How do you detail your car?

Answer 1

We are often facing the question of what is the best way to achieve maximum results to detail a car. So I have decided to do a small write up of how "WE" do our detail jobs, I say "We" because there's many ways to do a detail job, this is what works for us and doesn't represent the only way to go about it. This is a system that we've used.

First Step- Vehicle placement,

To start your detail job, you want to make sure your car is not in direct sunlight and that the surfaces on the outside aren't hot. If shade cannot be found, you can wait until late evening so the sun isn't at its full intensity.

Step 2- Vehicle surface evaluation

One of the most important aspects of a successful detail job is the evaluation of the vehicle surface, this evaluation will allow us to prepare ourselves with the correct products and steps, things like light scratches, swirl marks and other paint imperfections can be evaluated at this time, from here we will have a plan of what products are needed and in what order.

You want to prep your washing materials first so you aren't running back to get items from storage while water is on the paint or wheels. You can use a pressure washer usually with no problems, just use caution when doing so. You don't want to get to close to any surface of the car with high pressure water, especially to pin strips or emblems, failure to do so can result in inevitable damage.

Step 3- Rinsing Vehicle- Pre Wash

I start off by rinsing all the loose debris from the top of the car working downwards. You want to make sure to get all of the loose grime off of the surface so you don't have to**your wash mitt. What I like to do at this point is just hit all the surfaces including, wheels and tires. I found out with this process we can avoid until a certain point swirl marks. Very often as you wash you may be dragging loose grime which will scratch the vehicle surface, these steps are by no means a solution, rather than a "preventative action".

Step 4- Washing- Tires and Wheels

Washing removes all loose contaminates from the exterior surfaces of the car and leaves a clean and prepped surface ready for other steps in the detail. You will always want to wash the tires and wheels first, so water doesn't sit on your clean paint and get baked in by the sun.

For the tires, wheels and wheel wells you will only need a few things. You will need a separate set of wash materials so your paint does not get contaminated by the metal particles and dirt on your tires and wheels. Do not use the same wash water or tools on the paint as you did your wheels. I like to have just a simple soft bristled brush.

There's a big misconception that all wheel cleaners will stain you wheels, all do in part, this is true, the majority of wheel cleaners will indeed stain and damage your wheels, The formula must work well on plastic wheel coverings as well., the product must be PH balanced and will not stain clear coats!

Starting with your tires and wheels first, don't wet the paint. Prepare your wash materials and get started doing the wheels, tires and wheel wells one by one. Don't do all of them at once, you don't want any of these cleaners to dry. I like to start out by rinsing the heavy debris from the tire and wheel well area. Most of the time mud and loose dirt accumulate in these areas, and you don't want to be scrubbing that dirt all over your wheels.

I start out by spraying down all areas. By the time I've sprayed everything, it's had enough time to sit and start working. I use the detail brush first to get to the backside of my wheels and get all that brake dust out of there.

Nothing looks worse than a clean wheel where you can see a dirty backside. After that step is done, I take my soft bristled brush and work on the face of the wheel. Light agitation is all that is needed. Last I work on the wheel wells with my long handled brush making sure to hit every part in the wheel well. Wheel wells are a really important step to a complete detail, and you have to make sure they are spotless. While you are washing, make sure when you dip your wash tools in the bucket, to dip them in the rinse bucket first to remove all the dirt, and then dip it in the soap bucket so you are getting clean soap. When you are done with each wheel, rinse the wheel and make sure the entire cleaner is off the wheel. Repeat for the other wheels. Make sure to get any undercarriage areas that are visible.

Step 4A- Washing- Vehicle painted surfaces

After the tires and wheels have been done and before wetting the paint, you will want to prepare your wash bucket and tools for the paint in this step you will use a Car Shampoo, that is highly lubricated formula with its unique foaming quality and quick rinse characteristics SAFELY lifts dirt and grime while helping to prevent swirls from washing.

The Car Shampoo safely removes dirt and grime without removing waxes or sealants. The shampoo is specially formulated to be absolutely harmless and safe for your car surface. The use of the wrong shampoo that doesn't remove the grime and dirt combine with a low quality sponge/applicator will eventually leave Swirl Marks in your paint surface something that all of us try to avoid.

