Ask Detailer's Domain

[DetailersDomain]

Originally Posted by wopgenius

thanks for the tip! i am glad to know there is hope. i only go to the auto washes if its a last ditch effort...not too much time to keep it up the way i'd like when you have to read case books all day but again thanks for the advice!

sure thing. but the way to really do it is to correct the paint and make sure you keep on top of it.

use it as a weekend project...

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[FD777]

I'm a complete noob when it comes to machine polishing, but here goes...

All questions are in regards to the PC.
Considering most of us have some form of the Impreza (WRX/STi):
1. What backing plate size(s) would you recommend?
2. What's the purpose of a counter weight?
3. How do you polish the front bumper?
4. Is extra care needed for angled spots, like where the hoodscoop meets the hood?
5. How do you polish behind door handles?

I'm sure I'll have a few more later

[DetailersDomain]

Originally Posted by FD777

I'm a complete noob when it comes to machine polishing, but here goes...

All questions are in regards to the PC.
Considering most of us have some form of the Impreza (WRX/STi):
1. What backing plate size(s) would you recommend?
2. What's the purpose of a counter weight?
3. How do you polish the front bumper?
4. Is extra care needed for angled spots, like where the hoodscoop meets the hood?
5. How do you polish behind door handles?

I'm sure I'll have a few more later

1. What backing plate size(s) would you recommend?
5 inch would be good for 5.5 pads and 6.5 pads. (we will have 5.5 pads in shortly.

2. What's the purpose of a counter weight? 6 inch counterweight is used to reduce vibration on pads over 6 inches

3. How do you polish the front bumper?
with a pc and polishes

4. Is extra care needed for angled spots, like where the hoodscoop meets the hood?
yes you should take care by those areas, maybe even mask those areas. including by rubber trim /any gaps etc..

5. How do you polish behind door handles?

by hand

Let me know if you have more questions.

[FD777]

Thanks for the response.

Originally Posted by detailersdomain.com

3. How do you polish the front bumper?
with a pc and polishes

I see, I was worried since the bumper has so many angles. Wasn't sure if there was any special technique compared to polishing a flat door/roof/etc.

Oh, one more
If a section was repainted, is special care needed?

[Zspectrum]

Originally Posted by FD777

Thanks for the response.

I see, I was worried since the bumper has so many angles. Wasn't sure if there was any special technique compared to polishing a flat door/roof/etc.

Oh, one more
If a section was repainted, is special care needed?

yes wait until the need paint is cured, 30 days usually ask the people who did it. Other than that period the new paint is the same as the old paint, usually better, as far as better clear coat goes.
As far as the front bumper goes, its a b1tch I usually dont even bother with it, Ill clay it and put a coat of wax on it. A 4 inch pad or whatever size the little ones are, would be awesome, makes it so much easier to get the pad flat and cover everything.

[mugenXP]

i waxed my car recently, and it seems like theres scratch/swirl marks all over the car (only visible in direct sunlight), my question is: did i do something wrong and scratch my car or is it just left-over wax that I didn't remove ? Is there a way to figure it out? I tried sliding my finger over the scratches but it didn't come off. Could I figure this out by just re-applying some more wax on the "scratched" spots to see if they go away?

and is there a hands-only way to fix this, if it is a scratch?

and what is your opinion about meguiar's Scratch-X scratch removal wax product? Would it be effective if I apply+remove by hand?

[Zspectrum]

Originally Posted by mugenXP

i waxed my car recently, and it seems like theres scratch/swirl marks all over the car (only visible in direct sunlight), my question is: did i do something wrong and scratch my car or is it just left-over wax that I didn't remove ? Is there a way to figure it out? I tried sliding my finger over the scratches but it didn't come off. Could I figure this out by just re-applying some more wax on the "scratched" spots to see if they go away?

and is there a hands-only way to fix this, if it is a scratch?

and what is your opinion about meguiar's Scratch-X scratch removal wax product? Would it be effective if I apply+remove by hand?

those are from improper washing. Or you had something on the applicator you used for the wax.

[mugenXP]

Originally Posted by Zspectrum

those are from improper washing. Or you had something on the applicator you used for the wax.

Nah, I decided to wax my car after a 2-mile drive, Not only that, but I used the towel that is for drying cars, the one that "absorbs" water, not sure what its called. But anyway, I learned my lesson, ha. I was freaking out more when I didn't know there was a way to fix it... But now I'm more calm about it.

