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Red_Fred posted:Just don’t do what I did and also buy Ultimate Polish. That stuff sucks. I swapped it out for some Menzerna SF3500 over the weekend and I was pretty happy with the result. Nice glossy mirror finish. Yup. Ultimate Polish sucks. I use Stoners Tarminator for tar and road grime. Works great. WD40 has its place, too.
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Sep 16, 2019 15:47
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EVERYWHERE 
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Kinda shocked that Meg's Ultimate Polish sucks. I have yet to be disappointed by any of their products. That said, you guys have yet to steer me wrong, so I'll avoid it.
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Sep 16, 2019 21:48
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 This car was completely matte, with no shine/reflection at all. Thanks to you all, it looks much, much better. gently caress single stage paint forever, btw.
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Sep 17, 2019 22:05
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betterinsodapop posted:
If you had two stage paint with clear coat failure you might feel the opposite about single stage paint. Because rather than compounding/polishing you'd be looking at a paint job instead. Raskolnikov2089 posted:Brand new 2019 Rav4, a bunch of these stains are appearing from insects splattered on the road. Try a paint cleaner or AIO (like Klasse All In One, for example). Somewhat unexpectedly, Sonax BSD might work too. I got a rainbow like stain on paint from a java plum (looked like one, at least) that fell and sat on my trunk. I didn't expect it to, but Sonax BSD was able to remove the staining without much effort.
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Sep 18, 2019 07:56
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I'm finally going to use my McKee's 37 MK37-260 ceramic coating this weekend, albeit on my friend's newer white car because I still have to polish my black cars. My plan was to wash the car normally, synthetic clay it, wipe down with rubbing alcohol, then polish if needed, wipe down any polished parts with alcohol again, then apply the coating. Some of the guides online recommend using two different sprays to remove iron and tar, is that really necessary? This isn't a show car, it's just a white honda accord that is always parked outside so the thought was the coating would make it easier to keep clean. Couple of other questions - I already have a synthetic clay you use by hand, but I saw there are ones available for use with DA polishers. That sounds like it could be a huge time save, anyone tried those out? I have a bunch of lake country pads that haven't seen much use, but I was thinking of buying a few new pads just in case. It looks like yellow pads are recommended for ultimate compound, are there any worth getting on amazon that will ship prime so they'll arrive before the weekend?
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Sep 18, 2019 21:46
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The prep work necessary is what you want out of it. Ceramic coatings are semi-permanent so any flaws/contaminates you don't remove will coat and stuck there for the forseeable future. Iron decom is especially important on white/light cars as they most easily show discoloration from micro rust dots.
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Sep 18, 2019 22:46
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poo poo, well I had just purchased the McKee hydro blue spray to apply after the coating, so I canceled that order and got a hydro blue + iron remover combo for only $10 more
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Sep 18, 2019 23:16
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I spilled coffee down one of my side vents the other week. I cleaned the interior and what I could get to under the dash, but there must still be more. Would one of these carbon filters help? Any other tips on what to do?
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Sep 19, 2019 00:16
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MomJeans420 posted:I'm finally going to use my McKee's 37 MK37-260 ceramic coating this weekend, albeit on my friend's newer white car because I still have to polish my black cars. My plan was to wash the car normally, synthetic clay it, wipe down with rubbing alcohol, then polish if needed, wipe down any polished parts with alcohol again, then apply the coating. Some of the guides online recommend using two different sprays to remove iron and tar, is that really necessary? This isn't a show car, it's just a white honda accord that is always parked outside so the thought was the coating would make it easier to keep clean. I’m not sure about a clay that you can use with a DA but claying takes a fraction of the time compared to compounding and polishing for me. My understanding is you only need to clay a surface if it still feels rough when you run the lubricated clay over it. If it doesn’t then you’re done. I used Lake Country pads over the weekend and used the orange for compounding and white for polishing. Worked out well. UC is not very abrasive as far as compounds go though.
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Sep 19, 2019 03:11
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I just clay barred a ton of what looked like little flecks of iron from my wife's car. It definitely came from a road because the back of the car, a Ford Escape, was totally covered. My guess is that came from driving down dirt roads when she went backpacking, does anyone know better what it could have been? It looked like it was covered in rust spots and they were kind of blooming like that. But they came off fairly easy. Also as I type this up I can see a dull patch on the side of my Sierra, so now I feel like my impulse purchase last night of a DA polisher and the accessories is justified, right? Which brings me to a second question. In the OP Meg's ultimate compound and ultimate polish are recommended, but the last few pages are anti ultimate polish. What else do you guys recommend?
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Sep 21, 2019 01:41
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A bird poo poo on my car at work today. I hit it with my synthetic clay real quick but nothing. Can I just hit that spot with a polisher real quick?
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Sep 22, 2019 21:48
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fknlo posted:A bird poo poo on my car at work today. Fully devalued the vehicle. I'll give you $5k cash for it. Take my offer before I come to my senses.
