Old age and detailing.

[Georgiasport]

Just wondering about all the older fellas like myself. I'm almost 52 and I love to keep my Ram looking sharp. I have found as time goes on I am not inclined to do the full wash, claybar, re-wash, dry, polish and then wax in one day. I tend to do the wash, clay bar and re-wash one day. Then put her in the garage and do the polish, buff, wax and buff the next. Anyone with me on this????

 

[KKBB]

I'm 42, and it took me 2 days to do all that with the install of a graphene ceramic coating. Detailing is alot of work!!!

 

[Dredger]

54 and find it more relaxing to pay someone else

 

[retired]

geez lol I am 63yoa and feel 30yoa.. I hand wash a couple times a week and fully wax a couple times a month...mine rarely is parked for a day at at time...I clay bar couple times a year.

 

[CheechDogg.0n37s]

geez lol I am 63yoa and feel 30yoa.. I hand wash a couple times a week and fully wax a couple times a month...mine rarely is parked for a day at at time...I clay bar couple times a year.

Why wax more than 2 times a month? Or every month? And clay bar 2 times a year too?

You are going to damage your paint by doing all that, you shouldn't have to clay bar your vehicle more than one time a year if that, waxing that much is a sure way to introduce marring and swirlmarks on your paint, to fix all that you "HAVE TO" at least polish to bring back shine ...

My truck is a 2018, I have clayed it once since I got it, waxed 2 times and polished or buffed about 4 times .... don't ruin your clear coat thinking you guys are doing something good when in reality you are actually doing the opposite ...

 

[retired]

Why wax more than 2 times a month? Or every month? And clay bar 2 times a year too?

You are going to damage your paint by doing all that, you shouldn't have to clay bar your vehicle more than one time a year if that, waxing that much is a sure way to introduce marring and swirlmarks on your paint, to fix all that you "HAVE TO" at least polish to bring back shine ...

My truck is a 2018, I have clayed it once since I got it, waxed 2 times and polished or buffed about 4 times .... don't ruin your clear coat thinking you guys are doing something good when in reality you are actually doing the opposite ...

been doing it that way since the early 70's and mine always look like new. I use carnuba wax and it works for me. zero swirls or mars. I have never polished any vehicle tho, never have needed to.

 

[CheechDogg.0n37s]

been doing it that way since the early 70's and mine always look like new. I use carnuba wax and it works for me. zero swirls or mars. I have never polished any vehicle tho, never have needed to.

If you say so lol .... but clay bar alone "will" leave marring and swirl marks ... that is why you have to polish or buff ...

 

[LugsLeadOut84]

I am 52. I don't mind washing (nice weather about once every 2 weeks), waxing (about 2 times per year with some spray waxes in-between) and interior detailing/vacuuming (whenever I wash it). I don't have the patience or expertise to clay bar and in recent years haven't kept the truck long enough to need it.

With me, it's more about what I'm good at as opposed to whether I have the energy or speed....I'm retired but do electrical work for a contractor friend and can still work like an ox, but beyond the tasks mentioned above I never was that interested.

Not sure if it answered your question fully, but that's my take on it.

 

[CheechDogg.0n37s]

I am 52. I don't mind washing (nice weather about once every 2 weeks), waxing (about 2 times per year with some spray waxes in-between) and interior detailing/vacuuming (whenever I wash it). I don't have the patience or expertise to clay bar and in recent years haven't kept the truck long enough to need it.

With me, it's more about what I'm good at as opposed to whether I have the energy or speed....I'm retired but do electrical work for a contractor friend and can still work like an ox, but beyond the tasks mentioned above I never was that interested.

Not sure if it answered your question fully, but that's my take on it.

That is a good approach to personal vehicles, in reality, people want to do too much to their vehicles especially when it comes to detailing, maintaining any vehicle on a "weekly" basis is the best thing to do which will minimize the "need" to detail your vehicles more than 1 time per year ..

So if it was due to age I would do a weekly maintenance wash that includes a good compressed air pass to get all the dust and crumbs from nooks an crannies, wipe it down and vacuum .. then the outside followed or washed with a good "WASH N WAX" product ...

No need to detail our cars every week or month, "WE" just really like to over complicate stuff all the time as humans lol ..

 

[Irishthreeper]

Detailing my truck is an act of love. Waxing my 34’ fifth wheel is not and it just took me 10 days to do it, working on and off. I’m 70…

 

[mdricko]

I hate to admit this, i haven't washed my truck since i got it. I bought stuff to do it and want to, BUT my bad back/neck tends to get in the way. I never have been fastidious with vehicles but really wanted to do things right with the truck. Maybe i can start keeping it cleaner in the new year.

