Alrighty, im the GOD at polishing a car since I like to ride clean...
Guaranteed, no one has a shinier car. fact! undisputed! IT IS NOT POSSIBLE!!!!!

go clean your car your way and show me!

lol just kidding, I could learn some tricks as always however Ill share mine....

some pics.











First thing is first.... if you do NOT have a garage check the weather... make sure you have a week to enjoy this otherwise it is a waste.

Go to target or walmart in the automotive section (or car place of your choice)

Get KIT Carnuba wax in a bottle (not the can with the built in buffer)
Get KIT Scratch out (for ANY discoloration, clear coat scuffs, or maybe you hit a ditch?) its GOOD

Both of these are banana yellow bottle-like containers. Mcguires is about half as effective and leaves a film that I hate when it rains. Same as the clear coat protectant those autowashers have. Also it sucks.

Armor all... general purpose crap (nothing big)
Wheel glaze (of your choice) if your too cheap for the wheel glaze you can use the armorall for a day or 2.
Wheel cleaner


Ok! Here is how I detail my car and how to avoid ruining paint/finishes while doing it.

Clean your car at the local drive-in self-serve. Truck in a few quarters and use the High pressure soap first. All the places I go to have warm water with their high pressure soap and its great at "softly" removing dirt that could leave little abrasions on your clear-coat.


*****Juststickit124's tip: For REALLY dirty cars (alot of mud) Presoak with a light spray, otherwise you'll sandpaper the clear coat with abrasions....ew

Start from the top and work your way down. Otherwise your just wasting time in the quarter machine.


*****Juststickit124's tip: After your car is all sudsy soapy and looks a bit soaked, !!!!!!!!!!!Rinse off the manual brush!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Mud boggers could have used it, or someone like me could have used the brush on their rims too!)


then break out the manual brush and do the same thing. top down and then all the way around.... make sure u brush your rims/tires too

K now soap again if it is a warm/hot water pressure to remove the "brush soap" Otherwise just rinse.

Ok...now the tricky part. If the sun is BLAZING outside and you see its 90 degree weather.... DRY the car off with a soft towel. I use 2 regular bath towels.

If the temp is around 70 degrees or less you can drive it home. The reason you dry the damn thing off (especially if you have black) is because it is practically IMPOSSIBLE to remove those "baked on" water marks. Its gay....im telling ya..... like look at barney, thats how gay it is.... ok so!

Now that your car is all dried off and ready to go. Use the KIT Carnuba Car wax from the bottle and squirt a little on and buff in, then polish it off.....work all the way around the car.

*tip:
If you want to avoid using a credit card to get the wax out of trouble spots just make sure you have enough wax on the towel/micro material to barely cover it. Otherwise you will have to do some "spot" cleanup with a towel and a crappy card.

If you find any scratches use a spare towel/micro material to buff in the scratch remover... THIS STUFF WORKS WONDERS (for about a month on deep scratches)

I have a couple of trouble spots where i hit a deer and the autobody shop screwed me on the hood/fender... they are deep and ugly and now gone!

ok... So now you have this awesome shiny paint job and your plastic areas around your side view mirrors look like ass. So should the plastic area where your wipers are and the trim molding around your doors.... it looks like ****!

break out the armorall. Spray it on a paper towel or regular soft towel before applying this to all the plastic areas. If your in the sun you should see a small oil slick on your paint.... this is VERY bad so remove it by buffing it out with a towel until the residue is gone. If it just looks like the plastic is shiny and the **** is in there you didnt use enough pressure. Your going to have to put pressure on it to remove the stuff in the DEEP narrow crevices.... it will STAY GONE!!!
For rubber trims around the doors spray a little on a papertowel again, use a credit car and slide it softly underneath the trim. Again....wipe off the paint.