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Sep 22, 2019 22:08
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Has anyone done PPF themselves? I'm thinking of getting a new car and having it protected from the start as I'm allergic to stone chips. The big stuff like the hood, fender and doors etc should be pretty straight forward to do, and then I can fail horribly at the front bumper. Then there are all the different makes and the job of getting hold of the film itself.
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Sep 23, 2019 08:13
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fknlo posted:A bird poo poo on my car at work today. You didn't reply to my funny joke, but the honest answer is "yes." If clay didn't do it, buff it out real quick. Try just QuickWax and I bet it'll be gone. MrOnBicycle posted:Has anyone done PPF themselves? I'm thinking of getting a new car and having it protected from the start as I'm allergic to stone chips. The big stuff like the hood, fender and doors etc should be pretty straight forward to do, and then I can fail horribly at the front bumper. Then there are all the different makes and the job of getting hold of the film itself. PPF is like window tinting. If you can do one, you can do the other. I can't do either reliably. Too fiddly and easy to get bubbles/dirt/whatever under the film. I think I just don't use enough fluid in the application, but it's something that takes time to learn technique. I put it on door sills myself with 3M film I get from eBay/Amazon. I wouldn't trust myself with any main body panels that I cared about, though.
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Sep 23, 2019 12:22
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meatpimp posted:PPF is like window tinting. If you can do one, you can do the other. I can't do either reliably. Too fiddly and easy to get bubbles/dirt/whatever under the film. I think I just don't use enough fluid in the application, but it's something that takes time to learn technique. Yeah it's very probably one of those things that looks much easier than it is. But at the same time, how hard can it be on a flat panel. It's a skill I'd very much like to learn though, and with the insane costs of having it done I think I might be up for the challenge, and I can always force my GF to help me. Just have to find a decent brand that's possible to buy privately.
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Sep 23, 2019 12:55
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MrOnBicycle posted:Yeah it's very probably one of those things that looks much easier than it is. But at the same time, how hard can it be on a flat panel. It's a skill I'd very much like to learn though, and with the insane costs of having it done I think I might be up for the challenge, and I can always force my GF to help me. Just have to find a decent brand that's possible to buy privately. I thought this about window tint. It cost me an extra $100 to have my tint job removed when the pro did it right.
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Sep 23, 2019 13:00
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meatpimp posted:You didn't reply to my funny joke, but the honest answer is "yes." If clay didn't do it, buff it out real quick. Try just QuickWax and I bet it'll be gone. You didn't give me time to think about it. I should probably get out of this wrecked, poop stained mess while I still can. I'll give some quick wax a shot.
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Sep 23, 2019 14:29
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This is gonna sound wacky, but since you guys started detailing your cars, do you find yourself driving around looking at cars and thinking about how you would detail them or make them look better?
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Sep 23, 2019 15:49
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betterinsodapop posted:This is gonna sound wacky, but since you guys started detailing your cars, do you find yourself driving around looking at cars and thinking about how you would detail them or make them look better? I see swirls in every car I walk by. Can't help it. Even my GF now sees swirls.
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Sep 23, 2019 16:05
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For sure. The thing that kills me is when u see a car that was "polished" with a rotary buffer.
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Sep 23, 2019 19:19
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betterinsodapop posted:This is gonna sound wacky, but since you guys started detailing your cars, do you find yourself driving around looking at cars and thinking about how you would detail them or make them look better? God yes. I've even done all my immediate familys cars. In some ways it's more fun to start with a busted car because you get that satisfying before and after. My car just stays shiny.
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Sep 24, 2019 13:24
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honda whisperer posted:In some ways it's more fun to start with a busted car because you get that satisfying before and after. Absolutely. I love polishing turds. With cars that have seen proper care, you quickly get to diminishing returns.
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Sep 24, 2019 13:26
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I spent like 30+ hours correcting and applying CQuartz UK to my dads car and he never washed it once after, so there is a limit to how much I'm willing to spend on family cars. Good learning experience though, so I'm still happy I did it. The prospect of buying a brand new car terrifies me. Researching PPF like a mad man. It's honestly something I really want to learn though, so I might just give it a go. Start with smaller bits and the do the hood and progress to harder bits.
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Sep 24, 2019 16:17
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MrOnBicycle posted:I spent like 30+ hours correcting and applying CQuartz UK to my dads car and he never washed it once after, so there is a limit to how much I'm willing to spend on family cars. Good learning experience though, so I'm still happy I did it. If you really wanna go down that rabbit hole, one of the guys that Larry works with has his own channel. CK Wraps toplitzin fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Sep 24, 2019 |
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Sep 24, 2019 16:50
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I got Xpel installed on my new Golf R a month ago and the install is so seamless I couldn't imagine trying to do it myself. Keep in mind that you have to prep the surface under it just as, if not more perfect than if you are doing ceramic because you are never getting at that paint again.
