OCDetails Detailing Blog

Semantics...

2012-01-13T10:43:00.001-08:00

Do you know the difference between schematics and semantics? I don't think a lot of people have the vocabulary or reason to use either one of those words very often. A SCHEMATIC is like a blueprint type drawing. If you are looking at how to install a supercharger then they are going to provide a schematic drawing of the process. SEMANTICS on the other hand, is when people use the wrong word to describe a situation even though they know what they are talking about. If you call every tissue a Kleenex even though it is actually not a Kleenex brand tissue, you are dealing with semantics. A lot of arguments happen this way. My wife will tell me that it is taking forever to download pictures to her blog. She means upload, but she just messes up the words. I could argue with her, but I know what she means.

Semantics get in the way of car care all the time. I want to give you some really clear definitions of what certian words mean which might help us communicate better. This just the accepted meaning of these words in the industry, so you may say this word and mean something totally different, but semantics are going to get in the way of you getting the help you need.

Wash: This is pretty simple. When I say 'wash' I am talking about whatever process is necessary to remove dirt and crap from the surface of whatever is being washed. It does not include clay baring the paint, but it may include doing tar removal or something like that. When I say "wash the car" it typically includes the wheels and tires as well. It just makes more sense to include everything into one statement rather than saying "Wash the car, the the wheels, the tires, the trim, and remove the tar from the fenders and side skirts", don't you think?

Detail: This is the trickier one. Detailing is much more than washing. In fact, when I say I'm going to wash the car this weekend, that pretty much just means I'm doing what I mentioned above. It does not usually mean I'm going to clean the interior. If I'm going to wash the car and clean the interior then I would use the term 'DETAIL'. There are different levels of this, obviously. A 'QUICK DETAIL' might mean just washing the car, using a spray wax of some sort, and doing a once over on the interior. A 'FULL DETAIL' would be much more intensive and include busting out the machines and cutting compounds. I always tell people that I'm a 'detailer' and not a 'car washer' because there is definitely a difference between the outcomes of the two. You yourself probably know the difference too. You know when you have detailed your car as opposed to just washing it.

Clay: This deserves a post all its own, but the short story is that clay is a product meant to pull contamination OUT OF and OFF OF your paint. This is an essential part of 'detailing' your car. It doesn't really improve the look of your car at all, but you will be amazed at how much better your car will FEEL after you use a clay bar. Again, this won't remove swirls, scratches, or anything like that. It is going to pull stuff like tree sap, residue from bird sh!t, road tar, some types of paint overspray, and that the invisible kind of stuff that falls on your car from the atmosphere and makes it feel not smooth. Trust me... if you haven't clayed your car in the last 6 months then your paint is not as smooth as you think it is. If you've never clayed your car and you think it is pretty smooth, then make sure you have a towel handy when you do clay for the first time because you will bust a nut when you feel the difference.

IFO: This sort of goes under the clay category, but it is an acronym that warrants explaining. IFO stands for Industrial Fallout. It comes from pollution in the atmosphere that lands on your car if you park your car within ten miles of any refinery or industrial factory. It also comes from the freeway if you do a lot of driving that way. IFO is also known as 'rail dust' because new cars would pick it up when being transported by train and the metal dust off the tracks would burn into the paint. Take a look at the back of your car and see if you can spot the brown rust dots or little black specs. That is what IFO looks like. It is easily removed with clay and then the brown rust stains it leaves behind can be cleaned up with a simple paint cleaner if the clay bar doesn't get them all.

Paint Cleaner: A paint cleaner is something that will remove paint contamination like oxidation and paint swapping by using only chemical abrasives. It won't remove swirls or scratches unless it can reduce the appearance by getting the dirt out of the scratch. In most cases a chemical cleaner is all a white or silver car really needs since it is so hard to see the swirls anyway. This is a product that can be applied by hand, but is faster and more efficient if applied by machine. Klasse All In One and Pinnacle XMT 360 are good examples of paint cleaners. The exception is that XMT 360 will put down a sealant as well which adds to the protection and is more of a one-step product than KAIO is. KAIO still needs something to protect the paint afterwards, but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Polish: This is where people get confused. Someone will say they are polishing their paint and it could mean anything. The way this word should be used is if you are using either a cutting compound to remove swirls and scratches OR if you are using a chemical abrasive to remove just oxidation. The bottom line is that you are working on correcting issues with the paint and not protecting it. Polishing does not mean you are using a wax or sealant if you are being literal about it. But a lot of people will say Polish when they mean Waxing just because they don't understand the difference. It's just semantics. As long as you know what you are doing then that is all that matters. But if you ask me to help you pick a product to polish your car, then you are going to get products suggestions that don't protect the paint, and that may not be what you are talking about.

Wax: This is another universal term. Even I use it somewhat universally. To 'WAX' your car is to put something on it that will protect the paint from UV damage, IFO, and just all around make it look better. This could be a glaze, a sealant, a carnauba, or any combination of the three. You can 'wax your car with a sealant', for example. That is acceptable. Just know that if I say to 'Wax your car with Wolfgang Paint Sealant' that I just mean the technique and purpose of the application of the product mentioned should be done in the traditional style of putting wax on your car. That means typically that you can just do it by hand and you should let it dry for a minute or two before buffing it off. That is probably grounds for another post as well.

Wax vs Sealant vs Glaze: Since I brought it up, let's look at these really quickly. A 'WAX' is typically referring to something based on a carnauba wax formula. The percentage of carnauba in the product is usually what separates them. A ‘SEALANT’, on the other hand, is entirely synthetic and is either going to be an acrylic or polymer based concoction that will far exceed the durability and appearance of 90% of the carnauba waxes out there. Some manufacturers call sealants ‘SYNTHETIC WAX’ or something like that. Meguiar’s Ultimate Liquid Wax is a sealant, for example. Then there are ‘GLAZES’. Personally, I hate glazes. As a product they suck because they are pretty much just greasy coatings that attract dust, hide swirls and buffer damage, and last only a couple weeks. Dealerships love to use glazes because they are impressive as hell when you pick the car up, but then three days later you see all sorts of things you didn’t notice when you bought it. However, just because a product has the word ‘glaze’ in it doesn’t mean it is a “glaze” as I defined it. There aren’t too many that you have to worry about out there. Meguiar’s #7 is really the only consumer grade glaze that you might run into, and it isn’t all bad. I still wouldn’t use it when there are so many better choices out there.

Compound vs Polish: Again we get to deal with semantics. I said before that a polish was something that was correcting the paint. Yes, that is true, but a “COMPOUND” is what you polish with, if that makes sense. I use those words interchangeably all the time, so you’ll have to forgive me if I confuse you with it, but sometimes it is just easier to be general and say ‘polish’ than ‘compound’. Usually I refer to certain products as compounds and ‘polish’ is more of the term I use to indicate the process used. Sort of like how we ‘wax our cars with sealants’. We also ‘polish our cars with compounds’.

See what a crazy mixed up world it is? Maybe this didn't help much, but hopefully it did open your eyes a little bit to the different terms used in the detailing world. It might make some things make more sense to you knowing which words are interchangable with another and which terms are new to you. I just hope it helps a little. If not, well... I tried. :)

2007 Big Dog K9 Detail

2011-12-12T10:57:00.000-08:00

Typically I'm closed for the season from November through about March, so I don't really get too many calls this time of year. One of my regulars referred his buddy who was trying to sell a motorcycle on Saturday. He was showing it to someone on Sunday, so I figured if I push this back too far then he may very well sell it before I get a chance to make it look as good as possible for the new owner, so I dropped what I was doing and made the appointment. I figured, it's just a motorcycle. How tough could it be? (famous last words)

Well, apparently he had left it in the sprinklers overnight and then put it away wet. Grrrrrr... Gotta love that... This is EXACTLY the reason my bike has very very little chrome on it. I could sit down and polish all the chrome on my bike with a tooth brush and be done in 30 minutes. This bike was another story though... Very little WASN'T chrome. Still, it is an awesome motorcycle and spots happen to all of us at some point or another, so it was time to get to work!

So here are some before shots. Not totally thrashed, but the chrome was pretty dull in some areas and all of it was spotted. The freaking wheels were ginormous! 300 series tire on the back with probably a 4 inch deep dish on both sides. They were huge! Huge and water stained.

The paint was in pretty good shape. The only real problem was where the seat connected to the fat rear fender.

It has a great pearl clear coat on it that I'm sure looks amazing in the sun. I'm just not a fan of yellow choppers or that style of graphic on them.

Not really too many action shots here since I was by myself in this warehouse polishing chrome, but I can say that it came out pretty good. I brought a whole bag of metal polish not knowing in advance how serious the spots were going to be. Ultimately I used Wolfgang Concours Aluminum Polish for most of it. The spots were coming off pretty easily with that and it really brightened up the chrome. The paint got Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish since it was in pretty good shape. Then I decided to see what a little Wolfgang Paint Sealant would look like if I topped it with Blackfire Midnight Sun paste wax. I didn't get to see it in the sun, so I'm just going off my belief that both of those products are outstanding by themselves, so layered they can only look even better. On a yellow with a pearl coat like this has, I'm sure it looked outstanding.

I finished off the chrome with Blackfire Metal Sealant just to help keep the spots from staining like that again and then cleaned and conditioned the seat with Pinnacle leather cleaner & conditioner. I was in and out in 3 hours flat, so that makes me happy. For once I actually estimated the time right. lol

It's tough to photograph chrome indoors. I tried it with a flash, without a flash, from a distance, up close... Anyway, it was shiny.

Thumbtack

2011-12-09T10:19:00.001-08:00

Obsessive Compulsive Detailing

I'm on Thumbtack now! Do you ever use that service? I've found it is a great way to find local tradesmen who can do for you that which you either don't have the time or skill for yourself.

There are a lot of detailers out there who are not very good at what they do. Plain and simple. I've spent over a decade making a name for myself in this area with my client circles and I know I'm a cut above the rest. Most guys look at it as a job that they have to go to. I look at it as a passion that I love to do! This isn't work for me and I love the opportunity I've had to work on some of the cars I've been able to work on. You can see some examples of that in the slide show below. I love what Thumbtack is providing to an industry like mine where people can look for competent and skilled laborers to provide unique and valuable services. Hopefully I'll be selected one or two times and increase my client base even further!

Photo Slideshow of some of my work.

2011-12-09T10:12:00.001-08:00

Obsessive Compulsive Detailing

by OCDetails

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Time for Winter Prep detailing!

2011-09-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

September is the last good month of the year for a lot of us. October comes and it is raining every other day and the temperature just fluctuates too much. In my case I usually get snow by the end of the month and November is just as bad. September is when I start the Winter Detailing prep work for my vehicles. In fact, from September through May I am closed for any and all new business for detailing. Only my loyal regulars get work done since the work usually takes longer and I can't stack as many cars in one day as when it is just a summer maintenance type deal. Winter detail prep is something that is best done in September when the weather is still nice and winter is just right around the corner.

Here are a few things to consider for your winterization of your daily driver this season.

-Wheels: I like to take the wheels off and put a coat of sealant on them. It gives me a chance to scrub them good and hard and get them really clean before they are pounded by months of neglect while being covered in salt. My sealant of choice is Klasse simply because of how durable it is. You can use any sealant you have handy. Just avoid the waxes. They just don't last very long. Chances are it won't last through September if you did it now, so skip the wax and go for a sealant.

-Paint: The Fall Detail means clay bar, polish, and sealant. Get the tree sap off and get rid of the swirls by claying and polishing the paint. Then get a good sealant on there to protect it from the salt and grossness of what is going to be slung up by your tires over the next few months. If you are using Klasse then I recommend at least 3 coats over a period of a few days for maximum shine and protection. In fact, with any sealant I would absolutely recommend more than one coat. Unlike a wax, which just blends layers together when you apply them, sealants cure on the surface and can be layered. Most sealants require 24 hours of cure time between coats, but some include a cure accelerator in them which eliminates the cure time. Wolfgang and 4*Ultimate are a couple of those sealants. I'm not sure about the new Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid Wax. I'd give it a day between coats just to be on the safe side.

Windows: Don't use paint products on your windows. There are products like RainX and Aquapel out there for a reason. Coat your glass with them to create a surface where water beads up and zips off from when you are driving. A fresh coat of RainX will even cause your windows to freeze at lower temperatures. I did a test once to try and demo an ice scraper and I couldn't get my windows to freeze overnight to save my life. I don't know if it was just super dry or what, but it wouldn't work. I had to spray water on the glass with a spray bottle and try to demonstrate it that way, but it just froze into little beads of ice. Glass treatments are awesome in the winter.

Exterior trim: Wolfgang has a new trim sealant that I'm dying to try out this winter. Right now there isn't anything i've found to avoid the salt stains and just generally nasty look that areas like the wiper cowl and step guards on vehicles get during the winter. I'll be hopefully picking a bottle of this up soon and will let you know. For now I can just suggest you keep them protected with a good product like Aerospace 303.

Tires: Yeah, not much you can do there either. Just keep em clean when you can and shine them up if you get a chance and there is a break in the weather. I typically don't do much for my tires during the winter because nothing really helps which is out there right now.

Carpets: They get nasty with salt in the winter and I don't know what to tell you. Get winter mats if you can, but otherwise just keep your mats clean by vacuuming them when you get a chance and kicking the snow off your feet before getting in. Your washing machine is your friend. Throw your mats in there every couple months and they'll stay looking a lot cleaner. I know someone who puts packing tape around the edges of his mats in the winter since those areas are the hardest to clean. Not a bad idea... Not pretty, but better than having salt encrusted borders on your floor mats.

Leather: Winter doesn't really affect leather, but it does affect leather conditioner. When the leather is frozen you can't get the conditioner to soak in. It is best to condition your leather when the conditioner is warmed up and your car is warmed up. Don't try doing that in temperatures below 40 or you'll just waste product and make a mess.

There are a few products you may want to bring in from the garage during the winter. Your sealants will probably be fine, and your waxes will be even better. Since tire shine doesn't work when it is cold, you might want to bring that in though. In fact, anything meant to clean anything should be brought indoors. Freezing does something funny to cleaners. Other than that, you shouldn't have to worry much.

Oh, don't forget to polish your exhaust tips. It likely won't get done for the next four or five months, so you might as well start out with a clean one. A little chrome polish, or even paint polish, and a rag will do wonders. You can use paint sealant on them afterwards, but the heat will probably vaporize it after not long. Your best bet is just to stay on top of it. A little glass cleaner and a towel will do the trick if you stay on top of it.

Hopefully this has been of some use. I know not everybody is as nutty as I am about car care, but my cars are among the top five most expensive things I've ever bought in my life, so they sort of fit high on the priority list of taking care of them. ;) Unless your car was given to you, then you are probably in the same boat. I don't know many things other than your house and your education that you are going to drop twenty or thirty thousand dollars on and use every single day. I will say that your vehicle represents an investment of money, and if you want to see as much of that investment come back to you someday when you sell it, then caring for it in this way is a great idea. :)

Wheel Cleaning

2011-08-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

I think some of you have seen the wheel brush I use and know my process. I just wanted to show off some of the results since wheel cleaning is kind of a chore that none of us like to do. However, it is also the first thing I look at when buying a used car. If the wheels are pitted and corroded, then I can be pretty sure that the rest of the car was neglected as well. There is no reason to believe they took the time to clay and polish their car if they were content with brake dust coating their rims and eating them up.

So this is a relatively new Audi Q5. Not a bad little vehicle really. The problem with nearly all German vehicles is the brake dust though, so I’d have to really have a good reason to buy an Audi, BMW, Mercedes, or Porsche. They are great cars and all, but if I have to scrape brake dust off every week, then I’m afraid that takes away from the sexiness for me. I’m not into high maintenance women and definitely not into high maintenance vehicles.

