I've had the car for about a week now and it's starting to collect all the dirt and grime that I need to wash off. I haven't been much into detailing cars and maintaining the shine, I've pretty much washed and waxed a car (by hand) and never delved into anything special. I started reading up a lot of posts on the site and other misc sites like Autopia. My only problem is that I don't know where to start in terms of cleaning supplies.

So far I have a wool mitt, a bunch of microfiber towels, some meguiars wash formula, Eagle1 tire and wheel cleaner and some meguiar wax and polish. My only problem is that I don't want to be using the wrong stuff, I'd like to start off with the right stuff so no other future problems occur with the car. Some things I'd like to know and I'm still searching for all the posts of them are:

Good supplies to use?
- I'm thinking of getting a porter cable, some wax, claybar, polish, etc

How many supplies am I going to need to complete my detailing set?
- Leather cleaner, conditioner, and protectant?
- Claybar, swirl remover formula, wax, wax protector, sealant?
- Tire cleaner, protectant, wheel cleaner, protectant
- Porter cable with pads a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p?

The message I'm trying to get at is that it all seems very overwhelming and I don't know where to start. If there is anyone in the south Florida area that wants to teach me some washing and detailing techniques, I'd love to compensate you for your time. Thanks!

 

I thought I knew a fair amount about detailing until I got my S and started reading this forum. It sounds like you have some decent products now, and the best way to avoid damaging the paint is with good quality mitts/towels/shampoo and great technique. Everything you need to know from how to wash the car to what products are successful on the S you can find in the Stickies at the top or by searching. Trust me, it's all there. As far as "completing" your detail kit...don't think anyone has ever done that.


I'll answer one question though. You'll likely not need any more aggressive a pad than Orange for the S. At least I haven't. There are so many good polishes and waxes out there it's impossible to say "use this and only this". Seems most here use Mequiars professional line polishs and waxes and Menzerna polishes with various waxes. I will say you can use anything from Detailersdomain.com ( A site sponsor) with no worry and great results. Great guy running that place and is happy to answer any questions you may have. Enter "s2ki" at checkout for a 10% discount.

Really though, check the stickies at the top of the forum. Great stuff there. Product reviews as well as a "how to" that directly answers some of your questions.

 

welcome to the board!
my suggestion is to keep it simple.
start off just learning proper wash n dry process on exterior and vacuum interior and doing the vinyl and leather... after a coupla times doing that expand to wheels- then maybe some engine wipe down.

you will gain confidence and then can move on to clay and finally polish.

my last thought is to make friends with someone in florida, hopefully near your home, who has one of our cars and who has some detailing experience. i love to detail with other folks and its a great way to learn tips.

alphamale has some good ideas too.

finally, get some pics of your car next time you clean her up and post em up... then pm me for your wacko badge, cause you are on your way to being one of us !!

 

Tomorrow is wash day so I'll be sure to post up pics! Got everything lined up and have the canopy ready.

 

man- you got a canopy?
way ahead of where i was when i first learned !!!

look forward to seeing your pics

 

At school atm, but is a leaf blower ok for drying the car or should I stick to a microfiber towel. Not trying to be lazy, but I don't want to scratch the car if at all possible.

 

leaf blower will be fine. you can get some good WW drying towels from our sponsor, detailers domain. they are paint safe.

 

Alright so I started around 3pm today and finished at around 6:30pm. This is what I did overall...

1. Two bucket method using Meguiar's Gold Class wash with a super soft wool mitt. Washed and dried in this order - Hood and bumper, left fender and door, left and right quarter panels with trunk and rear bumper, right door and fender.

Note: Dried with microfiber towels, lost count after 5th one. Wiped in up down motion.

2. Let the rag top air dry while using Eagle 1 wheel cleaner, rinsing, brushing out dirt, and then applying tire dressing. Cleaned up fenders after applying dressing.

3. Used Mothers Metal and Aluminum polish on exhaust, fender emblems, front Honda emblem, and rear Honda Emblem. Used Turtle Wax polishing / rubbing compound to get rid of some of the scratches ( mild abrasive ).

4. Applied Invisible glass on front, rear, side, and inside windows. Applied three times on each window wiping in an up/down motion.

5. Used Armor All Protection on dash, side panels, front console, and around shifter area. Used Lexol Conditioner followed with Armor All Protection on seats.

6. It was getting dark so I used some microfiber towels to apply some Meguiars Detail Spray (spray in a bottle for using after waxing I guess). Applied all over, only problem was that I had to lean to see if I wiped everything off.

Overall, I'm happy that I got to do such an in-depth wash. I haven't even gotten into using polish and waxing the car. Washing the car was a double edged sword though.

GOOD:

- Car is super shiny, seats are protected, everything is clean.
- 1st car wash for my car!
- Got to see the finer details of my car
- I appreciate my car a lot more now that I put time into cleaning it
- Got to try out some products and get knowledge!

BAD:

- I guess I washed improperly or the spray detailed messed up the paint since I see some spider webs now. Not sure what I'm doing wrong?
- I get to see the finer details of my car such as rock chips, scratches on headlight, and SPIDER WEBS OMFG (I did NOT want these)
- Still have a lot to learn
- Found some crappy stuff about the car such as massive orange peel on bottom half of sideskirts (not sure if they resprayed or its like that from factory) so I may need to check the depth of the paint.
- SPIDER WEBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it's good that my car looks really good now, but it's really bad that I am seeing some finer scratches and spider webs. Maybe the webs were there before, I don't know. It's good that I made a mistake so I can learn from it now, but I still need to find that proper technique! Will polish get rid of the spider webs? I don't want to take a chance in causing more spider webs by polishing and waxing the car, I may ask someone who is a professional help me out maybe. I see someone is offering full details for $200, maybe I can use that as a tutorial. I guess I'm in it for the long run and I'll have to learn step by step!

By the way, it was so funny when I was driving around to get rid of the rotor rust (is that what it is? not sure on the terminology). I am breaking hard on a straight towards A1A towards the beach, and all of a sudden I see a crab with a massive masturbation claw sticking out and I swerve over him hoping I don't hit. A couple more seconds and I start to see HUNDREDS of them walking across the street. The first thing in my head was me having to wash ALL OVER AGAIN. So I stop and wait for them and then continue, soon its one or two of them clumped together and I'm playing real life Frogger, except the driver's trying to dodge the roadkill haha!

I didn't post pics since it was so late after I was done that I'll show the before and after pictures tomorrow! I'll be back, need to go drive around some more!

 

If the car was never washed, I garuntee that those spiderwebs have been there for the entire life of your car, it has just never been clean enough to see them! You clean your car, and you see imperfections!

A catch-22 indeed!

To get rid of those suckers, you are going to have to invest in a polisher / pads / polishes, but if you just started detailing, I think that is a little down the road.

For now, find a wax that has a lot of good fillers (they go into the scratches so that light is more disperesed, so you cannot see the swirls as bad).

I think next product for you is claybar. Makes the paint softer than a baby's bottom!

 

^ +1

the swirls were already there bro. Keep doing research research and more research before making any big purchases. Find a quality detailer in your area that won't mind you asking him/her questions and have at it.

There are many "detailers" out there, so make sure you find one that actually know their stuff