In my quest to write down & share some of the car stuff locked in my brain, I'll be posting this up on the forums as well as keeping a back up copy on our website at http://sites.google.com/a/stanleydis...care-detailing I will be adding these to my master list of auto related articles.
Think of it as my way of giving back to the car community. This will be broken down in to several different posts.
Nothing beats that feeling of having a truly clean car.
Having a freshly detailed car is very simple, and very easy do it your self work compared to some of the other topics on this site. Compared to going to the pay car washes, or paying for a detail, you can have a squeaky clean car all summer by doing it your self for the cost of 1 or 2 automatic car washes. Automatic car washes can also be very bad for you car ranging from the ones with rotating brushes scratching paint to tearing off parts of your car. Rocker panels or body cladding can be torn off by these. Cleaning can also be a little time consuming, but worth it. Do not buy into products that seem too good to be true. Products such as the "wax as you dry" have great claims, but usually never have good reviews.
Some simple tips before we start. Never, ever, use circular motions when working on the car's paint if they can be avoided. Not while washing, not while polishing, not while buffing. Always use a back and forth motion for washing, scrubbing, drying, waxing and buffing by hand. Using circular motions when working on the paint by hand is what causes most if not all of the swirl marks you see in your vehicles paint. Small dirt particles become trapped in the wash mitt, or pad for wax and leave micro scratches that you see in the form of swirl marks.
Always try to keep a clean surface for washing/waxing/buffing. This means using different sides of the towel, flipping sides to the wash mitt when its full of road grime, and never using a wash mitt or towel after it has been dropped on the ground until after it has been washed. This will also help with eliminating small scratches in your paint.
A small seat with swivel casters can save you tons of back pain if you have a bad back like my self. It will allow you to sit down while working instead of hours of bending over.
Step 1 cleaning your cars finish.
Before we can do anything to protect the cars finish, we must first clean it. If you try to polish the surface of your cars paint with out washing it first, you just grind more dirt into the finish and it may look worse than before you started.
Since we're planning on polishing this car after washing, I recommend washing with a dish soap type detergent soap. No need for expensive, the generic brands seem to work just as good as the name brands. This is 1 time out of 2 I recommend washing with dish soap, the other being before body work or paint. I recommend using dish detergent soap, as it's designed to cut wax and grease from your dishes and it will do the same for you car. All other normal washings I recommend using a good car wash soap such as Mcguires gold class as I like the scent (no point in using a soap you hate to smell) and have been using it for years with great results, the price is not that bad when bought by the gallon. A good car wash soap will not strip off the wax and oils we apply to the paint to protect it. The dish soap will strip any old wax and oils from the paint so we can start fresh.
I recommend using either a sheeps skin (wool) or microfiber wash mit. Either of them work very well at taking the trapped dirt and moving it further down into the nap of the material so that it's not on the surface of the mitt scratching the car. I also use an assortment of the brushes for the wheels, wheel wheels, and hard to reach parts on the bottom of the body, but recommend using the wash mitts for the general washing of the cars body. I will also sneak in soft plastic scouring pad for scrubbing extra stubborn bugs off the front of the car, but if you're too aggressive with this it may scratch.
5 gallon buckets can be purchased cheap, and provide lots of room for water and suds for long washing. Most recommend washing/drying the car in a shaded area to keep the paint cooler so the soapy water does not evaporate from the surface leaving problems. I find that usually It's impossible to find enough shade on the sunny days you actually want to wash your cars on, so if you do wash in direct sunlight, wash quickly working on small areas 4x4' at a time. Don't forget to clean the exhaust tip, ac condenser or radiator, ect. Bugs love to collect in the ac condenser and plug them up.
The price on small electric pressure washers has come down a ton, and almost always use mine to wash the car. I never bother to put soap into the pressure washer, and instead just wash with soap from the bucket then rinse off with the pressure washer. Start with the top of the car, and wash to the bottom leaving the wheels for last. This keeps the wash bucket & mitt cleaner, and keeps dirt and other contaminates from the wheels and dirty lower parts of the car from scratching the cleaner top portion. Fill the 5 gallon bucket with water & suds, and remember to use the back and forth motions while cleaning. Do not be afraid to wash over dirty portions of the car 2 times, I do it all the time and it helps prevent missed spots. If you're going all out, don't forget to wipe down the door sills and insides, under the hatch areas, the shock towers under the hood, and open up the sun roof if you have one and wipe down the painted areas with soapy rag or mitt, then a clean one.
