How to do a full car detail by hand!
- Thread starter Dan_B
- Start date
Hi jules
Right snow foam - what are you using - a foaming lance/power washer attachement?? or a gilmour??
Snow foam is really down to personal preference on what you want, some people buy snow foam itself, others use a thicker based shampoo ie megs gold class, but dilute it with warm water to create a similar effect.
are you going into paint correction? or just plan on using the meguirs (presuming its a g220 your buying?) to save your arms and polish it.
If your doing paint correction, better results are with a rotary but takes alot of practice, as if you dont know paint depth, you can take too much off, and then you screwed!! So always check your work!!!
Once snowe foamed, wash the car using a 2 bucket method (one cold water, one warm soapy water, dip into cold water before putting in soapy one to remove dirt), also dont use sponges - they hold dirt - use a sheepskin mit.
Clay the car - there are different grades of clay, meguirs do a basic kit, which is fine - depending on paint work (jap paint is pretty soft, harder ones like VAG/BMW), the meguirs will be fine if your just starting out, will remove alot of crap on it and leave it feeling very smooth in deed like glass!
Wash the car again - this will remove any lubrication from the clay bar (forgot to mention that above, when claying keep the panel very well lubed!)
Dry using microfibre towels - these are more absorbant than chamois.
Once dry you should now have a clean car.
Now you need to polish the car, there are alot of polishes out there, however, the best polish that has been recomended by hundreds of people is autoglym super resin polish, aswell as bringing up a nice shine, it also has fillers in there, so this will fill any paint defects.
If your using the g220, around 5 passes per pannel you should start to see swirl marks being filled/removed.
You then need to seal the paintwork - again this is down to personal prefernce what sealent you use.
The longer you leave it - the better the results - majority leave for 3 hours.
So during the 3 hours, take wheels off, clean and wax/seal indvidually, and you can clean the arches too!!
Wax, again like sealent, down to personal preference, and what budget you have, you can get wax from £6 up to £1000's.
Pads - there are different intensitiy of cutting pads out there - cutting being defined by how much paint the remove - if your just starting out, a would say a soft cutting pad/refining one, and finishing pad, the more cars you do, the more experience you will need.
It may be beneficial buying some scrap panels, and working on those, especially if you go down the rotary route.
I would recomend you check this forum out - www.detailingworld.co.uk - its full of information from people who clean the cars, to professional detailers. there are also full instructions, about using DA and rotary machines, pads, products etc.
Hope this helps.
Right snow foam - what are you using - a foaming lance/power washer attachement?? or a gilmour??
Snow foam is really down to personal preference on what you want, some people buy snow foam itself, others use a thicker based shampoo ie megs gold class, but dilute it with warm water to create a similar effect.
are you going into paint correction? or just plan on using the meguirs (presuming its a g220 your buying?) to save your arms and polish it.
If your doing paint correction, better results are with a rotary but takes alot of practice, as if you dont know paint depth, you can take too much off, and then you screwed!! So always check your work!!!
Once snowe foamed, wash the car using a 2 bucket method (one cold water, one warm soapy water, dip into cold water before putting in soapy one to remove dirt), also dont use sponges - they hold dirt - use a sheepskin mit.
Clay the car - there are different grades of clay, meguirs do a basic kit, which is fine - depending on paint work (jap paint is pretty soft, harder ones like VAG/BMW), the meguirs will be fine if your just starting out, will remove alot of crap on it and leave it feeling very smooth in deed like glass!
Wash the car again - this will remove any lubrication from the clay bar (forgot to mention that above, when claying keep the panel very well lubed!)
Dry using microfibre towels - these are more absorbant than chamois.
Once dry you should now have a clean car.
Now you need to polish the car, there are alot of polishes out there, however, the best polish that has been recomended by hundreds of people is autoglym super resin polish, aswell as bringing up a nice shine, it also has fillers in there, so this will fill any paint defects.
If your using the g220, around 5 passes per pannel you should start to see swirl marks being filled/removed.
You then need to seal the paintwork - again this is down to personal prefernce what sealent you use.
The longer you leave it - the better the results - majority leave for 3 hours.
So during the 3 hours, take wheels off, clean and wax/seal indvidually, and you can clean the arches too!!
Wax, again like sealent, down to personal preference, and what budget you have, you can get wax from £6 up to £1000's.
Pads - there are different intensitiy of cutting pads out there - cutting being defined by how much paint the remove - if your just starting out, a would say a soft cutting pad/refining one, and finishing pad, the more cars you do, the more experience you will need.
It may be beneficial buying some scrap panels, and working on those, especially if you go down the rotary route.
I would recomend you check this forum out - www.detailingworld.co.uk - its full of information from people who clean the cars, to professional detailers. there are also full instructions, about using DA and rotary machines, pads, products etc.
Hope this helps.