First Detail Checklist

[David621]

I did a claybar, cleaner wax, wax, and dressings on my dads 2006 Odyssey today. I told him that it was a surprise because he never waxed his car before. In reality, I just used his car as a practice car but don't tell him Whole process took about about 5 hours to finish -.-

Anyways, I'm going to go through a checklist to make sure I did everything correctly:


1. Wash car
2. Dry car
3. Pour bleach all over car
4. let dry
5. then put wax ontop of car















just kidding. here's what I really did:

Supplies purchased - GC soap, Megs Smooth Surface Clay Kit, NXT 2.0 Wax

1. wash - dry
2. apply Cleaner Wax, let dry a couple of minutes, then buff off
3. clay bar the car w/ lube and dry as I go (I used up a full bottle and a 1/4 of a second bottle of Quik Detailer, is that normal for a van?)
4. wax with NXT, let dry (about 30 min), then buff off

Now I reread one of the tutorials on how to detail a car, and it seems that I got the cleaner wax step mixed up. Was I supposed to clay first, then apply cleaner wax, and THEN apply the NXT wax? I'm confused In the end, I was happy that I didn't drop the clay bar. BUT, I did drop the damn foam sponge! arg.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: First Detail Checklist

Yes, technically you were a bit backward on the cleaner then clay bits - it should be the other way around. I would also recommend something a bit more aggressive than just a cleaner wax though as you'd probably see some better results with a true paint cleaner like Deep Crystal Step 1.

Good idea to practice on someone else's car, too. But, yeah, skip the bleach.

[Don]

Re: First Detail Checklist

Yes, technically you were a bit backward on the cleaner then clay bits - it should be the other way around. I would also recommend something a bit more aggressive than just a cleaner wax though as you'd probably see some better results with a true paint cleaner like Deep Crystal Step 1.

Good idea to practice on someone else's car, too. But, yeah, skip the bleach.

MIO is right. If the car has never been waxed - let alone detailed before - not only are there going to be contaminates bonded to the surface of the paint, which require a physical cleaning method such as clay, there will also be below-the surface contaminates which will require a chemical cleaner like Deep Crystal Step #1 which will clean out the *pores* (microscopic valleys and such).

Clay makes the finish truely smooth, while chemical cleaners remove anything muting the finish's true colors.

Bleach is good for one thing though - hook up a windshield-washer sprayer to spray the bleach on the treads of your drive wheels...gives a nice smokey burnout at the track.