Detail projects
 

I am really sorry about the horrible picture. I will try to take much better pictures in better lighting next time.

First up is a white 2005 Nissan Sentra that my friend purchased from an Auction.. The paint was horrible to say the least. It's hard to see in the pictures but the white looked almost like a matte paper finish and very raspy. The Nanonskin I used was completely gummed up by the time I was finished Nano/Claying the car it was BAD!

Here are the very dark but you will get the picture ( No pun intended )
Hood:Attachment 20926
Attachment 20927

Taped off Area:
Attachment 20928
Roof:
Attachment 20929
Attachment 20930Hood Polished:
Attachment 20931
Attachment 20932Attachment 20933Attachment 20934

Honda Odyssey
 

This is my brothers Van, I didn't have much time to do this van that day so all I did was Clay bar the car polished the hood. The Clay bar alone made such a difference on the car it was unreal pictures not provided :( sorry guys.

Attachment 20925http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y58...s/DSC_0105.jpg

If you know what you are looking for you can see all the swirl marks and the holograms in the hood. One pass with the polisher removed all the holograms and made the hood into a burgundy mirror. You don't realize how big these cars are until you put your hands on em'. Thanks for looking.

Lexus Es
 

So my friend wanted his Lexus paint correct and as my typical schedule goes I didn't get a chance to do much. I clayed the car and I have to say I thought sand was imbedded into the clear coat. It was one of the worst cars i've ever had to smooth out.

With the time I had I showed him how the car will look when I get a chance to finished so I polished the coolest part of the car since I was out in the sun and the car was super hot.

The pictures does it no justice but here ya go.

Most of the car looks like this. The car was pretty much grey in color when you are near it.
Attachment 20920
Attachment 20921
This is what it looked like after I polished the passengers fender.
Attachment 20922
Attachment 20923Attachment 20924

Thanks for looking on.

This is great stuff. If I were to use a nanoskin fine pad, do I have to use a sealant or wax after? I really want to do both my max's but I saw that there are shock smooth and glide and not sure which to use? The shock says it's an all in one. It also says that you don't need to rewash? Finally, hand vs DA for using nanoskin? I don't have a polisher and may not want to pay $200 for one. As always SR20 I appreciate the insight.

You don't HAVE to use a sealant or a wax but it's honestly pointless NOT to use a sealant or a wax at the end of this process. The whole point is not to only have a better paint surface but to ultimately protect your clear coat and under coat best as possible.

You don't need either. After you do your two bucket wash (refer to my write-up) Either use a spray bottle a clean Microfiber wash cloth to add soapy water to the area you are working. The manufacture will disagree because they want to sell you their $20 bottle of detergent. I have a pressurized hand sprayer, not saying you have to buy one of those but it makes it easier. Just keep the area lubricated.

Side note:
That Black Lexus needed to be heavily lubricated, it felt like sand paper in the process of the Nanoskin. Neither one of your cars should feel very gritty being that they are newer cars, to my surprise my 7th ten wasn't bad at all.
When using the Nano sponge there shouldn't be any downward pressure when doing it, when you lubricate the area and glide the Nano sponge (rubber side down) over the area you might feel a little grittyness and you continue until you can't feel anymore resistance. You can do a little pressure but I will send you a picture when you put to much. I will do this on my 96' camry :)

I would say rewash, I always do and your second wash should be really fast. I don't follow my first wash for instance, I would do my whole hood before I put it back in the bucket before I wash off, the car is already "clean" so you are only removing dried soap and the little streaks you may have.

I would not pay $60 for the DA version of the nano skin unless you are a full-time detailer. That Nano sponge should last you a VERY long time. I say Nano sponge your car once every 6 months maybe….. And the Sponge is supposed to be good for 30+ washes (please read their website on that, I don't want to miss lead)

I wish you could get your car polished but I would rather see it have swirls than damaged clear coat and peeling because it wasn't protected by a sealant or a wax. BTW: When my wife gets home with the car I'm going to polish (remove swirls) from one of the fenders to see what it will look like. So look forward to those pictures tonight.

