Explain your detailing process

Hello all,
Just bought a practically brand new 15 trd sport. This is the newest car I've had and I'm looking to take very good care of her seeing as I spent more than I can even fathom obtaining it. I come from used sports cars and due to the age of my last car I wasnt too worried about how I washed it and detailed it because it was 15 years old.

I know everyone's different and likes to add their own twist.. so I'm curious. What products and what steps to YOU take to wash and detail YOUR taco. I want to get the most out of this paint and I'm willing to spend a little money to do it right, this time. What washing mits do you use, what soap, applicators, waxes, compounds, etc. how often?

 

This has potential to get lengthy.

There are a lot of good products and brands, I use blackfire, it has good reviews and my dad bought me a starter kit a while back.

For washing you should get a 2 bucket system with grit guards, I use the microfiber mits with the tiny fingers that look like an anemone if that makes sense. You will want separate tire and wheel brushes and a tire and wheel cleaner product.

You don’t need to be polishing or compounding brand new paint, that is an only as required process as it removes thickness of paint each time you do it. For a brand new truck you should clay bar it to remove contaminants and apply a sealant to protect the paint. Having the paint sealed makes it easier to keep clean. If you want to spend the time you can layer wax over the sealant for more depth, but the base coat should be a synthetic sealant for better durability.

ETA reread your truck is a 15, you would probably want to use a non abrasive polish prior to waxing, this basically cleans And polishes the paints surface chemically so the sealant bonds better, I use blackfire gloss enhancing polish for this, you may want to invest in a random orbital buffer it makes the process much less painful.

 

Subbbd

 

I'm going to tell you simply to go check out Killerwaxx Georgia, not only because I'm a sponsored mall crawler truck ... but because its great product and easy to use. Shaun will also answer any questions you have.

 

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FAy4QFggmMAA&usg=AOvVaw3gUakYPo0Keqpkt1Xclmqi

 

Today i washed, clayed, chemicals white light, and lastly meguires liquid ultimate wax.
To bad it rained on my sealant... gonna wash and reseal tomorrow.

 

My yearly detail takes me like 18 hours. I don’t think you or I have the time to go through each step. LOL

I agree with @Toyoland66 response.

Get a good two bucket method wash down. Clay the truck and lay a sealer.
Do research over the winter to determine what you want to do for a more major detail in the Spring.

Chemical Guys has a great Youtube channel that will show you how to do almost anything.

 

About twice a year my ritual is, wash>clay>buff>glaze>sealer>wax. I wax every couple of months in between. Wax isn't strictly necessary if you apply a sealant its mostly a matter of what type of shine you are after. Sealants tend to have the high gloss "wet" look to them. Waxes are more of a deep warmer glow. There are also a number of paint coatings that you can get such as opticoat and the like that actually bond to your clear coat. Those should be applied professionally though as the potential to jack up your finish is very real. As far as washing, as these guys have already stated a two bucket hand wash with a quality mitt is the best way to go. Try to avoid the automatic washes as they will scratch the living hell out of your paint. When drying use a quality microfiber towel. Also check out the California jelly/water blade. Its basically a paint safe silicon squeegee that makes drying much faster. I could go on at length about detailing but Autogeek.net has a number of really good tutorials for each stage of the detail process and they are better at explaining things than I am so i'd head there.

 

Nothing is truly paint safe. I’d be nervous about a water blade. A spec of dirt in the rubber and its no longer paint safe.

A gas leaf blower thats only used on your car is the best drying method.

 

A squeegee is great till a piece of debris gets embedded in it. Makes for great scratches and swirl.

 

If you're washing well all the debris should be off your truck by that point

 

1. McKee's Wheel/Tire cleaner and a wheel brush

2. 2-bucket wash w/ Meguiar's Gold Class wash and microfiber mitt (top -> bottom, panel-by-panel)

3. Dry with my large "Guzzler" microfiber drying towels

4. Polish/coat using Klasse All-In-One polish w/ a microfiber applicator (Panel-by-Panel, and buffed with a heavy polishing micro before moving to the next panel)

5. Seal w/ Klasse High Gloss Sealant acrylic sealant using another microfiber applicator (all panels, let sit for 30+ mins before buffing with a heavy polishing/buffing microfiber)

You can also wax on top of the acrylic sealant as well if you want to, but I usually don't. I also usually do the interior detailing before any of the exterior, using a vacuum/interior detailing brushes/etc.)

I also have some stuff called 3D trim restorer from a detailing store near me that I use to re-darken trim and black plastic/rubber around the exterior of the truck.

With the Klasse All-in-One and High Gloss Sealant I just follow the tutorials for hand application on Autogeek.net

Everything I use can be found on Autogeek or Autopia-CarCare.com and both are actually owned by the same company. The "complete microfiber kit" on Autopia is VERY good and I would highly recommend getting it

 

Not always the case which is why detailer s usually recommend not using a water blade or a California duster. Both tend to add to the risk of creating swirls.

 

What @ace96 said.

Also thats not true. The best of washes do not remove all contaminants, hence why clay bars a necessary.

 

The duster is absolutely a terrible idea. I've been using the water blade on my vehicles for years with no ill effects, but to each their own. More than one way to skin a cat.

 

My truck is ceramic coated, but I wash all my cars in a similar manner in the shade or early in the morning late that afternoon.

Wheel and tires clean first that has a dedicated bucket and tools. (3 bucket system).

I don't bother rinsing my car down with my power washer...I go straight to foam cannon and let it dwell for 5 min and then give it a good rinse.

Chemical decontamination for iron particles/ fallout. You can't use a claybay at on coated cars. I let it dwell for 5-10min cars turn purple and rinse it off. For a non Coated car, proceed to a clay bar.

2 other bucket are obviously for wash and rinse with grit gaurds. I use 2 mitts one for the upper half of the vehicle and one for the bottom half and a detail brush for emblems, grill, etc. wash from top to bottom.

For a ceramic coated car I usta use carpro reload/gtechniq c2v3 as a sealant but now I use carpro hydro 2 as my sealant as all you do is spray one panel at a time and rinse off immediately. Saves you a lot of time vs using a microfiber towel.

Get your leaf blower and blow dry it, its faster and easier. The less you touch your paint the better.

Pretty much my process ... usually try to do a quick power wash once or twice a week to prevent build up of dirt. Every 2-3 weeks I give it a hand wash.

Products I use:
- hyper wash soap in my foam cannon and buckets when just doing a maintenance wash (recommended for ceramic coated cars) no wax or enhancers in the soap, pH neutral. But I use them for all vehicles.
-Carpro reset shampoo, I use this when I'm doing a full detail and it's time to add fresh new sealant.
-Carpro iron X and Carpro Trix for decontamination.
-Carpro hydro O2 for my sealant.