When Did This Get So Complicated?

pro 4x said:
Yea. Growing up you hit the driveway....

Grabbed your bucket
No 7 powered soap
Westlys blech white
Old terry cloths towels to dry
Turtle wax or simonize or nu finish

DONE
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Don't forget Rain Dance or Finish 2001 a little later on....
Zip Wax and Bleche White,and Armor All or STP on the tires.
 
The advent of the clear coat came shortly after i got into the detailing business and ultimately led to me getting out of the business, since everybody was sure they would have perfect paint forever. Now I am getting back into it almost 3 decades later because I'd rather detail my cars than have someone else do it and it has been quite bewildering even with the experience I had many year ago. I finally felt I knew enough to order some products and went a Flex kit, a variety of Lake Country pads and several Meguair's polishes and the NXT wax. Plus some of the other accessories like microfiber towels and mitts, clay and lubrication. Even the accessories resulted in much more research than I would have liked. I'm still pretty much lost on the polishes, sealants, coatings and waxes. My day job also requires continuous research so finding the time has been problematic. I should have what I need to get my cars cleaned, polished and protected for a while. It will probably take me several months to finish all 3 so hopefully I will know more by then.
 
GregC said:
The advent of the clear coat came shortly after i got into the detailing business and ultimately led to me getting out of the business, since everybody was sure they would have perfect paint forever. Now I am getting back into it almost 3 decades later because I'd rather detail my cars than have someone else do it and it has been quite bewildering even with the experience I had many year ago. I finally felt I knew enough to order some products and went a Flex kit, a variety of Lake Country pads and several Meguair's polishes and the NXT wax. Plus some of the other accessories like microfiber towels and mitts, clay and lubrication. Even the accessories resulted in much more research than I would have liked. I'm still pretty much lost on the polishes, sealants, coatings and waxes. My day job also requires continuous research so finding the time has been problematic. I should have what I need to get my cars cleaned, polished and protected for a while. It will probably take me several months to finish all 3 so hopefully I will know more by then.
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I remember that!

The new paint that didn't need waxing, etc..
 
BrutalNoodle said:
I'm sort of stuck in the past still.

With all the new stuff popping up left and right, the only aisle that grabs my interest is waterless/rinseless. Nothing but "basic" Hydro-Tech pads and Meg's tried and true M101 & M205 combo, and of course... the good ole' 7424xp.

I have other popular & favor of the month stuff, but those are just really for playing around/curiosity. Then again, I'm just a hobbyist and not the 'for profit' sector, so it's easy to not get carried away on my part.
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The drum industry taught me to reconcile my self to sticking to a basic format with products. Reps used to send me all sorts of stuff. Drumheads, sticks, hardware, etc. Soon my house was filled with gear I was never going to use.

Same thing happened during my first foray into detailing. Shelves full of product. Everything from Murray's auto parts store, and the local painters supply.

Today, I could do it all with the PC, my favorite green, blue, and red Hex Logic pads, and the Megs Ultimate line.

Likewise, my common concession is waterless washing. A personal concession is the Rupes system (partial - yellow/blue), which is awesome!
 
I found my Klasse AIO, Klasse sealant and Mothers Clay bar kit tonight. I also have some Wizards Shine Master that was given to me at the Viper plant. Still struggling with which products can or should be used together. I got the Klasse a while back when I read on a car forum that it was excellent from a protection standpoint but now I am not sure if it will give the shine I want.
 
As someone who used the same product line for 10 years I was looking to change, headed to this forum and yes was very confused.
That is the great thing about this place, the members discuss the pros and cons of everything so not hard to narrow down what will fit any individuals needs.
Great group, lots of help, not so confused now.
 
I agree and fully understand Setec's OP. For me it was dive in and use some of this new fangled stuff! While doing that, join a few different detailing sites, watch some online videos and educate myself. I think that while it is confusing with all the new options available to someone just starting out there is also more information available to study and try to figure it out. There wasn't as much info available to do some research when i first started out.

I have always enjoyed the physical concepts and the "science" side of this stuff. What does what and why do you want to use it? As an example...just getting familiar with the different pad choices and what does what. Ok, that right there is loaded with options today but a basic initial understanding of the different colors and types from a single manufacturer is the first step. I tried to keep it simple although when i first started out in this passionate pursuit of paint perfection it was easier as there weren't as many options as mentioned earlier. Then try it and either see for yourself or abandon it as not for you. It was easier to grow with the industry. I agree it is much more confusing for someone new to all of this coming in now.

There was a thread recently about "what products should i get" and the problem with that ubiquitous question here is that everyone has their favorites. Fortunately for very solid reasons...they have tried out maybe several products and arrived at their favorites. This, many times, results in more confusion for the requestor. My advice based on what i did was to simply do your research, pick something based on what you think will work for you and go from there.

I like today's state of a bagillion options. I also like the improvements in the "science" side of it as well...refinements of what does what and why. And with AGO and Mike P. here i feel comforted by having them and all of you to wrestle with this stuff next to me.
 
My problem with a bazillion products is apparently some don't play well together and since I am not doing this as a profession I don't want to test them all. Also certain paint jobs preferring certain products presents the same challenge.
 