The Car Shampoo must be PH 7 Balance, something that you don't find on those purple gallon jug's at you local store for $2.99 - one of the most common mistakes that customers make is to invest in a good quality wax only to use an inexpensive /low quality car shampoo, using the wrong type of car shampoo will remove the wax that you had previously applied to protect your investment. Good Car Shampoo's will remove dirt and grime without scratching and will NOT strip the wax like other brands do.

We used a 5 gallon clean bucket of water mixed with a ½ of a lid of car shampoo. During the washing process we have incorporated one of the most revolutionary products in the market today, the Oxidation block. The oxidation block is a product intended to be used to quickly and safely to remove bonded contaminants, droppings and insect grime from automotive finishes. For automotive paint finishes, this product has the same function and environmentally safety as clay-based stain removers. (Clay bars) benefits are endless but we will skip that information right now.

With a new high quality washing mitt on the bucket with the car shampoo we will work on sections, we wash the surface and immediately rinsed right after we then dip the oxidation block on the bucket which has the soapy solution, after that we proceed to pass the block with a horizontally motion to all the painted surfaces one section at the time.

Do it section by section so the soap doesn't dry. If it does dry, just re-soap the area and rinse again. I do the rear of the car and the front bumpers last, as these have the most grime. You want to wash in long sweeping strokes, don't wash in circles as this can induce marring of the paint. Also be sure to re-dip your mitt into the soap bucket frequently, rinse your wash mitt often to remove any dirt from it. You want to make sure you have as much lubrication on the surface as possible. We repeat that process to the entire vehicle surface.

With that process not only have we washed the vehicle but we have removed all bonded contaminants, droppings and insect grime from the surface, we have accomplished the most important task of a detail job. Surface preparation.

Step 5- Drying Vehicle surface

When you are done rinsing the car of all the soap, you want to remove the nozzle from the hose and do what's called the "flooding" method. Flood the surface of the car from top to bottom with the hose. This turns those thousands of little beads of water into one big sheet, and it helps dry the car faster. After that is done, use you waffle weave drying towel from the top down to dry the rest of the car.

There should be very little water left on the surface of the car left at this point. Make sure if you see a spot of dirt you missed, or loose debris on the car, don't touch it with your drying towel, re-wash the area and then dry.

I usually use a couple of inexpensive micro fibers to dry the wheels and tires. Wheels can get water spots as well, so you want to make sure you dry those along with the paint.

Using the proper drying tools is also important. I like to use something called a "waffle weave" towel for drying which is one of the safest way to dry your car. Another common tool is the chamois and we can go as far as using leaf blowers to completely remove all the water from all the tight spaces and trim.

Step 6- Tapping

Since we are going to do a full detail job the use of power tools will be needed, as safety measurement we will tape all the trim areas and delicate areas, the main purpose of this step is "in case" that we make contact with the power tool we will not damage the trim area, not taking the important step while using a power tool could result on leaving "scuffing marks" on the unprotected surfaces. We like to use 2' masking tape and at times we choose bright colors so they stand out.

Step 7- Swirl Remover/ Light Scratches and paint corrections

In this step you should tackle all of the above problems; this could be a very long section which can be addressed with many different tools so we will concentrate in the Swirl Remover and the Porter Cable for tool.

What is a Porter Cable- General Speaking?

The Porter Cable 7424 dual-action car polisher started the pro-consumer car polisher market life more than a decade ago, the Porter Cable 7424 is the industry standard which is a dual-action car polisher. A machine that operates by orbiting the polishing pad around a center spindle while the pad freely spins on its own axis. A counterweight on the opposite side of the center spindle dampens vibration for smooth operation. The tool head action, often called orbital, prevents the creation of holograms (symmetrical buffing marks), paint burns and other forms of paint damage often associated with high-speed buffing machines. The polishing action of a dual-action polisher closely mimics that of circular hand polishing.

