 3 groups: what I consider essential, recommended, and OCD (like yours truly).
Comments/Improvements welcome! I'm not always right and never said I would be so if anyone comes up with something better, I can always edit this post :chevy:
About everything I have can be found from either from Autogeek or Autopia or Amazon.
Essential:
What I consider essential for a detailer (in no particular order):
1) Quality Soap (lowest grade soap I will use is Meguiar's Gold Class. I recommend Chemical Guys Citrus Gloss and Wash or CG Maxisuds II as a starter online-sold soap ie cheap/high dilution/effective)
2) Two 5 gallon buckets. At least one grit guard for the rinse bucket.
3) Microfiber Chenille Wash Mitt.... and not the cheapo walmart one. Cobra is a good brand sold at autogeek/autopia.
4) Foam Gun for hose (Gilmour sold on Amazon is $30ish)
5) Optimum Power Clean (can be diluted to clean interiors, wheels, paint, engine bay, plastic... pretty much safe on everything, but it will strip wax).
6) MICROFIBER CLOTHS! These will end up costing you so much money... but you need the right ones. Again, Cobras are great here, but other people have good luck with cheaper ones like Pakshak. No Costco or Walmart ones unless you are only using it for the engine bay or interior or exhaust.
Note: Goodtimes brought up to me that Garry Dean uses the Sam's club towels for rinseless washes and so does he with no scratching. I've not used that but as you can tell, lots of opinions that I trust from well respected people in the detailing community. Towelpros and MicrofiberTech are also places that sell quality MF towels, but I have not ever used them.
7) Terry cloths. A little more aggressive nap than MF towels. Only for interior. Not for paint.
8) Microfiber/Foam Applicators: Great for tire dressing and wax application.
9) Mother's wheel brush, tire brush, and fender brush kit. Amazing tools and priced right.
10) At least one Daytona Speed Brush or Wheel woolie.
11) Shop Vac to vacuum interior
12) Interior Brush: Only for carpet, not for leather ie Carrand Deluxe Interior Brush, carpet scrub brush, upholstery brush, rug brush, carpet cleaner brush
13) Carpet cleaner (I recommend CG carpet clean and stain remover)
14) Tire/rubber/engine/leather Dressing (I recommend Carpro PERL for it's versatility, price, endurance through rain, and good dilution)
15) Collinite 845: By far the best wax you can get for the price. This stuff is untouchable for those on a budget.
16) 3 Spray Bottles to use for diluted products (I actually bought $3 ones at walmart that work great but leak a little).
17) Dual Action Orbital Buffer: For newbies, the safest you can get is the PC 7424xp. Get 5.5 inch pads and 5 inch backing... nothing bigger than that.
18) Meguiars 105/205: These guys pack a punch and are the standard to beat in the compounding and polishing world. They are NOT super newbie friendly, but if you get the hang of it, these two can be the only polishes you will ever need.
19) SM Arnold Speedy Surface Prep Towel: Make sure to get the FINE grade. This is your clay, but much much MUCH better.
20) At the very least, CCS pads for your buffer. Even better is flat pads. You need yellow, orange, white, and gray imo at the minimum and 2 of each.
21) Ultima Waterless Wash Plus Concentrate: Makes quick detailer, clay lube, waterless wash, and rinseless wash. What's not to love?
22) Leafblower (has to be electric)
Recommended:
Now, past essential is my recommended list on top of products above (again in no specific order):
23) More compounds and polishes: Optimum Hyper Compound and Hyper Spray come to mind as some of the most user friendly. Also Menzerna. The list could go on forever seriously. Almost all polishes work well. Optimum/Meguiars/Menzerna are some of the best out there though.
24) Blackfire Crystal Sealant: Wipe on, walk away sealant. One of the best I've ever tried.
25) Wheel lug nut brush
26) Mother's Detail Brushes: I haven't found better detail brushes for the same price ($4 for 2)
27) Boar's Hair Wheel Brush for ultra soft wheel cleaning, but imo my Mother's wheel brush does just fine and doesn't shed hair all over the place either.
