AKM2k5

i thought i should come to you guys (because your paint is older) and ask how do you guys detail your car? What is exactly involved in detailing a car? And what products do you reccomend? (if anyone has a write-up, that would be nice) Thanks.....

Jatan

iTrader: (3)

http://forums.maxima.org/forumdispla...aysprune=&f=69

sk24iam

theres a forum dedicated to that.

AKM2k5

yeah lol, didnt know, thanks all!

AscendantMax

iTrader: (7)

my paint isn't the best in the world due to its age. but i've happy with meguiar products. i use the gold class wax and it looks very nice. i've yet to try their three step treatment though.

defsquad222

Depending on when the last time i detailed my car was, I would either use a two process or perhaps the lengthy five step process. By the way I drive a 1999 gold Nissan Maxima and Im from NJ, so Ive experienced all types of weather and conditions from salt to acid rain. After trying various brands I found Meguairs to be the best for my car. If I just cleaned my in the past week and then found some contaminants on the paint, I would see if using Meguairs Quick Detailer could do the job. However, if the dirt starts clumping on the paint, that would be a sign to wash the car. Meguairs makes a car wash that looks like dial soap and washes the car evenly. I found that using a squeegee after washing the car gets the water very quickly. Make sure the squeegee does not have any particles on it or else you could scratch the paint. Next, I use Meguairs Cleaner Wax which takes care of contaminants and such. This step is key as to making sure the next two steps have it easy. Next is Meguairs Polish(Step 2, labeled by Meguairs) and finally Meguairs Carnuba Wax. By now, your hand should be tired from all the circular motions you have done. Keep in mind, these steps should be taken slowly and thoroughly. I feel it would be better just to stick to a car wash and cleaner wax and do a good job of it instead of rushing through all three stages. Finally, whenever you see some spots or anything of the sort on your car, use the Quik Detailer asap so it doesnt ruin the paint. I can you tell that my car looks sharper than ones come out today.

P.S. A fun way to see how good a job you did on the car is to put an object(no rough edges on the bottom) on the hood and see it slid quickly right off. If it stays, probably means the paint is rough and need cleaning.

Bman

"How to detail?" starts with questions like:

- What shape is your paint in? Is it faded or oxidized (your name is worrisome ), does it have a lot of swirls, etc etc.? Basically you have to know what's standing in between your finish and a showroom perfect finish.

- How much money do you want to spend and how serious do you want to get with this? You could buy a few supplies and still do things correctly and well, or you could get really nuts and spend a small fortune and endless hours doing this.

There really, really isn't a paint-by-numbers recipe for detailing your car, as each person will have different requirements, and so will his car. Detailing, or even simple proper car care, is something that no one can really describe in detail without taking up several pages. I highly encourage you to read some of the stickies at the top of the forum, and use the search engine with that. There are also some very good articles to help out beginners over at www.autopia.org which is a site totally devoted to detailing.

You'll find out there are many, many ways to skin the proverbial cat, and that the two points I made above will dictate a lot about how you approach this. Just try not to get caught up with the notion that you must buy all these fancy, expensive products we like to use , and must have a detailing plan with a thousand steps and processes, which is a trap that people fall into sometimes. To a point, you can make this as simple or as complicated as you like. Good luck.

AKM2k5

thanks for all the help!