With this tool(s) many different foam pads can be used, they all come in many sizes designs and colors, the color is the industry standard rule of thumb for a certain job, all do recently more and more colors are appearing in the market.

Yellow Foam Pad- Use for Heavy duty Compound

Orange Foam Pad- Use for Light duty compound

Green Foam Pad- Use for Compound/Polish

White Foam Pad- Use for Polish

Black Foam Pad- Use for machine Glaze

Blue Foam Pad- Use for Polish/Sealant

Those are the most popular ones when using such of tool; in our case we will use the Orange foam pad and the White foam pad.

With brand new foam pads we like to spray a very light mist of water or detailer, only when they are brand new pads.

Extreme care must be taken when working on near the taped areas, I personally like to start with a speed of 4 and from there work up to the speed # 6 but I do most of the work at 4, I believe this is a personal preference same as the machine in use, products, pad brand and technique, I also recommend to run the porter cable power core thru the shoulder to avoid any contact with the work area and surface area.

To accomplish this task we have found out that the systems that works for us is as follow: Use with an air or electric Random Orbital Buffer, preferably with a 3/8 stroke. With electric use a medium to high setting. With air, make sure 90 psi is maintained at the tool when in use. Shake well before using product. Apply product either to surface to be buffed or directly to pad, we like to apply it to the pad, we like to put 3 dime size drops in the pad after that buff using a light to medium pressure. We like to work on a 2x2 area always monitoring the process and results.

Buff until most of product has disappeared; decreasing to light pressure as buffing is finished. Wipe off any excess left with a dry micro fiber towel. If excess product slings onto adjacent panels or moldings, wipe off with a damp micro fiber cloth before going to next panel to be buffed. Pro detailers often use the aid of high powered lights to follow their work, this tool allows them to completely see all areas in need of correction.

Step 8- Pre Wax

We have not only completely stripped all the old wax via our oxidation block, while the vehicle surface has been corrected with our swirl remover I still like to go and apply our pre wax as part of the entire system.

Pre-wax is just as the name implies, to get the surface ready for wax to be applied. Tar spots, some tree saps and various other surface contaminates are usually not taken off by a product that is termed wax only. Your better pre-cleaners have a small amount of abrasive in them, and a lot of the wax/cleaners on the market have a very high content of solvents in them. The wax/cleaners with high solvent content in them need to be avoided, as they will eventually deteriorate the surface to which they are applied.

Pre Wax Cleanser is especially formulated to be used prior to applying Car Wax. If you're trying to get a really incredible deep, vibrant shine from your wax, you need to use a pre wax cleanser to properly prepare the surface prior to use Car Wax. The benefit of Pre Wax Cleanser is that is prepares the surface after you wash it, so that the paint surface doesn't get contaminated by dirt or anything else that may keep you from getting the ultimate protection.

The process is very close to the one done with the swirl remover, on this step we like to apply the Pre Wax by hand but will remove it via porter cable with a white pad and touch it up with a high quality super soft Micro fiber towel, again extreme car must be taken with trim areas and delicate areas.Applied by hand

Step 9 - Car Wax

We now move to the final step, the application of the car wax, Again we like to apply the wax by hand and remove via porter cable using a white foam pad and finished with a super flush Micro fiber towel. With our car wax you don't need multiple products to accomplish astonishing results, it doesn't get any easier. The use of porter cable is not necessary for the pre wax and wax steps but for an extreme detail they help a lot.

Applied by hand, I like to use the porter cable with a Microfiber towel to remove the wax, it seems to work great for me.

Step 10- Tire Dressing

I like to apply a tire gel using an applicator with a very thin layer of tire gel to the tire sidewall if more shine is desired a second coat can be applied, most of the time one coat is enough, The Tire Gel also prevents premature sidewall dry rot and cracking.

One of the biggest complains of today's car enthusiast is the "Sling" created by many of today's inferior products used to dress your car tires.

Step 11- Final Touch

At this time all the tape can be removed, any areas in need of a touch up can be done now, for this step I like to use a brand new high quality Micro fiber towel. From here relax and enjoy your accomplishment.

Thanks for looking and I hope this information is useful.