28) Lamb's wool wash mitt (these need to be replaced every so often and sometimes you get one that lints, which sucks. But in terms of softness, can't be beat)
29) Interior Sealant (wolfgang ****pit sealant has gotten awesome reviews as well as ultima interior guard plus)
~~~ ...Really? ****pit is automatically changed to asterisks on this forum.... um okay how about cokpit lol ~~~
30) Hydrotech pads: Even better than CCS/Flat pads but tend to disintegrate faster.
31) Horsehair brush: Softest, gentlest method of applying any interior cleaner or conditioner. Not my personal favorite because you have to vacuum again after because of all the hair coming off the brush.
32) MF Towels: You can never have enough. I got an awesome deal on Cobra Supreme 600, Deluxe 530, and Gold Plush Jrs and wholeheartedly recommend all of them. Other awesome ones are quality MFs that have no borders. Safest of the safe MF towels.
33) Waffle Weave Drying Towels
34) More quality soaps: Not all soaps are created equal. Try quality ones and find what you like. Currently, I'm enjoying Duragloss 901.
35) Spray waxes: I really enjoy Optimum Car Wax right now.
36) Sealant: Blackfire Wet Diamond is my current favorite
37) All-in-one product: If you have all these products, you don't need this, but if you do others people cars you might want a one stepper cleaner, polisher, sealant to save time.
38) 3 inch backing plate and pads for your DA above (in essentials)
39) Another grit guard for your soap bucket
40) Pressure washer and MTM Hydro foam cannon attachment
41) Waterless/Rinseless wash with Carnauba: You can argue all day with me that these are putting scratches in my car, but I don't see them. Also, a yearly polish doesn't bother me at all if it does. The ease of use and time reduction in my twice weekly wash is just awesome. I have used the Pinnacle Waterless Wash with Carnauba and have found it to be a great product.
42) All Metal Polish to polish wheels and exhaust tips. Can be used with hands and MF applicator pad.
43) Another 6 inch buffer... preferably a Flex 3401 or Griot's Garage.
44) Glass cleaner: I've used both Invisible glass and Meguiar's Glass Cleaner (thanks Matt for the suggestion) and they both work great. Megs Glass Cleaner is the better value though.
45) If you have a Daytona Speed Brush, then get the whoolie set. Vice versa as well. Both sets are helpful and handy in specific situations.
46) 10 Spray Bottles: I think that having around 10 is a good number for various dilutions of chemicals.
47) Self-cleaning squeeze bottles: A must if you use Collinite waxes. Other waxes benefit from being in here as well with better control of product, easy to see how much you have left, and never clogging. Great for sealants, waxes, polishes, compounds, gels, all sorts of things.
48) An assortment of all types of pads in all abrasives. You never know what combination will be just perfect and what combination is just lacking in the slightest bit to annoy you to try another combination. More pads = more possibility of satisfaction with your paint finish.
OCD Status:
Now for those of you, who like me, are OCD:
49) 3 inch buffer. I have a Griot's Garage 3 inch buffer. It seems pretty sturdy so far, so I would recommend it. One thing I saw when researching it was it was supposedly underpowered. I personally did not really notice that. A 3 inch buffer is great for grilles and hard to reach spots with a 6 inch buffer.
50) Another 3 inch backing plate and more 4 inch pads
51) Paste Wax: This is your boutique wax... it is used as a topper on other waxes most of the time. I have HEARD, not used, about Blackfire Midnight Sun and Wolfgang Fuzion. Fuzion is supposedly better in terms of durability but it is also like $170 for two jars. You have to buy two jars (you only get one, but you get a refill when you run out).
I have good luck with my Mother's Paste Wax lol... but I do want to try Fuzion.
52) Coating: If you are seriously serious about your paint protection, think about getting a coating. I have Opticoat on my Camaro and it is absolutely amazing. The benefit of Opticoat is it is essentially a permanent wax. I have heard great things about cquartz as well, although the manufacturer states it is a 3 year coating.