The first thing I did was spray them down with Eagle One A 2 Z. That is my favorite wheel cleaner. It does a great job of getting brake dust off tires and wheels. However, there is only so much that can do. What it did here was get the top layer off, but it still left a lot on it. I should have taken a before and after picture, but let’s just say not much came off. Mostly just the surface stuff from the past couple days and a lot of junk on the tires. The rest had to be scrubbed off.

Look at how black the inside of that rim is. It is just nasty. The whole thing is nasty. This product will get a lot of it off the spokes, but the lip and that ledge inside of it before you get to the inner part of the wheel is where the brake dust does the most damage. There was crap on this wheel which I was not going to spend all day scrubbing at just so it could be neglected again, but with a little extra elbow grease and a nice wheel brush, I got it looking like this:

The magic there was not in relying on the wheel cleaner to do all my work for me. After I washed the rest of the car, I used the bucket of water to go to work on the wheels. Obviously you don’t want to do it before you wash the car or else you’d be doing it with black water. So I took my handy dandy wheel brush I got from Autogeek at SEMA a couple years ago and went to town scrubbing.

Since the brake dust on these wheels hadn’t really had time to do serious damage, most of it came off pretty quick. I just jammed the brush in between the spokes and scrubbed the inside of the wheel. I treated it just like I was brushing teeth when it came to the lip. Scrub scrub scrub… rinse… repeat…. I use a combination of a couple brushes for this kind of thing. One is a Meguiar’s brush, but it works better for large flat faced wheels like the ones on my Corolla.

For this job I used the Daytona Speed Master Wheel Brush. To take a page out of my most recent detailing guide, here are some process pictures on my car.

That brush does an awesome job and is totally safe on your wheels. The wire that the bristles attach to is wrapped in thick rubber and no metal touches your wheel. I’ve bent this thing back and forth so many times over the last two or three years that you’d think it would have broken by now, but it hasn’t. It is an awesome brush. There are a couple similar models out there on the shelves, but my problem with them has been that they don’t wrap the wire with rubber and they also break pretty easily. So just be picky when shopping for one.

On this particular Audi I want to show you what it looked like with just a quick scrubbing on the passenger side front wheel. The right side was just a quick scrubbing, but you can totally see how much better right side of the inner part of that wheel looks in comparison to the left side.

You can also see the parts which require a little more effort which are left, but that is what you get when you have a German car. Using the Meguiar’s brush worked out really well on those parts, so ultimately the wheels turned out pretty good. The back ones weren’t so bad, but here is the before and after one of the rear wheels on the Audi:

Before:

After:

So get yourself a good wheel brush and stay on top of them if you have a lot of brake dust. I’ve found NOTHING which really keeps it off, but I can tell you that putting a sealant on them does help make them easier to clean. Waxing doesn’t really help because it just gets too hot and it vaporizes in a couple days. Wheel Waxes don’t really help either. I’ve used sprays, jellies, waxes, sealants, voodoo, and everything else I can think of. The only thing that works is cleaning them regularly. Let me know if you find anything else that really works because I’ve been stumped. Fortunately I don’t buy cars with this problem, so I haven’t had to deal with it much. I do still maintain my rims though because I know if I make judgments about car care based on their condition, then it is likely that others do as well. I do intent on selling my vehicles at some point, so keeping them looking good is a high priority for me.

Interior Cleaning on a Honda Odyssey

2011-08-15T09:14:00.000-07:00

I did some grizzly cleaning on a Honda Odyssey this weekend. The thing hadn’t been really cleaned beyond just vacuuming for something like 6 years. This is exactly the reason I won’t ever have tan, beige, white, brown, or any other color of leather in my car other than black, dark grey, charcoal, or something like that. Light colored interiors are just a nightmare to keep clean and they take forever when you do need to clean them. It wasn’t as hammered as some vans I’ve done have been. The kids going in and out of this did a good job of not spraying soda all over the ceiling or having the family zoo shed their fur in it every day, so the bulk of the cleaning was on the hard surfaces and the leather.

For the leather I used the Wolfgang Leather Cleaner and then ultimately the conditioner. I’ve found for really dirty seats it is best to use something which is dedicated to cleaning to get the best results, otherwise I would have used something like Poorboy’s Leather Stuff. That works really well too. This van was being repurposed to be used as a shuttle for clients to and from the hangar with their private plane, so I really wanted it to look its best.

The process as just a lot of elbow grease. I used a carpet brush with nylon bristles that really do a great job on getting in the grain of leather seats and getting the dirt out without damaging it. I wouldn’t suggest just any carpet brush for this kind of work though. You’ll see the one I’m talking about down there with the side rails. Anyway, spray the cleaner on the seats, let it soak just for a second, and then brush it out using circular movements. That is really the key. Scrubbing back and forth doesn’t get nearly the result that circles get you. It is the same advice your dentist will give you about brushing your teeth, actually.

I did wipe the seats down with Meguiar’s Interior Detailer real fast before applying the conditioner just to make sure I got all the streaks and the grain was really clean. The difference was night and day. If I had brought a good camera with a flash then I would have taken pictures of the interior before I took it all apart and cleaned it and then after I put it all back together. It didn’t even look like the same van. But the purpose of this is just to talk about cleaning a couple of the surfaces, so here are the seat pictures.

Taking the seats out is obviously the best way to clean them. Anytime that is an option for you I would highly recommend it. Especially in a van where getting them out it easy. For a van it is even more important because you’ll want to have access to the plastic covers over the anchor points for the seats anyway.

The side rails where you step in were also a mess. Typical for this color, actually. Cleaning them required using a little elbow grease as well. That and Tuff Stuff. I love that stuff…. It is ridiculously versatile.

Since I’m using the same brush for carpets, plastics, and the seats, it is important that I clean it out to avoid just driving more dirt into whatever I’m trying to clean. I keep some all purpose cleaner and water handy so I can wash it out after each project to keep it clean. Just a tip you might want to consider. Keep your tools clean and you will have less frustration down the road.

I’ve got a whole case full of interior cleaning tools. Retired tooth brushes, brass and steel brushes, nylon brushes, dusters for vents, all sorts of picks and wedges which are also handy for engine detailing, a couple blades, and a little multi tool with a screw driver and pliers and stuff on it. These tools are ridiculously handy to have around. I bought a really cheap dremel thing several years ago which came in that nifty little case. It has been the best case for interior tools I could have ever imagined. It slides perfectly under the Autogeek detailing bag I have too, so that makes it even better.

Vans and SUVs can take a ton of time if you do them right. I spent 5 hours on the interior and 2 hours on the exterior of this vehicle. Good thing it was white or it would have taken longer. Because of the color inside it just took extra time because every piece of dirt shows. On a darker interior you may not get it quite as clean because you just can’t see the dirt you are leaving behind. That saves you time, but it doesn’t mean the vehicle is clean. I have an Odyssey myself and it takes me just as long to detail it when I do my yearly full on cleaning. My rule is to clean it as if it was as dirty as you can imagine it is even if you can’t see the dirt. You know it is there, so clean it anyway. Find a process and stick to it regardless of whether or not you can see the dirt. If you haven’t cleaned your leather seats in a couple years and they just don’t look that dirty, clean them as if they were anyway. They probably are filthy, but you have just been too close to the forest to see the trees. Many people don’t realize their leather is getting this dirty because the change has been so gradual that they didn’t notice I’ll tell you that when the owner saw the difference on this van, he was absolutely shocked at how dirty it had been. He didn’t even realize it had gotten so bad. So get some good tools and clean em up!

'55 Chevy

2011-07-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

This was under a car cover in the garage of a recent new client. I was working on another car for him and took a peek under the cover. It was in pretty good shape, but it was clear that the paint was oxidizing and it had some work that could be done. Especially on the aluminum under the hood. The before pictures really didn't show much since it was already looking pretty good, but I got a couple that show the problems.

I hit it with the new Meguiar's Ultimate compound I picked up at AutoZone. That polish is a great choice for people looking for a good cutting compound off the shelf. It definitely did the trick on the oxidation. And I used the Wolfgang Metalwerks products to polish up the aluminum to a mirror shine. I really wish I had taken before pictures of that. It was dull and non reflective. Now it shines like new!

Same process on the wheels.

before:

after:

The owner was really happy with the finished result.

Lots of chrome to polish, but it came out looking great! Gotta love Wolfgang on red!

More on the 55

2011-07-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

This whole car was restored perfectly. It was definitely not a cheap job. The relocated the battery and cleaned up a couple other things in the engine bay to make it look really nice. The whole interior was just outstanding too. Digital dash and outstanding audio and everything. The paint job was just top notch. It was a fine example of what a $15K paint job should look like.

I polished and waxed the whole dash as well, of course. :)

Detailing for Apartment Dwellers

2011-07-07T10:13:00.001-07:00

I am sensitive to the challenges of maintaining your vehicle when you don’t have a garage. I bought a garage with a house attached to it back in 2004 and for a couple years before that I had one that you could barely open the car doors in, but before that I was a proud Apartment Dweller trying to keep my car looking good under the carport. So the purpose of this article is to document some of my methods for keeping things looking good even without the advantage of having a hose nearby and a spacious garage to work in. Keep in mind that everybody’s situation will be different. Some of you get to park right in front of your building and others have to park in BFE. Some will have access to water and others won’t. Take these suggestions for what they are worth and feel free to ask me any questions if you think I can help.

Washing:

This is something most Apartment Dwellers (ADs) can’t do easily. Many apartment communities don’t allow you to wash your car in the carport. The last one I lived in wouldn’t even let you pop your hood for more time than it took to refill your wiper fluid. I got reported for changing a flat tire in my carport once, so I know all about intolerant apartment management. However, with that being said, it is possible to wash your car in some complexes. Check with the apartment manager before you try though.

The biggest trick to washing in the complex is access to the water. Sometimes they have a shed somewhere on the property where they keep the landscaping equipment and it may have a faucet nearby. Check around the buildings near the parking lot for something within hose reach to your car as well. It is different everywhere, but if you ask the AM about washing, they can usually direct you to the right spot. Just remember to get it rinsed off and dried before the sun creates waterspots. That is where the California Waterblade will come in handy. ;)

If you can’t wash in your complex then that leaves you with two options. Either find a friend/relative with a driveway (in which case you can pretty much stop reading now since you won’t be operating as an AD if you have a garage you can use) or you can go to a coin op car wash. The only problem with coin op car washes is that the high pressure doesn’t always get the paint clean. Bring a wash mitt with you and give the car a wipe down before you rinse it if you are concerned about it not getting the waterspots off or other grime. Just be careful with that want. The water that shoots out of there can peel the skin off your hand and is very painful.

You could always use the brush in the car wash, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Using a brush in a coin op car wash is like using a hooker. Do you really want to be the next guy to use that? You don’t really know where it has been. The last thing that brush scrubbed could have been an oily tanker or some 4x4 that just game back from the desert and was covered in greasy clay and dirt. Even if you spray the brush off with the wand first there could still be oils and grit stuck to the bristles from perhaps YEARS of people not spraying it off first. Using a brush is a sure fire way to add some swirls and scratches to your paint. In the winter there really aren’t a whole lot of options and I just chalk it up to the repair I’m going to have to do in the spring anyway, but in the summer I avoid the brushes like the plague.

Don’t bother with the wax or other products that the coin op will provide you. Just stick with a wash and rinse. Use your own products for wheel/tire cleaning and bug/tar removal. Oh, and be cautious of degreasing your engine at these places too. Most of them won’t allow you to do it. The waste water has to be tested before disposal and if it has too much grease and oil in it then they have to pay more for hazardous waste disposal. Degreasing your engine is a good way to add more of the stuff which will cost them more money, so they generally won’t allow you to do it. Using high pressure water like that isn’t my favorite thing to subject my engine to anyway. Maybe just around the perimeter where there aren’t any electrical connections, but definitely avoid any wires with that thing. You could really do some damage if the pressure is high enough.

Something you might want to look into is doing a bucket wash AT the coin op place. If you can find one with a dead stall (usually spotted because they move the trash cans in front of the entrances) then you could pull in and just fill your bucket at the sink and wash away in the comfort of a shaded stall. Then just pull into the next one to rinse it off and you are good to go. You could even go back to the first one to do the waxing and everything. If there is someone to get permission from on this then try to do that first, but otherwise I really don’t see how it hurts anybody. I actually had a deal with a coin op place near one of my jobs back when I first started detailing. They knew I was bringing several cars a week over there to wash and detail, so they would let me use a permanently dead stall on the end whenever I wanted. It’s just always nice to ask permission before squatting at someone’s business. ;)

Polish/Waxing:

This is the part you may find difficult. They don’t typically put easily accessible outlets at coin op car washes, and you may not find them at your complex either, so running your polisher could prove to be a challenge. However, I’ll be honest… I didn’t even own a PC until I moved into my first garage, so I can promise you that you can still maintain your vehicle just fine without one. You just have to learn to live with swirls or get really good at not getting them in the first place. ;)

There really isn’t a product which removes swirls by hand that I’ve found. There is only one person I’ve ever seen get swirls out by hand and he looks like a power lifter with massive shoulders, so that is what I reckon it takes to do the job. I don’t even try because I know I’d never be able to do it on the whole car.

I’m getting off track… Anyway, if you can get an extension cord long enough to reach your car port, then it is possible you can polish there. Polishers make a lot of noise and I’d wager anything that you’ll get shut down pretty quick if you do it in your complex. You may be able to pull it off at the coin op, but plugs are hard to find at those places.

Waxing is another story. You can easily wax your car in your carport or in the empty bay at the coin op. It is quiet and only requires some shade to do well. No problems there. Getting out of the sun is the big part. It isn’t that the sun itself is bad for wax, but rather it heats up the surface too much and the wax won’t dry or bond. If the paint is too hot to touch, then it is definitely too hot to wax. It is just going to smear around and you won’t get a good durable coat. Always try and wax in the shade or on a cool (relative) surface.

Interior:

Coin op vacuums SUCK! And I don’t mean that in a good way. They are very often poorly maintained and clogged, so you don’t get the suction you need. The heads can crack which causes them to leak suction and make them much less effective. So it is hit and miss with those. However, when you find one that works you will be happy. The ones that work do the job very well. I had one near my apartment that could suck the lines off the road. I actually used a cereal box and duct tape to fashion an adapter which allowed me to use the attachments of a shop vac. I bought a detailing kit for a Craftsman shop vac at Sears and it worked out great. In fact, because the coin op vacs have so much suction, it made the modification ridiculously effective because it was now coming out a smaller hose. It was awesome.

Everything else on the interior is pretty easy to do. You can wash your floor mats in the complex Laundromat if you aren’t able to use an extractor on them. Just don’t dry them and you’ll be fine. Hang them on your balcony railing (if you have one) to drip dry and that should do it. Everything else can be done just as you would anywhere else.

Final Detailing:

The final detail is pretty easy to do in an apartment complex too. Just be careful that you aren’t spraying stuff all over everybody else’s car in the process. Also be aware that having your hood popped open and you leaning inside makes it look like you are doing maintenance on your vehicle which could be a violation of the tenant agreement. Nosy neighbors could just report you without knowing what you are really doing, so I would do all of your engine detailing at the coin op place.