Puckman said:
I agree and fully understand Setec's OP. For me it was dive in and use some of this new fangled stuff! While doing that, join a few different detailing sites, watch some online videos and educate myself. I think that while it is confusing with all the new options available to someone just starting out there is also more information available to study and try to figure it out. There wasn't as much info available to do some research when i first started out.

I have always enjoyed the physical concepts and the "science" side of this stuff. What does what and why do you want to use it? As an example...just getting familiar with the different pad choices and what does what. Ok, that right there is loaded with options today but a basic initial understanding of the different colors and types from a single manufacturer is the first step. I tried to keep it simple although when i first started out in this passionate pursuit of paint perfection it was easier as there weren't as many options as mentioned earlier. Then try it and either see for yourself or abandon it as not for you. It was easier to grow with the industry. I agree it is much more confusing for someone new to all of this coming in now.

There was a thread recently about "what products should i get" and the problem with that ubiquitous question here is that everyone has their favorites. Fortunately for very solid reasons...they have tried out maybe several products and arrived at their favorites. This, many times, results in more confusion for the requestor. My advice based on what i did was to simply do your research, pick something based on what you think will work for you and go from there.

I like today's state of a bagillion options. I also like the improvements in the "science" side of it as well...refinements of what does what and why. And with AGO and Mike P. here i feel comforted by having them and all of you to wrestle with this stuff next to me.
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And depending on the person, they might have a LOT of fun learning about the particulars of these products. I used to spend a lot of free time during my lurking days having fun researching! My ex gf would be watching dvd's of Two And A Half Men while I poured over AGO, MOL, and Autopia. I absolutely loved it, just as much as I did in the 90's, as I do now.
 
Two camps here:

1) Abundance of products=Spoilt for choice.
2) Overlapping of products=Unnecessary confusion.

To seperate people from their money or win over customers from the competition, MARKETING HYPE became the norm= "We offer the shiniest shine" vs. "We offer the glossiest gloss" and the forum world was seperated into camps of fanboys arguing over identical products seperated only by bottle and label differences.
 
I think we're going through some exciting times. And I think we have you guys to thank for it. By "you guys", I mean the detailers who do this for a living, the dedicated weekend warriors who spend a lot of their spare time and money supporting their love affairs with their rides, and the folks at Autogeek, Autopia, and the other detail oriented businesses who make all of this possible. The advances have been coming so fast that if one is away for awhile you have to take a crash course to get back up to speed. I guess I'm a geek for real, because it's a big part of my life.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Was that sarcasm? How do they make it easy when they have 7 products that do the same thing and they all pretty much have the same description?

Back to why I started this thread, I saw a post tonight with someone asking if a particular polish (that was suggested to solve his problem) would work with his 5.5" LC flat pads...and I thought, "does that mean he thinks he might need a different size pad to use that polish?" I mean sure, there were a lot of different pads way back when, and a lot of colors, but how many distinct lines of pads does LC have now? Flat, CCS, Hydro-Tech, Hybrid, HD, Thin-Pro, and that's not even getting into the wool and MF. And in some cases 3 or 4 diameters of each.

I have to say I started on forums at MOL, and it was pretty simple, there wasn't that much to choose from, you got your G100, you got your 3 flavors of foam pad (in one diameter) and you got your 3 or 4 80-series polishes, and that was it. Then someone at MOL mentioned Autopia...and then the world got a little bigger. And now it's just crazy.

Edit: I forgot the waffle pads. Since I mentioned Autopia, way back when we used to preach "process > product", which has kind of been lost and also why perhaps it's more confusing than it was. Maybe I'm wrong.
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Brilliant marketing. McDonalds learned that marketshare is more important than not cannibalizing its territory. That's why you might see two or three McDonalds clustered close together in some neighborhoods, seemingly stealing each others' customers. Marketing studies show that this strategy works because it reinforces the brand, it offers choice in the brand and in the end all locations benefit from the adjacent locations. CG's marketing of similar products that do similar things is very clever. CG is not targeting the hardcore pro. They are going after the SoCal enthusiast crowd, in the photography sector they call this pro-sumer.

In other words, McDonald's is not interested in the fine-wine-drinking organic-fed-beef aficionado. They are interested in the neighborhood family who is looking for burgers and fries.
 
Route246 said:
CG is not targeting the hardcore pro. They are going after the SoCal enthusiast crowd
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I disagree with you on that^
I think they're targeting the masses who want to be cool like the people in SoCal... That's why you see them put "Los Angeles" in your face at the beginning of all their vids as a stamp of approval = Be like us and you'll be cool.

I'm from LA, but that has nothing to do with my comment there.^
 
I wouldn't worry about it, I'm a newcomer and I've figured it out just fine, it's not rocket science. It is expensive though
 
I'm a noob but I think it's nuts how companies don't label thier products like the meguires pro compounds do, showing the scale of aggressiveness.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
Route246 said:
CG is not targeting the hardcore
pro. They are going after the
SoCal enthusiast crowd...
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The below SoCal enthusiasts?

IMG_27131.JPG


:dunno:


Bob
 
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