The official "Ask a Detailer Thread"

If it's clean. Looking for something to dry the car with? Any waffle weave microfiber should work very well also.
 
A leaf blower eliminates any chance of scratching the paint while drying. I know there are a handful of users on here who use them to dry their cars.
 
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Do you already have a machine to polish with? Doing it by hand will be very long and hard.

If so.....

Try:

Meguiars 205 on a flat Lake Country white pad


Or

Sonax Nano Tech Paint Cleaner on a Lake Country Hydro Tech Crimson pad

Ok I'll use Meguiars 205 on a flat Lake Country white pad as a finishing polish is there something just a little bit stronger just a notch ?
 
You can vary the aggressiveness by either changing the compound you are using or getting a more aggressive foam pad.

If you want to stick with the 205 and go up a little bit in abrasiveness you can get either an:

Orange Flat Pad

or try the

Cyan Hydro-Tech Pad

Those both have more bite than the white pad.

You can also try Menzerna Power Finish PO203.

It has slightly more bite than the Megs 205. Stepping up to a more aggressive polish might require a second step to finish down nicely. That's the nice thing about the 205 is that it finishes really well so you don't always have to go back over the car a second time with a fine finishing polish.
 
How bad are the swirls and marks you are trying to correct? Got any pictures? Honda/acura paint is generally pretty soft and you should be able to get fairly good correction with 205/white combo. Start there and move up if you need to. Use the least aggressive combination possible.

(205/white/orange seems to make my 2008 civic really shine up nice)

RaskyR1 - any suggestions for ease of use?

I like using systems from manufacturers since they are made to go together. I would either use:

Megs 105/orange pad followed by Megs 205/white pad (pretty aggressive combo, finishes nice though. 105 can be tricky to use)

or


Menzerna Power Finish PO203/orange pad and Menzerna Nano Polish PO106/black pad

A one step, one product/one pad, should be able to fix up your paint quite well. Doing a one step is going to take you all day. 2 step is a long time to work.

You really need to decontaminate your paint as well as possible before you start.

I like chemical decontamination with Iron X followed by a very thorough claying before polishing.


Heavy concentration stripping presoak wash, 2 bucket wash, Iron X, rinse, clay, rinse, dry, polish, eraser/IPA wipe down, wax.
 
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finishing up here ... I know I had a lot of Q lets hope this is the last.... thanks

-a good tripod lightning? will be working on the complex garage no lights

- good all purpose cleaner to clean the engine bay and a decent brush that wont scratch around.
 
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APC:If you don't do a ton of detailing a single bottle of Optimum Power Clean is very versatile. You can dilute it down to 3:1
http://www.detailedimage.com/Optimum-OPT-M36/Power-Clean-P287/17-oz-S1/


If you do a lot of detailing: Buy the gallon of Meguiars D103 it's only $16.
It dilutes down to like 10:1 or 15:1
http://www.detailedimage.com/Meguiars-M43/All-Purpose-Cleaner-Plus-D103-P385/128-oz-S1/

Buy this bottle: It has markings on the side. Fill it to the line and then put the APC in up to the top line and it measures the dilution for you. You have to buy the spray trigger separately but the markings on the side of the bottle is totally worth it.

http://www.detailedimage.com/Meguiars-M43/All-Purpose-Cleaner-Plus-Bottle-P657/32-oz-S1/



Brush: EZ detail mini is a nice size for the engine bay.

http://www.detailedimage.com/DI-Brushes-M51/E-Z-Detail-Brush-P273/Mini-Size-S2/

( I just listed stuff on the same site so it would be easy to see and find. You can buy the stuff wherever.)


For wheel/all purpose brushes there are the E-Z detail brushes and another company called Daytona
They are the same brushes from what I can tell. One is red one is blue. I believe the blue E-Z brushes are slightly softer. I've seen both names on both brushes so it just depends really. Autogeek.net generally has the red "Daytona" brushes.
http://www.autogeek.net/ezdebrfca.html


Comparison:
attachment.php



Generic wheel brush next to the "Daytona" with "EZ" stamped right on the handle.
IMG_2529.jpg







Mini brush is just the right size for engine bay and exhaust cleaning.
IMG_3044.JPG
 
You have power where you are going to be working? Thats a nice bonus.

Pretty much any of the halogen setups you can get at Home Depot or Lowes should be good. They all generate a lot of light and a lot of heat as well. I don't really have a recommendation for those. Maybe rasky will. See if he checks in tomorrow.

RaskyR1

Tripod lighting?
 
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