Apartment Dweller Kit:

These are the products I would say you should keep in a box in your trunk for your detailing needs:

· Microfiber towels

· Drying towel & California Water Blade

· Wax applicators/ Leather conditioner applicators

· Quick Detailer

· Interior Detailer

· Wheel/Tire Cleaner & Tire Shine with applicator

· Engine degreaser & CD2 Engine Detailer

· Meguiar’s Ultimate Car Wax (really some of the best stuff off the shelf right now)

· Invisible Glass

· Aerospace 303 protectant

· Tuff Stuff (gets the really tough spills and stuff of your center console or carpet) with carpet brush

With those products you should be able to handle anything outside of the actual washing and vacuuming of the vehicle. You should be able to get all of that to fit in a box or rubber maid tub in your trunk for easy transport. However, if you are in a really hot climate, I would probably recommend you NOT keep this stuff in your trunk. I had to clean a trunk that had car care products explode in it once due to the heat, so I would just be careful. J

OCDetails now takes credit cards on location!

2011-06-30T12:57:00.000-07:00

I've been accepting Paypal payments for years with my detailing, but now you will also have the option to swipe your credit card on the spot without needing to touch a computer! Using a fantastic app called Square I can swipe your card directly from my phone or iPad and you will be good to go. This costs you nothing. As usual I will absorb any fee as part of the cost of doing business. The best part is that you will get the valuable points on whichever credit card you choose to use. I know I would be lost without my AMEX points and the benefits it gives me.

OCDetails currently accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover cards as well as Paypal, cash, and checks. My goal is just to make it all as easy for you as possible, so however you decide to settle your bill is perfectly fine with me. I appreciate your business and look forward to your repeat business and referrals. :)

Meguiar's Ultimate Compound

2011-06-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have finally found an over the counter polish that seems to do a really good job. I haven’t done a full battery of tests on it yet, but I had a project last night I tried it on and it worked out really well. It is Meguiar's Ultimate Compound and it has worked well so far!

I started out with a 1955 Chevy which was fairly oxidized. Not terrible since it didn’t spend a lot of time in the sun, but bad enough that I could definitely tell from the reflections being cloudy and the pink tint to the car. I really wish I could have taken before/after pictures that would have done it justice, but the camera just wasn’t picking up the damage really. My other problem is that it was raining outside and I had to keep it in the garage. I started this little project at 5:00 and rode out of there at 12:30. It was definitely a lot of work, but it came out looking great.

I started by claying it. Boy was that needed. Even though this is a total garage queen and probably doesn’t get 100 miles a year put on it, there was definitely a need for the clay. When it did go out and about, it would be parked under trees and it had some sap on it as well as other IFO. So the clay helped a lot.

The next phase was to see about getting the oxidation and light swirls out. I figured a light polish should do the trick, so I brought along XMT 1 with me. Having evaluated the paint beforehand, I really thought that was all I would need. I also had my Wolfgang Pre Wax Polish Enhancer to prep for the sealant, but it was just that and my blue Edge2000 pad on my Flex between me and ten years of no washing. The guy had never gotten a drop of water on this car and had just been maintaining it with quick detailer and baby wipes (gasp!!). Yeah, the baby wipes are probably the cause of a lot of the damage. That stuff isn’t really for paint, but oh well…

XMT 1 was actually doing a great job. The oxidation was coming right out and my pad was turning redder and redder with each pass. That is a good sign when you are trying to get this kind of thing out. I had hoped that most of the swirls were in the oxidation and they would come out with that first product, but no such luck. So I scratched my head for a second and thought about my options. In the back of my mind I had decided if what I brought wasn’t good enough, then I’d run over to Auto Zone and grab some of the new Meguiar’s polish that I saw the other day. They have two of them. One is a compound and the other is a polish. I’m not sure what they reckon the difference is, but the compound seemed to be for swirls and the polish was more of a finishing polish for either light cleaning or light duty paint correction. Probably about the same strength as what I already had, so I chose to go get the compound.

I will say this… The stuff hurts your eyes when you use it. I don’t know if it was just the way the air didn’t move in the garage or what, but my eyes were burning while using this stuff. Definitely a high level of solvent content in the product. There is also a good amount of grit when you rub it between your fingers, so I was sure it would do the trick. Boy did it ever! This stuff rocks! It cut through that paint and cleared out the swirls like they were nothing. This is definitely a great alternative for when you need a medium grade cutting compound but don’t want to order online. From the amount of product I used on this car I would say I could have polished it three or maybe 4 times with the amount in the bottle. So at 10 bucks a bottle, this actually is a pretty good value. And it does a great job. Not too aggressive and not to mild. It left zero haze behind to have to repair and it didn’t even dust. I don’t pretend to know the chemistry of paint polish formulation, but so far I am really liking this one.

I’ll get better before/after pictures on this product when I get a chance to do a vehicle that photographs better in better light, but this will sort of give you an idea of what I was dealing with.

You can see the haze of the oxidation:

By the time I was done the reflections were clear again and we didn’t have the oxidation any longer.

The swirls really were just about impossible to document since the car was already shiny enough that it just made zooming in on the swirls a tough job. Know that overall the paint looked much better.

The engine was pretty oxidized too, but this product cleared it up really well. I sealed the paint with Wolfgang Paint Sealant and it looks ready for show.

I really need to bring a better camera with me on these types of jobs, but I knew it would be crappy light with the rain and everything anyway, so I didn’t bother. Go go gadget cell phone cameras! 

It turned out really well and I owe most of that to the Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound. It was a huge winner and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good machine polish you can get off the shelf. I’m not entirely sure how well this would work by hand, but based on the solvent content, I’d say it would probably do at least a little bit. I still don’t recommend you try to tackle swirls by hand though. This is best used with a DA polisher.

This is how black should look...

2011-06-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

Wolfgang Sealant on Wednesday and then I came back on Thursday to do another vehicle and decided to put a coat of Pinnacle Souveran on top. Dang me! I told him that I wanted it to be so black that when he stopped and Darth Vader DIDN'T get out that people would be surprised.

These are with my cell phone again since my wife needed the camera, but someone else was there with a real camera taking better pictures. All I can say is that if you have the option of getting a jet black paint job with zero metal flake in it, then this is definitely a great combination. I would love to see this car in an environment with lots of things to reflect. I can imagine it on a road in the mountains surrounded by trees and being absolutely invisible because of how well it reflects right now. It's like a mirror! I love Wolfgang and Souveran...

It was a triumph for the previously documented engine detailing process with CD2 Engine Detailer too.

What do I recommend?

2011-06-08T23:09:00.000-07:00

I get this question asked to me all the time, so I figured I'd answer it here. People are constantly asking me what products they should use. There are just so many options out there that they just want me to narrow it down and tell them what works best. Well here's the thing... "BEST" is purely subjective. What looks best to me may not look best to you. It's like people arguing that iPhones are better than Android phones or Toyotas are better than Hondas. It all depends on what you are going for. So I am going to make some recommendations that I am comfortable giving which will work very well for anybody. Knowing the color of your car or the shape of it may cause me to make other recommendations, but generally these are the products I would suggest which will look just fine and really blow your mind. NOTE: These are all just my opinion, so when I use the word 'BEST' from here on in, keep in mind that I'm just speaking from my personal taste and experience with the products. There are no doubt other products which may work even better which I haven't tried yet, so I'm not saying these things to start a debate with you. You asked for my opinion and I am giving it. Please take it for what it is worth.

I'm going to make the recommendations somewhat in order of the process, so here we go...

Wash:
This is one of those areas you don't need to spend a ton of money on. Go to AutoZone or PepBoys and get a bottle of Meguiar's Gold Class. That stuff rocks and it is one of the best performers (in my experience) that you can get off the shelf.

Clay:
Clay Magic for sure, but if you don't have an AutoZone nearby, then find the Mother's clay. Meguiar's clay is still a bit crumbly, so I stick with Clay Magic or Mothers. You can also order the ebay clay and that works really well. Read the clay article on OCDetails.com for more information about this product.

Tires/Wheels:
Without a doubt I would go for the Eagle One A2Z for cleaning your rims and tires and Eagle One Wet (not the gel one or the aerosol one) for the shine. I've yet to use anything more effective for the price. I've heard the Mother's wheel/tire cleaner is supposedly just as good, but the cost is nearly double what Eagle One is. For double the cost I would expect it to be more than "just as good", so I haven't tried it yet. I just can't justify ten bucks a bottle for wheel cleaner when I don't have any gripe with my Eagle One.

Don't assume the wheels will be spotless after spraying something on and rinsing it off. Nothing will remove all of the grime and crap from your wheels, so still be prepared to get in there with a towel or a brush and get them scrubbed. This product gets the process started, but you should still have a wheel brush so you can scrub your wheels after you wash the car and before you dump out your bucket of wash water. Then use some glass cleaner after the car is all done to clean up any tire shine overspray or any water drips.

The best part about the Eagle One Wet is that it doesn't sling all over the place and it will typically give you a nice look for two or three weeks in normal conditions. Just apply it to dry tires, or even better, apply it at night so it can dry till morning, and you are good to go.

Glass:
Definitely Invisible Glass. I know people talk about newspaper doing such a good job and blah blah blah, but really... why would I use newspaper when Invisible Glass does the job better? I'm not using a process which was popular in the 50s just because my dad says it works really well. People who use newspaper to clean their glass make me think of people with hair styles from 20 years ago who simply will not change with the times. There are better products out there, so use them.

Dash/Vinyl/Rubber:
Honestly, Armor All works well for this. They got a bad rap back in the 80s, but they are just fine now. If you want the best as far as looks and protection, then you can get Aerospace 303 and that works great. I still use Armor All for areas that don't get seen much like wheel wells and running boards.

Another product that really rocks is Meguiar's Interior Detailer. This is safe to get anywhere in the car, unlike typical dash protectants. So it is a great product to use first to get all the dust and sneezes off your dash before protecting it with a real product.

Upholstery/Carpet:
For this I have been using Tuff Stuff lately and I really like it. It does a great job of getting stains out of carpet and seats and as a bonus it also cleans up vinyl and plastic. Just spray it on, let it sit for a minute, and then scrub it out with a carpet brush. Good as new. Prestone is also phenomenal at cleaning carpets, but not so great on plastics, so it is more of a single function product. If Prestone is a 10 then Tuff Stuff is an 8. But it is also an 8 at cleaning the door sills, running boards, lower parts of the dash (down by the pedals), center console, and other areas. You gotta love that.

Chrome:
Typically for things like chrome grilles and bumpers I just use Invisible Glass. It works fine. Same goes for exhaust tips. Eagle One has a product in a silver can called Never Dull which works great to clean corrosion off chrome and stainless steel and really brighten it up, so that is another product to have on hand.

Paint:
Now for the tough one. If you are asking me what product to use to remove swirls by hand, I have to tell you that there isn't one. There are many that say they will mask swirls or cover them up, but you are not likely going to be able to generate the speed and heat required to break down polishes to cut your paint and leave a clear surface, so don't even try. If you don't have at least a Porter Cable 7424 then don't even start polishing your car. You'll just make a mess of the paint. Trust me on that one. A PC7424 is $120 at CoastalTool.com shipped. Buy one. Get some pads and you are all set.

I use the Edge2000 pads, so I'm not much help with which pads you should get. All I can tell you is that Autogeek.net has fabulous details about their products and the uses they have. Read up on what each type of pad does and get the ones you need for whatever you are facing. Typically for me I can get 90% of the work done with a Blue Edge pad and a White Edge pad. I have no idea what the equivalents are with other makers. The color means nothing and there is no standard level of cutting that all blue or yellow or whatever color pads do. You just have to read the description and go from there.

For polishes I'm going to recommend Poorboy's Super Swirl Remover II (SSRII) and SSRI. Most of your polishing can be done with SSRII and then you follow that up with SSRI for a perfect surface. Sometimes you just need SSRI because you want a little bit of bite to your polish to clean off the wax/sealant and you don't have many swirls. Most of my details can be sorted out with SSRII, so that is my go to product.

Paint sealants and waxes are the tough one. So many things determine what I use. For Black, Red, and dark colors I would go with Wolfgang Paint Sealant. For light colors I would go with 4 Star Ultimate Paint Sealant. For a wax I would go with Wolfgang Fusion or Pinnacle Souveran if you are feeling rich, or just go with S100 at your local Harley shop if you want to shop local. They all look awesome.

Quick Detailers:
The burgundy bottle of Meguiar's Quick Detailer works fine. I use it for cleaning door jambs and getting the left over polish that gets into seams and emblems. It also works well for getting dust off your car in between washes. I love the stuff. There is also the Meguiar's Ulitmate Quick Detailer which adds a little protection to the spray. That stuff is awesome too. Again, there are other options out there online which are just as good or better, but generally there isn't much difference in this type of thing. A quick detailer is a quick detailer. Spray waxes and sealants are an entirely other ball of wax, but I don't use those much at all unless it is for motorcycles. They are too spendy for what they provide on a car, so I usually just recommend people use Meguiar's QD and leave the spray waxes alone.

Engine:
Gunk Foaming Degreaser and a normal All Purpose Cleaner like Purple Lightning or something like that works great. Use towels and brushes and really scrub. Then use CD2 Engine Detailer to really make the rubber and plastics shine when you are done. Run the engine for about 20 minutes after applying the CD2 and then wipe the engine down again for a flawless finish. Simple simple simple.

Microfiber:
I buy my towels from Autogeek.net. I've never bought a towel from them that I wouldn't use on my paint, so just keep your eye out for deals. Get the waffle weave towel for drying. The green one. It is awesome. The silk trimmed ones are the plushest and awesome for your paint. For the towels you use on the interior, glass, and engine I would just buy them in bulk at Costco or something. Just don't use those on your paint. They will fall apart and just lint everywhere.

They make great wash mitts out of microfiber too. The ones that look like muppets with dread locks are great. Use those instead of a sponge. Sponges are another tool we are told to use because that is what our parents were told to use. They are flat out the worst tool you can use to wash your car if you are trying to avoid swirls, so burn all of your sponges right now.

That seems pretty complete. I'll add to this if I see that I've missed anything, but that covers the most usual product recommendations I'm asked for. Most of these products may either be found locally or online. I shop at Autogeek.net, but that doesn't mean you have to. I just like shopping somewhere that has everything I need so I don't have to put in multiple orders and pay for shipping a dozen times. Happy detailing!

Out Of Town

2011-05-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

OCDetails will be closed from 6/4 through 6/20 as I will be out of the country. I will be available through email or my normal phone number (thank you wifi calling!) if you need to speak with me, but I won't be able to do much till I return.

Coming Soon!!!

2011-05-31T12:24:00.000-07:00

Is the world ready for OCDetails Mobile Detailing? I'm not talking about a service where I come to your house and shine your car. I'm talking about a mobile app for your Android phone where you can review process documents, product reviews, and access other helpful links! That's right! I'm in the process of creating an app for Android which will allow you to do all those things! Since I'm new to app development, this is a project which could take awhile. Should I be working on the OCDetails.com site instead? Maybe, but I think getting a mobile version live will help just as many people. I think the blog is pretty useful and even the .com site isn't too terrible. It may be ugly, but the processes are still accurate.

So stay tuned for the OCDetails Mobile Detailing app! It won't necessarily be available on the Google Market right away, but it will be available here! Let me know what features you would like to see on it and I'll do what I can to make it happen!

Poorboy's Polish With Sealant

2011-05-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

This is a great product if you are working on white. Check this out...

See that white space in the middle? That is what color the rest of it should be. This is after washing and claying, so you can see how absolutely dingy the paint is. All I used on this was Poorboy's Polish with Sealant and a blue Edge 2000 pad on my Flex 3401 polisher. I was really pleased with how much better it looked when I was done.

I used the same product under the door handles. If you have a white or silver vehicle then this will probably look familiar.