*****Juststickit124's tip: Dont use armorall, use a silicon water soluable solution to avoid the dried out look plastics get by not using armorall regularly.
*****My comment: I only notice this with already deteriorated plastic(old sun burnt), not well kept plastic like my own. Armorall will go away on my vehicle and still look new....just not shiny after a month or so you be the judge.

CAUTION:
at the bottom and behind the side DOORS (where the window goes down) is a FLAT black piece of trim. make sure you get all the armorall off this piece as it will DEGRADE if you keep armorall on it. So make sure you buff it til it is smooth.

By this time all your trim will look SHINY black and will make this car look KILLER and you will see results. Now do the glass.... you can use the wax as well but I dont like overdoing the trim pieces again and again so just get some paper towels and clean them off DRY. Any oil residue can be buffed off.

Wheels.... use the wheel cleaner and the SAME rag on all of them... dont worry about getting them perfect, this phase is just to get 80% of the grime off. After this is done use a paper towel to get the rest of the "residue" off.

Use armorall on the tires if your too cheap for the tire glaze.

TIP:
Some tire glazes have a crappy spray radius (VERY LARGE) and it will get on your fenders. Make sure you reapply the carnuba wax/buff it out to get rid of it.


That is how you get it SHINY SHINY!

 

HOLY HELL DUDE your car loooks crazy i love it. Great write up man.. mad props

 

Mothers Car Wash Concentrate
Mothers California Gold Clay Bar (Every 3 washes)
Mothers FX Synthetic Polish
Microfiber Towels FTMFW!!!

Meguiars Extreme Tire Shine Gel

So that is just about the everytime wash minus the Clay Bar

 

Thanks, btw my car is an 05....no body work except the front bumper(where i hit a deer) God damn road vermin. I live in down town Atlanta now.

Props for that job (definitley equivelant). Black is the hardest to keep clean however.

 

God I love black cars...that's why I got one

 

I don't know this Laser Blue is a BEEOTCH! But props man black is hard too!

 

Yea a friend of mine has an STI (same color), and gets dust like hell on the back and bottom. His scratches are easier to hide than black.... its so merciless! Will never get a black car again.

What wax are you using?

 

Hey M-dub, what's your process for the clay bar? I've been needing to do it to mine but I'm a total noob to it.

 

What kind of head lights do you have ??

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/05-06...QQcmdZViewItem

They should come stock....but GM is gimp

 

damn, oh so clean lol

 

I'm sorry but I disagree with your car washing techniques, sorry to flame but hopefully you can listen with an open mind, it will keep your cars paint in better condition.

First dont spray with high pressure, go low pressure first, high pressure just pushes the dirt into your paint more, let it sheet off a little before high pressure. Especially with black cars.

Never use the same brush to do your wheels and car, and always do wheels first to avoid contamination between wheel cleaner touching your paint and keeping your car wet for the least amount of time to prevent water spots, it's also best to do the engine at this time to, with low pressure water.

Then go to the paint with a thick sponge from top to bottom, doing the lower half of the car last. Rinse from top to bottom low pressure first to get the dirt sheeted on, then hit it with high pressure.

why wouldn't you completely dry your car before driving? Don't use beach towels, they are not thick. The thicker the towel the more distance the dirt travels inward, to avoid scratching the paint, micro fibers are always the best to try, drying the bottom half and wheel wells last.

And you should always wax your car immediately after washing, if you drive home, you've just attracted more dirt to your surface that will scratch.

And I don't like Armor All Products at all, sure they look nice but they are oil based meaning if you don't baby it and keep treating it regularly, it will dry out the plastic leaving it white and faded. Try using water based/silicone based products, they make the plastic/rubber look newer and not greasy, plus you can mix them with water so they can last longer, and they aren't bad for your paint like oil based products.



little hint, our wheels are painted so you can use wax on them to keep brake dust from building up too much, and it will come off a lot easier next wash.


Well I hope this helps, I'm not trying to flame you. And yes, I detail cars. Try out my tips next time and let me know what you think.

Great write up though! Keep it clean!!!