53) Raceglaze brushes: Expensive, but very safe and helpful for trim and emblem cleaning.
54) Meguiars Dynacone Polishing Tool and any drill. Used for wheel and exhaust polishing and much easier/faster than hands.
55) Rotary polisher: You will only really need both a rotary polisher and dual action polisher if you are a serious detailer. A dual action polisher like the Flex 3401 can pretty much do ALMOST everything a Rotary can, just takes longer. Makita 9227c is highly recommended rotary among detailers.
56) MF Cutting Pads: Haven't gotten around to using mine, but the Optimum MF cutting pads are supposed to be nothing short of amazing... if used correctly. MF polishing pads are not supposed to be better than foam pads for finishing, so stick with your foam pads.
57) Electric Duster (Electric Renewable Compressed Air): I use the Metro Vac Electric Duster to clean the inside of my air vents as well as my MF cutting pads.
58) More of EVERYTHING. You can never have too many soaps, MF towels, waxes, polishes, or anything detail related. There are times when M105/m205 is just too much for the soft black paint you are working on and that's when you try Optimum Hyper Polish on a white or grey pad and find it's what you want. Dialing in the process means you have to a good selection of products if you work on more than just your car. What may work for one Camaro, may not even work for another Camaro. Crazy how that is, but it's true.
59) Garden Pump Sprayer: Atomizes product for those that like to work as efficiently as possible
61) A never ending wallet: Products cost money (sometimes a LOT) and I for one need more money to buy everything I want to try lol
Alright guys, that was all of the top of my head so I'm sure I forgot some things. Feel free to comment and add what you think is necessary and why.
Hope this helps!
***Word of advice: Detailing is easy to get lost in the hype. If you are only doing your car, find something that works for you and stick to it. Only buy something if you need it or else you will find yourself buying a lot more than you need/will ever use***
Obligatory pictures of my car
I am going to break it down into 3 groups: what I consider essential, recommended, and OCD (like yours truly).
Comments/Improvements welcome! I'm not always right and never said I would be so if anyone comes up with something better, I can always edit this post :chevy:
About everything I have can be found from either from Autogeek or Autopia or Amazon.
Essential:
What I consider essential for a detailer (in no particular order):
1) Quality Soap (lowest grade soap I will use is Meguiar's Gold Class. I recommend Chemical Guys Citrus Gloss and Wash or CG Maxisuds II as a starter online-sold soap ie cheap/high dilution/effective)
2) Two 5 gallon buckets. At least one grit guard for the rinse bucket.
3) Microfiber Chenille Wash Mitt.... and not the cheapo walmart one. Cobra is a good brand sold at autogeek/autopia.
4) Foam Gun for hose (Gilmour sold on Amazon is $30ish)
5) Optimum Power Clean (can be diluted to clean interiors, wheels, paint, engine bay, plastic... pretty much safe on everything, but it will strip wax).
6) MICROFIBER CLOTHS! These will end up costing you so much money... but you need the right ones. Again, Cobras are great here, but other people have good luck with cheaper ones like Pakshak. No Costco or Walmart ones unless you are only using it for the engine bay or interior or exhaust.
Note: Goodtimes brought up to me that Garry Dean uses the Sam's club towels for rinseless washes and so does he with no scratching. I've not used that but as you can tell, lots of opinions that I trust from well respected people in the detailing community. Towelpros and MicrofiberTech are also places that sell quality MF towels, but I have not ever used them.
7) Terry cloths. A little more aggressive nap than MF towels. Only for interior. Not for paint.
8) Microfiber/Foam Applicators: Great for tire dressing and wax application.
9) Mother's wheel brush, tire brush, and fender brush kit. Amazing tools and priced right.
10) At least one Daytona Speed Brush or Wheel woolie.