Not too shabby, eh? Definitely a worthwhile product to look into if you are looking for a fast way to brighten your paint. I would probably recommend topping it with another sealant or wax just for some added pop, but it does do the trick of clearing off the dinginess and dirt that white and silver seem to pick up over time.

1994 Viper Detail

2011-04-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

This is partly a product review and partly just some information about engine detailing. The Viper is a great car to show you on since you can really get in there and get just about all of it pretty easily.

I love Vipers. I've been in love with them since 1992, in fact. Its not about the performance or anything like that. I just love the way they look. That car is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. So any chance I have to detail one, I jump on it! This one has sat around for several months and needed a pretty good detailing a year ago when I first saw it. It belongs to an acquaintance who knows me through some car shows I've sponsored in the past, so I was really excited when he finally called last week to set something up. Saturday was overcast, but it was in the 60s and great weather for detailing. The sun even came out at the end so I could appreciate the car a bit.

The engine is what I wanted to focus on for this post. It was pretty dirty and had some tough spots to reach. Here are some before pictures.

I sprayed it down with Gunk Foaming Engine Degreaser (my degreaser of choice) being careful to avoid the alternator and other electrical connections. Most of the really dirty areas were covered in plastic anyway, so that part was easy. Then I used my engine wash mitt (microfiber and doesn't snag on the engine leaving lint) to wash down the plastic parts and other areas.

I've got a Meguiar's Waffle Weave microfiber towel I picked up at AutoZone a few years back. It isn't a soft as my Autogeek towels, so I use it for drying engines instead.

The valve covers were pretty dirty, but washing them down helped a lot. The problem was that a lot of the dirt was in the corners and areas the mitt couldn't reach. Not tons of dirt (fortunately) but enough that it was going to be a process which needed to be done by hand.

So out comes my favorite engine detailing tool!! The Daytona Speedmaster Wheel Brush! This thing works great in the engine bay.

It was easy to brush out some really hard to reach spaces where my toothbrush wouldn't even fit well. It also got under hoses and above heat shields on the lower part of the engine where shoving my hand and a rag just wasn't possible. I love that tool for wheels for sure, but for engine detailing it can't be beat! I've got two of them, in fact. One for wheels and one for engines.

The final result is as you would expect. It is as clean as it can get. A little CD2 Engine Detailer and she is good for show.

The rest of the car wasn't too terribly rough. I used the Foam Gun to do a presoak and then washed it down.

Then I taught Erik the fine art of rinsing a vehicle with no top on it. lol

The paint just needed a little XMT love and some Wolfgang Sealant. It was the interior that really sucked. It has been stored without a top on it since last April and it was REALLY dirty inside. The Viper has a funny shape to it on the inside and you pretty much have to be a contortionist to get it really clean. lol I was really happy with the end results though. So was the owner. Hopefully this means more Viper time in my driveway in the future!

Engine Before:

Engine After:

2011 Detailing Season About to Begin!

2011-03-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm really looking forward to 2011! I've been working crazy hours at my real job the past couple years, and other than needing to do a lot of travel with this one, I'll be able to get more detailing done during the week this year. There have been some great new products I'm looking forward to reviewing and I've definitely neglected all three of my vehicles way too much the past 12 months, so they definitely will be GREAT test beds for whatever I can get my hands on! So stay tuned! I apologize for my hiatus in the detailing world for the past little while, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting back on the horse!

Other guides...

2011-02-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

I've put the three articles I wrote for the full detail into a couple different blogs for easier sharing and viewing. Since this has been primarily a place for me to write the articles I need to write while I'm still trying to find the time to finish a site which has already taken me nearly 6 years to finish (I really should get on that one of these days...) I figure it is not necessarily convenient for people to have to wade through a bunch of stuff they may not necessarily need to know just to get to the guide. So if you are interested in seeing it all in one place, check out one of these sites:

http://guidetodetailing.blogspot.com (I can't believe that was available!!)

or

http://guide2detailing.blogspot.com

Both of these sites contain the full guide to detailing you see on this site. I have the final detailing guide written and just need pictures to accompany it, so that will be posted as soon as spring cleaning begins. Thanks for your patience!!

Corolla Detailing Part 3

2010-05-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

Techinally, the interior should be the first area you strike when doing a full detail. The reason for this is because you will kick up quite a bit of dust and you are also likely to get over-spray from your interior protectants and other products. So let's start with the inside.

Let's take a look at some of the before pictures of our project car so you can see what we are working with.

Just like when you are washing your car, you want to start from the top and work your way down. Clear off all the stuff stuck to your windshield and dash like radar detectors, gps, cell phone holders, etc. Unplug all the lighter adapters and start boxing up all the stuff that you will want to put back in your car while bagging up the garbage that you will not want back. You want to do all of this before anything else because you are likely going to shake up the dust during the process and what would be the point of vacuuming the carpet and then knocking a bunch more dirt on it while you are cleaning other areas?

Try to dump the dirt off the floor mats before removing them. The reason for this is because you don't want piles of dirt all over the place outside your car that will just get tracked back into your car if you are doing this in your garage. The other reason for keeping the area around your car clean is because you'll be putting these mats on the floor to vacuum out later and you don't want to put them in piles of dirt which will then be dragged back into your car.

A product I love to use on the interior is Meguiar's Quik Interior Detailer. This is an awesome product because it isn't going to create a mess if you spray some on the gauge cluster or the windows. Protectants like Armor All will make a greasy mess if you get them on plastic lenses or glass, so something like this is great. It also has a little bite in it so it will help get the spilled soda, coffee, and other messes that make the dash and center console of your car nasty. You can spray this on pretty much anything on the interior without worrying, so go nuts with it. You can use it on leather, plastic, vinyl, rubber, whatever. Even paint if you wanted to use it to get some of the dirt off the door jambs. Just remember to do the door jambs last if you decide to use the same towel for all of this. Do one door and you'll see what I mean. When it gets really nasty, you definitely wouldn't want to be wiping down your seats or anything else with it. You'll likely just make it worse rather than cleaners.

Cleaning the interior surfaces is one of the first things you should do if you are trying to get smells out of your car. Cigarette smoke in particular is very bad about sticking to the dash and other surfaces. It is probably the ash that does it, but other smells like perfume, pets, and just general 'funk' will stick to the surfaces of the car and they need to be cleaned. Dash protectants don't typically do much cleaning, so products dedicated for cleaning are best for that. I like Pinnacle Leather & Vinyl Cleaner when it comes to real nasty jobs. This is one that has plenty of bite to get the really bad stuff out. It is also great for dingy leather that has gotten darker over time. Grey and light colored leather is the worst for that. Sometimes you have to just hit it with a tooth brush to get it all out.

Here is a half and half picture of what a product like this can do for leather.

On colors like that you have to be careful how strong your cleaner is. If you clean one spot then you better be prepared to clean the whole thing or else you'll be left with a pretty nasty looking seat. The rest of the seat looks pretty dirty when you clean just one spot.

Vacuum your seats before cleaning them. Don't worry about the rest of your carpets or anything just yet. You may still knock some stuff out of the seats while cleaning them, but you want to get all the dirt and crumbs out of the seats before you start cleaning them with sprays or lotions.

The best way to deal with leather is to use a dedicated cleaner and have patience. Spray cleaners or lotion cleaners work really well. I would typically say to avoid "all in one" products that say they clean and protect, but I have seen some exceptions. Poorboy's Leather Stuff is a gel cleaner/conditioner that seems to work really well at the cleaning part at least. I always use a dedicated product for the conditioner, but Leather Stuff seems to look really nice and conditions the leather really well. The best part about using a gel is that it won't fill in perforations in leather if you have seats like that. Most lotions will cause a mess when working with perforated leather, so the best thing to do is apply it to the applicator and condition the solid leather first to use up most of the product before wiping down the perforated part. Avoid using any kind of conditioner on anything fuzzy when you are working with your seats. Leather conditioners can stain suede-like materials. Just use a leather brush for those areas.

Choose your leather conditioner carefully. Just because it says it is leather conditioner doesn't mean it is going to be what you want to use. I use Pinnacle or Wolfgang leather conditioner typically for a couple of reasons. Mostly it is because I really love how it looks. Not too shiny and not too flat. It gives leather a nice satin look that everybody I've detailed for loves. The other reason I love them so much is because they smell like leather. There are few things better in life than the smell of a new car, so I like to give that to my clients when I have the chance.

For regular upholstery you can use any number of products. I love Tuff Stuff personally. It has worked really well on the upholstery and carpets that I've had to clean for the last couple years. I'm also still a huge fan of Prestone Upholstery Cleaner. That is frankly the best I've used off the shelf, but Tuff Stuff has a couple more uses and it works nearly as well. It works great for spills in your cup holders to sort of pre-soak them and get them ready to be wiped out. It can also work great on spills and splatters on the headliner. The important thing to remember about cleaning the headliner is that you don't need to scrub. This holds true for stains on the seats too. Scrubbing may not be necessary and may actually just spread the stain around. What you want to do is spray the stain with Tuff Stuff (or some other spot remover) and then blot the area with a towel. You may even want to try using your vacuum to suck the foam and dirt out like an extractor. This has worked on nearly every stain I've had to deal with on a headliner or upholstered seats. Scrubbing just makes it worse, but blotting or vacuuming the stain after spraying it and letting the cleaner soak in has worked the best.

Don't forget to clean out the vents. Even if they are just dusty, you'll want to clean them. Usually by this time you have a towel which is at least a little damp, so all you need to do is shove an end between the fins and floss away. I have a great set of tools called Slick Stixxx that I bought for motorcycle detailing, but they work great for interiors and engine detailing when you need to reach a hard spot. Vents are one of those spots.

Now you have cleaned the headliner, dash, doors, center console, and the seats. All of the junk that can drop on the floor has dropped, so now you can vacuum. You can use just about any vacuum, but I've found that using a shop vac is the easiest because of the long hose and usually the caster wheels on it which enable you to drag it around more easily. The one I have is just a 5HP model from Sears and it is a wet/dry vac. That comes in handy when I am cleaning out the mats, which I'll get to in a minute.

Don't forget to pull your seats forward so you can get all the way under them from behind. Even in a two door car you will want to do this. I do this even if it is a roadster and there is no back seat at all. You'll be surprised how much is under there. I would be a rich man if I had kept all the change I've found under seats over the years.

Moving the seats forward will also give you easier access to the sides of the center console. It gets dusty if nothing else, and pulling the seats forward to clean it is a lot easier than trying to get your hand and towel between the seat and the console.

Removing the seats is an option as well. Most of the time they are just held down by four bolts on the rails, but if it is a powered seat or a seat with heaters in it, I would just leave it be. Getting the seats out makes cleaning the vehicle sooooo much easier. I won't say that I enjoy cleaning vans, but the fact that I can remove the seats sure does make them easier.

I don't think I need to get into too much detail on how to actually go about using a vacuum. The fact you are smart enough to navigate the web and read English indicates you have the required intelligence to use a vacuum without instruction. I will just say again that you should be as thorough as you possibly can. Get into the seams between the carpet and door sills. Get the rubber seals where dirt collects. Don't forget to get under the trunk release and between the front seats and the center console. Those are areas people miss a lot.

Once you have it all vacuumed out you may be thinking it is good enough. C'mon now... you've gone this far, so you might as well finish the job. Break out your can of Tuff Stuff and let's get that carpet REALLY clean.

Tuff Stuff is a good foaming carpet/uphostery cleaner. I use it on the carpet even if it isn't necessarily stained. It will help clump the dust that settles in the carpet and make it easier to vacuum out. Oh, did I forget to tell you that you aren't done vacuuming yet? Well, you have a little left to go on that, so don't wrap up the cords just yet.

A good carpet brush may be found just about anywhere they sell car care products. Walmart, Target, AutoZone, PepBoys, anywhere. Meguiar's makes a really nice one that I wish I could have been using, but I left it at a client's house a couple years ago. I mourn the loss of that brush... One of these days I'll get around to buying a new one. In the meantime, I'm using a $5.00 brush I bought at Checker. It works fine.

If you have spots, then this is your process. 1. Spray the spot. 2. Let it sit for a second. 3. Brush the spots in circular motions (just like how the dentist tells you to brush your teeth). 4. Vacuum the spot dry. It really is that easy.

This will work like a champ on most of your stains, but you have to consider what caused it. If you are dealing with some spilled ink, then the carpet is probably ruined. The same goes for paint, kool aid, some drinks, and a number of other products that can dye the fibers. This is why it is important to blot some stains while you brush others. If you are dealing with spilled sports juice then the last thing you want to do is spray it down and then brush it around. All you'll do is spread the stain. Blot stains like grease and juices and anything with food coloring like frosting. Those are the most likely to just spread. Anything on your headliner should be blotted regardless of what it is, but follow that advice on carpet for sure.

I like to spray Tuff Stuff on my pedals and scrub them with the brush too. It gets the dirt out without making them slippery. Products like Armor All should NEVER be used on the pedals as they can cause your feet to slip at inopportune times. Cleaning them doesn't hurt anything through. Look how out of place dirty pedals look when you have a nice clean floor.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1010x758.

It is also good to use on other plastic pieces such as these that are found in most vans.

A little Tuff Stuff, a little brushing, some vacuuming, and the van floor looks brand new! The car isn't looking bad either.

Now comes the floor mats. If you have all weather mats then the process is just to spray them with Tuff Stuff and brush like crazy. Using one of the tools I mentioned from my Slick Stixxx kit I will normally floss between each groove with a towel to get them really clean. Then hose them off and shake them dry. Other mats are pretty much the same process. I take them out, spray them with all purpose cleaner, hose them down, and then scrub with the brush. Then I use my wet/dry vac to suck out as much of the water as possible before hanging them over the side of a garbage can or a fence to allow the remaining water to drip out. Remember, this is the beginning of the detail, so you should have a couple hours to let these things drip out before replacing them in the car.

Before:

All purpose cleaner, water, and scrubbing completed:

Wet/dry vacuuming completed:

Dried and replaced in the vehicle:

The results of this kind of carpet cleaning will make you wish you could do it all the time. Sometimes I use boiling water on the mats to get them good and clean. Just be careful you don't burn yourself. The difference between doing it this way and just using something like Tuff Stuff is pretty remarkable. It is the only way I know of to really get your floor mats looking like new again.

Before:

After:

Now you can dress the dash and center console with your protectant. We do this after you do all the vacuuming just in case you kick up the dust and get your dash all dirty again. For the most part you can spray your protectant of choice (303 Aerospace is awesome off the shelf, but Pinnacle and Wolfgang also make fantastic products for this) directly to the areas you want to protect, but once you get around the dash, gauge cluster, or windows, you'll want to spray the towel first and then wipe the area down. Vinyl protectant will streak like hell on the glass, so avoid getting any on it.

Just look how great a well detailed cockpit looks!

Now that you are totally wiped out, you can clean the glass. I use Invisible Glass because it is probably one of the best glass cleaners I've ever used. Just remember, when using glass cleaners you need to follow the rule of 'less is more'. If you go crazy and cover every square inch of your glass with this stuff then you are going to have a lot of streaks to contend with later. Just use a little at a time and you'll have streak free glass. Use a clean microfiber towel and forget about the paper towels, rags, or newspaper that you've heard about using. I'm not saying they don't work, but let's get with the 21st century and use what works best. Invisible Glass + microfiber towel = PERFECTION

That is pretty much it. Replace the floor mats and put the seats back in their positions and enjoy your work. You have done a great job and you deserve a break! Take five and then get back out there to do the rest of the exterior.

Stay tuned for the fourth and final installation of this guide where I will put all the steps in order and include the steps for the Final Detail which includes door jambs, emblems, wheel wells, and things like that.

