Thoughts on my detail process
09-05-2012, 04:48 AM
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Thoughts on my detail process
I recently did a detail on the exterior of my 2000 Silverstone Metallic. I bought the car used in July and there were several scratches I wanted to address. Obviously nothing too significant.
1. The detail began with a thorough washing with Dawn Dish Detergent (with extra soaking power) to clean the car of any sort of protectant it had on it, then dried.
2. Prima Slick diluted 50/50 with water (distilled) was used as a lubricant for clay bar. The entire car was clay barred using Mother's clay.
3. Wash with Dawn dish detergent and dry
4. spot treatment of the heavy scratches with Prima Cut using a porter Cable DA Polisher and a yellow pad.
5. Wash with Dawn dish detergent and dry
6. Polish entire car using Prima Swirl using an orange pad
6. Wash with Dawn dish detergent and dry
7. Polish Entire car with Prima Finish using a white pad
8. Wash with Dawn dish detergent
9. Apply Prima Amigo (glaze) with Porter Cable DA polisher and black pad
10. On this job, I used Prima Epic for wax. I have since done the same process finishing with Prima Banana Gloss on my wife's Accord (except I needed to use cut on the entire car due to oxidation).
A few weeks after the detail, but I followed up with use of the Prima Slick, which is a detialing spray the night before. IT brought the detail right back out.
While cleaning the garage up a couple nights after detailing the S2000 this green lacewing landed on the car. Its amazing the detail of the insect you can see in the paint...especially considering I took the picture with a camera phone.
Prima sells their products online, or if you are in the Denver Metro area, they can be bought through Allen Paint. Give them a call to be sure they have whatever you need in stock.
1. The detail began with a thorough washing with Dawn Dish Detergent (with extra soaking power) to clean the car of any sort of protectant it had on it, then dried.
2. Prima Slick diluted 50/50 with water (distilled) was used as a lubricant for clay bar. The entire car was clay barred using Mother's clay.
3. Wash with Dawn dish detergent and dry
4. spot treatment of the heavy scratches with Prima Cut using a porter Cable DA Polisher and a yellow pad.
5. Wash with Dawn dish detergent and dry
6. Polish entire car using Prima Swirl using an orange pad
6. Wash with Dawn dish detergent and dry
7. Polish Entire car with Prima Finish using a white pad
8. Wash with Dawn dish detergent
9. Apply Prima Amigo (glaze) with Porter Cable DA polisher and black pad
10. On this job, I used Prima Epic for wax. I have since done the same process finishing with Prima Banana Gloss on my wife's Accord (except I needed to use cut on the entire car due to oxidation).
A few weeks after the detail, but I followed up with use of the Prima Slick, which is a detialing spray the night before. IT brought the detail right back out.
While cleaning the garage up a couple nights after detailing the S2000 this green lacewing landed on the car. Its amazing the detail of the insect you can see in the paint...especially considering I took the picture with a camera phone.
Prima sells their products online, or if you are in the Denver Metro area, they can be bought through Allen Paint. Give them a call to be sure they have whatever you need in stock.
09-05-2012, 06:52 AM
#2
Good write up. I will say you don't need to wash the car as often during it though! Wash in the beginning and arguably at the end (you can do a 50/50 ISP wipe down after the final polish), that's it.
Prima compound is OK stuff, I tried it and prefer Menzerna better. Menzerna is a diminishing compound so it helps level the paint in fewer steps.
Epic is a sealant, not a wax, Banana is their wax. Epic sealant is also OK IMO Menzerna Power Lock is better and BFWD even better. I am however a fan of Prima's finishing lines, Banana Gloss as a topper to sealants, Hydro, and Slick are some of my favs. For an up-keep I highly recommend the Hydro Wash system Prima has, I love it on my daily and works very well for taking care of the S. Follow it to a Tee with the Hydro wash, expensive soap, I use 2 oz to 5gal of water with no issues. I usually do Hydro seal, then over the next 2-3 washes I finish with Hydro, then Hydro Seal again on the next wash.
Prima compound is OK stuff, I tried it and prefer Menzerna better. Menzerna is a diminishing compound so it helps level the paint in fewer steps.
