Yeah, not stuff that gets on there after you washed it. Just like tar is hard to wash off your car (it sticks right behind the wheels), there's more stuff that's even more difficult to get off and really won't go anywhere no matter how much you scrub. You need clay and polish.
glazing and waxing... best technique?
- Thread starter 92civic
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well in that case ill just keep those spots in mind to do last. usually they end up last anyways cause onece im done with my roof i will do above the sidemolding and then go to the hood. then come back so. but i guess you learn something new everyday.Eran said:
that part i always watch for when i waxin. if i see some get on there i take my car duster and clean it off. that thing is wonders if you have never used one.Eran said:
umm, if i could interupt. hey!, i just wash my car with mequires next gen soap with a wash mit.(sheeps skin)
really really good and also my wheels and then i'll rinse the hell outa my car making sure i extremely get all the soap off. than i'll wipe all the water off with a micro fiber rag cause those rags are genius!, than i'll put under some shade and wax the hell outa it with mequires GOLD CLASS SERIES wax (it's pretty pricey like 12 dollars a bottle) and let that sit and than take black magic vinyl and rubber liquid and do all the black vinyl
around my car and also the tires and let sit for 10 minutes and then wipe off the whole car down with yet another microfiber rag (genius rags)
than get a good glass cleaner and spray on a nice little soft towel and than wipe the windows clean. YEAH BABY! than you're in buisness!, I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, depending on how you clean and wax your car is depending on how good it'll come out. so you need to wax for a long time (each panel) meaning you wax your panels and take your time and also in what pattern you wax your care too. i'd say to wax each panel seperate taking your time on each panel and doing little circle pattern applying and than when ready to wipe clean using a microfiber rag. i'd say than wipe the wax off using a straight line wipe RIGHT OFF!. like left to right or right to left, you'll be set...ofcourse my 02 civic is white so. scratches are not very visible maybe on that color than other colors but i'll tell you what, just use mequires GOLD CLASS WAX it's expensive but you'll love yourself afterwords. cause everyone knows that mequire makes the best EVERYTHING!!!. lol, so yes, in conclusion, BUST YOUR ASS ON EACH PANEL WITH MEQUIRES GOLD CLASS SERIES WAX WITH LITTLE CIRCULAR APPLICATIONS AND THAN WIPE REALLY REALLY GOOD IN A LEFT TO RIGHT OR RIGHT TO LEFT LINE WIPE WITH A NICE PRICEY MICROFIBER RAG...I WORK AT HARLEY DAVIDSON DEALERSHIP AS A DETAILER FOR THE HARLEYS AND HARLEY SELLS THEIR OWN MICROFIBER RAGS AND I MUST SAY, BEST MICROFIBER RAG OUT THERE 
really really good and also my wheels and then i'll rinse the hell outa my car making sure i extremely get all the soap off. than i'll wipe all the water off with a micro fiber rag cause those rags are genius!, than i'll put under some shade and wax the hell outa it with mequires GOLD CLASS SERIES wax (it's pretty pricey like 12 dollars a bottle) and let that sit and than take black magic vinyl and rubber liquid and do all the black vinyl
around my car and also the tires and let sit for 10 minutes and then wipe off the whole car down with yet another microfiber rag (genius rags)
than get a good glass cleaner and spray on a nice little soft towel and than wipe the windows clean. YEAH BABY! than you're in buisness!, I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, depending on how you clean and wax your car is depending on how good it'll come out. so you need to wax for a long time (each panel) meaning you wax your panels and take your time and also in what pattern you wax your care too. i'd say to wax each panel seperate taking your time on each panel and doing little circle pattern applying and than when ready to wipe clean using a microfiber rag. i'd say than wipe the wax off using a straight line wipe RIGHT OFF!. like left to right or right to left, you'll be set...ofcourse my 02 civic is white so. scratches are not very visible maybe on that color than other colors but i'll tell you what, just use mequires GOLD CLASS WAX it's expensive but you'll love yourself afterwords. cause everyone knows that mequire makes the best EVERYTHING!!!. lol, so yes, in conclusion, BUST YOUR ASS ON EACH PANEL WITH MEQUIRES GOLD CLASS SERIES WAX WITH LITTLE CIRCULAR APPLICATIONS AND THAN WIPE REALLY REALLY GOOD IN A LEFT TO RIGHT OR RIGHT TO LEFT LINE WIPE WITH A NICE PRICEY MICROFIBER RAG...I WORK AT HARLEY DAVIDSON DEALERSHIP AS A DETAILER FOR THE HARLEYS AND HARLEY SELLS THEIR OWN MICROFIBER RAGS AND I MUST SAY, BEST MICROFIBER RAG OUT THERE Well, i always use a orbital buffer, and meg. wax. Another good wax is Zymol. Soft bristled brush help you get the wax from the moldings, and in small cracks, wont mess up the paint either. Good suds to use is meg.
