CruisinCO
Junior Member
- Joined
- May 4, 2017
- Posts
- 15
- Reaction score
- 5
- Ram Year
- 2008
- Engine
- 5.7 Hemi
Over the holiday weekend I finally got some time to do a full exterior paint detail and thought I'd put it in a write up since it turned out so well. I am by no means a professional, but like many of you I like to do all the work on my own vehicles, and take pride in the work I do. This method produced very good results for me and can do the same for you. Feel free to include any tips I missed or chime in with some expert advice where needed.
Materials: Dual action polisher (not required but trust me it will save you a ton of time and shoulder pain and produces much better results than working by hand), two 5 gallon buckets for washing/rinsing. Car wash, a quality polish of your choosing, Clay bar kit (bars and detail spray), wax, lots of microfiber towels (clean ones!), and a wash mitt. Oh yeah don't forget at least a 12 pack of cold beer cause this should take you a while. Took me about 6 hours total, but time will vary depending on how meticulous and experienced you are.
Step One: Wash the vehicle thoroughly. For my products here I used Mothers gold class car wash, and microfiber towels/ wash mitt from autozone. I went to the local car wash first and did a self-wash (sprayer only) to get the top layer of dirt/grime. Then drove home and re-washed by hand a section at a time as I worked. Washing and getting the vehicle as clean as possible is going to get you the professional looking results you want, failing to remove dirt and grime before the polishing step will make your swirl marks/scratches worse, so take your time here. I used the two bucket method. Dunk the mitt in the clean water bucket and get the vehicle surface wet, re-dunk it in the clean water and scrub with your free hand to release any dirt, dunk into your soapy bucket, scrub the vehicle, then re–cleanse in the water only bucket and rinse the surface of the vehicle again. I threw out and re-filled my “water-only” bucket whenever the water became dingy (probably ten times throughout the whole process) any small step to produce the cleanest process possible is worth a little extra time in my book. Crack a cold one.
Step Two: Detail spray and clay bar kit. Again I worked one section at a time in order to keep my working surface as clean as possible. Here I used a mothers clay bar kit and instant detailing spray. I took my wash mitt and re-rinsed the surface to get it nice and wet, then grabbed the detail spray and clay bar. NOTE: the Mothers clay bar kit includes two full bars and I only used about a quarter of one bar for the entire vehicle so it won’t take too much clay. Spray the surface of the vehicle liberally with the detailer and work a flattened out piece of the clay bar over the surface. I used little pressure at first, and then pressed harder on my second and third time over as you can really see and feel the deep grime and particles coming off with the clay bar. My advice here would be to keep the surface as wet as possible to help the clay glide over the surface and keep it from creating more scratches. This step made a huge difference in getting all the grime that is missed on a routine wash, if you choose to skip any of these steps don’t skip this one! Work slowly and make sure you get all the particles free from the paint. When you are done with this step run your hand over the paint surface to make sure there are no remaining bits of dirt/grime. Crack beer number two.
Step Three: Polish. Here I used Meguiars Swirl X (their ultimate compound works great too). Because I had a good amount of swirl marks from a previous owner who did not know how to properly wash my baby, swirl x got the call, otherwise I use the ultimate compound. This is where the da polisher comes in and saves the day. I worked about a two foot section at a time. I also used a light cutting foam pad as I had mostly swirl marks and not too many deep scratches to get out, RPM’s may vary depending on your brand of polisher, but 4000 rpm worked well for me on this step.. Apply some polish to the pad ( just dot the surface of the pad to get some on there). Press the pad to the vehicle surface before turning on the polisher or you’ll have a mess on your hands. I went slow and covered the working area twice before wiping the polish away. Don’t let the polish get dry during this step, re-applicate polish to the pad as needed. My pickup used one full bottle of polish. I like to use a DA polisher here because it won’t burn through your clear coat, it will simply stop rotating if you apply too much pressure. Make sure to press firmly enough to get the polish worked in though or your just wasting your time. YouTube has some great resources if you need to brush up on your technique. I wiped away the polish with the wet wash mitt in order to keep from dry rubbing it off but use your own judgement here. Once the polish was rinsed off I wiped the surface with a dry, CLEAN microfiber towel and inspected to make sure it looked good before continuing on. Repeat this entire step as needed until you get the deep wet finish you are looking for. Crack another beer ( I was about 5 deep at this point).
