tips from a detailer

you want to know how to keep your viffer looking great?
well ill give you a few tips!

this is a great way to start..
this will give you a clean slate to keeping her clean, and shiny.

part one: degrease
now i know how everyone hates chin lube being slung everywhere, and it plays hell on the swing arm, sprocket, and rear wheel.
i use a little kerosene on a microfiber towel to clean thigns up, wipes away very quickly. and if i do this i usually go ahead and clean the chain while im at it.
then i use meguairs all purpose cleaner, i spray liberally in areas that need to be degreased, oil pan, front of the motor, forks, wheels, i go over the swing arm, chain guard, rear shock, etc.
then let it sit for 15 min to do its work.
agitate with a brush if necessary
then get the hose out and spray everything down

part two: the wash
since we are basically going to be starting from scratch use this method only for the first time your going to be doing extensive work on the finish of your bike, all other times (after you have got it perfect and have a good sealer, use a nice mild car wash.. such as meguiars gold glass car wash, that wont eat the waxes, and sealants)

anywho this time we will use something that will help strip the wax and sealants down.
i usually use chemical guys citrus wash & clear, but for you guys that want to buy locally, just use some dawn dish soap.

i have a nozzle i can put some of the soap into and foam it out onto the bike. i let it soak so it can loosen any dirt grime

a good thing to have in your bucket is a grit guard, you can pick them up pretty cheap and it keeps your sponge or mit from touching the bottom of the bucket, where all the grime and rocks, debris will be.

i usually use a 2 bucket system. one with clean water, and one with my soapy mixture.

dip into the soapy mixture apply to your VFR, then rinse in clean water then back into your soap bucket.

i also use a seperate bucket/mit for the wheels, since they are dirtier i dont want to get any debris from them onto the fairings/tank/screen.

so do your washing, then rinse!

step three: dry it
every body loves the sham wow... but please dont use it. only a nice thick microfiber drying towel should be used, and i prefer using forced air, a leaf blower works great, and gets water out of every spot on the bike.

step four: clay
this is a crucial part to a clean finish
i use the zaino clay bar but if i need somethign on the spot i usually pick up clay magic.. can be picked up locally at autozone. youll receive a clay bar and lubricant.
work small sections at a time, mist the lubricant on to the area you are working with then slide the clay bar on that area. youll se it will pick up things out of the paint/plastic you never knew where there. if the clay gets dirty, roll it into a ball then flatten it back out and continue.

i use the clay on the windscreen as well. and headlights, tail light, turn signals.

after each spot you work on wipe down with a microfiber towel with some alcohol on it.

step five: polish
depending on how bad your paint condition is, will depend on what you start with. but for argument sake, lets say its swirled pretty good.

the right tools are needed for the job. although you can obtain some decent results by hand, you wont get a truly optimum clarity.

i use a porter cable buffer, and CCS pads.

to start with, for badly wirled surfaces (which include paint headlights, taillights, turn signals)
ill use a yellow CCS pad and some Meguiars #105
i set the porter cable to speed 5. work small areas at a time. make several passes till the polish is gone.

ill do this to every part of the bike that i am polishing.

after im down ill wipe down with a new microfiber towel and alcohol, and inspect. 99% of the swirls should be gone. if not ill make a few more passes.

i then move to a white CCS pad and some middle weight polish (either Meguaris #83, Meserna IP, or poor boys world polish)
same procedure as before

for our final pass ill use the Black CCS pad and the porter cable on speed 3, ill generally use Menzerna FP or Poorboys SSR3
on the last pass, i wont wipe down with alcohol, i just use a microfiber towel.


now one the wheels, i do the same process, only by hand.

Step six: wax that ass/ or seal it
now this is up to you..
on what you finish it with.
i can use many different thigns at different times, zaino z2 followed buy some z8. or a pinnacle wax followed my optiseal..
if buying stuff from auto zone use a combo of things. i like to start out with a nice coat of Meguiars #6 tech wax. key is thin coats. let it dry atleast 30 min before wiping down with a microfiber towel.
i usually do 2 coats of that, then move on to a sythetic poly wax such as meguiars NXT same process as the tech wax.

now if you wanna spring it, i highly recommend the optimum Opti seal. works great and is a very long lasting sealer. jsut mist and wipe in. this will go over top of your coats of wax.

these wax processes go the same for your screen, taillight, head light, turn signal, and wheels.