As far as glaze if i use it only from 3m and there rubbin compund to.
As far as glaze if i use it only from 3m and there rubbin compund to.
WOAH! Meguiar's Gold Class Wax is abotu $6 a bottle. I REALLY hope you're not paying $12 for a normal sized bottle. Again, I recommend the Meguiar's Mirror Glaze line of detailing products (wax included). They are a step up from the Gold Class, about the same price, and come in a tan bottle. Search and you'll find my quick little detailing how-to as an answer to someone else's question in their thread (my how-to is about three posts down or something).
Search and you'll find my quick little detailing how-to as an answer to someone else's question in their thread (my how-to is about three posts down or something).I work at harley davidson and we sell a coolass wax there called insulator heavy duty wax. and i was told that it's the best of the best. but it's harder to take off the car. you'd have to really rub off...ohwell, i gotta try it though.
THESE PRODUCTS ARE THE BEST APPLY THIS ONE FIRST---http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/b6/18/autoCar_CareWaxesColliniteCollinite_845_Insulator_ Wax-resized200.jpg
THAN WIPE OFF BEFORE YOU APPLY THIS AFTERWORDS---http://www.caswellplating.com/aids/images/col845.jpg
THESE PRODUCTS ARE THE BEST APPLY THIS ONE FIRST---http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/b6/18/autoCar_CareWaxesColliniteCollinite_845_Insulator_ Wax-resized200.jpg
THAN WIPE OFF BEFORE YOU APPLY THIS AFTERWORDS---http://www.caswellplating.com/aids/images/col845.jpg
I do auto detailing for a living, and at the chance of someone flaming me and telling me how wrong I am, here's my two cents...Eran said:Please don't give people detailing advice
What you're going to want to use is an applicator pad (never heard it called a wax pad before). You want to do top to bottom, front to back. Start with the roof, and move down the a-pillars to the hood. Once you're done with the hood, buff the roof blah blah blah blah...
Same principal with polish. Just because it's HAND polish does NOT mean you spread it with your hand
I find it interesting that you tell people not to give detailing advice, when yours isn't much better. Wax pad = Applicator pad. It's the English language. There are many instances in which several different words have the same meaning. Just because you haven't heard it, doesn't mean it's wrong. Secondly, we wash our cars prior to waxing to remove dirt, therefore, every part of the car should be as clean as any other part. And unless you're in a windy dessert or are waiting hours after washing your car, there's no need to worry about dirt build up from the air. There's also no need to wax a car in sections. There's no reason to start at the top and move toward the bottom. Wax bottom to top and start behind the wheels. Trust me, it doesn't matter (assuming you don't half ass your car wash). Wax the entire car (being careful of mouldings that don't take kindly to wax), and then remove the wax with a non-abrasive cloth of your choice. Leaving the wax on for extended periods of times isn't going to hurt. I've let wax sit on cars for hours before with no ill effect. That's it, kids. It's that simple. There are tons of different ways to do this sort of thing, but don't let it get over complicated. It's a wax. Nothing fancy. Detail shops take pride in their thirty minute waxes. It takes ten minutes to wax a clean car, and that's it.
Well, wow. Your YEARS of experience at a car wash or whatever (nevermind we're the same age, but I've been detailing cars since I was a little kid) sure beat mine out. Where do you work if you don't mind me asking?HonUtd07 said:
Don't imply that I half-ass wash my car. You're not supposed to SCRUB cars. Washing it takes off surface contaminants, nothing else. You probably use a nylon brush to wash don't you?