 

[Quick_Shifter]

54 and find it more relaxing to pay someone else

That’s Great!!! LOL

 

[CheechDogg.0n37s]

Detailing my truck is an act of love. Waxing my 34’ fifth wheel is not and it just took me 10 days to do it, working on and off. I’m 70…

Even for me that I do "mobile detailing", fifth wheels or RVs is no fun lol ... but it must be done lol

 

[CheechDogg.0n37s]

I hate to admit this, i haven't washed my truck since i got it. I bought stuff to do it and want to, BUT my bad back/neck tends to get in the way. I never have been fastidious with vehicles but really wanted to do things right with the truck. Maybe i can start keeping it cleaner in the new year.

Get yourself a good pressure washer and a good wash n wax car shampoo .... every week wash it as needed, I sometimes just foam up my truck let it break down the dirty water spots and rinse it, since I use Meguiars hybrid ceramic spray wax on it, I almost never have to actually put any weight when I pass the wash mitt over the surface of the truck ...

Sometimes I don't even do anything but foam it, let it sit for about 2-3 minutes and rinse it ...
Then I let it dry and it's clean as a whistle ...

 

[WY-Dave]

About to be 57, Solved the SSV (super shiny vehicle) syndrome by moving out in the country haha. The dirt roads here have a mix of clay in it. I have a power washer but haven't found anything good to get the clay off with a foam soak. About all it does take off the mud clumps. And the well water is hard water. Wash it, wand mitt it, rinse it and it looks pretty good. 1 drive and then it looks like was prior to washing.

 

[CheechDogg.0n37s]

About to be 57, Solved the SSV (super shiny vehicle) syndrome by moving out in the country haha. The dirt roads here have a mix of clay in it. I have a power washer but haven't found anything good to get the clay off with a foam soak. About all it does take off the mud clumps. And the well water is hard water. Wash it, wand mitt it, rinse it and it looks pretty good. 1 drive and then it looks like was prior to washing.

I helped a guy set up a 100 gallon tank at his home with spotless water, all he does now is hooks it up to his pressure washer using a small water pump and he is ready to go to avoid water spots due to hard water ...

If you can find a local water shop that has spotless water, you can get spotless water for .10 per gallon and fill up a 100 gallon tank at home ....

if your paint is good, give it a good buff and ceramic coat it yourself, you don't need the paint to be perfect but a good ceramic coating will help against the clay sticking and you can then just wash it off with the pressure washer ...

That is what I do for customers out here, ceramic coating and it flies right off with water

 

[Socalramfan]

Spending 2 days on detailing your Ram isn't a terribly long time. There's a lot of real estate to cover.

To initially get a vehicle to high level does take time and patience, but once there.... t's actually pretty easy to maintain there, all things considered. Spending 6 months prepping Concours vehicle ready is not uncommon, so anything less than that works for me.

Personally, its therapeutic, relaxing and feeds my OCD, lol. What I have found, and in judging shows that it is not how quickly you clean your vehicle but rather how well you do it.

As mentioned, Spotless water / water system is the way to go. Having a black vehicles makes a huge difference using it.

 

[CheechDogg.0n37s]

Spending 2 days on detailing your Ram isn't a terribly long time. There's a lot of real estate to cover.

To initially get a vehicle to high level does take time and patience, but once there.... t's actually pretty easy to maintain there, all things considered. Spending 6 months prepping Concours vehicle ready is not uncommon, so anything less than that works for me.

Personally, its therapeutic, relaxing and feeds my OCD, lol. What I have found, and in judging shows that it is not how quickly you clean your vehicle bit rather how well you do it.

As mentioned, Spotless water / water system is the way to go. Having a black vehicles makes a huge difference using it.

Yes ! So many ways to actually get some spotless water set up at home now, like I said, I set up a spotless water tank for a customer who asked if I knew how to go about it, he had the 100 gallon tank and just got the proper fittings and we got it set up ...

Hardest part is getting the water to your tank at home, but I was able to fill his tank up with my 275 gallon water tote after I filled up ...

 

[Socalramfan]

I picked up a CR Spotless Deionized Water system (2 tank) over a year ago and swear by it. Yes, I do have to roll it out, hook up the garden house to it, but its mobile and does a great job.

Don't have terribly "hard" water in HB, but was blown away with the difference it made. Water Spots suck on any level.

 

[CheechDogg.0n37s]

I picked up a CR Spotless Deionized Water system (2 tank) over a year ago and swear by it. Yes, I do have to roll it out, hook up the garden house to it, but its mobile and does a great job.

Don't have terribly "hard" water in HB, but was blown away with the difference it made. Water Spots suck on any level.

Nice! .... how often do you replace the resin ?