Please Sanity Check my Beginners List

[BrandonSSS]

I'm currently waiting on a classic car I bought to be delivered. Unfortunately, with the island I live on (Okinawa, Japan) garages are a premium and not very common. So the car will live outside until I move back and bring the car to the United States in a couple years. In the meantime I am hoping to care for it the best I can to maintain it's condition in the hot, humid, salty environment that will be it's home. The car is an ivory white color so I won't need any black paint specific items. The wheels Watanabe style wheels and are uncoated aluminum; polished lips with textured spoke area. From looking at it during the inspection before I bought it, I do not remember it needing any major paint correction. The paint was in generally good condition (it was repainted at some point in its life) and seemed to be taken care of.

A couple years ago I tried to get a detailling kit together, but never had adequate funding to do so. I ended up making due with what the small items I did end up buying. In any case, this is the kit I was looking to put together utilizing some things I already have. The items are listed kind of in order of the steps I'd take:

• Meguiars Wash and Wheel Bucket Kit (I picked it because I like the bucket design and it has wheel cleaner; kind of petty I know)
  
  • Bucket
  • Mirror Bright Shampoo
  • Mirror Bright Wheel Cleaner
  • Microfiber Wash Mit that comes with it (probably use on wheels as I don't like mitts)
  • Some microfiber towels (I have more at home)
• Bucket Grit Guard
• Synthetic Sheepskin Wash Pad (car body)
• Nanoskin Speedy Prep Sponge Medium
• Cobra Supreme Waffle Guzzler 20x40 towel
• PC 7424XP (already owned)
• 5" Backing plate (replace my 6")
• Lake Country Thin Pro 5.5"
  
  • 3 orange
  • 3 white
• Hand wax pad(s) (haven't chosen a specific one yet, but I enjoy applying wax by hand)
• M105 (already own)
• M205 (already own)
• Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant (I figure this will be a good protectant against the salt air)
• Meguiars Ultimate Liquid Wax (already own)
• Meguiars D155 Last Touch Spray Detailer 1gal (instead of constantly buying the Instant Detail Spray)
• Wolfgang Black Diamond Tire Gel (free sample size) - I like this because it isn't super glossy in the reviews I've seen
  
  • I'll need to get some kind of applicator, or even just sacrifice a microfiber towel to apply it with

So all that is just short of $250 for the stuff I need to purchase. Do you see anywhere I should most definitely buy a different product because I didn't pick one to do what I"m looking for? Is there an area I could save some money with a different product because I'm using something more expensive than I need?

Thanks in advance for any advice. I tried to read as much as I could the past few days and this is my best wag at a "beginners kit"

[Mantilgh]

It looks pretty good, but maybe a couple of adjustments assuming two things.

1. You can get basic things like wash soap, APC, and trim/tire dressing products locally.

2. You are trying to get the most amount of products that you need, or just really want to use, that you can't get locally.

Focus solely on what you can't get.

I would think the wash kit is not necessary. The color changing wheel cleaners work well, but you can get by with most any APC or local available wheel cleaners. You're wheels may require a different approach depending on how they look, and how you want them to look since they are raw alloy wheels.

I'm not all that familiar with D155 but you could replace it with one of many concentrated waterless/rinseless wash products that make gallons of detail spray for about the same price.

And, what's the car please!!! Always interested in classic cars here.

[BudgetPlan1]

I found the Wolfgang Black Diamond Tire Gel to last until the first rain, then it be toast.

If ya wanna ovoid tire dressing(s) going forward, invest in something more durable like the Tuff Shine Tire Clearcoat kit or Gyeon Tire (among others) and put the whole tire dressing nonsense behind you for an extended period of time. No more slinging tire dressings, no more nasty applicators, no more short-lived appearances. Greater up front cost but likely savings in both time and money going forward.

Coat your wheels as well (Gyeon Rim or equivalent) and tires/wheels become a hose-off, move on part of maintenance/washing.