Live Webcast

2010-05-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, May 15th, I will be streaming the third installment of my full guide to detailing in progress. I am not entirely sure what time this will be going from or through, but if you happen to be bored on Saturday and want to see me in action, feel free to check it out! Your feedback will be valuable, so please comment here or email me if you have some suggestions or just random thoughts about what you saw. Thanks!

How To Leverage Craigslist

2010-04-15T15:31:00.001-07:00

In January of 2007 I gave myself a challenge. I decided that I was going to take everything I had been learning about detailing for the past ten years and really put it to the test. So I sold my car in January and committed to detailing enough that year that I would be able to buy another car before the end of the year. I put $8000 from the sale of my car in the bank and started working. Well, I had to wait for it to stop snowing first, but as soon as spring arrived I started working my butt off.

I figured I would need more than just my regulars and and their few referrals, so I decided it was time to branch out and start using some other techniques. So I dusted off a couple things I had tried in the past and really put them to work. The most effective technique I used is what I'm posting about now.

Most of you are probably familiar with the internet's awesome yard sale known as Craigslist. There really isn't anything to compare it to other than the classifieds in your local paper. You can advertise jobs, services, stuff, and just about anything else you can think of. The best thing about Craigslist is that you can create your ads in html and really make them stand out. Take a look at your local Craigslist site and see what othe detailers are advertising. Chances are that they look like this:

That is what the average detailing service post on my local Craigslist looks like anyway, and clearly they look like that in Atlanta too. My guess is it doesn't look much different wherever you go.

So while that guy may or may not get many hits, that type of post shows some very important facts:

1. He isn’t professional enough to have a website he can post.
2. He is not professional enough to have proof of his skill in the form of before /after pictures.
3. He doesn’t have to give a full list of his services, but you definitely want to post more than he did.
4. If you are going to post such scant details, then at least don’t capitalize every other word. It makes you look like a teenager. I’m surprised he didn’t use texting lingo in the posting too.
5. The word ‘We’ is mentioned, but I get the impression that there is no ‘We’ in his operation. Be honest and never imply that you are more than you are.
6. There isn’t even a name for his business listed. How legitimate can you be if you haven’t even got a name yet?

The list could go on for everything that is wrong with that particular posting. I'm not going to say that I do everything right or that I am a marketing genius or anything, but I definitely can suggest some ways to do it a little bit better than that.

Here is what one of my craigslist ads would look like.

That says quite a bit about the business. Look at the things we have corrected on the short list of errors the other ad has.

1. There is a website URL posted for you to get more information.
2. Behold the before/after pictures.
3. More details about the services are listed and even more in the URL.
4. I'm pretty sure my posting is fairly grammatically correct.
5. I'm not implying there are any other employees other than myself that you will be dealing with.
6. Name? Check!

That isn't all that this ad does. It is designed much better than just plain text. Because Craigslist allows you to use HTML you can do quite a bit. I used a very simple template that required little effort to modify for my purpose. All of the images are hosted on Photobucket for free. You can check out the album if you want to grab the graphics and use the same templates if you want.

In addition to being a better looking ad, there is another thing that designing your Craigslist postings like this can do for you. Do you see the navigation at the top? That Oxidation - Swirls - Engines - Interiors - Contact Us aren't just graphics. They are true navigation buttons. What do they navigate to you might ask? OTHER CRAIGSLIST ADS. Lemme 'splain.

Craigslist is ridiculously search engine optimized. When I have my ads running and you go to google to search for Salt Lake City Detailers, you find my ads. So there is definite benefit to having as much search engine food in Craigslist as possible. So what I do is post on other area Craigslists different pages of my "Craigslist Site". In Salt Lake I’ll post one page and in the Ogden one I’ll post another page. In Provo I’ll post another one. I’ll use as many of the regional Craigslist pages and beyond until I’ve got everything up there. The reason for this is because if I posted all five pages in the Salt Lake Craigslist then they’d get deleted as being duplicates and all my work is ruined. It doesn’t really matter where they are posted since you are going to link them all together anyway.

Once you have your five ads posted, you’ll need to go back to each one and update the navigation buttons with the corresponding Craigslist ad. Without an HTML editor like Dreamweaver I suppose that could be kind of a pain, but it really isn’t too tricky. It is absolutely worth the effort. What you are left with is a network of Craigslist ads which are essentially your own little website. Click Here to see what it looks like all linked together. I haven’t posted this on Craigslist for two very important reasons.

1. Because it is not useful to link to things that will expire when you want the thread to be a resource for a long time to come.
2. Because it is winter right now and the last thing I want is a hundred phone calls of people wanting me to come out and detail their car in 20 degree weather.

I do want you to see how it all looks though, so definitely check it out. I haven’t protected the right click or anything, so feel free to take the source code and use it as your own. The images in the Photobucket album should help you out and I would recommend you build something similar. Separate the images into corresponding page named folders for easy sorting and go from there. Even if you don’t have a website, this can be your first one.

Craigslist isn’t the only site that you can do this on either. There are other places that you can go to. Here are some other tools that will come in handy as you search for other ways to leverage free websites to grow your client base:

Craigslist Ad Maker, Craigslist Ad Creator, Craigslist Ad Generator
Custom Classified Ads | Listing Doctor | Custom Craigslist
Slozzle is a FREE Craiglist Ad Maker!
Post Classified Ads | Targeted Online Ads
postlets | home
vFlyer - Redirect

I hope this guide was useful. Beware the power of using the information in this article. If you post an ad like this, you had better be prepared to receive the volume. Some of my largest clients came from my Craigslist ads.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you the end of the story. So in 2007 I sold my car in January and committed to detail my heart out until I could buy a new one with my detailing profits. I bought a motorcycle in February to use to go back and forth to work and my wife and I shared the Pilot for everything else. I put $8000 in the bank from the sale of my car and in September I paid $15,000 cash for the car I drive now. Other than the $8000 from the car I sold, the other $7000 was generated through detailing. That may not be a lot, but I also have a family and a full time job as well as another business that I run to keep on top of, so I'd say $7000 profit after taxes and expenses is pretty darn good for realistically six months of detailing season in Utah. The detailing season wasn’t even over yet and I generated additional revenue in October during my Fall Detailing Blitz. That was also due to a brief (only two weeks prior) of advertising for that on Craigslist and with an email blast to the customers I detailed for earlier that year.

As a result of the new clients earned in 2007 I still haven’t had to post anything on Craigslist to keep the business going. Granted in 2009 I slowed down a ton because of another business I started, but I didn’t have to advertise at all in 2008 or 2009 to keep the cars coming in. It all comes from some well made Craigslist ads that were head and shoulders above the competition. Even the ones who throw in pictures of their work will not look as impressive as your site will with a little proper design work. Good luck! Post your results!

EDIT:

One resource I forgot to mention is where you can find templates. I like freetemplatesonline.com for that. There are a a million different templates that are easy to modify. The key to this strategy is the text in your ad. If you don't have words for Google to see, then you won't get the search hits. Just uploading pictures won't do you any good at all. It might make you stand out from others who just put text up, but someone who uploads a big image of their services is just like someone who just uploads text. It is a good idea, but poorly executed. Find a good template that you can edit and you'll get much better results.

DA Polishers Work Just Fine

2010-04-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

I have heard this for years that you can't remove swirls with a DA. There are clearly two camps that say either you can or cannot. Well, I'm in the camp that says if you can't remove swirls with a DA, then I wouldn't recommend trying with a rotary polisher because you clearly don't know what you are doing. Swirls can and will come out with a DA if you are using the right process and products. If you try to remove them with just a damp pad, then yeah... you'll have some difficulties. With my FLEX and XMT2 on a blue Edge2000 pad, these are some of the results I get.

(ignore the water streak)

The left part of this hood was polished and the rest is not yet.

Here is a good before/after on a nice Porsche.

This one is from some dog scratches on the door of an X5.

So just in case anyone ever tells you that in order to remove swirls you need a rotary, don't believe them. I don't even own a rotary because I've never run into something that I've needed it for. I guess on that last picture if I really wanted to get every last scratch out then I could have used a rotary, but it isn't like the dog isn't going to jump up on it again or that the car is going into a museum or something. lol For a daily driver I don't think perfection in the absolute sense is even a logical thing to strive for, but you can get close enough with a DA that 99% of people are going to think it is perfect. I guess I'm just not detailing the really nasty stuff, but I'd say that first picture was pretty nasty looking and it seemed to come out just fine with a DA. My motto is "You can do anything you know how to do." If you can't remove swirls with a DA, then learn.

How to photograph your work

2010-04-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not going to tell you what F stops to use or what appartures to set your camera for (if cameras these days do any of that). I pretty much just point and shoot. What I'd like to tell you about is how to show off your work properly.

I see pictures all the time of black cars in the shade reflecting brightly lit backgrounds. Yeah, that doesn't work for me. Any dark color will reflect brightly lit objects, so it isn't a fair view of what you have accomplished. Likewise, just a brightly lit paint job doesn't always do much for showing off the work you accomplished.

For example, this car I did using XMT 360 to test the swirl removing and shine capabilities on a light colored car. Here is the after shot of the deck:

Pretty slick, right? Slick, but not perfect. I remember that car well and I know I didn't get it perfect simply because it was a college kid's daily driver and only got washed when she brought it home between semesters. Here is the before and after of a swirl removal project on a similar condition vehicle owned by the same guy using a FLEX DA, blue Edge2000 pad, and XMT360:

Even though it looks better by far, just having the paint lit doesn't show that there are still quite a few swirls on the paint. The whole car essentially looked like that second picture, but you can't tell unless the sun is in the shot.

Black is another great example. It is easy to put a black car in the shade and have it look stellar.

While those pictures might look like well detailed cars, it is really tough to say unless you have the sun in it. The sun won't let you hide squat. Case in point... Here is the fender and hood of that Porsche. You can tell that with the sun in the shot you are going to see all the imperfections. The hood is still not perfect, but rock chips will do that.

Granted, sometimes it is hard to get the sun in the picture and still show what you are trying to show. Sometimes getting the sun in it isn't even possible. Here is a good example of that. I wanted to be able to show the detail of the flames, but getting the sun right in the middle of the tank washed everything out. However, having it in there a little bit shows that I'm not trying to hide anything. Even without the sun you can try to get a light bulb or something in there and that will do the trick too.

Camera quality being bad doesn't matter either. I did these pictures with the camera on my Blackberry Pearl, so don't think that having a crappy camera is an excuse for not being able to really show off your work.

Sometimes I don't even think it is necessary to get the sun in every shot. With the sun at the angle it was by the time I was finished with this vehicle it was impossible to get a very good sun shot. So when I posted pictures I made sure I had at least one sun shot to show I was being serious about removing the swirls. If I was going to take the time and had the ability to do this on the hood, then it can be assumed that I probably did that on the rest of the vehicle.

Light colors are tricky. All I can say is try to take the most unforgiving angles that you can find. Get any light source that you can find to reflect in the paint. Just avoid the shade and relying on the brightly lit background to serve as proof of your skill. Any color in the shade will reflect brightly lit backgrounds, so try to get as much direct light on the paint as possible. Even light colors can impress if you do that.

I'm not saying that you should avoid the money shots by any means. What good would cameras be if we couldn't use them to take advantage of perfect angles and special lighting? Definitely leverage that if you can. It produces some great results!

shady side on silver:

extreme angle on white:

shady black: (screw the car... I want that house!)

more shady black:

total shade oxidation removal: (you can't see it, but the paint is still pretty borked on this paint, but the point was to show the difference)

definitely one of my favorites:

curves do wonders in the shade:

and of course, the irresistible self portrait:

The whole point of this thread is to say don't be afraid to show off your work! You know you did a great job, so don't hide it by taking pictures of the shady side. Get the car out of the garage and into the sun. A picture of a black car in the garage reflecting the shelves three feet away is not impressive. I'm sure the paint is perfect and it looks spectacular, but if it wasn't then the car would still reflect the same. Do your work justice by taking pictures out in the sun where we can see that you did an awesome job and there isn't anything to hide. Don't avoid the money shots, but make sure you get some real before and after shots as well.

Corolla Detailing Part 2

2010-04-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of the big Corolla Detail (See Part 1 for Wheels/Tires and Engine)

We have already covered wheels and engines, so we’ll just start with the washing and I’ll have to put things in the right order after I have everything finished. Now, for this part of the process I’m only using products that I got from a Poorboy’s Sample Kit. I could do the engine, wheels, and tires with products from the same kit. After this whole thing is done then I’ll put together a list of the products that I got locally and everything else came out of this kit.

Step one is to do sort of a presoak. It is assumed at this stage you have already detailed the wheels & tires, so as you are rinsing those off, just wet down the rest of the vehicle. It helps loosen the dirt and makes washing easier.

Now get your soap and fill a bucket with bubbles. The soap you use is important because it does a couple important things. 1) It breaks down the dirt that is stuck to the surface. 2) It lubricates between the wash mitt/sponge/brush and the paint. And 3) it floats the dirt off the car. Using a good soap that gets lots of bubbles and doesn’t just settle to the bottom of the bucket is important.

DO NOT USE DISHSOAP. That is not a good car wash soap. It is too harsh and it will remove the wax that you have applied. So unless it is your intention to remove all the wax from your car, leave the dishsoap in the kitchen. Besides, most dishsoaps have hand moisturizers and other things that have no place on your car. I doubt it will hurt much, but extended washing with dishsoap can dry out the rubber and plastic moldings and seals on your car.

Next step is to start washing. Using either a lambs wool wash mitt or a terry cloth sponge (the safest tools), wash in the same direction that the wind moves over your car. This means back and forth. Not circles. Not random directions. Go from front to back. There is a grain to your paint that is created by the dust and ice and everything else your car drives through. If you want to give yourself some gnarly spiderwebs to deal with, then go ahead and wash in whatever direction you want. I’m giving you this advice so you cause as little damage during the washing phase as possible. This is where most of your swirls probably came from to begin with, so let’s start with some new wash habits if you aren’t already doing this.

One other piece of advice is to start from the top and work your way down. No sense in having dirty water dripping down over clean surfaces, is there?

Remember, lots of bubbles is a good thing. Rinse them off as you go so they will not dry on the car and just leave most of the dirt still sitting there. Definitely rinse as you go if you are in the sun or it is pretty hot outside.

Speaking of rinsing, once you have your car waxed, I want to share a neat tip about how to get the car rinsed and mostly dried at the same time. If you use a slow stream of water you will notice that most of the water just sloughs right off the panel. If you spray it and it splashes everywhere then you get water drops everywhere. But a slow stream will just slide all the water right off and you’ll be left with only a few drops to blot out with your towel. Give it a shot. It doesn’t do much for my car at this phase because there isn’t much by way of wax or anything else on the surface anyway.

Before you bust out your towel just yet, let’s move on to the clay stage. The extra water on the surface will lend itself to the task of clay lube. Clay lube can get expensive, so while official clay lubricant is best, soapy water works too. So that is what I use. Call me cheap, but I use what works and if it is cheap, then all the better.

Clay doesn’t have to be a mystery to people, but I’m always surprised how many people don’t know what it is. I’ve got a full clay article on OCDetails.com if you really want to know about it, but we’ll just keep it simple here.

You can get a bar of Clay Magic at AutoZone for somewhere around ten bucks. It will even come with a bottle of clay lube that will work for about one car and then you are on your own. When you get your 100 gram bar of clay you will want to break it into smaller pieces as you go. Don’t use the whole bar at once. The reason for this is because there is always the chance that you will drop your clay at some point and contaminate it with gravel and grit. You wouldn’t want to burn a whole bar if that happens.