 

I agree with this, unless your car is FILTHY dirty (mud bogging) it wont scratch your clear coat. (I have black i know) This is a good tip for people who dont clean their car regularly!

Ah, didnt clarify! PAINT FIRST!!!!!!!!!! Wheels last. You can use the same brush that you used on your wheels as you did your paint. You "could" do it both ways however the brake dust will possibly scratch your clear coat if too much pressure is applied.... good eye!

Top to bottom, yup! I dont like to rinse after the brush since the high pressure soap is "warm" water. Everything else is cold. It seems to soak alot better.

Let you be the judge of this... I've tried it, no difference.


How far away is your house from the car wash? If it is more than 25 miles...obviously this holds true.

I only notice this white residue on sun burnt plastic that is already too far decayed to fix short of a paint job. Armorall will help it but it "does" come back. Plastic/trim that is already well kept will not have this problem.


Most waxes I've used leave a residue for the clear coat protectant and actually "stick" to the wax. Including mcguires.

Love the tips and agree with most of it. Excellent critique of my write-up!

 

THANK YOU, finally someone here can take a little helpful suggestions. Just another thing to think about, if you take it to one of those coin washes, everyone else uses that brush for their tires and rims too, so it's not a good idea to use it, even on paint first, it's still dirty from other people. I wash my car at home since I am a detailer and have all the equipment, but when I really want to get some serious detailing done I'll take it to a coin wash and stay there for atleast 4 hours, full interior and exterior including clay bar, if you haven't clayed your car yet, DO IT, it's like a babies ass seriously, just be sure to do it properly or you'll dull your clear coat.
I also use a urethane blade to sheet off most of the water, you can use it on any part of the car it's great, they sell them pretty much anywhere, then I hit it with microfibers and detail spray to get a great shine and protectant, with no scratches!

Check out Adams car washing products, THEY ARE THE ****!! thank you again!

 

Edited my original for post and gave props as needed.

 

Check out the shine on this ****



Zaino > All others

 

yikes, i would never do to my car what you do to yours. there will never be a brush that touches my car. thats jsut for starters, im not going into my process because even though i know mine is much safer than what you were doing, im not the best. there are detailing forums that would eat you alive for this post...

 

I use a hose, sponge(washing), chamois cloth(drying), and ocassionally do a 3 stage wax

BLAM! and this pic was taken the day after i washed it(no wax)


fortuneately for me, i have a garage

 

just for the hell of it here is some of my "work"

 

My black sheep and what I use...

 

Moneyshot!!

I am a big fan of the mr. clean auto dry carwash. I try to wash my car once a week with that. Touch free drying = no scratches! I usually wet the whole car down to start, then wash the wheels first using the mr. clean soap (no need for harsh wheel cleaners), rinse, then use a separate microfiber sponge and wash the whole car top to bottom. Rinse, use the filtered water and spray the whole car down, and voila, I just safely and effectively washed my cobalt. I also just recently put a coat of Meguiar's Synthetic Tech Wax on the car as well (after owning it for only 2 weeks), and it looks simply amazing. Not to mention the protection the wax provides from paint etching, bugs, ****, etc. I would have clay bar'd first before applying the wax, but the car was only on the road for a week or two and had only seen one day of rain. But don't take my word for it, see for yourself. :wink:

 

here's my work:

 

g your car looks very very good, and like i told you before, it needs tire shine haha.

 

I cant believe any of you actually use car wash brushes AT ALL.

while your at walmart spending $40+, spend another $5, and get a microfiber wash mit.
then turn on the car wash brush....and let it dribble nice thick suds all over your car, WITHOUT touching your paint with that giant clearcoat eating bristled bitch, then use your microfiber mit....to scrub it down, using the suds you just put on your car.

Im sorry, but cleaned off, checked, or not....those brushes are pathetic for anyone who likes showroom shine.

 

Used the brush for 3 years...no issues on my paint.

Btw, G what wax do you use?