💦 Detailing TCG Detailing Thread

[DanJ]

Aight. It hit me the other day that I put the DGPS on then spray megs D156 express wax over it. Probably have better hydrophobic properties using a spray with similar polymers that the DGPS has.

 

[99PONTIACGP]

Whats going on dudes. I did a detail but still have fine scratches in the paint. Is that something that can be corrected with a spray wax or is that more of a paint correction issue?

 

[Shawn1112]

Whats going on dudes. I did a detail but still have fine scratches in the paint. Is that something that can be corrected with a spray wax or is that more of a paint correction issue?



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Would help to see the fine scratches, but more than likely paint correction issue. I know some paste waxes with fillers will hide them.
Megs NXT was always my go to for hiding fine scratches before car shows.

 

[99PONTIACGP]

.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

yep, that needs to be polished for sure.

 

[DanJ]

Went to Car Supplies Warehouse at the Chicago Auto Pros shop in Lombard and picked up some HydrO2 on my way to work today. Was surprised they actually beat Amazon’s price by about 2 dollars also. Wanted something to get some protection on areas that I don’t typically put any sealant or wax on because it’s a pain in the ass to get into small areas. Spray on, let sit, then it activates when the stream of water hits it. Used it on my wheels and front bumper and they’re both noticeably more hydrophobic.

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

I used some Aerolon Techshine on the wheels of my truck and car since it goes on while wet and rinses off. So far does a nice job and apply it maybe once a month or two.

 

[IDAFC21]

Went to Car Supplies Warehouse at the Chicago Auto Pros shop in Lombard and picked up some HydrO2 on my way to work today. Was surprised they actually beat Amazon’s price by about 2 dollars also. Wanted something to get some protection on areas that I don’t typically put any sealant or wax on because it’s a pain in the ass to get into small areas. Spray on, let sit, then it activates when the stream of water hits it. Used it on my wheels and front bumper and they’re both noticeably more hydrophobic.

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Thats the shit I use every 2-3 washes just to keep things fresh. Does add some noticeable slickness to the paint as well. You can also buy it undiluted and mix it yourself, but I find the premixed Lite to last me quite a while, because you really dont need a lot. Just a few spritzes and you're good.

 

[Marko]

These products work great but both my cars have just over 5k miles. Lol

 

[IDAFC21]

We've been getting blasted w/ dust storms this week, and then of course theres always that ONE cloud that passes overhead and drops a light mist for about 2 minutes before passing on, thus just destroying my car. Since its probably going to continue happening this week I tried to give my car a quickie wash today after work. First i sprayed the whole car down w/ a liberal amount of waterless wash to try and pre-loosen up all the grit and debris, then I blasted it w/ the ryobi and gave it a good rinse. Then hit it w/ the foam cannon, and I definitely got the mix right this time. Super foamy, and hung on the car a lot longer this time. Let that do its thing, and then gave it another good rinse and then hit it w/ the leaf blower. The car still looks horrible, but now instead of dirt and grime, its just covered in water spots and streaks because my water is so god awful out here. I'm definitely convinced there is absolutely no ceramic left on this thing. Come winter its gonna need a GOOD detail. But at least for now it doesn't look like I went mudding with it. Until the next dust storm at least.

 

[DanJ]

I haven’t tried the touch less car wash spray down with it yet.

 

[IDAFC21]

I really dont believe there is such a thing as a touchless wash unless your car is super protected, your water is crystal pure, and you have a wind tunnel to dry the car off with, but I had to do something. Couldn't let it continue to get blasted with layer after layer of shit every day. In that respect it at least got all the shit off, but I'm not gonna try and further clean up the paint since I didn't 2 bucket it.

 

[DanJ]

So Gav'sPurpleZ , I watched your solo vs IK sprayer video. Do you know will P&S Brake Buster foam out of a solo sprayer, or is that something specific to the design of the IK?

 

[Rent Free]

These products work great but both my cars have just over 5k miles. Lol

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Mothers CMX is better if you havnt tried it.

 

[Ron Vogel]

Since I had the car up and apart, decided to clean up the frame/suspension. All I had in the garage for cleaners was a Meguires waterless car wash spray. My wife bought it for my son and never used it.

So, this stuff works awesome for cleaning grease/oil off the lower cradle. I was pleasantly surprised. Has some sort of oil in it that conditions the paint. Probably suck on the actual paint though outside the car

these two pieces sit right under my oil pan and cleaned up great.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

So Gav'sPurpleZ , I watched your solo vs IK sprayer video. Do you know will P&S Brake Buster foam out of a solo sprayer, or is that something specific to the design of the IK?

The solo sprayer "atomizes" the products well but if you are looking for "foam" then a "foam" sprayer is necessary. iK has new versions of their sprayers.
Auto fanatic has started using "foam it" foamers.

Obsessed garage puts the brake buster in a foam cannon. I've tried the foam only wheel washing ( meaning no bucket with soapy water ) and I wasnt a fan. Note, I used the iK foam 9 foamer, not a foam cannon so the amount of product was a bit less.

 

[SleeperLS]

Looking forward to doing a full polish and detail on the C5 in a few weeks. I have been itching bad, but I want to let the new paint gas fully before I do the deed. I am using the same stuff I used on my Mustang several years back, but adding a few new things.

I am going to use the iron x, since iron seems very prevalent out here. Also, instead of DGPS, I am going to use their sio2 paint sealant. From what I read it seems like it is their DGPS but with some sio2 added. Looking forward to a splash of extra gloss and a longer lasting product. I will most likely make a new thread when I finally get around to it.