[retroXvertigo]

My car is 7 months old and I have about 6 nice rock chips in my hood (shocking I know). I have Subaru touch up paint. What is the best technique for filling these in?

[Grouse]

Originally Posted by retroXvertigo

My car is 7 months old and I have about 6 nice rock chips in my hood (shocking I know). I have Subaru touch up paint. What is the best technique for filling these in?

Phil from detailers domain asked me to drop in and post this.

Originally Posted by Grouse

Review of touch up 123 paint chip repair. With a lot of pics.
The deluxe kit

2 oz. ColorFill (your color)
4 oz. Final Touch Compound
2 ColorFill applicator towels
1 Diaper Cloth Removal Towel
1 Microfiber Polish Towel
1 pair vinyl gloves
1 Professional Comfort Chip touch up brush
1 Professional Comfort Scratch touch up brush
2 touch up cups
Easy to follow instructions
http://www.touchup123.com/


1) Read the directions and give the bottles a very vigorous shaking.

The color fill will spate back into its base colors pretty rapidly. I made it a habit to shake it for a few seconds before every use.
2) Use the prep agent to clean old layers of wax off around the paint chips. If you do not do this the paint will not stick into the chips. I actually did a moderate wipe down of the major areas

3) Now mark all the paint chip areas. I did this by placing bits of blue painters tape 1 cm from chips that were through the clear and into the paint, and or 3 or more chips. My primary reason for doing this is so I would not loose track of the chips as I worked on the area’s. when you stare at the paint for so long you tend to get tunnel vision.

[Grouse]

~





4) Start to work the color fill in using 1 drop on a bit of the lint less towel. I found it useful to shake the color fill for about 2 minutes before hand. Then shake it for about 5 seconds before each use. The key here is to build up thin layers till you get to about 80% of the original height of the paint. I went over the chips about 10 or more times for some of the deeper chips.





~

[Grouse]

Here is an example of a chip as the layers are built up. This one was particularly tough.


As I finished with a chip or set of chips I removed the blue tape. Allowing me to focus on those remaining chips with tape.

[Grouse]

As they get filled they tend to blend in very well. The camera had a hard time spotting them. More on this in a bit.

These have been gone over about 15-16 times at this point. These chips were down to if not past the primer. I would advise when removing the excess fill between each step to blot not rub. When I rubbed I would literally clean the color fill out of the chip. This would negate any process I had made. Take care blot with the prep cleaner around the chip, then blot with the towel around the chip. It takes a while.

Here is a shot of the towel after I had been colorfilling and cleaning for a few hours. (whole thing was about 6 hours)

Finished.

~


Here is an exerpt of my initial thoughts after doing this for Dale.


On a final note, I think as they cured the color match increased significantly compared to the first hour or so after I had finished. The next morning it looked significantly better. Overall you will see the chips under close scrutiny. The larger chips, and gouges will give you no end of difficulty. You can make the palatable, but not perfect.

Now on to the Detail. (a week was given for the chip paint to fully cure.
The car was washed and clayed. I found a few bits of heavy marring on the flat areas. Mostly the bonnet and deck lid.

[Grouse]

The above pictures are pretty minor marring. What is not showing is how well several years’ worth of wax can hide some pretty significant scratches. Unfortunately I don’t have pics of them. I dedicated most of my time to removing as many as possible.

I will say this. They probably were not the result of in proper wash. Here is why. The scratches were on the passenger side of the bonnet and on the rear deck lid. Those are the only two flat areas on the car. The deep marring was limited to the first 18 inches closest to the edge. This tells me something was set on it, someone leaned against it etc. These kinds of things happen. You do what you can.

For reference I tested these two areas first. I started with FPII (menzerna fine polish) on a blue finish pad. Nothing changed. I moved to FPII on a green cut pad, nothing changed. I stepped up to Menzerna intensive Polish (compound) on a green cut pad at 1400rpm and removed about 20% of the marring. I then stepped up to IP on a Orange cut pad and removed about 40% more. I then used a thin note card to check the depth of the marring. As I suspected the remaining scratches would catch the card. Meaning they were far deeper than I wanted to try and remove.

For the remainder of the car and polish I was able to use menzerna po85rd on a blue polishing pad to remove what little marring there was. Okay back to the detail. Here is the car after the claying and taping.