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Sep 24, 2019 16:59
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My friend and I worked on her white car over the weekend, it needed a fairly deep cleaning. I must have used too much iron remover because I ended up using the entire spray bottle of McKee's. After that the car was washed, it still needed a fair amount of synthetic clay bar, then I only had enough time to polish the hood, trunk, front quarter panels, and the roof. The polished parts ended up looking great, so I went to ceramic coat them and discovered my unopened McKee's I purchased in 2018 had turned to a thick jelly, and was most definitely not going to spray on. I ordered a new bottle online, but in the meantime I put synthetic wax on everything to try and keep it clean until we can coat the car. I used ultimate compound with an orange pad, it removed a lot of the swirls and in person it's really easy to see the difference, but in bright sunlight there are still visible swirls:  Is that something I could remove with a softer pad and more ultimate compound, the same combo and just more time, or a softer pad a finishing polish? I'm not going to bother for this car, but I desperately need to do my black car, and I'd like to do it as close to perfect as possible before I coat it.
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Sep 24, 2019 18:41
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MomJeans420 posted:My friend and I worked on her white car over the weekend, it needed a fairly deep cleaning. I must have used too much iron remover because I ended up using the entire spray bottle of McKee's. After that the car was washed, it still needed a fair amount of synthetic clay bar, then I only had enough time to polish the hood, trunk, front quarter panels, and the roof. The polished parts ended up looking great, so I went to ceramic coat them and discovered my unopened McKee's I purchased in 2018 had turned to a thick jelly, and was most definitely not going to spray on. I ordered a new bottle online, but in the meantime I put synthetic wax on everything to try and keep it clean until we can coat the car. I think as I mentioned earlier I used UC with Lake County orange pads and then Menzerna SF3500 with the LC white pads. Came up really well on my black BMW. I think you don’t really want to see any scratches once you’re done with the compound as polishing doesn’t really remove them, some one more knowledgeable can confirm?
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Sep 25, 2019 01:57
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From my experience UC with orange pads should finish down a bit better than that, but every paint is different. I'd also go get a polish and see if the polish takes out the last bit of scratches. Maybe a white lake country pad as well just in case the orange ones are too harsh.
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Sep 25, 2019 06:10
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sigh puppies, amirite???
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Sep 26, 2019 23:01
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I'm hoping that's mud, but it doesn't look like it... Re: polishing, I have some finishing polishes lying around, like Meguiars M205, I could try them with a softer pad to get the last swirl marks out. I'm wondering if I should do more ultimate compound before I try a finishing polish though. How many passes do you guys typically make over each section?
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Sep 26, 2019 23:08
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Favorite cloth seat cleaner? Tried some autozone thing with a brush head on the can and it brought out more spots if anything.
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Sep 26, 2019 23:13
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Maksimus54 posted:Favorite cloth seat cleaner? Tried some autozone thing with a brush head on the can and it brought out more spots if anything. You have to clean the entire seat, not just the spot.
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Sep 26, 2019 23:36
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MomJeans420 posted:I'm hoping that's mud, but it doesn't look like it... My understanding is that m205 is very good stuff. I’ve been doing 2 passes for compound with the occasional extra for especially bad areas. I do 4 for polishing though. Are you using a light source to check your work?
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Sep 26, 2019 23:58
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BraveUlysses posted:sigh Detailing Thread: poop removal never ends.
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Sep 27, 2019 00:30
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Red_Fred posted:My understanding is that m205 is very good stuff. I’ve been doing 2 passes for compound with the occasional extra for especially bad areas. I do 4 for polishing though. Are you using a light source to check your work? I have a nice light source, but I was doing in the in the sun so I just used that. I know it's better not in direct sunlight so the polish doesn't dry too fast, but I was running late and the sun had come up too much.
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Sep 27, 2019 00:42
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MomJeans420 posted:I have a nice light source, but I was doing in the in the sun so I just used that. I know it's better not in direct sunlight so the polish doesn't dry too fast, but I was running late and the sun had come up too much. But the sunlight is awesome for checking your work!
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Sep 27, 2019 01:00
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Speaking of lights, anyone have tips on using a light to check your work? It seemed obvious to me, but I ended up with sun spots from looking into the light through the paint. It reminds me of those magic eye books where you go cross eyed.
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Sep 27, 2019 02:48
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I use the Scangrip pen light to inspect my paint. Works well and I don't have to ruin my eyes haha.
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Sep 27, 2019 03:50
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This could be a shameful truth but I just used my iPhone light. Seemed to work ok.
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Sep 27, 2019 03:53
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Okay, so I've finished my suspension work on my car, I think. I want to try my hand at polishing the windshield with a windshield polish kit and a borrowed DA buffer. Have any of y'all done this? Any suggestions? I don't really /need/ a new windshield, but it's scored enough from 10 years and 90k miles of driving that there's a lot of glare and stuff. Any product recommendations? Edit: And I guess, after I do that, I'd like to try Aquapel or a ceramic coating.
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Sep 27, 2019 04:38
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