My "ULTIMATE" Car Detailing plan

**mcnab** · 02-28-2006, 09:37 PM

Post #20(Page 2) - Interior Restoration
Post #25(Page 2) - Engine Bay Detail
Post #32(Page 2) - Exterior Polish/Detail
Post #2(Page 4) - Caliper Re-Conditioning NEW
Updated: Sept 6, 2006 - 1:47PM

Well im one of those anal car detailers, that just HAS to have my car's interior and exterior looking AS BEST as I can get it...I don't have money for new paint, so I make my current paint look as best as it can

Anyway, I've got my car on a boat right now and when it arrives it'll be getting the ULTIMATE detail. I've been stocking myself up on a few products that im going to use on it...I've already got most of it, but since this is going to be getting an ultimate detail, I spent a little extra on some special products.

I'll start by what Il be doing to the exterior (paint). All of the paint will be polished using a Porber Cable 7424 Professsional Dual Action polisher.

Exterior (Paint Polish In Steps)
1) Wash entire vehicle using Dish Soap (this is a harsher cleaner and removes ANY wax or contaminents on the paint)

2) Claybar entire car (med clay) This will remove any industrial fallout and other grime not caught in the wash (as washing never removes everything)

3) quick rinse/wash to remove any clay residue

4) Mask off all the windows + trim etc..So just paint is exposed

5) 1st pass on a DAS Orange Pad w/ SFX-2 Swirl Remover.

6) 2nd pass with DAS Green Pad w/ SFX-1 Gloss Enhancer

7) 3rd Pass w/ DAS Blue Pad w/ Klasse AIO

8) 2 Layers of Klasse High Gloss Sealent Glaze

9) Final layer of Menzerna High Gloss Acrylic Shield (spray on)

That'll complete the cutpolish / wax end of things. While I'm at Im also going to polish all the exterior glass. The steps involved for thos will look like so.

1) Clean each window first using Stoners Insivible Glass and Newspaper. The inks and paper in the newspaper act as a fine polish. This will make sure that the windows are very clean before polishing.

2) 1 Pass on each window Using the PC7424 w/ AutoGlym Glass Pads and Autoglym Glass Polish. This get rid of ANY road film, scratches (tiny ones) or any etched water spots.

3) 1 Application of RainX Exterior rain sheeting solution. It'll be nice out by the time I get my car, but just incase we get any rain, this insures that it sheets off beautifully (I REALLY reccomend this stuff). When I've done it properly, I dont' even have to use my windshield wipers, as this stuff just makes it beed right off.

So that's covered the windows and paint. Now I have the tires / inner fender liners to do. For the fender liners, this is how I will do them.

Inner Fenders:
1) remove tires to get good access to them. (and clean those later)
2) spray w/ heavy duty degreaser and brush. This will make sure they're superbly clean before I applying a plastic dye
3) Apply 2 thing coats Wurth High Build Underbody Aerosol. This stuff is JET black, and will keep them that way (unlike detail shops who just use spray paint). The inner fender's are often an overlooked portion of detailing, but is definitly one of the things that gives a car that freshly detail look. It really sets em apart. This stuff makes them look BRAND NEW

Rims & Tires
For the rims since they're just gunmetal, they'll just get a good diluted degreser and high power wash. This will keep em clean. Then some rim cleaner to keep away brake dust.

For the tires, they'll get 2 coats of Meguiers Endurance High Gloss Tire Gel.

Headlights:
1) quick wipe down with "never dull" to get rid of any road film or loose debrit. This also acts as a fine polish (since that's what is)
2) 1 Pass using Meguiers white pad & Meguiers Plastic Polish. This will give the headlights (projectors in my case) a COMPLETELY transparent surface any remove any light scratches or oxidation on the lights.

Taillights - Hand polishing using Mequiers Plastic Polish.

Any chrome parts on the car (I know off hand my tip/can is) will see a quick polish using the mothers powerball (ahah I love this thing) and mothers liquid metal. This makes anything chrome or silver REALLY SHINE...

INTERIOR:

The Interior will be getting a FULL STEAM clean. I've got a nice steam cleaner for doing this. So I'll be removing the entire interior (you can properly clean this way). I'll do all the carpet whilst it's out.

Before re-assembling the interior i'll dust everything (I've got all the proper horsehair brushes for vents etc). Then i'll give ANY vinyl or plastics a nice detail using one of the following:

Meguiers NXT Protectant (I like the high gloss it makes, althought im not sure if I will want that in this vehicle)
Aerospace 303 Protectant (this has a more matte finish to it, which is sometimes what im going for)

I'll see which one I like better in this interior when I do it...