Suggested Products:

• Fine Nano Spounge
• Meguairs M21 Selant -
• Meguiars M26 Yellow wax (optional)
• Drying microfiber towel waffle weave

So because I'm dumb. I should wash the car then use a new two bucket to nanoskin with soapy water and rewash as I go? Then I would put a sealant on by hand, then wax? When you say I wish it could get polished you mean with a DA polisher? Sorry but Ive stopped waxing cars in the 90's so it's amazing to hear some of the new technology and I want to make sure I do it right. If you don't mind running down how you would do it from a-z that would be awesome. I did read your wash and will try doing this. For reference, I use old bath towels to lightly dry after I rinse car with a nozzle off hose so I rid most water off car. Then I hop in and drive up the block to get some of the remaining water off. Tell me the error of my ways and again awesome detail which is very much appreciated. Thanks again.

So I know I'm overthinking this...
 

So I know I should follow the directions and bang it out but if people already have a tried and true way from wash to wax then I'm all ears since I've just washed cars for years. One bucket and old bath towels no less. Yes this is where you guys yell at me I know. So now I have 2 max's and I hope to keep them for a while and want to treat them better. If your willing to type it, I'm willing to read and follow it. Thanks so much for the input.

Hopefully you guys aren't using cheap Chinese microfiber clothes on your paint. Go to theragcompany.com to get real one's made in Korea. I have borderless blue ones for washing and detailing.

Hell, it's HARD not to get anything not chinese. Boarder-less is the way the go, but the way I fold my towels the borders dot n't the paint anyway. Heading to that site you suggest. Thanks a lot for the input. Would love to see pictures of you work..

So true! I'll check them out. I've always used a Greco porous type sponge but it's time to check out micro mitts for the wash and micro towels for the dry. Thanks.

SR, post those YouTube vids you talked about or pm me them. Would be interested to see them. The ones I've seen on YouTube have just talked about nanoskin or shown a DA using them. Haven't found a by hand one.

Deezo are meguiars micros decent or no?

I got that site from a guy that does badass work on cars but he's not humble (he's an a$$), so I don't subscribe to him or follow his channel anymore.

The Rag Company sells these things waaaay cheaper than anyone. I won't be surprised if their stuff is being rebranded and sold for higher prices. Their towels are so low priced, I even bought stuff for cleaning my house.

Now onto my work:

I haven't done any work LOL. Well not recently. I've been trying to get clean of this divorce stuff and then I'm going to get back into it. I'm going to practice some wet sanding techniques I learned and use the PC I've had for years to see what results I get. Maybe when I get started, I'll post some pics to this thread. I do have one project car (this chick I'm seeing) which is a Civic and the paint is horrible. Feels like sandpaper and has a ton of light swirl marks. I took some 3M compound and showed her how it will make her paint look when I go to town on it.

The reality for me is, I need to figure out what is going to be the best stuff to use. I have Meguires but want to try my hand at some Adams stuff. I like their detail spray and use it on the G8 all of the time after a wash while trying to car. All I have is time when I'm home alone so I'm going to start on the Max first then move onto the G8 and take my time.

Not sure but I bet I can tell you they're overpriced.

Checked out the website. Pretty sweet. I will be buying some mitts and micro towels. Any recommendations or what have you used from there?

They way i look at any of this is, you won't find a "brand" on microfiber towels because they are not made by the companies that are selling them. They are just buying them by bulk and renaming them something else stating why their brand is better and which is the same as another brand.
It's best to buy the weight of the Microfiber and the ratio of fibers.

Gotcha. Good website and the products seem reasonable and well made. Will be throwing out all the old stuff and replacing with these, except for my meguiars gold class wash! Love meguiars stuff. Seems like a good product bang for buck. I used to use cleaner wax and glaze years ago.... Worked well I thought.

You want these to wipe off wax:

http://www.theragcompany.com/14-x-14...-1414-B-EL.htm

And you can get any waffle weave on their site to wipe off liquids.

I even bought their windows cleaning cloths and they've been the best rags I've used yet for windows and mirrors.

Thanks for the heads up.

Update:
So I did some test spots on my car today and these are the results.

I picked a spot that I thought would be a bit tough to do, Here you will notice a scratch on the passenger side fender right about the wheel well.
After a couple of pass with a Meg Microfiber pad and Megs D300 compound this is the result. Passenger side door, really bad. This how almost all cars look from improper washing. Taped off half of the door for a comparison shot, Notice the swirls on the right side and no swirls on the left side.
Tape removed, if you look closely you will notice where the swirls start and ends. From my point of view it was pretty much a 99% swirls removal. From what I understand you can't get 100% bla bla to them.
If anyone was wondering, the paint looks wavy because of the orange peel that is in the car which is in every painted car. The best way to remove orange peel from a car is to completely sand the car and buff it out. This process lays the peeks and valleys level and give it a mirror reflection. (Which I won't do, factory clear coat is VERY thin).