I follow a simple rule of thumb. Quite literally, in fact. I break off pieces about the size of my thumb and work with that until I need another piece. You can generally get half a dozen cars at least out of a clay bar if you aren’t dropping pieces. Depending on how messed up the cars are that you are detailing, you could possibly get quite a few more than that I’d wager.

Spray the surface with your clay lube and glide the clay in the same direction you washed in. Claying may cause microscratches, but since the next step is to polish the paint anyway, I don’t worry about that. Don’t be surprised if you see them after you are finished claying though. Considering what the clay is removing from your paint, I’m surprised that the scratches aren’t deeper.

Because I use soapy water for clay lube, it often times leaves quite a mess. So I give the car another once over with the hose and wash mitt again. Just to be safe.

Now the car definitely doesn’t bead any water or give any indication that there is protection on the paint. Good. Now I can get to polishing. First, let’s dry the car.

There is a great tool I’ve been using for years called the California Water Blade. If you keep the blade clean, it is very effective at getting the water off the car. Like any tool, if you use it wrong then you can do damage. I always run my fingers along the blade every second or third swipe just to make sure there isn’t any grit there. When the car is sheeting water I find this to be a very effective time saving tool when it comes to drying the car. It works great on windows too. Just remember to start at the top and work your way down. If you dry the hood and then flip a bunch of water from your windshield on it, then where does that leave you? Try to find a process that doesn’t make you repeat any part of the process.

When you finish swiping most of the large areas dry, you’ll still have a few spots that need drying. I strongly recommend a good quality waffle weave microfiber towel for the drying. Remember that microfiber comes in all sorts of grades. They make everything from underwear and bathrobes to hats and jackets out of the stuff, so there is bound to be a difference in softness. Don’t just use any ole ‘microfiber’ towel on your car. Especially when you are drying it. Personally I’ve never found a microfiber towel locally that I would use anywhere other than under the hood or in the interior of my car. The best microfiber towels are found online. If someone asks me then I’d tell them that I get mine from Autogeek.net, but you can get them in a number of places. This one is one I got from Autogeek a few years ago.

When the car is dry you can move right into polishing. I’m using the FLEX 3410 just because I love this machine so much, but the PC7424 is still a very capable machine. They are both random orbitals, but the FLEX has an entirely gear driven movement that makes the job go about 30% quicker for me. Since I was polishing my car and my wife’s van today for this article, I needed the speed.

I’m going to use Poorboy’s SSR2 and a blue Edge 2000 foam pad. The reason for the SSR2 is because I’ve got some swirls, but they aren’t that bad. The paint isn’t the easiest to cut though, so the SSR1 wouldn’t quite do it. I could probably use a yellow pad and SSR1, but then I would have pad haze to clear up and I’d have to polish twice. So I’m using a more aggressive polish and a less aggressive pad to get the results I want. You’ll find that I do that quite a bit. It just comes from practice. You’ll figure out what works best for you.

Apply about this much product to the pad. This too you’ll sort of figure out as you go. I just sort of draw a circle half the size of the pad and call it good.

Put the machine against the paint and start the machine on a slow speed to spread the product around. Then kick it up to 5 and start to work. Go in a criss cross pattern to ensure the best coverage. So go up and down and then back over it from side to side. You’ll get the feel of when the polish is done doing what it needs to do, but the best thing to do is check your work frequently. Buff off a section and see where you are at before going on to the next panel. This will help you know how severe your swirls are and how long you need to work the machine and polish before you get the results you want.

Since my car doesn’t photograph swirls well, we’ll use the van for this example. Same products and process.

Remember that if you are detailing a daily driver that it is ok to leave a few marks on the paint. Seriously, n o b o d y is going to notice them. Well, nobody except for me and you probably, but that doesn’t matter. To anybody else your car is going to look perfect. Don’t over obsess or it will drive you nuts. A daily driver is going to get swirls again the first time you drive it to work, so get comfortable with a certain level of ‘good enough’.

Occasionally you’ll be going along in your polishing and you’ll hit a drip or a nice flow of water. This always happens on the back of the car, but you’ll pull water out from under the door handles like this too. When this happens you will want to wipe it up quick. This kind of mess is a real pain to clean up when it dries. Wipe it down and spin the water out of your pad before going over the spot again. Trust me on that. It makes buffing it off much easier.

Now buff the polish of and pick your poison. I’m going to give Poorboy’s Black Hole a shot. It is some sort of a glaze or something, but it says you can put a sealant on top, so that is what I’m going to do. I’m going to apply Black Hole and then EX-P.

Same process here as when you did the polishing. I don’t necessarily always do the whole criss cross pattern thing, but sometimes I do. You just want to make sure you get coverage everywhere.

The reason I use the Edge 200 pads is because after I finished applying and buffing off the Black Hole and it was time to apply the EX-P, all I had to do was flip the pad over and I was ready to go. I didn’t have to go find another pad so that I didn’t mix my products up. I don’t’ know that it would make a whole lot of difference, but this is the first time I’m layering these two products, so I don’t want to mess anything up. So a quick click and flip and I’m ready to go with the EX-P.

Whoops!! Yeah, so I didn’t mask anything off like I normally would have, but that was on purpose. I wanted to show you what happens when you hit your trim and seals with your polisher and how to clean it up.

You’ve seen that before I’m sure, right? Well, it isn’t so bad to clean up. My wiper cowl can get to looking like that sometimes too.

The solution there is Poorboy’s Trim Restorer. It does a fantastic job on polish stained trim and general damage to plastic and rubber.

Not bad, eh? Definitely look into getting some of that. It is awesome. It isn’t quite a gel, but it is thicker than Armor All. Sort of like soap, only thinner by a little bit. You can either apply it directly on the piece you are working on, or just apply it to the towel and rub it in. You’ll be amazed at what a difference it makes.

So now you can clean your glass (I don’t really need to tell you how to do that, do I?), dress your tires, and admire your work. It looks so much better than when you started.

Notice how the body lines will glow more than they did before. I don’t care how clean you get your car by washing it. You’ll never get appearance like this until you polish it and use a quality sealant or wax on it. The difference is blinding. I’ll get some pictures in the sun perhaps later. It was a cloudy day and that doesn’t make for good pictures, but here are the results of my efforts today.

Corolla Detailing Part 1

2010-03-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get this car detailed, but the weather isn't cooperating with me. So I'll be doing it in stages it looks like. I'm still doing it in the order that I would recommend doing it. I'll combine all of these into one coherent post after it is all done and put it on my blog for now until I finish the new OCDetails.com site. The old one is really irritating me and the new one looks sooooo much better even without the pictures in it yet. Anyway, here we go. Part 1.

First thing I do is the Wheels and Tires. The reason for this is because the second area is the engine and that typically gets the tires wet. I've found that the products I use work best if the tires are dry, so I do them before I get anything else wet.

Eagle1 Wheel & Tire cleaner is one of my favorite products EVAR. I've heard that Mother's has a new one that I'm looking forward to trying, but for now Eagle 1 is it. This is a safe product for any type of wheel as long as it is factory coated or painted. If you rattle can sprayed your wheels, then you are using any cleaner at your own risk. I've used this product on $3000 wheels before and it is perfectly safe. Primarily on wheels like that I'll stick to the tires and clean the wheels by hand, but I'm not paranoid that I'll ruin them if some gets on them.

Spray the product around the tire first and then around the wheel. It is best to spray all four wheels/tires first and then go back around to the first one to spray it off. Do this fairly quickly. Especially if you have the sun on one side of your car and it is getting hot. You don't really want to deal with drip spots from this on your tires later. Spray it on and then grab a hose and spray it off. When you see the nasty orange foam dripping down the tires you'll know it is working.

Use a good high pressure stream. I'm not talking 900 PSI or anything like that, but whatever you can produce with your thumb or sprayer attachment will work fine.

Don't expect the Eagle 1 product to do all the cleaning for you. You will still want to brush your wheels to get all of the brake dust off. The Eagle 1 product just got the surface stuff and made it easier to brush. Do this after you have washed the car and then you can use the same wash water without having to fill another bucket up. We'll just pretend I've washed the car and now I'm brushing the wheels.

Next you may want to use a wheel brush to get in behind the spokes. I don't typically do this for my car every time, but if someone is paying me to clean their car, then I have to assume they want everything cleaned, so I do.

This is a tool I got from Autogeek. It is a brush they had made especially for them. I've used brushes like this in the past, but let me tell you why I use this one. Every bit of this is covered in rubber. Well, at least the bits that matter. The ones I've used in the past are just twisted wire and not covered at all. The bristles are similar to the ones found on automatic car washes. They are very safe on painted wheels, but they will scrub the dirt out. Being able to bend this in a number of ways makes getting wheels clean in a hurry without hurting your fingers or damaging the wheel. That is the most important part. Again, this is a good step to do after you wash the car so you can use the wash water. This could be done in place of using the other brush too if you wanted. It is an either/or/both type thing.

So that pretty much does it for the wheels for now. You will want to wait till the end of the detail to dress them. I like to use Eagle 1 Wet for my tire shine. I've found it is best if you apply this when the tires are dry. This causes the shine to stay there and not sling all over the fenders. However, for illustration purposes (and because I knew I wouldn't be driving my car again for three days) I dried off the tire and dressed them early. I also used Meguiar's Quick Wheel Detailer to clean up any of the tire shine overspray that got on the wheel. I found this on the discount table at Checker a couple years ago and bought every bottle I could get my hands on. It is a well worth it product. If you don't have any of this, then really any quick detailer will work just fine. I just like using products that are designed for a particular task.

I didn't wax them or anything like that, but you can do that if you want. I've found it doesn't really make much of a difference, so I don't waste time on it. On a BMW or high dusting vehicle I would probably use a wheel sealant or just a normal paint sealant, but Corollas (at least mine) don't seem to have that bad of a problem.

Alrighty then... Step 2 is the engine. This was an easy project for me this time because it was mostly just dusty from a long winter of driving. I detailed the engine in the fall, so it wasn't like I was going to have two years of crud built up under it. Your experience may definitely vary from this one, but here is how I did it on this particular engine.

So, yeah. Not overly dirty, but there is a lot of dirt in there. This is an easy job that degreaser and a hose will take care of. I'm still going to have to get in there and wipe some things down, but it isn't going to be an hour long project or anything like that.

I start by grabbing a bottle of engine degreaser. I typically like to use Gunk Foaming Degreaser, but this particular bottle was on sale at Checker, so I decided to give it a shot. I sprayed down everything except for the alternator (I can't stress enough how important it is to stay away from that area with degreaser) and directly on electrical connections. I just don't like spraying degreaser there. I made sure to get it good and heavy on areas that had a lot of dirt. Around the bolts, the reservoirs, and the strut towers especially. Even the firewall is a good spot to spray down since it can get pretty greasy back there.

Now this next part is the easy part. I'm not advocating that you spray down your engine like a wild firefigher trying to put out a 5 alarm fire or anything, but it is ok to use a hose and a little pressure to get the grit out. Just be careful where you are spraying. Don't use high pressure around electrical connections. I used the bucket filler setting on my sprayer and turned down the hose a little so the pressure wasn't too crazy.

Your engine isn't made of sugar and it isn't going to melt, but you don't really need to get it too wet.

Now you can dry the engine off and go for the final step. In drying the engine you should wipe down any of the painted surfaces to ensure that they are clean. Blot out any standing water on the valve cover or strut towers. Just basically dry it off and remember that you are probably getting it a little cleaner by doing so. Sort of like what you did with the wheels. In fact, that wheel brush is a great tool under the hood too. It gets under hoses and tight spots like a champ. Definitely one of my favorites.

After the engine is dry you can use the CD2 Engine Detailer that I love so much. Spray down anything black, basically. It doesn't need to go on painted areas or metal, but it isn't going to hurt them if you do get it on them. This is designed to make the plastic and rubber parts really shine as well as protect them. This is far above and beyond better than just using tire shine. This won't cause your hoses to turn brown or weaken them. It also won't attract dust like mad. I last detailed my engine in October and you can see how much dirt I've attracted in the last 5 months. Trust this product.

Don't use the whole can or anything, but get everything nice and soaked. Especially the hoses. Those look really sharp when it is all said and done.

Then just close the hood and start your engine. Let it heat up in there for twenty minutes or so and let the product set. Use this time to either wash the rest of the car or start vacuuming or something.

After 20 minutes you can pop the hood and buff everything off. This is when you will start to figure out how much of the product you need to use. If you have a lot of excess that hasn't dried, then you know not to use that much anymore.

Wipe down everything with a dry towel. I've got a stack of microfibers that are only for engine detailing. This is a good place to use those t-shirts and shop towels that you don't have any other use for.

After everything is wiped down then you should be able to stand back and appreciate your factory clean engine.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we talk about washing and clay and hopefully polishing and sealant. I should be able to get all those done in one shot. Part 3 will be about the Interior.

Detailing as compared to Dentistry

2010-03-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

I've used the comparison of detailing your car and brushing your teeth many many times. In fact, i remember going to the dentist one time after really getting into this hobby and realizing that we aren't so very different. The tools he uses are smaller, but we operate them in a very similar way. I've got little hooks that I use to get into tight places in emblems and under the hood. I've got a polisher that I use to shine things up. I even have brushes and polishes that I use similar to the dentist. We both use "sealants" and "fillers" and "polishes". There are also a lot of similarities about how to know when you should avoid a dentist or a detailer. That's what I'd like to talk about here.

Imagine you need your annual cleaning on your teeth. You start to head on over to your regular dentist, but half way there you are distracted by a troop of girls jumping up and down wearing very little by way of dress. They are waving signs that say "Teeth Cleaning Only $5!" Well, that is certainly a lot better than what your guy wants to charge you, so you decide to give them a chance. You pull in and they proceed to work on your teeth. They eye candy sure is good as they go to work, but you start to notice that their tools are definitely not up to par with what you are used to. They are using what looks to be dish towels instead of the standard bibs your dentist uses. Their drills have little emblems on them that say "Fisher Price". Even the products they are using are basic products that they got from the local WalMart. You can see the bag sitting there on the table with tubes of discount Crest and generic tooth floss. You start to feel pretty uncomfortable about the whole situation when you hear one of the girls squeak out a little "oops!" as she is flossing your teeth. It would appear that she got a little to excited while flossing and has actually sawed into your gum quite a bit. She backs the floss out and looks around to see if anybody noticed. Well, the pain exploding in your mouth makes it hard for you not to notice, but she just picks up her gear and heads over to a new customer who just arrived.

The rest of the experience goes the same way. It feels like they are spending a little too much time brushing one particular tooth. It could be due to the fact the girl is on a cell phone chatting the whole time and really hasn't paid much attention. The tooth starts to get really sore and you notice that the brush she is using is not only incredibly old looking, but also has some of the stiffest bristles you've ever seen! She has brushed right through your enamel and the nerves are screaming! You've had just about enough of this. You push them away from you and run to the nearest mirror you can find. The damage is not pretty. You have three teeth that have been over brushed and are clearly damaged, two of your porcelain crowns are chipped, your gum is severely cut from the flossing, and you have tooth paste still between most of your teeth. Your lips are chapped from their abrasive materials and overall you are absolutely regretting the choice. You pay them the $5 and continue on your way to your dentist.

Your dentist takes one look at your mouth and shakes his head. You are going to owe him $1000 for two new crowns that will need to be replaced, close to $3000 for veneers on the teeth that have lost their enamel, $120 for the cleaning including removing the paste build up from in between your teeth, and $200 for stitches in your gum. Saving the money your dentist normally charges for your annual cleaning has certainly not been worth it. Still, at least you got to see a few hot teenagers leaning over you while they completely jacked up your smile, but was it worth it?