Anyway, that's basically what I'll be doing for this ULTIMATE detail. This car will look like it rolled off the showroom by the time Im done with it. I expect this to take a full week to do working on it during the evenings (when Im not at work or school)

The car is black (and I chose black for a SPECIFIC reason). Red and Black cars come out the best (IE gloss and paint depth) when they're properly detailed. Black cars are my fav. So I was very specific about geting a black skyline.

I'll post up pics when it's done. It'll look pretty tight, believe me. I'll be getting metal (he's somewhere on here) to take some pics with his nice Digital SLR camera when this is all done....

Anyone else do an "Ultimate Detail" on their car? If so lets see some pics...There's not many of us willing to spend that much time "detailing" a car..

Also, I havent' even TOUCHED the engine bay for detailing yet. I'll save that for a nice weekend, grab some vodka and detail everything..I've also gotta paint the valve cover as well (going for a black and metallic blue scheme under the hood)

So, the products I'll be using are:

Dawn Wash
Pinnacle Synthetic Polymer Clay (Medium Grade)
Soap/Water mix For Claylube (don't like using QD as lube)
Porter Cable (PC7424) Dual Action Polisher
Sonus SFX-2
Sonus SFX-1
Sonus DAS Pads (Blue, Green and Orange pads)
Klasse Twins (AIO and Sealent Glaze)
Menzerna FMJ (Full Molecular Jacket)
Menzerna High Gloss Acrylic Shield (Spray on)
Generic Highstrength Degreaser
Wurth High Build Underbody Aerosol
Meguiers Endurance Tire Gel
Meguiers Plastic Polish
Never Dull
Mothers Liquid Metal
Eagle One Chrome Polish
Mothers Powerball
Meguiers NXT Interior Protectant
303 Aerospace Protectant
Steam Cleaner (Also scotchgaurding carpet after against stains)

Hope that covers it all..

I just ordered some of the other detailing goodies that I didn't have, so the rest of it should be here in a few days. I have 90% of the above listed here. But I'll take a picture of all the products Im using when I have them all here.

rj · 02-28-2006, 09:45 PM

wow, you really thought that out. should look hella sweet when your done!

**mcnab** · 02-28-2006, 09:51 PM

If anyone has any detailing questions (Any question you can think to ask) post em up here. I don't mind answering a lot of them...

**CanadianGTR** · 02-28-2006, 10:05 PM

You don't happen to work in detail at a body shop/dealership do you? :P

**mcnab** · 02-28-2006, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by CanadianGTR

You don't happen to work in detail at a body shop/dealership do you? :P

Actually no I don't :P I work as a graphic designer, and a go to college part time during the nights. I've learned everything I know about detailing from just experimenting and researching...

When I first started getting into cars, I didn't have much money for looks or go-fast parts. So I spent invested my money in making it shine

I still love detailing my car... I love taking an "ok" looking car and just make it look brand new

Ionno....I just get this great sense of accomplishment after working that hard on detailing a car. Just sit back, looking at it and go holy ****, that looks good.

**jonesy** · 03-01-2006, 01:10 AM

Finally, someone else that swears by RainX!!!

**sidewazegtsr** · 03-01-2006, 02:35 AM

So how much ya gona charge us GTRC member's for the same detailing job?

:P

**mcnab** · 03-01-2006, 02:52 AM

Originally Posted by sidewazegtst

So how much ya gona charge us GTRC member's for the same detailing job?

:P

hehe unfortunatly I BARELY have the patients to spend this much time detailing my own car. LAst time I did this (to my integra) it took me a full week to do..ahah Im doing this to my car JUST as I get it so I still have that "new car motivation". That way I'll have the motivation to do all of this.

But if someone was really interested in having polishing done. I charge 150 for a 1 step polish, and 60 per pass after that. This is a very good rate compared to most other detailing places who will charge you 180 for a 1 step polish, then another 80 per pass after that....

It's a very time consuming process to do, I don't think most people understand that. If you do it PROPERLY, it will take time. Cutting corners in products and proceedure in detailing will only lead to poor results

But if a car was really bad. and I had to do 3 passes (compounding, swirl removal, then gloss enhancer) It would probably be around 250. Seems sorta of expensive, but it would make your paint look pretty damn good

I'll be sure to post some pics when I get it it done. A lot of people take pics that don't hit the light properly. IE take a camera, point it DIRECTLY on your paint. You'll get a lot of spider webs (or swirls) as we call them in your picture. With compundning and polishing, it will almost eliminate these. Of course there will always be a bit of these as it's 15 year old paint, but you can still do the best you can

For anyone wanting to learn more about polishing and car care procedure fcheck out these sites

www.autopia.org
www.bettecarcare.com
www.properautocare.com

between these 3 sites you should have TONS of information you need