Step Four: WAX. I waited until I had the entire pickup polished before waxing. I rinsed the entire vehicle off again with my wash mitt to make sure any dust that accumulated after polishing was gone and used a finishing pad for the application. RPM setting at 2500 for this step. I also worked in about two foot sections as I was working outside and did not want the wax drying on the surface of the vehicle. This step took maybe 45 minutes total. If you don’t have any paint defects you can skip the polish step and go straight to this one after clay bar. I just worked the wax in good with the polisher and wiped it off with a CLEAN micro towel. One for removal, one for the final wipe away. I cannot express enough the importance of using clean towels as you work, do NOT hesitate to throw one aside once it gets dingy with wax or starts to show dirt. I probably used a total of ten micro towels and will use even more next time. Trust me you do not want to screw up your hours of work and dollars of investment at this point over something as stupid as a dirty towel re-swirling your paint as you wipe away wax.
That about summed it up for me. Again I am by no means a professional but as you can see the results speak for themselves. Just take your time and be thorough in each step and it will go just fine. I really like both Meguiars and Mothers products for cleaning and detailing but everyone has their favorites and I’m sure you can get good results with other brands as well. My polisher is a $85 cheapy TCP Global but it worked great, I highly recommend the wash mitt vs. a brush as that may cause more swirls and scratches and is harder to rinse throughout the whole process. A lot of people will tell you not to work outside but it worked fine for me, I just pulled the ol girl onto the grass and made sure I wasn’t the downwind recipient of any dust waves coming from the guys hauling grain from our bins. I laid towels over any paint surfaces that were in the sun to keep the paint cool. Using cool water for washing should get your paint as cool as it needs to be, I had to rinse a few spots a couple times to cool them off before starting the clay bar and polish steps but use good judgement on that. Make sure you don’t work on a hot paint surface or it can damage the clear coat. Other than that get you some cold ones, get out there and get to work! Hope you have as much fun as I did and get the results you want!
-CruisinCO
Materials: Dual action polisher (not required but trust me it will save you a ton of time and shoulder pain and produces much better results than working by hand), two 5 gallon buckets for washing/rinsing. Car wash, a quality polish of your choosing, Clay bar kit (bars and detail spray), wax, lots of microfiber towels (clean ones!), and a wash mitt. Oh yeah don't forget at least a 12 pack of cold beer cause this should take you a while. Took me about 6 hours total, but time will vary depending on how meticulous and experienced you are.
Step One: Wash the vehicle thoroughly. For my products here I used Mothers gold class car wash, and microfiber towels/ wash mitt from autozone. I went to the local car wash first and did a self-wash (sprayer only) to get the top layer of dirt/grime. Then drove home and re-washed by hand a section at a time as I worked. Washing and getting the vehicle as clean as possible is going to get you the professional looking results you want, failing to remove dirt and grime before the polishing step will make your swirl marks/scratches worse, so take your time here. I used the two bucket method. Dunk the mitt in the clean water bucket and get the vehicle surface wet, re-dunk it in the clean water and scrub with your free hand to release any dirt, dunk into your soapy bucket, scrub the vehicle, then re–cleanse in the water only bucket and rinse the surface of the vehicle again. I threw out and re-filled my “water-only” bucket whenever the water became dingy (probably ten times throughout the whole process) any small step to produce the cleanest process possible is worth a little extra time in my book. Crack a cold one.