I'll just let you do your own translation of this little story. Sure detailers charge a lot, but there is a reason for that. Our materials are far above and beyond the quality of most teenagers who decide they will go door to door washing cars. Our products are definitely a higher quality and more effective at getting the results people are looking for than most of the 'off the shelf' products out there. Detailers typically either have the training or the experience to avoid most of the mistakes that you are going to see made at dealership details shops and automated car washes. And in the case of a licensed and registered detailer, at least if they screw something up then you have some recourse. There is little you can do to the broke college kid who burns up your paint with his $30 buffer he just got at Walmart. I'm not saying that you probably couldn't sue the school district for the cheerleader car wash that decided to put some deep cuts into your paint because they left their wash mitt lying on the hot asphalt between washes, but who is going to do that? If it is your school district, then you are really only suing yourself. ;)

The list of reasons to hire a reputable and skilled detailer just goes on and on. Don't ignore the similarities to your teeth and your car. Just like you can't ignore your teeth, you also can't ignore your paint. The regular cleanings, polishings, and treatments are necessary to keep your smile strong. I know I smile more when my car is looking good. :)

First OCDetails WebCast Soon!!

2010-03-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

Keep your eyes peeled for the first OCDetails WebCast of a full detail. This will be broadcast from my garage live on this blog. The date is not yet determined due to the weather not playing nicely, but it will happen! Full detail from top to bottom including a full writeup after the detail with pictures. If you are able to watch it live, then that is great. If you want to wait and read the article afterwards, then that works too. For anybody who has ever wanted to know how long it actually takes, this is a good way to find out. I'm looking forward to it and if there is any way for me to save the webcast for future reference, then I will. I'm just not sure how much space it would take and how I would replay it, but I'm looking into it.

Sacramento Car Wash Gets Raided by IRS for $.04

2010-03-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

By Bob Shallit
Sacramento Bee

Published: Saturday, Mar. 13, 2010 - 11:44 am

Last Modified: Wednesday, Mar. 17, 2010 - 9:50 am

It was every businessperson's nightmare.

Arriving at Harv's Metro Car Wash in midtown Sacramento Wednesday afternoon were two dark-suited IRS agents demanding payment of delinquent taxes. "They were deadly serious, very aggressive, very condescending," says Harv's owner, Aaron Zeff.

The really odd part of this: The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff's on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was . . . 4 cents.

Inexplicably, penalties and taxes accruing on the debt – stemming from the 2006 tax year – were listed as $202.31, leaving Harv's with an obligation of $202.35.

Zeff, who also owns local parking lots and is the president of the Midtown Business Association, finds the situation a bit comical.

"It's hilarious," he says, "that two people hopped in a car and came down here for just 4 cents. I think (the IRS) may have a problem with priorities."

Now he's trying to figure out how penalties and interest could climb so high on such a small debt. He says he's never been told he owes any taxes or that he's ever incurred any late-payment penalties in the four years he's owned Harv's.

In fact, he provided us with an Oct. 22, 2009, letter from the IRS that states Harv's "has filed all required returns and addressed any balances due."

IRS spokesman Jesse Weller isn't commenting "due to privacy and disclosure laws."

Zeff says he's as offended as much as anything else by what he considers rude behavior by the IRS guys. While at Harv's, he sniffs, "they didn't even get a car wash."

OCDetails Fleet Spring Cleaning

2010-03-15T12:50:00.001-07:00

Spring has sprung!! Well, maybe not entirely, but it is above 50 degrees outside and it is perfect for detailing! I've got a Honda Odyssey and a Toyota Corolla that are in desperate need of a good spring cleaning and this is the week it will happen!

I have a Poorboy's Sample Kit with pretty much the most commonly used of their product line. I believe I should be able to get the whole Corolla detailed with this kit and this kit alone. I'm going to do the Odyssey with a variety of products, but both vehicles will be fully documented as they are being detailed. Check back this weekend for the results of my labors.

2006 Corolla XRS Spring Cleaning

2010-03-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung!! Well, maybe not entirely, but it is above 50 degrees

Teach them while they are young...

2010-03-09T20:49:00.000-08:00

Most of us sacrifice so much for our families that we wind up not having much of a social life outside of work and home. I didn't want my hobby to get in the way of family, so I've always made a concentrated effort to include my kids in the process. I've done so since they were itty bitty. As soon as they were old enough to stand and hold a vacuum hose, I put them to work. Here are some of my thoughts on how you can include your kids in your detailing obsession.

The first job I get my kids started on is filling the bucket. That is something easy that any kid can do. It makes them feel good to make the bubbles. Start them out by just filling it, but as they get older then you can start teaching them about which soap to use for different cars.

The next easiest thing for little kids to do is wipe down the wheels after you have washed them. Just give them a microfiber and tell them to get the drips off. This will train their little fingers to be very detailed as well as getting the experience of wiping things down.

Graduate them from wheels to getting the drips that collect under the rear deck lid and drip out of the gas cap. It saves a lot of time to have them chase those drips around for you.

I would normally say to start them on washing the car, but they need to be a little older. Once they get tall enough, or if you start them when they are four or five, then they can start by washing the bumpers at least. I've found that those are more durable as far as paint goes and there is less chance that they are going to damage anything.

Of course, have them get more experience by washing other things too.

I've had my boy clay a few bumpers in his day too. Again, because the paint is more durable, I don't worry about him damaging anything. It is great when you have a car with bugs on the bumper or around the fog lights and you just want to keep the little guy busy for awhile. If the car is low enough, you can even start teaching him how to do it right after they get some experience.

Before you freak out that I have him working on a $150K Porsche, you should know the owner is a good friend of mine and he was standing there the whole time laughing.

Vacuuming is another great task to start kids out on. I started Erik out young as did I with his 2 year old brother. They are both expert vacuum operators at this point.

Clearly child labor laws don't apply at OCDetails. lol

Interior detailing is something your kids can help out with too. I like letting my kids loose with a bottle of Meguiar's Quick Interior Detailer. It is safe on everything and it isn't that expensive, so I don't worry that they hold the bottle 2 inches from the surface when they spray. (they learn)

Windows are also a good thing, but you'll probably have to go over those again for sure. It is a good thing to have them do since it is their fingerprints all over the place anyway. My boy keeps his area of the van much cleaner knowing he is responsible for detailing it if he makes a mess.

Waxing by hand is something I'll let my boy do to my bike or on the bumpers, but since he can't reach the entire panel on many cars, I tend to do most of the waxing myself.

It takes awhile before they can be let loose with a polisher too, but once you have gone this far with them, try talking them out of a turn to hold the machine for a couple minutes.

Buffing off the wax is also something they are good at. Erik's job is to go over the car when I am done and make sure I haven't missed any spots. This goes along with their drip spotting tasks.

And of course, let's not forget about the cleanup. They love helping put things away. I'm not ready to let them loose on the cleaning of the pads, but Erik figured out the Pad Washer right after I got it out of the box and assembled.

So the point is that you should include your kids in your detailing hobby. Don't necessarily let them run loose in customer cars, but let them help maintain the family fleet. It will teach them more than you realize. Work ethic, cleanliness, team work, and a love for the best darn job in the world!

I've tried to include my daughter. Erik has tried too. She is 5 now and finally has the attention for it. She prefers to supervise though...

With two playful brothers helping as well, she usually just ends up like this...

So most of the time she just supervises and lets us know what we should be doing. lol

I believe she is reminding us of the virtues of using microfiber instead of t-shirts. lol Gotta love kids, I tell ya.

Teach them while they are young

2010-03-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

The OCDetails season is about to start and I'm looking forward to detailing some cars! The only person I know who is looking forward to it as much as I am, is my son Erik. He has been my little helper since he was old enough to stand and he has become quite the proficient detailer. His job lately has been in teaching his two year old brother how to do the job right. I thought it would be neat to share some pictures with you of my boys doing their work.

You can check them out in THIS PHOTO ALBUM.
They are proud to be OCDetails! :)

This is Erik when he first started.

Here is Erik a couple years ago polishing out the Pilot.

There is the whole staff. Dressed to impress! (and frighten with their scary eyes)

Universal Pad Washer

2008-11-16T21:41:00.000-08:00

I saw the Grit Guard Universal Pad Washer in use at the Autogeek booth at the SEMA show this year. It seemed like anybody demonstrating polishing products had one at their booth. Autogeek had one at their booth too and I got to hear the inventors of the product talk about it a lot. So I decided it was worth giving it a shot. Holy cow!! Why didn't I get one of these sooner??? This is an absolutely awesome device that is a must have for anyone who uses a machine to polish their vehicles.

The product actually serves multiple purposes. It is a pad washer, pad dryer, wash bucket, and grit guard all in one. If you take out the center device that elevates the grit guard above the water level then it is a great wash bucket. Put the grit guard in the bottom and you get the added benefit of being able to scrub your mitt before going back to the car to keep washing. And we all know how much of a pain it is to wash out your pad and go back to polishing with it still damp. Spinning it on the highest setting will still only get so much of the water out. So this product is really a very versitile and useful purchase.

I let my son do the initial inspection and test fitting of everything. It got a big thumbs up from him. The thing I was really curious about is how intuitive this product was. If a 5 year old can figure out how to put it together and understands how to use it, then I am pretty sure anybody will be able to figure it out. ;)

After we got it put together and understood the rules, I put it to the test. It is the end of my detailing season and I had a lot of pads to wash. I rounded up as many as I could find and got ready to clean them. I think I might have missed a few in the garage somewhere... I could have sworn I had a couple more blue ones.

I did learn something interesting through this little experiment. I picked up my Porter Cable 7424 first to do the job, but I think the Flex 3401 is a little better at getting them clean. The entire motion of the Flex is gear driven and the pad doesn't stop spinning just because you put a little pressure on it. I cleaned a couple with the PC, but then I used the Flex for the rest.

I started at 20 after the hour and I put the last pad back on the shelf at a quarter till. It took me maybe 30 minutes tops to wash and dry every one of these pads. And that is considering I had to switch from the Edge 2000 adapter backing plate on the Flex to the velcro one halfway through.

After I poured out the water there was quite a bit of... something left in the bottom of the bucket.

I would say that is just proof that it works! Every one of those pads had been sprayed out, so this is also proof that spraying a pad cleaner and hosing them off isn't enough to get them clean. If you value your pads and want them clean then this is a must have product! Even if you don't care that much about your pads, if you hate polishing with wet pads and the resulting mess that they cause, then you still need to get one of these. It is a new must have recomendation for OCDetails.com for sure!

Souveran vs Fuzion

2008-11-16T21:33:00.000-08:00

I haven't done any good product comparison experiments for awhile, but I think I'm going to start again. I'm going to begin with Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax and Wolfgang Fuzion Paste Wax. The test vehicle is a 2005 Corolla XRS in sort of a charcoal grey color.

First impressions:

Fuzion was a little tougher to apply and remove. They both were fairly easy, but the Fuzion bites a lot more trying to rub it off. The Souveran always comes off like butter.

Fuzion enhances the flake in my paint MUCH better than Souveran does. It almost made the side I used it on look bronze in the light. Once again, Wolfgang creates a product that provides an instant appearance difference.

Fuzion and Souveran both smell terrific while applying them.

This test begins today and will be evaluated every week for the next several weeks. I will be looking at dust attraction, durability, cleanliness (some waxes don't attract the dust and rinse cleaner in the rain than others), and appearance. The Driver side was waxed with Fuzion and the Passenger side was waxed with the Souveran.

I lined the car up with the sun so I would get equal light on both sides for the baseline pictures. The sun is pretty far south and it is tough to get direct overhead light this time of year. It is also a little hazy out there today, so the light was difused a bit.

Here are the initial Day 1 pictures for a baseline.

My Employee of the Month six months in a row approves of the shine. ;) he assisted in the application of both products. Again, if a five year old can do it, then so can anybody else!

Keep checking back for more updates on the progress!

Pinnacle Souveran vs Wolfgang Fuzion

2008-11-16T21:29:00.000-08:00

I haven't done any good product comparison experiments for awhile, but I think I'm going to start again. I'm going to begin with [url=http://autogeek.net/pinsouvwax.html]Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax[/url] and [url=http://autogeek.net/wolfgang-fuzion-carnauba-polymer-car-wax.html]Wolfgang Fuzion Paste Wax[/url]. The test vehicle is a 2005 Corolla XRS in sort of a charcoal grey color.

First impressions:

Fuzion was a little tougher to apply and remove. They both were fairly easy, but the Fuzion bites a lot more trying to rub it off. The Souveran always comes off like butter.

Fuzion enhances the flake in my paint MUCH better than Souveran does. It almost made the side I used it on look bronze in the light. Once again, Wolfgang creates a product that provides an instant appearance difference.

Fuzion and Souveran both smell terrific while applying them.

This test begins today and will be evaluated every week for the next several weeks. I will be looking at dust attraction, durability, cleanliness (some waxes don't attract the dust and rinse cleaner in the rain than others), and appearance. The Driver side was waxed with Fuzion and the Passenger side was waxed with the Souveran.

I lined the car up with the sun so I would get equal light on both sides for the baseline pictures. The sun is pretty far south and it is tough to get direct overhead light this time of year. It is also a little hazy out there today, so the light was difused a bit.

Here are the initial Day 1 pictures for a baseline.

[IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/111508TESTING/DSC09447.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/111508TESTING/DSC09453.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/111508TESTING/DSC09455.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/111508TESTING/DSC09462.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/111508TESTING/DSC09463.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/111508TESTING/DSC09464.jpg[/IMG]

My Employee of the Month six months in a row approves of the shine. ;) he assisted in the application of both products. Again, if a five year old can do it, then so can anybody else!

[IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/OCDetails/111508TESTING/DSC09466.jpg[/IMG]

SEMA 2008 with Autogeek.net

2008-11-08T22:07:00.000-08:00

SEMA 2008 was awesome this year!! I went down to work with the boys from Autogeek.net in their booth at the show. Dwayne has been a close friend for seven or eight years now and this was the first time we had actually met face to face. It was an awesome time! I'd go into more details, but there is that whole "What happens in Vegas..." code that I have to obey. ;)

Here is the booth the way we had it set up. Autogeek manufactures five product lines. Diamondite, Pinnacle, XMT, Wolfgang, and Detailer's Pride. We had pretty much the entire line for each product on display at the show.

Here is the mighty Max from Autogeek! It was great working with someone I have looked up to for having such a great company. Max, Dwayne and Jason were terrific to work with! I can't wait to do it again next year.

Here are Chris and Doug Lamb from Grit Guard. They spent the week with us in the booth demonstrating the Pad Washer and the Grit Guard. I gotta tell you, I hadn't seen the Pad Washer at work until this show, but after seeing it in action I am impressed! I will be writing a review on it soon and sharing the good word on an essential tool in detailing.

Sorry Chris. I know it isn't the best picture, but that's the one I got. ;)

You know what I didn't get? I didn't get a picture with Max, Dwayne, and Jason all together with me. Oh well... That is an opportunity that will present itself again the future hopefully.

I did manage to get pictures with other greats in the industry. Here is Barry Meguiar and Richard Griot to name a few.

Barry wrote some kind words with his autograph for me. He was familiar with OCDetails and what I've been trying to accomplish for the last several years. It was an incredible honor to learn that someone like Barry Meguiar knew about my work.

Here was another high point. Rick and Sam from Four Star Products stopped by for a visit. I designed the Four Star logo for them a few years ago and I have done a few things for Rick, but I haven't ever met him before. It was awesome to finally get to shake his hand and tell him how much I have enjoyed his products.