and your outcome should be something like this..
this is a friends VFR i did a while ago





same process, just on a newer vette.. black is purtty!!



for any of you guys looking to pick up some polishes/ waxes / sealants.. here is a nice list to choose from..
more severe scratches/swirls-
Megs 105
Menzerna powergloss
Poorboys SSR 3

medium polishing -
Menzerna IP
Zaino ZPC
Poorboys SSR 2.5
Megs 83

fine polish --
MEnzerna FP
Poorboys SSR1

Sealants -
Poorboys EX-P
Zaino z2
optimum optiseal
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0

Wax-
poorboys Nattys blue or red
Meguiars #26 followed by Meguiars NXT
Pinnalce XMT 180 high gloss

 

here is a good pic of what a little polish will do..
before and after

 

before and after on a 79 ford truck
note this is only after the first stage of polishing.. as was the picture above

 

shiny gloss on the TL


and a great depth shot from a yamaha cruiser i did

 

shadow spirit got some love as well..

 

toyota supra gets some high gloss..
sorry for all the pics guys.. just looking through my photobucket and found alot of my detail work, figured id show what a little work can get you..

 

my old explorer after a long day of detailing

and my old ace after a detail

 

and a big dog mastiff i did last year

 

will this work on a home paint job...obviously it wont shine like that but will it help?

 

Hells yea

great work...

Thx for the lists

 

thanks alot.

 

sure does sound like a hell of a lot of work to me...I would just be rather out riding the thing :biggrin: But some really good tips all the same..nice one!

 

Awesome! Thanks for the tips. I'm not familiar with a lot of the products (polishes) you referenced - I usually just stop at the clay bar. Are available at typical auto parts stores or is it more of a specialty shop I need to find?

What are you applying the waxes with? Buffer/polisher or by hand?

 

dude i thought I was good at detailing awesome job. I prefer to it all by hand power tool can damage the clear over time..I use all mequirs cleaner polish then carnuba wax the old school in a can style.. awesome job I never thought of the clay nar though THank you for the tip and I will try that this weekend. oh I use mothers crome on rims with the ball only power tool cordless drill works great. I have the z06 wheels with the allen bolts in the rims pain in ass to get them perfect takes a long time........awesome job once again and how much do you charge for a car?? and how long does it take you me about 2 jours... PM me pleasee.................:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

For real. How much for a bike covered in NYC and a 10 yr old civic which sat untouched for three years parked next to the bay?

 

Looks like good info. But you have Poor Boys SSR3 listed for severe scratches and also for fine polishing. Maybe you mean SSR1 for the fine polish? Personally I find that
PB SSR3 is "sand in a can" and should be avoided at all cost.

 

Just an awesome thread. Thanks for the info!

 

some of the products that i use (anythign usually that isnt meguairs i buy online, cause i have no where around here to purchase it)
paint/body shop stores usually carry the higher end meguiars stuff ie: megs #105, #83, etc.

if you want to start with somethign locally and can be easily be had, do the clay bar, then use the meguiars 3 step (you can get it at auto zone) consist of step1: paint cleaner, step2: deep crystal polish, step 3 carnuba wax. for a DIYer its a great start.. but like i said you wont accomplish the same depth in the paint and amount of correction without a machine.
i apply my waxes and sealants by hand, some others use a polisher, i stick with a hand application jsut cause .. well just cause i always have, easier for me to control the coverage.

 

with a random orbital Porter cable machine you would be hard pressed to damage the clear. now a rotary will do more damage. but again like i said you cant get the amount of correction needed most of the time if you do polishing, or compounding by hand.
mothers works well on chrome, i usally do that by hand just because im anal, and want to get every tiny little spot, and chrome usually doesnt take much effort to shine, unless its really been weathered.

charge depends on what im dealing with , i usually dont have a set price, i tell the customer to bring the vehicle in, do a consultation, go over the vehicle, see what i feel needs done, then ask them where they want to car to be when finished. i can make a car show quality but it takes time and alot of it.

time wise...
the vette took me about 7 hours total

my second post, the before after shot of the black vehicle is a toyota land cruiser. that thing was a mess inside and out.
ad as you can see i had alot of correction that needed done.that was a 15 hour job.

if it takes more than 7 hours i charge by the hour.

 

your correct ill edit that. i wasnt thinking while typing lol.