Detailing - do I need anything else?

[kid_dynamite]

Hi,

About to to hand detail my car. It's a white Nissan Skyline in pretty good condition.
So far I have:
NXT Generation Car Wash
Quik Clay Detailing System (Quik Detailer + clay bar)
NXT Generation Tech Wax

That's also the order I was going to use them. Two questions:

1. Will I need a paint cleaner as well for the best results?
2. Are my steps correct?

I figured I'll give it a go by hand, seeing as I've never tried it before.
Thanks!

[Tim Lingor]

Hey,

Firstly, how old is your car; and in what condition is the paint in?

Your steps look good. But, if you have light swirls, since you are detailing by hand, I would suggest using ScratchX for the deeper swirls and then go over the entire car with #9 Swirl Remover. Then top with 2 coats of NXT Tech Wax.

Tim

[kid_dynamite]

The car is nine years old, and seems to be in pretty good condition. I normally just wash with Deep Crystal Car Wash. However, about a month ago the car:

- Was run through an automatic car wash (not by my choice). I now have a few scratches along the top, plus it feels 'raw' - as if any protection the car had on it was washed away.

- My friend tried to clean my car. It was dirty and he just sprayed on some dry wash, wiped it down, sprayed Quik Detailer on the hood and buffed it using a cordless drill It seems that the product has melted onto the surface as there are several dull patches. Regular washing has removed most of these and I'm hoping by properly detailing it I will remove the rest.

[Mad iX]

Automatic car washes are evil.
Too bad you Sydney siders still have water restrictions, but go to a manual car wash with high pressure hoses, chuck some coins in and spray away with just the water rinse. Use your own bucket with DC or NXT car wash. Drive it home, wipe it down with microfibres and go to work.

Hopefully the damage done with the cordless drill (ouch!) isn't too severe. If you've never clayed it, prepare to go through 2 or 3 bars of Quik Clay. ScratchX and #9 would be good too, not too hard to find locally. Just work them in really well with a terry cloth or even microfibre.

Another product you can use is Colour Boost. If your arms haven't fallen off, use it between #9 and NXT.

[Murr1525]

Definately sounds liek a job for ScratchX and some elbow grease.. lots of elbow grease..

1. The Nxt wash will be good for you, and Deep crystal will work as well.

2. Clay next.

3. Use the ScratchX to get rid of the major swirl problems, and hopefully the dull patches.

4. #9 Swirl remover, as was said, or #83, will be good for polishing, and a little extra cleaning. They are from the Professional line, so may not be as easy to find in every pep-boys and autozone, so you may need to use something like a Deep Crystal System #2 polish instead, if you just want to swing past those stores.

5. 2 coats of Nxt will give lots of protectioon and shine back.

Hope that gives you a good start, or ask away some more..

[jchetty]

you will definetly need a paint cleaner...white paint will look shiny but look at it closely and you will see brown spots...take a white terry cloth applicator and deep crstal paint cleaner(#1) if your are going to do this by hand and do part of the hood..you should see a changing of color...i would then look into doing color x on 2 times on whole car then nxt twice...it is overkill but 1.)spread the process out over a few days..2.) its worth it

[kid_dynamite]

Brown spots? Nah I don't have that..

But I'm definitely considering the rotary path now. I've been watching that thread about what to do with white paint finishes and I'll probably get one to make my life easier.

I'm a great procrastinator It's taken me two months to go buy the Megs products I need..

[Murr1525]

Do you mean the orbital? or Dual Action G-100 type of machine? the rotary can easily damage your paint more, while the G-100 will be safer in anyones hands.

[Mike Phillips]

If you have never used a rotary buffer before, definitely start out with a dual action polisher like Meguiar's G100. It's dramatically easier to use as well as safer and it will produce eye dazzling results your first time using it.

[jchetty]

Originally posted by kid_dynamite
Brown spots? Nah I don't have that..

But I'm definitely considering the rotary path now. I've been watching that thread about what to do with white paint finishes and I'll probably get one to make my life easier.

I'm a great procrastinator It's taken me two months to go buy the Megs products I need..

when i say brown spots, i dont mean large huge brown spots but rather small the size of a grain of sand.....but all over so it gives the paint a cloudy effect...you cant see it you look at the whole car but if you remove a bra (if you have one) you will see a dicoloration..then again you might not have it but here in nj i wax once a month and must use paint cleaner before...these brown spots are attributed to industrial fallout and other airborne polluntants....try using some paint cleaner with a terry cloth applicator and see if you notice a difference

[kid_dynamite]

Woops.. I mean random orbital
I live in Australia and seeing as I'm just starting out with this detailing gig I don't think it's really cost effective to bring the G-100 here or an alternative like the Makita B6040 (I think that's what it's called, not sure of the exact model).

I was thinking of the GMC SA516 (http://www.gmcompany.com/index.cfm?p...BA39DFC9200F8E)

That seems to look like a good alternative. The only thing that concerns me that the minimum no load speed of 4000rpm may be a bit high.

How would that suit a beginner?

[jchetty]

the key features of the porter cable are 3.7amp AC motor, random orbital action, electronic variable speed (2,500 - 6,000 orbits per minute), sprial/bevel gears and 100% ball bearings...i mean that gmc machine looks good but a little bulkly but everything being in metric im not sure ..how heavy is 2.5 kg....have you looked for maybe a meguiars distributor that goes to australia because the gmc has a 2 year warranty but meguiars g100 has a **lifetime**guarantee....if i could do it over again i would of got mine from meguiars and not lowes

[kid_dynamite]

The GMC is about 5.5 pounds..and approx US$40. THE G-100 looks and sounds fantastic but I'm not really keen on the idea of tranformers and adaptors etc to convert the voltage..