11) Shop Vac to vacuum interior
12) Interior Brush: Only for carpet, not for leather ie Carrand Deluxe Interior Brush, carpet scrub brush, upholstery brush, rug brush, carpet cleaner brush
13) Carpet cleaner (I recommend CG carpet clean and stain remover)
14) Tire/rubber/engine/leather Dressing (I recommend Carpro PERL for it's versatility, price, endurance through rain, and good dilution)
15) Collinite 845: By far the best wax you can get for the price. This stuff is untouchable for those on a budget.
16) 3 Spray Bottles to use for diluted products (I actually bought $3 ones at walmart that work great but leak a little).
17) Dual Action Orbital Buffer: For newbies, the safest you can get is the PC 7424xp. Get 5.5 inch pads and 5 inch backing... nothing bigger than that.
18) Meguiars 105/205: These guys pack a punch and are the standard to beat in the compounding and polishing world. They are NOT super newbie friendly, but if you get the hang of it, these two can be the only polishes you will ever need.
19) SM Arnold Speedy Surface Prep Towel: Make sure to get the FINE grade. This is your clay, but much much MUCH better.
20) At the very least, CCS pads for your buffer. Even better is flat pads. You need yellow, orange, white, and gray imo at the minimum and 2 of each.
21) Ultima Waterless Wash Plus Concentrate: Makes quick detailer, clay lube, waterless wash, and rinseless wash. What's not to love?
22) Leafblower (has to be electric)
Recommended:
Now, past essential is my recommended list on top of products above (again in no specific order):
23) More compounds and polishes: Optimum Hyper Compound and Hyper Spray come to mind as some of the most user friendly. Also Menzerna. The list could go on forever seriously. Almost all polishes work well. Optimum/Meguiars/Menzerna are some of the best out there though.
24) Blackfire Crystal Sealant: Wipe on, walk away sealant. One of the best I've ever tried.
25) Wheel lug nut brush
26) Mother's Detail Brushes: I haven't found better detail brushes for the same price ($4 for 2)
27) Boar's Hair Wheel Brush for ultra soft wheel cleaning, but imo my Mother's wheel brush does just fine and doesn't shed hair all over the place either.
28) Lamb's wool wash mitt (these need to be replaced every so often and sometimes you get one that lints, which sucks. But in terms of softness, can't be beat)
29) Interior Sealant (wolfgang ****pit sealant has gotten awesome reviews as well as ultima interior guard plus)
~~~ ...Really? ****pit is automatically changed to asterisks on this forum.... um okay how about cokpit lol ~~~
30) Hydrotech pads: Even better than CCS/Flat pads but tend to disintegrate faster.
31) Horsehair brush: Softest, gentlest method of applying any interior cleaner or conditioner. Not my personal favorite because you have to vacuum again after because of all the hair coming off the brush.
32) MF Towels: You can never have enough. I got an awesome deal on Cobra Supreme 600, Deluxe 530, and Gold Plush Jrs and wholeheartedly recommend all of them. Other awesome ones are quality MFs that have no borders. Safest of the safe MF towels.
33) Waffle Weave Drying Towels
34) More quality soaps: Not all soaps are created equal. Try quality ones and find what you like. Currently, I'm enjoying Duragloss 901.
35) Spray waxes: I really enjoy Optimum Car Wax right now.
36) Sealant: Blackfire Wet Diamond is my current favorite
37) All-in-one product: If you have all these products, you don't need this, but if you do others people cars you might want a one stepper cleaner, polisher, sealant to save time.
38) 3 inch backing plate and pads for your DA above (in essentials)
39) Another grit guard for your soap bucket
40) Pressure washer and MTM Hydro foam cannon attachment
41) Waterless/Rinseless wash with Carnauba: You can argue all day with me that these are putting scratches in my car, but I don't see them. Also, a yearly polish doesn't bother me at all if it does. The ease of use and time reduction in my twice weekly wash is just awesome. I have used the Pinnacle Waterless Wash with Carnauba and have found it to be a great product.