For the wheels I recommend using car wash soap as much a possible with most wheels being of the base coat clear coat painted aluminum type. The more you wash your car, the easier the wheels are to clean. If you must use something else to clean the wheels, I recommend something safe for painted wheels that is not harsh or acidic. If you do use an acidic cleaner on your wheels it may eventually break down the paint and ruin them. Waxing your painted wheels once they're clean also makes them much easier to clean.
Once you've washed all of the car, go back over with the hose or pressure washer and rinse out the entire car, remembering to get the stubborn areas rinsed well so the don't leave little soap spots such as the mirrors, hatch areas, ect. For those of you with soft water, you can just rinse down the car. Others with hard water may want to invest in one of the many devices that removes minerals from your rinse water, such as the Mr clean setup. They're expensive to use but work well at final rinsing the car, I do not recommend using them for the washing of the car though.
Once the car has been rinsed, work quickly to remove water from the surface of the car before drying. I prefer to use a California water blade to remove the majority of the water from the body, then some sort of shami to do a final wipe down and get the contoured parts of the car. Some people recommend not using the water blades because of scratching, but in my experience they work fine on most daily drivers and I would only refrained from using them on a full show quality car that is not a daily driver. The work quickly and are made from medical grade silicone which makes them very flexible and not harsh on the paint. Make sure to give them a quick rinse before using to get any dirt off the surface, the same goes for any shami you're using. The towel I prefer to use to final dry the car is called "the Asorber" and is a synthetic material that soaks up an amazing amount of water for it's size. They're easy to clean (machine washable), and store neatly in the container they come packaged in. If you hate tearing up your wrists trying to wring water from your shami, you can purchase the 2 roller type wringers from Harbor Freight.
Wipe down the car from top to bottom, making sure to wring out the shami often and get all the problem areas that we talked about before (sunroof, door sills, mirrors ect). I like to let the car sit for a while to let all the parts you can't get dry air out before driving so you don't get water coming out and ruing that fresh wash job from driving it right after washing.
If you're just washing the car and not going to wax it, you're done for now. Most manufactures recommend washing your car at least 1 time per week, but your fine to wash your car 2 or 3 times a week if you're a clean freak as long as some care is taken to not scratch it while washing.
Think of it as my way of giving back to the car community. This will be broken down in to several different posts.
Nothing beats that feeling of having a truly clean car.
Having a freshly detailed car is very simple, and very easy do it your self work compared to some of the other topics on this site. Compared to going to the pay car washes, or paying for a detail, you can have a squeaky clean car all summer by doing it your self for the cost of 1 or 2 automatic car washes. Automatic car washes can also be very bad for you car ranging from the ones with rotating brushes scratching paint to tearing off parts of your car. Rocker panels or body cladding can be torn off by these. Cleaning can also be a little time consuming, but worth it. Do not buy into products that seem too good to be true. Products such as the "wax as you dry" have great claims, but usually never have good reviews.
Some simple tips before we start. Never, ever, use circular motions when working on the car's paint if they can be avoided. Not while washing, not while polishing, not while buffing. Always use a back and forth motion for washing, scrubbing, drying, waxing and buffing by hand. Using circular motions when working on the paint by hand is what causes most if not all of the swirl marks you see in your vehicles paint. Small dirt particles become trapped in the wash mitt, or pad for wax and leave micro scratches that you see in the form of swirl marks.
Always try to keep a clean surface for washing/waxing/buffing. This means using different sides of the towel, flipping sides to the wash mitt when its full of road grime, and never using a wash mitt or towel after it has been dropped on the ground until after it has been washed. This will also help with eliminating small scratches in your paint.
A small seat with swivel casters can save you tons of back pain if you have a bad back like my self. It will allow you to sit down while working instead of hours of bending over.
Step 1 cleaning your cars finish.
Before we can do anything to protect the cars finish, we must first clean it. If you try to polish the surface of your cars paint with out washing it first, you just grind more dirt into the finish and it may look worse than before you started.