Wash and Clay bared a customers car today. He has A LOT of oxidation and I will post pictures of that another time. He has decide he wanted me to buff the car to remove them and when I do I will post up the before and after shots. The paint on this car while shiny(er) now it is still very dull in color because of the Oxidation which is a result of no wax or sealant on the car, at least the clear coat isn't peeling.

Good stuff as per usual. Can't wait for some time away from my boys and wife to do some nano and sealant. Hurry up and wait... Will look forward to the customer before and after.

Thanks, I am going to do a test spot tomorrow on the car. So I will post pictures on that and I am hoping that it comes out well.

Looks good! I have to find time to get with you so I can get my Tuscany shiny again!

Yeah just let me know, but if we are not able to get it done this year at least lets us put a coating on it after we Nano sponge the car, protect it for the winter. I still need to do this to my car, I don't have a garage where I live :( so it's always exposed to the elements.

Good job. Some people think a shine means perfect paint. Looks like you understand what detailing is all about.

Thanks a lot.
Well, I wish that is what it meant. What you can't see in the pictures are all the little rock chips and bits of paint imperfections. People still things the "Shine" comes from the Wax or sealant used on the car. These products protect the paint and build depth on the clear.

More pictures to come.

I'm no detailer but wanted to offer what I've picked up over the years.

Most of the imperfections on cars is created by improper washing. You can be SO detail oriented in washing where you make a left to right pass with the wash mitt then dunk it into the soap bucket to rinse off all the grit which is left on the wash mitt that will create swirl marks. This is also why you DO NOT use circular motions ever for any reason when washing/waxing. Only time you will is when you're using a machine to polish/wax.

Now car washing has advanced to the point where buckets and wash mitts are almost obsolete. For example http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/...ar+wash+kit.do

Or http://www.autogeek.net/optimum-no-rinse.html
But the Optimum does need some water to dillute the product before use.

For the wash step you can select almost any microfiber wash mitt (or pick one on a teloscopic pole) with almost any car wash. I'm not entirely certain how much help using a car wash with the wax step built in, but it can't hurt or so I think. Just remember to keep the wash mitt clean as you wash the car.

Following washing, you can leave the car wet then use a Quick Detailer (QD) as a lube for the clay bar. Again, after a few days of research I went with this kit http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/...d+shine+kit.do

As a test I used a coin wash for the high pressure water and a microfiber wash mitt with some wash/wax soap. I didn't religiously clean the wash mitt since I was on a time crunch but I did spray it clean a few times. Then I drove home, used the speed shine spray as a lube and clayed a small portion of my 2011 Maxima. The clear coat felt glass smooth. Was a religious experience!! Now I didn't follow up with a sealant or wax since it was only a test.

As the final step you'll want to apply a paint sealant or wax to fill in all the holes that were created by removing the surface contaminants which will truly leave the paint feeling glass smooth for a few months (depending on environment and driving conditions) and make washing the car following this even easier. Here you can seal/wax by machine which can take some practice before you get professional looking results. Or you can go by hand and take the time to make certain things look good before moving on.

I've been reading up here http://www.autogeek.net/qude101.html and think I'm going with the Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze since the final "look" of the Maxima is not a huge concern for me. I'm aiming for protection of the clear coat.

One tip, open up a door and go to work on the door jam paint. Sure it won't be exposed to the same elements as the hood for example. But you can get an idea of how applying and buffing off a sealant or wax will feel.

Good input. Any pics? Why don't yoi care about the final look of your max? Why is klasse not good for a final look? Auto geek is pretty good. SR20 turned me on to AMMO NYC which looks good too.

The site I was reading says Klasse is good for a long lasting shine. For the ultimate shine use Carnauba wax.

Changin my bad ways!
 

I have purchased a hand held nano bar as well as micro towels and chenille mitts but haven't gone all grit guard yet... Now just waiting for it to stop raining to clean the max's. I have thrown out my sponges, towels but I'm keeping my Meg's Gold Class wash:D keep yoi posted when I get a chance to nano both of them.