Epic is a sealant, not a wax, Banana is their wax. Epic sealant is also OK IMO Menzerna Power Lock is better and BFWD even better. I am however a fan of Prima's finishing lines, Banana Gloss as a topper to sealants, Hydro, and Slick are some of my favs. For an up-keep I highly recommend the Hydro Wash system Prima has, I love it on my daily and works very well for taking care of the S. Follow it to a Tee with the Hydro wash, expensive soap, I use 2 oz to 5gal of water with no issues. I usually do Hydro seal, then over the next 2-3 washes I finish with Hydro, then Hydro Seal again on the next wash.
09-05-2012, 09:42 AM
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You don't need to wash it after every step. Also, I'd skip glaze, especially after all that polishing. With the new polishes, pads and machines, I find no use for glaze anymore.
09-05-2012, 10:40 AM
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09-05-2012, 12:38 PM
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They say you can't really class Amigo, so I called it a glaze albeit incorrectly. However,it really makes the previous work shine through (and it smeels really nice too). My thought on washing between every step was to eliminate any of the residual polish that was left on the car so that I didn't carry it through in the next finer stage. Not washing every time would definately speed the process.
Since Epic is a sealant, should I do a good wipe down of the car with the slick, then follow that with a wax? Or should I do a wipe down with the slick, clay bar, then wax? Seems like I should clay bar before doing a wax.
With the Menzerna products, which do you use ? If you step through them each from coarse to fine, that is a lot of polishing time. I thought the PRima stuff was fairly spendy, but the Menzerna stuff is a little more expensive still. Not afraid to pay for quality, but I am a veritable noob since I have done it twice now.
Since Epic is a sealant, should I do a good wipe down of the car with the slick, then follow that with a wax? Or should I do a wipe down with the slick, clay bar, then wax? Seems like I should clay bar before doing a wax.
With the Menzerna products, which do you use ? If you step through them each from coarse to fine, that is a lot of polishing time. I thought the PRima stuff was fairly spendy, but the Menzerna stuff is a little more expensive still. Not afraid to pay for quality, but I am a veritable noob since I have done it twice now.
09-05-2012, 02:02 PM
#6
They say you can't really class Amigo, so I called it a glaze albeit incorrectly. However,it really makes the previous work shine through (and it smeels really nice too). My thought on washing between every step was to eliminate any of the residual polish that was left on the car so that I didn't carry it through in the next finer stage. Not washing every time would definately speed the process.
Since Epic is a sealant, should I do a good wipe down of the car with the slick, then follow that with a wax? Or should I do a wipe down with the slick, clay bar, then wax? Seems like I should clay bar before doing a wax.
With the Menzerna products, which do you use ? If you step through them each from coarse to fine, that is a lot of polishing time. I thought the PRima stuff was fairly spendy, but the Menzerna stuff is a little more expensive still. Not afraid to pay for quality, but I am a veritable noob since I have done it twice now.
Since Epic is a sealant, should I do a good wipe down of the car with the slick, then follow that with a wax? Or should I do a wipe down with the slick, clay bar, then wax? Seems like I should clay bar before doing a wax.
With the Menzerna products, which do you use ? If you step through them each from coarse to fine, that is a lot of polishing time. I thought the PRima stuff was fairly spendy, but the Menzerna stuff is a little more expensive still. Not afraid to pay for quality, but I am a veritable noob since I have done it twice now.
I actually would shy away from using the Slick so much BEFORE applying your LSP. Slick is a polymer based QD (that is why it brightened the car when you used it) and leaves a bit of a film behind like wax. I would make sure the finish is as clean as possible and apply the sealant, let that cure (Epic is 24hrs I think), then apply a topping wax. I like to do this for a few reasons, one it provides an extra layer of protection for the paint, it provides an easier to maintain surface, you can almost never use to much wax (it goes away quick) but sealant you can, and it cuts down on the need for claying. I clay my car once a year, but wax it almost every wash (Hydro application). The sealant is a polymer that bounds with paint and helps ward off contaminents, the wax also aids in making this happen. The leads to less need for claying the car and save boatloads of time.