Since we're planning on polishing this car after washing, I recommend washing with a dish soap type detergent soap. No need for expensive, the generic brands seem to work just as good as the name brands. This is 1 time out of 2 I recommend washing with dish soap, the other being before body work or paint. I recommend using dish detergent soap, as it's designed to cut wax and grease from your dishes and it will do the same for you car. All other normal washings I recommend using a good car wash soap such as Mcguires gold class as I like the scent (no point in using a soap you hate to smell) and have been using it for years with great results, the price is not that bad when bought by the gallon. A good car wash soap will not strip off the wax and oils we apply to the paint to protect it. The dish soap will strip any old wax and oils from the paint so we can start fresh.
I recommend using either a sheeps skin (wool) or microfiber wash mit. Either of them work very well at taking the trapped dirt and moving it further down into the nap of the material so that it's not on the surface of the mitt scratching the car. I also use an assortment of the brushes for the wheels, wheel wheels, and hard to reach parts on the bottom of the body, but recommend using the wash mitts for the general washing of the cars body. I will also sneak in soft plastic scouring pad for scrubbing extra stubborn bugs off the front of the car, but if you're too aggressive with this it may scratch.
5 gallon buckets can be purchased cheap, and provide lots of room for water and suds for long washing. Most recommend washing/drying the car in a shaded area to keep the paint cooler so the soapy water does not evaporate from the surface leaving problems. I find that usually It's impossible to find enough shade on the sunny days you actually want to wash your cars on, so if you do wash in direct sunlight, wash quickly working on small areas 4x4' at a time. Don't forget to clean the exhaust tip, ac condenser or radiator, ect. Bugs love to collect in the ac condenser and plug them up.
The price on small electric pressure washers has come down a ton, and almost always use mine to wash the car. I never bother to put soap into the pressure washer, and instead just wash with soap from the bucket then rinse off with the pressure washer. Start with the top of the car, and wash to the bottom leaving the wheels for last. This keeps the wash bucket & mitt cleaner, and keeps dirt and other contaminates from the wheels and dirty lower parts of the car from scratching the cleaner top portion. Fill the 5 gallon bucket with water & suds, and remember to use the back and forth motions while cleaning. Do not be afraid to wash over dirty portions of the car 2 times, I do it all the time and it helps prevent missed spots. If you're going all out, don't forget to wipe down the door sills and insides, under the hatch areas, the shock towers under the hood, and open up the sun roof if you have one and wipe down the painted areas with soapy rag or mitt, then a clean one.
For the wheels I recommend using car wash soap as much a possible with most wheels being of the base coat clear coat painted aluminum type. The more you wash your car, the easier the wheels are to clean. If you must use something else to clean the wheels, I recommend something safe for painted wheels that is not harsh or acidic. If you do use an acidic cleaner on your wheels it may eventually break down the paint and ruin them. Waxing your painted wheels once they're clean also makes them much easier to clean.
Once you've washed all of the car, go back over with the hose or pressure washer and rinse out the entire car, remembering to get the stubborn areas rinsed well so the don't leave little soap spots such as the mirrors, hatch areas, ect. For those of you with soft water, you can just rinse down the car. Others with hard water may want to invest in one of the many devices that removes minerals from your rinse water, such as the Mr clean setup. They're expensive to use but work well at final rinsing the car, I do not recommend using them for the washing of the car though.
Once the car has been rinsed, work quickly to remove water from the surface of the car before drying. I prefer to use a California water blade to remove the majority of the water from the body, then some sort of shami to do a final wipe down and get the contoured parts of the car. Some people recommend not using the water blades because of scratching, but in my experience they work fine on most daily drivers and I would only refrained from using them on a full show quality car that is not a daily driver. The work quickly and are made from medical grade silicone which makes them very flexible and not harsh on the paint. Make sure to give them a quick rinse before using to get any dirt off the surface, the same goes for any shami you're using. The towel I prefer to use to final dry the car is called "the Asorber" and is a synthetic material that soaks up an amazing amount of water for it's size. They're easy to clean (machine washable), and store neatly in the container they come packaged in. If you hate tearing up your wrists trying to wring water from your shami, you can purchase the 2 roller type wringers from Harbor Freight.
Wipe down the car from top to bottom, making sure to wring out the shami often and get all the problem areas that we talked about before (sunroof, door sills, mirrors ect). I like to let the car sit for a while to let all the parts you can't get dry air out before driving so you don't get water coming out and ruing that fresh wash job from driving it right after washing.
If you're just washing the car and not going to wax it, you're done for now. Most manufactures recommend washing your car at least 1 time per week, but your fine to wash your car 2 or 3 times a week if you're a clean freak as long as some care is taken to not scratch it while washing.