SR how'd that mustang turn out?

It tuned out looking better, but man that oxidation on the top is there to stay, But if you see the car in person and knew what it looked like its a night and day diff. He was so excited about how clean it looked. Car still need to be repainted IMO. I started another job so I have not been around.

Hope you got them from the Rag Company. They have the lowest prices I've seen on the net.

I did thanks to your tip. Good quality this far. I'm excited to get some time to do more than a wash to each Max. I will be hand nanoing(sp) and then Ammo skin and hydrate. Appreciate all the tips Dezo and SR20. When I get some time I will post some pics.

Wanted to say thanks all for the tips and insight; recently purchased A LOT of stuff from Griot's Garage products to Nanoskin and Nanoshock to Meguiar's sealant and yellow wax to the edgeless authentic Korean microfiber towels and more.

It's supposed to be 65 degrees on Wednesday and I'm taking half the day off to meet up with a fellow .org member to get our cars done because here in the northeast we very likely may not have another day as nice to do so until next spring arrives. So, we're looking at a detail job then it's off to storage on jack stands with a car cover until next spring!

Again, thanks all for the information as I am looking forward to doing a top-notch job!!!

Sunday I tried an experiment. I washed the Max, rinsed it then hit the paint with Griot's Garage Paint Prep. Using my bare hand, I swished around the paint prep hoping it would knock out any old wax or sealant. Then I rinsed again and put the Max in the garage. There I used the rag company's Blue waffle weave Dry Me a River towel to remove most of the water left. After that I used NanoSkin's Nanoshock spray sealant / Clay lubricant to clay the Max. Once a section was done I wiped away any leftover nanoshock. Once the car was dry and smooth I went over the car again with a clean and dry microfiber towel. (I had to toss the microfiber towels into the wash to remove the nanoshock) After that I went over the nanoshock with Prima's Hydro Max spray sealant. I went over everything except the wheels. Roof, windows, headlights and tail lights. Following that I went over again with a dry and clean microfiber towel to buff away the Hydro Max.

We got some rain overnight and the water does bead pretty well. I also get the RainX effect on the windshield and sunroof.

Dudemaine, you can wash your car in the winter. Just remember to use hot/warm water and if you can just use a spray on waterless car wash. The waterless wash will use plenty of microfiber towels though.

So fellas,

I went ahead and took everyone's advice today even though it was about 40 degrees today. I washed with 2 bucket method, used separate mitts for wheels and paint and then followed with nano skin. I used a new bucket of clean soap for lube as most have said is ok. I used it on the windshield and felt it get tacky. I proceeded to do the car and it looks great. After drying with new micro towels, I noticed some weird defects. I don't know if it's marring or what. I'm kinda freaked out I pushed too hard, didn't get the film of the sponge or other such things. So here are my questions
1) take a look at photos and give me some much needed advice. It looks like a carbon fiber effect on parts of the paint. What do I do?
2) I also used it on the side view mirrors and some surrounds and it looks like it scratched it?! What can I do?
3) I'm going to seal it with Meg's ulty wax. I'd it ok to do tomorrow as long as it's garaged tonight? Will the wax clean up the marks I spoke of?

Any and all advice welcome. Thanks guys in advance.

http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...pskiwd1g8s.jpg

http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...pszz1i3hvg.jpg

http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...psv4ifrk3j.jpg

http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...psdjlrvdnw.jpg

I see it, your putting to much pressure and maybe not enough lube i.e, soap water. no real pressure is needed. if you got the dual nano skin use the blue pad. When u nanoskin ur car for the first time the paint may feel rough and raspy while using the sponge.
For that marring you can use the nana sponge to get it out but be careful.

Sorry Irish, i started another job part time and school full time so i have not been on.

No worries SR20. Thanks. So I can use the nano go get the marring back out? I'm going to give in and get some lube. I also have a DA and a whole bunch of other things on order. Looks like I tripped and dove head first down this rabbit hole!!!

it's a learning process. The more you do it you learn the pressure you can give to the paint. If the paint feels smooth with the Nanoskin I don't give almost any pressure at all, but if it's raspy I will give it a little bit more love and a lot more soap water.

Thanks. I'm sure I pushed too hard since this car was built 3 months ago and suffered from much lighter defects. I should've started on my '10 which has more of a need. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on the correction since it's getting cold here and the nice days are few and far between.