Yeah, wax bottom to top, that's a good idea. So by the time you get to the top, you've picked up stuck-on microscopic dust, pollen, and fallout, and the roof has dust settled upon it. Oh, I bet you use those really cool circular motions. Hope you never trap any pollen or dust under that pad .... wouldn't want any circular clearcoat marks. Because those are only visible from ANY angle, not just a 90-degree one.Yeah, you obviously know more than me about detailing.
Actually, I use a brillo pad to wash my car so there usually isn't any need to scrub. But just in case of stubborn tar spots, I use a wire brush designed to clean grills. If that doesn't work, I'll use my own mixture of paint thinner and gasoline and a blow torch to burn it off. Then I take my car for the ol' around the block quick dry, but I live on a dirt road in florida where it rains everyday, but I haven't had any problems with the mud before. When I'm ready to wax, I apply it with a high speed, rotary sander. I'll let it sit for about a week or so just to make sure it really cures. Then, I use the brilo pad again to take it off (it did such a great job the first time!!).Eran said:Don't imply that I half-ass wash my car. You're not supposed to SCRUB cars. Washing it takes off surface contaminants, nothing else. You probably use a nylon brush to wash don't you?
Yeah, you obviously know more than me about detailing.
But I could be wrong, because it's not your way and we all know that you have muuuuuch more experience than I do. Which is understandable, because you've been detailing since you were a kid. It's only common sense that someone who has been detailing the same car every week for the past 21 years would know way more than someone detailing thirty different cars a day for the past four years.
Now if I could just be a d**k for a second... Since you're so picky about choice of words, such as wax pad and applicator pad, you should know that washing DOESN'T remove all surface contaminants. Baked in pollen, brake dust, tar, tree sap, etc... are all surface contaminants that aren't removed during washing. Other, harsher processes are needed for those "contaminants". And as I previously stated, if you wash your car properly, every part of the car should be as clean as the rest so there's no need to worry starting top to bottom. I don't know how the weather is in Washington, but dirt doesn't pour from the sky in a matter of minutes here in Florida. If it does there, maybe you should contact the EPA. And assuming conditions are as bad as you say they are, your microscopic dust, pollen, and fall out will simply settle after you've applied the wax and will be rubbed all over your car when you remove it (not to mention the dust created from your wax).
So, don't talk to me about killer dust that's gonna ruin your wax job, because it won't. You're not gonna convince me that in the three minutes it would take to wax from the bottom of the door to the roof, would make any different than if it were done the opposite way. I've already stated that there are several ways to do this. It's just that my way is far superior in that it saves time and doesn't over complicate things and has the same desired effect.
You really can beleive what you will. I was taught how to detail by a painter, and the methods I've been using since a child (on more cars than just my own, because yeah, I owned a 97 civic in 1990)HonUtd07 said:
can be backed up by a quick search of any car forum's "how to detail" threads. Why am I going to trust the word of someone who details 30 cars a day? The name of your game is speed and proffit. When you actually give a f**k about the vehicle you're working on, you do things a bit differently.Eran said:
Won't see me going to a "professional" detailer anyday soon. Damn, even when I worked at a car wash, our ACTUAL detailers would maybe detail three cars a day (some off time of course, but there were two detailers and they did it right). This was a very nice car wash. Actually surprised me when I talked to the owner. Oh, and he has a beautiful New Formula Red NSX, showroom new (also owns an older BMW 7-series, that also looks like it's on it's first drive ever each time I see it).The rinky-dink place I worked at before, they would bust out about 30-40 cars a day when they had the customers. That shop really used to mess up cars too though (I'm talking about cars I saw roll out with the blowers scratches the s**t out of the hood - like one foot long scratches into primer). The owner here owned a gold mid-90s minivan. It kind of had that "spraypainted" finish.
I mention there cars to put an example of one place the owner actually took pride in cars and his work. The other didn't. The carwash was just a means of making money, nothing more.
I work at harley davidson and we have detailing stuff there and we sell the brand called "collinite" it's the absolute best stuff on the market and i bought some of their super doublecoat paste wax---
this is supposed to be the kinda wax that lasts the whole year. with 2-4 coats within the year. and alot of people at harley reccoment this over something like mequires wax. you should too.