The show was just phenomenal and I had the time of my life. I will be working more closely with Autogeek in the future on some projects and I look forward to working with them in SEMA next year as well. I can't say enough about how much fun I had and how excited I am for what comes next. Thanks Autogeek! Here's to the future!

Wolfgang Fuzion Estate Car Wax

2008-10-13T20:30:00.001-07:00

Engine Detailing

2008-09-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

Engine detailing is not the mystery that people like to make it out to be. There are a few areas that you want to avoid, but other than that it is pretty easy. Here are some areas outlined on a 2005 Subaru Legacy GT engine.

A: The air filter doesn't necessarily have to be avoided unless it is exposed. In the case of a short ram intake or a full length CAI you will want to keep the filter as dry as possible. This may include covering it with a pastiic bag, but just make sure you take the bag off again before you start the car.

B: This is the intercooler on the Legacy GT. Certian vehicles with top mounted intercoolers should have care taken around this area. The fins can be bent by high pressure and you don't want to be scrubbing them too hard with anything else that might bend them either. This is also an area for many other four cylinder vehicles that will allow water to get into the spark plugs. You'll find it difficult to start the engine if that happens, so try to avoid getting the top of the valve cover wet if there are four spark plug wires going into it. Examples of that can be seen in the photos section on the tabs at the top of this page.

C: That is what the alternator looks like. It is a cage looking thing with copper wires wrapped around inside it. You most certianly do not want to get anything flamable or combustible inside that. Especailly if it is hot. I've seen an alternator catch fire 30 minutes after the car was stopped because someone sprayed degreaser on it. Avoid spraying it with anything. You can shield it with a bag or even just a towel. Sometimes there are hoses and other things nearby that you want to spray, so just be careful and shield it whenever that is the case.

D: Avoid spraying the battery directly since that is an electrical connection. That other part above the battery is a fuese box in the Legacy GT engine bay. Most cars have something like that in there, so avoid those too. Would you spray water in the circuit breaker box in your house? I didn't think so. Don't spray them in your car either.

So that is pretty much what you want to avoid. Never approach engine detailing like you are putting a fire out anyway. Just remember that next to your paint (which your car can still drive without) your engine is the most expensive and definitely the most important part of your car. Don't risk screwing it up just because you want to take as little time as possible in cleaning it. Take your time on it once and then you can just blow through it every couple weeks or months after that. I'll be honest... I detail the engine of my Pilot every four or five months. Even then it isn't really much of a detail. I just spray some degreaser around the edge and rinse it off. Then I dry it and spray some CD2 Engine Detailer on it and walk away. A couple days later I might pop it to wipe it down again, but it is a five minute job every few weeks to keep that thing maintained.

Ok, so let's get down to the process of how you get it done.

First of all, and make no mistake about this, THE ENGINE MUST BE COOL! I won't be held responsible when you toss cold water on your motor after driving for two hours in the summer heat and having your block crack. I'm telling you know that the physics of hot and cold are not something you want to mess with. The best time for an engine detail is two or three hours after your car stopped running. I do my engine details in the morning before I go anywhere. For my customers if an engine detail is part of the job then I go to them and advise them to leave the car parked until I get there. If they must bring it to me then I tell them that I have to let the car sit for an hour with the hood up before I touch the engine and it might slow down my process a bit. I'm just not going to take any chances with damaging a hundred thousand dollar car's motor. Shoot, I'm not risking damaging my fifteen thousand dollar car's motor, so you can bet that I'm not going to take chances with yours either.

My degreaser of choice is Gunk Foaming Engine Degreaser. I like it because I can tell where I sprayed it and it sits on the grime a little longer than other types. I've used lots of other types and they all pretty much work the same, but given a choice I'll pick one that foams. It is probably just a personal thing, but this one doesn't smell as bad as some others and it just seems to be easiest for me to use. Anyway, I spray this product around the engine bay while avoiding the areas we have already talked about. I generally don't bother spraying the valve cover with it since that is going to either cause degreaser to drip somewhere I don't want it, or because that is an area I generally prefer to wash by hand. However you decide to do it, just remember to avoid getting it in the spark plugs or the alternator.

Don't let the degreaser sit too long. If it dries (which it will do in a hurry) then it can stain. You want to rinse it off as fast as you can put the can down and pick up the hose. Just use low pressure and your thumb to adjust the force of the stream. For the most part you just want to rinse the degreaser off, but there may be some spots where a little blast is appropriate. Rinse all the way around the engine and don't forget to flood the pools that collect near the fenders. Look down in the sides by the fenders and make sure there isn't any grimy water anywhere.

After you have rinsed off all of the degreaser you can go in with brushes and towels. For the most part I like to just use a couple microfiber towels and some diluted all purpose cleaner. The trick is to get your towel near the grime. For that you'll need some nifty tools. There are those cheap detailing brushes that I'm sure you have seen on the shelf at AutoZone and WalMart. Those work great. Decomissioned toothbrushes work great too. Last year I found an even better alternative to some of those tools though. They are called Slick Stixxx and they are one of the best detailing aides I've ever used. The handles are wrapped in silicone so that you don't have to worry about them scratching anything. There are multiple points and angled attachments to make getting even the hardest to reach area clean. Just wrap a worn microfiber towel around the point and jam that puppy wherever you need to get to. Then use a longer attachment to push it around the dirty areas and you'll be surprised how clean your engine will get. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty on this. You only have to do it once and it will be easy to maintain from there on out.

Dry the engine well. This last step doesn't like to play well with standing water. Dry off everything you can and polish up the aluminum or chrome that you have showing. I use Eagle One Never Dull wadding on my chrome and aluminum to get the best shine possible. Some engines take more love than others, but nothing looks better than perfect chrome in the engine bay. The best part is that it is an easy product to find locally and it is even easier to use. Just pull off a piece and rub down the parts until they are shiny. Then wipe them down with a dry cloth and admire your work. Nothing easier than that.

Now would be a good time to make sure you didn't miss anything. Are all of the hoses clean? Did you get that junk out from around the oil cap? How about the reseviors? Are they all clean as well as the caps? Just take a minute and do a final inspection. This last step isn't something that is irreversible, but it is something that you really want to actually be the last thing you do before you close the lid. It sucks to pull the car out to show off your engine and then see a couple spots you missed behind all of the fabulous shine that you've got going on.

CD2 is a company that was bought by Turtle Wax a couple years ago. Until that point you could find one of their products called Engine Detailer on the shelves at several auto part stores. Then all of the sudden it just vanished. Nobody could find it anywhere. AutoZone used to be the only place I could find it and then suddenly even they didn't have it. I was forced to buy it off eBay or Amazon in order to get my hands on the good stuff. I was paying upwards of $12 per can for this stuff at one point, and then it suddenly came back. HAPPY DAY!!! The first thing I did was go out and buy fifteen cans of the stuff. I stocked my shelves well just in case it vanished again. The stuff is more addictive than crack and heroin combined. Just wait till you try it and then you'll understand.

CD2 Engine Detailer is to be sprayed on a cool dry engine. Techincally it is just for the rubber and plastic, but you can get it on chrome and paint as well. It won't really do much for those pieces, but you don't have to worry about harming them either. Of course, you still want to avoid the same spots that you watched out for during the degreasing and rinsing phases, but you should be a pro at that by now. ;) Spray the plastic and rubber with the Engine Detailer and make sure you get all the angles. You have to walk around the front of the car a couple times usually to get everything. I can usually get two or three cars out of a can of this stuff if I'm using it heavily. You should be able to get more distance if you have less plastic. TheLegacy GT has a lot of it, but my Corolla XRS doesn't have much at all. My Accord had even less, so you may be able to get a can to last you for many months. At about five bucks a can at AutoZone it isn't so pricey that you need to worry about it though.

The directions on the can say to close the hood and let the engine run for 20 minutes before you do the final wipe down. I've tried that lately and it does seem to produce good results. The heat sort of sets the product and all that is left is just excess. Wipe that off and you are good to go. When you first apply it you will notice that it is very wet looking. It dries to more of a matte shine after you heat it up and wipe it down. Don't worry about the shine for sure. Not only does it dull down a bit, it also doesn't become a dust magnet like other methods of shining the engine can cause. CD2 Engine Detailer is one of my favorite products around.

The bottom line is that engine detailing doesn't have to be ridiculously hard. You can do it yourself and get awesome results if you take your time. There is more risk in washing the engine bay than there is washing your car in general, but it is a risk that can be managed. Just take your time and be careful. As always, feel free to let me know if you have any questions. :)

Using Craigslist

2008-09-21T16:02:00.001-07:00

I love to advertise on Craigslist for a couple good reasons. Number one is that the site is loved by the search engines. I get tons of traffic to OCDetails.com from my Craigslist postings. The other reason is that it absolutely works for me in my area. I have several customers who I can trace dozens of cars through just because they found me on Craigslist and offered me their friends as referals. It is a beautiful way to run a business.

There are a couple ways to utilize Craigslist to run your business. You can just put down your text and upload a couple pictures that show on the bottom of the ad. A better way is to use a little html coding and put the pictures in the body of the ad. Or even better, you can also write the ad in a program such as Dreamweaver and make it really stand out. Here is an example of the post that I use.

Click the graphic to see the whole page.

Craigslist has changed a little bit recently and the hotspots on the pages that I am using as well as the images don't redirect to the links I have them set to send you to. That doesn't matter though, because I have the links at the bottom for navigating through the pages.

The way I make this work is I'll post the Oxidation page first. The links all send you to the site that you are looking at it on right now. Then the next day I'll post the Swirls page and change the links to the Oxidation page as well as the Swirls page. Each day I post a new page and update the links. Evenutally all of the ads are up and they all cross link. When a visitor finds one of the pages they will be able to view them all within Craigslist just like it was my own personal website.

You don't have to get as fancy as I have to make this work. A more simple design will do the trick. Here is one I built for a friend who used to own DetailCity.com. I have forwarded it to the current owner. Perhaps it will be something he uses. The principle of what you would accomplish with this type of design is the same as the one I'm using.

The whole point is that you can utilize online classified sites such as Craigslist to really advance your business. If they are going to be kind enough to allow you to use full html coding in your ad, then why not take advantage of that?

The page that I made is free for anyone who wants to use it. Just right click and copy the source code into whatever html editor you want to use. To edit the graphics you can just 'right click' and 'save as' into a folder on your computer. Feel free to let me know if you need any help. Help is free, but if you want something custom designed, then we can talk about that too. Enjoy!

EDIT: I found an interesting page that shows how to put a counter on Craigslist postings. Obviously you can add any old counter, but I thought this was interesting. Click Here to read all about it.

1993 Integra and Oxidation

2008-09-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

Oxidation is a very serious problem for some vehicles. Unprotected paint that is exposed to UV rays and outdoor environments will fade and oxidize very very quickly. In fact, red is the first color in the color spectrum to oxidize. Red vehicles will start to go pink within 18 months if they are not waxed and protected properly.

Oxidation is similar to plaque on your teeth. It builds up over time and eventually just washing won't resolve it. When you have enough plaque built up on your teeth you have to go to the dentist for a cleaning. The process of removing the plaque is almost identical to removing oxidation off of the paint. You take your polisher and load a cutting pad with some sort of paint cleaner or polish. I don't know what they use on your teeth, but I have felt how grity it can be, so I'm sure that they may be using some sort of abrasive polish. These small abrasives will effectively "sand" the paint and remove the layer of oxidation just like the dentist will remove the plaque. Under that faded surface could very well be a bright and shiny finish. You just have to find it.

Wax and sealants act like sunscreen for your vehicle. If you keep your car properly protected from the environment and UV rays, then fading and oxidation like what this 1993 Acura Integra has to deal with is much less likely.

I used Four Star 4-40 One Step and topped it with Four Star Ultimate Paint Protection. The work was done with the Edge 2000 orange pad on a Porter Cable 7424 Random Orbital polisher. The product 4-40 can be difficult to find these days, but it is basically just a chemical paint cleaner that does most of the work through the solvents that it contains. Products like Klasse AIO are similar in that they don't have any physical abrasives. You could use any polish to achieve these results really. I just like using chemical abrasives whenever possible if the paint is in this bad of condition.

The engine of this particular car wasn't very clean either. I can't ever pass up the chance to detail an engine, so I jumped on this one. The process of detailing an engine can be found in more detail on OCDetails.com and in other posts on this blog.

Overall I am very pleased with how this car turned out. If nothing else I hope it serves as an example to show you that your car may not need a repaint after all. It may just need a detailer and a little TLC. I will be posting other oxidation removal projects on this blog as well, so definitely don't give up hope on your car. It isn't as bad as you might think. Oxidation removal has become somewhat of a specialty of mine and people are always amazed at how much better the paint looks. I don't take much credit for that, really. It was the polisher and the product that did the work. All I did was watch. :)

Audi A6

2008-09-14T16:25:00.001-07:00

Today was a fabulous day for detailing. If it hit 80 degrees then I'd be surprised. It was amazing outside. It was the kind of day that would have been perfect to go golfing, but I had a car to detail.

This is the car of my former director at my previous job. I have been out there a couple of times either detailing her vehicles or their son's vehicle. This time it was a new car that I haven't done before. The Audi A6 that she is presently driving is a lease takeover from her sister. She said it is the first car she has ever driven that was actually 'fun' to drive in addition to being transportation. She doesn't typically purchase vehicles for the fun factor, so it has been a fun car for her.

On arrival I pulled the car into the sun to see what I was dealing with. Swirls, industrial fallout (IFO) such as overspray and tree sap, and just general dirtiness. The inside was actually pretty clean, so I knew most of the work would be the outside.

That kind of swirl damage isn't tough to resolve, but Audi paint can be pretty hard and unforgiving when it comes to this kind of thing. Good thing I brought a selection of polishes with me, eh? :)

First order of business was the washing of the car and cleaning the engine bay. I always start with the wheels and tires first, but these had been freshly detailed so I considered skipping those at first, but then decided that it was best to be thorough. The tires were glossy black and looked

freshly dressed, but who knows who did that and how long it has been since the tires were cleaned. So out came the Eagle 1 A2Z wheel/tire cleaner. The engine wasn't too dirty and basically just needed a rinse and a little attention with a towel.

Washing the car wasn't too difficult either. It was the claying of the car that got tricky. It wasn't overspray, but there was something localized to the hood and front fenders that made the surface feel like sandpaper. I think what it happened is the car was parked under a particular tree that likes to spray sap all over the place in a fine mist whenever the wind blows. This covered the front of the car and was very difficult to remove. I'm sure I put a couple new lines in the paint while trying to get it off, but polishing takes care of any damage that clay creates, so I wasn't too worried about it. It was a brand new piece off a Clay Magic bar and it was doing a good job.

Polishing was the next step. I used Danase Swirl Abolisher II to start with, but I saw that it wasn't doing the job. I only brought a white and a blue Edge 2000 pad with me, so if I was going to get results then I would have to step up to the Swirl Abolisher III. I don't use that one very often, so I was anxious to see what the results would be. I've only detailed a dozen or so vehicles with my FLEX XC3401 polisher this year and even fewer with the new Edge 2000 adapter modified backing plate, so this would be a good test.

It took two hours of polishing total to restore the paint to picture perfet condition. I topped it off with Danase Paint Sealant for great protection through the coming months of fall and the start of winter. More photos can be seen in the Photo section of the Blog. Here are a couple of them.

All said and done it took 4 1/2 hours to get the car looking new again. It is smooth as a baby's bottom and well protected. While working on it I passed out half a dozen business cards to neighbors who drove by and wanted their vehicles done as well. Because it turned out to be a great day for referals as well, I cut the owner a little bit of a discount on the job.