Step Two: Detail spray and clay bar kit. Again I worked one section at a time in order to keep my working surface as clean as possible. Here I used a mothers clay bar kit and instant detailing spray. I took my wash mitt and re-rinsed the surface to get it nice and wet, then grabbed the detail spray and clay bar. NOTE: the Mothers clay bar kit includes two full bars and I only used about a quarter of one bar for the entire vehicle so it won’t take too much clay. Spray the surface of the vehicle liberally with the detailer and work a flattened out piece of the clay bar over the surface. I used little pressure at first, and then pressed harder on my second and third time over as you can really see and feel the deep grime and particles coming off with the clay bar. My advice here would be to keep the surface as wet as possible to help the clay glide over the surface and keep it from creating more scratches. This step made a huge difference in getting all the grime that is missed on a routine wash, if you choose to skip any of these steps don’t skip this one! Work slowly and make sure you get all the particles free from the paint. When you are done with this step run your hand over the paint surface to make sure there are no remaining bits of dirt/grime. Crack beer number two.
Step Three: Polish. Here I used Meguiars Swirl X (their ultimate compound works great too). Because I had a good amount of swirl marks from a previous owner who did not know how to properly wash my baby, swirl x got the call, otherwise I use the ultimate compound. This is where the da polisher comes in and saves the day. I worked about a two foot section at a time. I also used a light cutting foam pad as I had mostly swirl marks and not too many deep scratches to get out, RPM’s may vary depending on your brand of polisher, but 4000 rpm worked well for me on this step.. Apply some polish to the pad ( just dot the surface of the pad to get some on there). Press the pad to the vehicle surface before turning on the polisher or you’ll have a mess on your hands. I went slow and covered the working area twice before wiping the polish away. Don’t let the polish get dry during this step, re-applicate polish to the pad as needed. My pickup used one full bottle of polish. I like to use a DA polisher here because it won’t burn through your clear coat, it will simply stop rotating if you apply too much pressure. Make sure to press firmly enough to get the polish worked in though or your just wasting your time. YouTube has some great resources if you need to brush up on your technique. I wiped away the polish with the wet wash mitt in order to keep from dry rubbing it off but use your own judgement here. Once the polish was rinsed off I wiped the surface with a dry, CLEAN microfiber towel and inspected to make sure it looked good before continuing on. Repeat this entire step as needed until you get the deep wet finish you are looking for. Crack another beer ( I was about 5 deep at this point).
Step Four: WAX. I waited until I had the entire pickup polished before waxing. I rinsed the entire vehicle off again with my wash mitt to make sure any dust that accumulated after polishing was gone and used a finishing pad for the application. RPM setting at 2500 for this step. I also worked in about two foot sections as I was working outside and did not want the wax drying on the surface of the vehicle. This step took maybe 45 minutes total. If you don’t have any paint defects you can skip the polish step and go straight to this one after clay bar. I just worked the wax in good with the polisher and wiped it off with a CLEAN micro towel. One for removal, one for the final wipe away. I cannot express enough the importance of using clean towels as you work, do NOT hesitate to throw one aside once it gets dingy with wax or starts to show dirt. I probably used a total of ten micro towels and will use even more next time. Trust me you do not want to screw up your hours of work and dollars of investment at this point over something as stupid as a dirty towel re-swirling your paint as you wipe away wax.
That about summed it up for me. Again I am by no means a professional but as you can see the results speak for themselves. Just take your time and be thorough in each step and it will go just fine. I really like both Meguiars and Mothers products for cleaning and detailing but everyone has their favorites and I’m sure you can get good results with other brands as well. My polisher is a $85 cheapy TCP Global but it worked great, I highly recommend the wash mitt vs. a brush as that may cause more swirls and scratches and is harder to rinse throughout the whole process. A lot of people will tell you not to work outside but it worked fine for me, I just pulled the ol girl onto the grass and made sure I wasn’t the downwind recipient of any dust waves coming from the guys hauling grain from our bins. I laid towels over any paint surfaces that were in the sun to keep the paint cool. Using cool water for washing should get your paint as cool as it needs to be, I had to rinse a few spots a couple times to cool them off before starting the clay bar and polish steps but use good judgement on that. Make sure you don’t work on a hot paint surface or it can damage the clear coat. Other than that get you some cold ones, get out there and get to work! Hope you have as much fun as I did and get the results you want!
-CruisinCO