Of course they reccomend it .... they MAKE it.Za0G13 said:I work at harley davidson and we have detailing stuff there and we sell the brand called "collinite" it's the absolute best stuff on the market and i bought some of their super doublecoat paste wax---this is supposed to be the kinda wax that lasts the whole year. with 2-4 coats within the year. and alot of people at harley reccoment this over something like mequires wax. you should too.
Whole-Year wax is a scam. Wax coats collect contaminants, and if you leave it on for a whole year, you're gonna have some nasty s**t stuck to your car, especially if you're not regularly polishing and glazing. By the way, if you take propper care of your car, then that s**t will be gone after one polish. So much for "all year long"
Eran said:Of course they reccomend it .... they MAKE it.
Whole-Year wax is a scam. Wax coats collect contaminants, and if you leave it on for a whole year, you're gonna have some nasty s**t stuck to your car, especially if you're not regularly polishing and glazing. By the way, if you take propper care of your car, then that s**t will be gone after one polish. So much for "all year long"
no, no, i was more or less telling you guys that, that wax that i posted is supposed to be great stuff. i wash my car ALOT! so maintanance is a MUST for me. so i'm not worried about my car being dirty. but that paste wax is a STRONG wax. the only people that reccomend it are the people that have used it. i have some of the guys at work tell me that they've used it and like it over ANYTHING they've EVER used!!!. i have a thing for MEQUIERS wax but they said that collinite wax (the stuff i posted) is WAY!, better than MEQUIRES wax. so i went with their pick and i bought some. it was 14 dollars but it costed me 11 dollars cause of my employee discount. and i'm going to try it. and i hope it'll give me the results it gave them.
Yeah... And I was taught how to detail by a door to door salesman. What's your point?Eran said:You really can beleive what you will. I was taught how to detail by a painter, and the methods I've been using since a child (on more cars than just my own, because yeah, I owned a 97 civic in 1990)
I was only giving you a hard time for telling someone not to give detailing advice when yours wasn't all that better. Putting wax on a section at a time and then removing sections as you go along is unneccesary. To be honest... I don't apply wax bottom to top. I apply it top to bottom, but only because it's convenient, not because of microscopic dust particles. Wax your car however you want, and I guarantee it'll look the same as if you'd done any of the other hundred ways it can be done. I'm not saying you're wrong...
In repsonse to a comment by NOFX earlier... "Professional" detailers have the tools and knowledge of how to do a job that you may not be equipped to do. Things such as claying, glazing, and buffing are all things that are simple enough, but can seriously mess up a cars finish. It's not easy to bring a cars finish to full potential with an applicator pad and some glaze/wax. I've seen plenty of people who DIY their detail, and then bring it into a "professional" detailer to have it fixed. Much like I've done when I try and DIY something on the motor.
So, let's all go piss up a rope because we all know everything.
And once again, you harp on me for my assumptions, but basically assume and intimate that Amy or I can't detail as well as a "professional". Never mind that she's worked as a detailer, professionally and personally. She also was solely responsible for inventory, sales, and product speciliaztion of the detailing section at Advance Autoparts. Yeah, she's so not equipped to do a decent detail job. Yeah, I've only been trained to detail by a paintshop and have been detailing since I was a kid. So please, don't try and assume that we don't know what we're doing. At least we put forth large ammounts of knowledge and experience that show we can figure out which end of the bottle the wax comes out of. I'm done. You can think that 30 cars a day is a decent way to detail, and I can go out to my car every day and look at the near-flawless paint that looks 100x better than when the car came into my posession.HonUtd07 said:
Actually, I didn't make any assumptions. If I could just quote myself, "I'm not saying you're wrong..." I wasn't being sarcastic for once. I'm not questioning the quality of your work. I don't doubt for a second that your car looks fantastic.Eran said:
I also didn't make any assumptions about NOFX. I said "'Professional' detailers have the tools and knowledge of how to do a job that you MAY NOT be equipped to do." I never said that you can't do or don't know how to do. The only assumptions seem to be coming from you.
So, I hail to you and your vast amounts of knowledge and experience. I aspire to one day be like you so that I, too, can have a beautiful car such as yours. As is obvious in our discussion, I know nothing. Maybe I need one of those electron microscopes so that I can really see all those harmful dust particles falling on my car at such an alarming rate.