42) All Metal Polish to polish wheels and exhaust tips. Can be used with hands and MF applicator pad.
43) Another 6 inch buffer... preferably a Flex 3401 or Griot's Garage.
44) Glass cleaner: I've used both Invisible glass and Meguiar's Glass Cleaner (thanks Matt for the suggestion) and they both work great. Megs Glass Cleaner is the better value though.
45) If you have a Daytona Speed Brush, then get the whoolie set. Vice versa as well. Both sets are helpful and handy in specific situations.
46) 10 Spray Bottles: I think that having around 10 is a good number for various dilutions of chemicals.
47) Self-cleaning squeeze bottles: A must if you use Collinite waxes. Other waxes benefit from being in here as well with better control of product, easy to see how much you have left, and never clogging. Great for sealants, waxes, polishes, compounds, gels, all sorts of things.
48) An assortment of all types of pads in all abrasives. You never know what combination will be just perfect and what combination is just lacking in the slightest bit to annoy you to try another combination. More pads = more possibility of satisfaction with your paint finish.
OCD Status:
Now for those of you, who like me, are OCD:
49) 3 inch buffer. I have a Griot's Garage 3 inch buffer. It seems pretty sturdy so far, so I would recommend it. One thing I saw when researching it was it was supposedly underpowered. I personally did not really notice that. A 3 inch buffer is great for grilles and hard to reach spots with a 6 inch buffer.
50) Another 3 inch backing plate and more 4 inch pads
51) Paste Wax: This is your boutique wax... it is used as a topper on other waxes most of the time. I have HEARD, not used, about Blackfire Midnight Sun and Wolfgang Fuzion. Fuzion is supposedly better in terms of durability but it is also like $170 for two jars. You have to buy two jars (you only get one, but you get a refill when you run out).
I have good luck with my Mother's Paste Wax lol... but I do want to try Fuzion.
52) Coating: If you are seriously serious about your paint protection, think about getting a coating. I have Opticoat on my Camaro and it is absolutely amazing. The benefit of Opticoat is it is essentially a permanent wax. I have heard great things about cquartz as well, although the manufacturer states it is a 3 year coating.
53) Raceglaze brushes: Expensive, but very safe and helpful for trim and emblem cleaning.
54) Meguiars Dynacone Polishing Tool and any drill. Used for wheel and exhaust polishing and much easier/faster than hands.
55) Rotary polisher: You will only really need both a rotary polisher and dual action polisher if you are a serious detailer. A dual action polisher like the Flex 3401 can pretty much do ALMOST everything a Rotary can, just takes longer. Makita 9227c is highly recommended rotary among detailers.
56) MF Cutting Pads: Haven't gotten around to using mine, but the Optimum MF cutting pads are supposed to be nothing short of amazing... if used correctly. MF polishing pads are not supposed to be better than foam pads for finishing, so stick with your foam pads.
57) Electric Duster (Electric Renewable Compressed Air): I use the Metro Vac Electric Duster to clean the inside of my air vents as well as my MF cutting pads.
58) More of EVERYTHING. You can never have too many soaps, MF towels, waxes, polishes, or anything detail related. There are times when M105/m205 is just too much for the soft black paint you are working on and that's when you try Optimum Hyper Polish on a white or grey pad and find it's what you want. Dialing in the process means you have to a good selection of products if you work on more than just your car. What may work for one Camaro, may not even work for another Camaro. Crazy how that is, but it's true.
59) Garden Pump Sprayer: Atomizes product for those that like to work as efficiently as possible
61) A never ending wallet: Products cost money (sometimes a LOT) and I for one need more money to buy everything I want to try lol
Alright guys, that was all of the top of my head so I'm sure I forgot some things. Feel free to comment and add what you think is necessary and why.
Hope this helps!
***Word of advice: Detailing is easy to get lost in the hype. If you are only doing your car, find something that works for you and stick to it. Only buy something if you need it or else you will find yourself buying a lot more than you need/will ever use***
Obligatory pictures of my car
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