Here is the car after compounding and polishing stages. No sealant or wax applied.



~




Here is a hood shot after one coat of FMJ.

[Grouse]

Moving on, here is ½ the engine bay cleaned and half of it not.


The engine bay cleaned, and dressed.

[Grouse]

img]http://www.pbase.com/3lg/image/75551936.jpg[/img]
Trunk cleaned and dressed. Before and after.


After the second coat of menzerna full molecular jacket sealant.


Foam cleaning the Soft top. Here I am working the foam into the fabric, then buffing it off with a towel.

Clean towel on the left, dirty towel on the right. I ended up cleaning the soft top 4 times on the exterior and twice on the interior. Using a different towel each time.

Second time on the exterior.

Third time, It is not super noticeable, but there still was enough dirt on the towel to warrant cleaning it a 4th time.

Moving on, Leather seat cleaning. This is the first pass on the passenger seat with leather masters soft cleaner. Like the soft top you work it into a foam lather, then work that lather into the leather. After a few seconds you buff it dry with a clean towel.

[Grouse]

The second pass, This time I bumped it up to leather masters strong cleaner. I made a third pass but did not remove any additional soil.

The seats after cleaning.



The finally, The car after two coats of FMJ and one coat of Chemical guys concurs wax.





It is a must when doing a bmw to rep the roundel. With flake pop.

Wheel love, sealed with two coats of FMJ

[Grouse]

~


The interior final clean, condition, protect.

[DetailersDomain]

personally I don't like doing touch up, but I remember this post that Aaron did and asked him to post here I hope you don't mind.

[rotarydelight]

I have an aspen white sti and was looking at your site about which adam's products to apply. I want something simple in terms of a wash, wax, wheel cleaner, and upholstery cleaner. I have some picture in mind of what to get but after the wash i want to be able to wax it without having to put another layer of product. What are your ideas to this? Thanks.

[DetailersDomain]

Originally Posted by rotarydelight

I have an aspen white sti and was looking at your site about which adam's products to apply. I want something simple in terms of a wash, wax, wheel cleaner, and upholstery cleaner. I have some picture in mind of what to get but after the wash i want to be able to wax it without having to put another layer of product. What are your ideas to this? Thanks.

I would use:

Adam's Car Wash
P21S Wheel Cleaner
Adam's Upholstery Cleaner
Adams VRT for the tires and trim
Adam's Swirl and Haze
Adam's Revive Polish
Adam's Super Wax or Adam's Buttery Wax
Microfiber towels
Microfiber applicator pads
Adam's Glass Cleaner
Einszett Cockpit for the interior plastics and trim
Shmitt Wash mitt.

Or just get the Adam's Essentials Kit.

Let me know.

We are running a special on all Adam's Polishes right now at 20% off.

[Zspectrum]

Originally Posted by detailersdomain.com

I would use:

Adam's Car Wash
P21S Wheel Cleaner
Adam's Upholstery Cleaner
Adams VRT for the tires and trim
Adam's Swirl and Haze
Adam's Revive Polish
Adam's Super Wax or Adam's Buttery Wax
Microfiber towels
Microfiber applicator pads
Adam's Glass Cleaner
Einszett Cockpit for the interior plastics and trim
Shmitt Wash mitt.

Or just get the Adam's Essentials Kit.

Let me know.

We are running a special on all Adam's Polishes right now at 20% off.

poorboys natty red the limited edition one, or a good sealant would look bada$$

[Slowsoul]

I am looking for a product(s) to clean, condition, and dress my tires...however, I do not what the "wet look" that so many tire dressings give. Just deep black clean looking rubber.

Can you recomend anything?

[rotarydelight]

oh another thing, i had the car clayed and waxed a few months ago, but they used a buffer which sent some of my white paint onto the plastics where the windshield wipers are and it is hard to get off. do you recommend rubbing compound?

[DetailersDomain]

Originally Posted by Slowsoul

I am looking for a product(s) to clean, condition, and dress my tires...however, I do not what the "wet look" that so many tire dressings give. Just deep black clean looking rubber.

Can you recomend anything?

You can use P21S auto wash to clean the tires:
http://www.detailersdomain.com/index...WPROD&ProdID=2

or Adam's APC:
http://www.detailersdomain.com/index...ROD&ProdID=123

Then finish with Adam's VRT:
http://www.detailersdomain.com/index...PROD&ProdID=77

Let me know if you need more help