Production Detailing for Daily Drivers

[wdmaccord]

ahhh so decon and claying (or nano skin) is basically the same...

I'd say decon is the entire "process" you do before you polish...wash, iron removal, tar removal, clay...

[mjv231]

Ok... Thanks for the info


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[stilltipping3]

Mike, it looks like you foamed without rinsing the IronX. Is this a practice we can all use and save one big rinsing step? Any caveats? Thanks.

I noticed that as well??

[Mike Phillips]

Mike, it looks like you foamed without rinsing the IronX.

Is this a practice we can all use and save one big rinsing step?

The title of this thread is,

Production Detailing for Daily Drivers

This isn't show car detailing and that truck isn't a show car, in fact, I don't think it's been washed for a couple of years and it probably won't get washed for a couple more years.

When doing production detailing, it's about speed and quality. This truck was a part of my last detailing boot camp class where I covered 6 cars in 2 days.

4 show Cars
2 Daily Driver Trucks

In my class I show you everything. Period. Find another class anywhere in the world where you get to work on 4 show cars and daily drivers. Point being this white daily driver truck was used to show production detailing.

We did a GREAT job of washing her and getting her clean. Heck all my life my wash jobs look as good as most detailers detail work and that's part of the secret to doing really good production work is start by getting the car really clean. Check. We did that.

Next you don't do a multi step process, you use a one-step cleaner wax. Check. We did that.

Big picture is the truck left cleaner than when it arrived and the owner was blown away. My class learned the difference between doing show car work or multiple-step work and production work or one-step details.

They also learned how to evaluate the customer before evaluating the car and then matching their services to both the customer and the car.

So yeah... this car was heavily contaminated with iron particles an overspray paint. The guy is a welder, cuts and grinds steel for a living and parks where boats are routinely painted outside.

We Iron Xed her, the foamed her, then rinse washed her with wash mitts, then rinsed her and then mechanically decontaminated the paint using Nanoskin Wash Mitts. Then dried her off using Guzzler Waffle Weave Microfiber drying towels and then did a one-step process using a light cutting one-step cleaner/wax with pink CCS foam polishing pads and kicked her out the door. Stick a fork in this one because it's DONE!



That's the way you do it!

Any caveats? Thanks.

Some people could make the argument to rinse the Iron X off the truck and along with it all the dissolved iron goo and if I were working on something that wasn't like this beat up truck. For higher end cars that would be a safer approach just to be the person that takes ALL the precautions.

Here's an example of a car I rinsed the Iron X off of before washing the car with a foam gun.



Tip for Iron X users - Rinse well to avoid molding drip

Iron X is a great product for chemically removing embedded iron particles out of your car's or your customer's car's paint.

If this garage kept 2000 Lotus Esprit has iron contamination, how much more so the average daily driver parked outside most of the time?









All panted panels were thoroughly covered with Iron X early in the morning while it was still cool out so the Iron X could work its magic without drying to quickly.




Iron X is a thin liquid and will seep into cracks and crevices as well as behind exterior trim, moldings and even emblems and badges.

Be sure to rinse these areas really well to avoid having them continue to drip purple after washing and drying.





Personal comment....
I really like Iron X and use it for almost all of my car detailing projects as well as show how to use it in my detailing boot camp classes.

I also feature it in all my automotive detailing how-to books as I think its' one of the most important first step a person can do to ensure show car results when detailing anything important. See my signature line for the various options for my how-to book.


As you can see by these pictures, this 2000 Lotus Esprit, even being garage kept and with only 9000 miles on it had iron contamination throughout all the body panel. The safest way to remove iron particles is to chemically dissolve them.

Mechanically removing them via detailing clay or some other mechanical is not only not as effective since the particles can be embedded in the paint, not on it, and if you do remove them mechanically you will then be rubbing them over the paint potentially inflicting swirls and scratches.

















The best way to ensure your car's paint is not contaminated with any type of iron particles is to use a product like Iron X to chemically remove these types of contaminants.

Then after removing the iron contaminants, finish washing and drying the car and re-inspect the paint using the Baggie Test. If you still feel little bumps on the paint this indicates some other form of contaminant and for this you would then use a mechanical means to remove them such as detailing clay or a product from Nanoskin such as their Nanoskin Autoscrub Wash Mitts, Towels or Pads.

Iron X will not remove contaminants like overspray paint, tree sap mist, etc. These will need to be removed after chemically decontaminating the paint to remove iron particles.

In most cases, if a paint has iron contamination it's highly likely it also has other forms of contaminants.

If you really want to create the nicest finish possible you must remove all forms of above surface and embedded contaminants as gloss comes from a smooth surface plus removing all contaminants makes all other correction and polishing steps safer and more effective.


If you're going to machine polish the paint anyways then it's really not that big of a deal. At least not to me...

There's a huge difference between these two vehicles and the owners and how they'll care for them...

The really BIG picture is look how nice they look afterwards. One was a production detail and one was a show car detail but from the pictures below it's hard to tell which is which.


Pictures: Detailing Classes at Autogeek - May 2014





The Little Yeller Feller - 2000 Lotus Esprit V8





Good question... I'm glad you asked....

[mjv231]

Amazing!


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[refreshauto]

Mike here are a few more shots of the before pictures of the truck, the transformation was incredible

[Mike Phillips]

Thanks for adding these pictures Vargas....

Helps tell the full story....

[HUMP DIESEL]

Great job!! Don't want to seem crass here but a medium grade nanoskin towel is a great replacement for iron x when the price doesn't allow for full decon.

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If you read in Mike's last post on here, he discusses why you should chemically decontaminate before claying. Clay will get rid of the overspray and other contaminants, but it cannot go below surface to pull out the iron/ferrous deposits. That is why you use a chemical like Iron-X, or AF Iron Out before claying.

HUMP

[VP Mark]

If you read in Mike's last post on here, he discusses why you should chemically decontaminate before claying. Clay will get rid of the overspray and other contaminants, but it cannot go below surface to pull out the iron/ferrous deposits. That is why you use a chemical like Iron-X, or AF Iron Out before claying.

HUMP

I get that.

When a dealership is paying you $100/car for details it's not cost efficient to use iron x, no matter how thorough the decontamination is. When the customer is only paying for clean and shiny you have to adjust to their needs/budget/expectations. Not everything is AG style boutique exotic work.