Well, it's definitely not summer around here anymore!!! Temperatures are dropping rapidly, the leaves have changed colors, and are falling off the trees everywhere. Unfortunately, this means opportunities to detail will be fewer and fewer. On the upside that means every car I detail needs to be prepped for the winter.

The first car to get done is of course the S2000. It's very, very rarely driven in the winter but I prep it anyway.

Basically, I inspected the paint and found it to be defect free (last polish was in June or July sometime I think). There were some weird hologram looking defects on each side of the car though. I have no idea where those came from but I can only see them when the car is dirty. I've tried a couple of times to gently get rid of them and failed. So this time I hit them with a hammer (figuratively of course). So, here's the details of the detail . . .

Wash - Optimum Car Wash (new formula) w/ Sheepskin mitts
Wheels - Menzerna Wheel Gel
Tires & Wheel Wells - Meguiar's Safe D-Greaser(5:1)
Polish - XMT #2 w/ orange Edge pad (sides) & Poorboy's ProPolish w/ orange Edge pad (horizontal surfaces/front bumper/rear bumper)
Sealant - DP Premium Surface Shield (new formula)
Wheel Sealant - DP Spray Surface Shield
Tire Dressing - DP Gloss Tire Gel
Carpets - just vacuumed
Interior Vinyl - DP ISP

I'm not bothering with before pictures because the car looked pretty good before (sorry it was REALLY overcast today) . . .









the spray sealant REALLY made the wheels look a VERY light silver


I tried to uncover any remaining paint defects using various camera modes and the flash, but alas there were none. Damn I'm good!!


Overall, I HATE the way my car looks with a sealant on it. I'll always be a carnauba guy through and through, but a sealant will provide more lasting protection during the winter. Next week I plan to add another coat of DP Sealant and then the week after top it off with DP Max Wax to hopefully make it look better.

 

Try Wolfgang. I'm very impressed with the appearance of that synthetic with Aquawax over top.

[IMG]ftp://ftp.hutchisonmedia.com/temp/IMG_4527%20(Small).JPG[/IMG]

 

I've used Wolfgang in the past. DP is the same company (PBMA) and personally I think the two share a similar although not identical formula. Heck, they were probably formulated by the same chemist. The DP is a little more "sealant looking" than Wolfgang which has a fairly soft look for a sealant. But I'm out of Wolfgang right now and I have almost a full bottle of DP. So, DP it is!

 

mikey- so my solution for you is carnuba over your sealant!!

if you agree to try it, you will be the first person i know to use it over dp-
i have been doing carnubas over synthetics for around 6 years plus now, but have not seen it over dp yet-
i suggest that you just throw some carnuba on your rear deck and see what you think...
sounds to me like a win/win- you have your synthetic protecting the car for a long time and the carnuba pop over it (so that next time you look under that car cover you will see the shine that makes you smile!)

 

Absolutely! My plan is to put one more coat of DP sealant on the car and then to top it off with a coat of DP Max Wax. Hopefully, that combo should give me more of the type of shine I like. Previous experience with sealant/wax combos tells me it won't be completely to my liking, but it will be quite a bit better. At least that's my opinion, I know there are definitely people out there who like the look of a sealant.

 

...and people who can't tell the difference.

 

Looking nice, Mikey and Ubetit!

It's funny what incubus says - when I was doing this all the time, for clients and family and myself, I could tell the difference (or at least I told myself I could). Now I almost couldn't care, as long as it's well-protected and looks great

That said, the 6 layers of Concours I layered onto the S2000 this past summer (over 6 weeks) is still holding up very well through multiple washes, rain storms, crappy weather and some overnights out of the garage. It still beads like crazy and the water just runs off. On top of that, it looks stunning.

I haven't washed it in over a week (and had rain since then) and I had two guys stop me in a parking lot today and literally just drool over how good my car looks after almost 7 years and 85k miles. The prep helps, but the protection really finishes it off.

Might have helped that I did a quickie "fake-out" detail today - wiped down the rims and exhaust tips and Natural Look'd the tires and wells... Clean wheels and glossy tires really can fool you into thinking Silverstone is clean

That said, I gave the WRX wagon (wife's, outdoors always) a thorough green pad + AIO polishing over the weekend to clean off contaminants and polish out light wash-induced swirls. I've been meaning to get to it to add some protection, but the car looks absolutely stunning. The AIO darkened it up and the swirls are GONE. I'm thinking I'll do a couple of coats of SG and top it all off with some #16 and maintain with Aquawax.

Doesn't David (autopia) do a winter prep thing around this time of the year?

 

Mikey's hate for synthetics is probably why he has yet to do a review of Menzerna FMJ. I want to try that stuff so bad...maybe I'll do a review of it after my birthday.

 

I guess that probably is a factor. I do have a bottle of it, but I haven't used any in a while simply because I don't like synthetics. Next car I detail will definitely have it on there or I'll try to do a review from memory.

There's a guy in the New England forum (Cubs2k) who told me once that when he was detailing regularly he could tell people exactly when the last time they waxed their car was just by touching the finish.

 

That's hard for me to believe because there are so many factors.

What type of product...
What brand of that type...
How many coats...
Garaged or not...
Covered or not (in combination with garaging)...
Weather...
Lots of sun
Lots of rain
How often is it:
Driven
Washed


What do you think?