I also would say, save your money using Slick as a claybar lube. A bottle of Optimum No Rinse (ONR) in clay dilution is better, doesn't leave that polymer film, does not break down claybars, and much cheaper to use (I still have the bottle I bought 3yrs ago, and detail at least 3 cars a month during the summer)
Don't get me wrong, the Prima compounds are fine, I personally started with Menzerna and tried Prima as cost effective alternative, but the Menzerna to me is worth the extra few dollars, the key is the diminishing cut of the Menzerna. Most cars that get more then a single pass correction get Menzerna 2500(formally PO203) orange pad 2 passes, 1st pass gets a majority out the 2nd is more spot chasing. The 2500 compound breaks down as you work it to around a Menzerna 4000 level. Then it is Menerna 4000(formally 106FA) on a green (your white pad) which breaks down to almost the Menzerna Microfinish II (85rd) So with 2 compounds I did what you had to do with 3. Now depending on the car and customer spend, I will either go with an Menzerna 85rd pass on a blue pad to refine further followed by an IPA wipe down, or IPA wipe down and Amigo pass on blue, Seal, and wax...
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09-06-2012, 07:45 AM
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Originally Posted by shadowden' timestamp='1346877486' post='21990410
They say you can't really class Amigo, so I called it a glaze albeit incorrectly. However,it really makes the previous work shine through (and it smeels really nice too). My thought on washing between every step was to eliminate any of the residual polish that was left on the car so that I didn't carry it through in the next finer stage. Not washing every time would definately speed the process.
Since Epic is a sealant, should I do a good wipe down of the car with the slick, then follow that with a wax? Or should I do a wipe down with the slick, clay bar, then wax? Seems like I should clay bar before doing a wax.
With the Menzerna products, which do you use ? If you step through them each from coarse to fine, that is a lot of polishing time. I thought the PRima stuff was fairly spendy, but the Menzerna stuff is a little more expensive still. Not afraid to pay for quality, but I am a veritable noob since I have done it twice now.
Since Epic is a sealant, should I do a good wipe down of the car with the slick, then follow that with a wax? Or should I do a wipe down with the slick, clay bar, then wax? Seems like I should clay bar before doing a wax.
With the Menzerna products, which do you use ? If you step through them each from coarse to fine, that is a lot of polishing time. I thought the PRima stuff was fairly spendy, but the Menzerna stuff is a little more expensive still. Not afraid to pay for quality, but I am a veritable noob since I have done it twice now.
I actually would shy away from using the Slick so much BEFORE applying your LSP. Slick is a polymer based QD (that is why it brightened the car when you used it) and leaves a bit of a film behind like wax. I would make sure the finish is as clean as possible and apply the sealant, let that cure (Epic is 24hrs I think), then apply a topping wax. I like to do this for a few reasons, one it provides an extra layer of protection for the paint, it provides an easier to maintain surface, you can almost never use to much wax (it goes away quick) but sealant you can, and it cuts down on the need for claying. I clay my car once a year, but wax it almost every wash (Hydro application). The sealant is a polymer that bounds with paint and helps ward off contaminents, the wax also aids in making this happen. The leads to less need for claying the car and save boatloads of time.
I also would say, save your money using Slick as a claybar lube. A bottle of Optimum No Rinse (ONR) in clay dilution is better, doesn't leave that polymer film, does not break down claybars, and much cheaper to use (I still have the bottle I bought 3yrs ago, and detail at least 3 cars a month during the summer)
Don't get me wrong, the Prima compounds are fine, I personally started with Menzerna and tried Prima as cost effective alternative, but the Menzerna to me is worth the extra few dollars, the key is the diminishing cut of the Menzerna. Most cars that get more then a single pass correction get Menzerna 2500(formally PO203) orange pad 2 passes, 1st pass gets a majority out the 2nd is more spot chasing. The 2500 compound breaks down as you work it to around a Menzerna 4000 level. Then it is Menerna 4000(formally 106FA) on a green (your white pad) which breaks down to almost the Menzerna Microfinish II (85rd) So with 2 compounds I did what you had to do with 3. Now depending on the car and customer spend, I will either go with an Menzerna 85rd pass on a blue pad to refine further followed by an IPA wipe down, or IPA wipe down and Amigo pass on blue, Seal, and wax...
That is a lot of information. Thanks for your time in providing it. I hate to ask such a simple question after all of that, but what is an IPA (assuming you aren't talking about beer here)?
09-06-2012, 09:38 AM
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Originally Posted by Ubetit' timestamp='1346866967' post='21989754
You don't need to wash it after every step. Also, I'd skip glaze, especially after all that polishing. With the new polishes, pads and machines, I find no use for glaze anymore.