 

[DanJ]

The solo sprayer "atomizes" the products well but if you are looking for "foam" then a "foam" sprayer is necessary. iK has new versions of their sprayers.
Auto fanatic has started using "foam it" foamers.

Obsessed garage puts the brake buster in a foam cannon. I've tried the foam only wheel washing ( meaning no bucket with soapy water ) and I wasnt a fan. Note, I used the iK foam 9 foamer, not a foam cannon so the amount of product was a bit less.

thanks for the info. I plan on still using water but want to try it as a foaming cleaner just for better coverage (and novelty if I’m being completely honest).

 

[Jon01]

I'm getting ready to polish and re install the wheels on my C10.
They're in great shape but have some water spotting and grunge from being moved around the shop that I'd like to get polished out.
Plan is to use Adam's 2 step process by hand but I've been thinking about getting a 3" pad for my PC and giving that a shot for the barrels and other large areas.
Had anybody ever tried it?
Also. Does anybody have any experience with the various wheel ceramics being offered?
The wheels are Billet Specialties Bonneville's and have lots of bare polished area that I would love to better protect if at all possible.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

I'm getting ready to polish and re install the wheels on my C10.
They're in great shape but have some water spotting and grunge from being moved around the shop that I'd like to get polished out.
Plan is to use Adam's 2 step process by hand but I've been thinking about getting a 3" pad for my PC and giving that a shot for the barrels and other large areas.
Had anybody ever tried it?
Also. Does anybody have any experience with the various wheel ceramics being offered?
The wheels are Billet Specialties Bonneville's and have lots of bare polished area that I would love to better protect if at all possible.


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is the gray section smooth or textured ? if textured, it may be a bit of a pain to apply a coating to. Some pro shops will use a small air pen looking thing ( like what an air brush artist would use... small reservoir for the product ).
As for the aluminum, you have to be careful with the product that you use. Dekalb county lifts asked me to protect a set of 28" forged aluminum wheels. I remember watching an autofanatic video where he talked about applying a coating to artwork and having a big issue. I emailed him to ask if he had suggestions. Here is the email response:

Be careful few years back i polished a sculpture of a nyc gallery that was worh 600k and i tried ceramic pro but it fogged finish badly. Tough call you need to do a test to see how it reacts. Problem is metal polishes all have oils and chemicals in them that soak into pores and react. Ive tested this a few times and have yet to be confident in suggesting something

So I did some research of my own. A few threads used Gtechniq C5 wheel armour. I checked their site and it does not say safe for bare aluminum wheels.
Other threads mentioned CarPro DLUX. I emailed the guys @ sky care care. Their response was that DLUX can be used but they suggest using Ultima aluminum sealant instead.

More research showed that McKee's wheel coating was safe for bare aluminum. I emailed them to confirm and they said it is okay to use.
I have their original formula. I'm happy to report I used it on the wheels and no fogging or any distortion of the finish occurred.

Even if they are coated, it will only slow the oxidation process, so they will need to be re-polished at some point in the future to maintain the mirror like finish.

 

[SleeperLS]

Just ordered a griots pfm drying towel to try it out. I am not that excited about the carpro one I tried. It really didn't do a great job getting the moisture off the paint.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

Auto fanatic loves the Griots pfm, you should be in good shape

 

[Jon01]

is the gray section smooth or textured ? if textured, it may be a bit of a pain to apply a coating to. Some pro shops will use a small air pen looking thing ( like what an air brush artist would use... small reservoir for the product ).
As for the aluminum, you have to be careful with the product that you use. Dekalb county lifts asked me to protect a set of 28" forged aluminum wheels. I remember watching an autofanatic video where he talked about applying a coating to artwork and having a big issue. I emailed him to ask if he had suggestions. Here is the email response:


So I did some research of my own. A few threads used Gtechniq C5 wheel armour. I checked their site and it does not say safe for bare aluminum wheels.
Other threads mentioned CarPro DLUX. I emailed the guys @ sky care care. Their response was that DLUX can be used but they suggest using Ultima aluminum sealant instead.

More research showed that McKee's wheel coating was safe for bare aluminum. I emailed them to confirm and they said it is okay to use.
I have their original formula. I'm happy to report I used it on the wheels and no fogging or any distortion of the finish occurred.

Even if they are coated, it will only slow the oxidation process, so they will need to be re-polished at some point in the future to maintain the mirror like finish.

Gav - thank you for that intel!
The gray is textured, like a bead blasted finish then painted gray.
I think I will pass on coating them. It's not worth the risk and tbh pulling them every winter and polishing will be a good project.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

Gav - thank you for that intel!
The gray is textured, like a bead blasted finish then painted gray.
I think I will pass on coating them. It's not worth the risk and tbh pulling them every winter and polishing will be a good project.

I would look into the aluminum sealant to keep them looking good, it's not expensive.

 

[Caleb515]

Looking to do a full correction / coating here in the next few weeks.

Quick questions for those of you experienced with ceramic coatings, I have a bottle of Cquartz UK 3.0 I bought about 8-10 months ago to coat a set of wheels. I used very little and put the bottle back in the closet (dark / dry), would you think this is still safe to use even after being open so long?

It looks perfectly fine, it's not cloudy or anything, but of course I don't want to risk it if you think I'll have application issues or it wont perform as well as it should

Thoughts?