It feels like it's never going to end.....

**howardm4** · 03-20-2018, 10:36 AM

quote:
Here is what I do. When I read about something great that I don't have, I add it to my buy list. When I run out of the product I am using I order the new one. If it's something entirelly new that I do not have an equivalent for, and I think it would be useful, I add it to the next order I place. Otherwise, I wait for my current product to run out. If you don't do this, you will end up with countless products you never use and waste a ton of money.

EXACTLY. I have spent an embarassing amount of $$ on trying this and that. Buying stuff before having enough experience to know between good/better/best.
I have several lifetimes supply of car wash, various polishes, interior stuff, ..................

At the end of the day, if you buy on sale, it's less expensive than your wife's shoe habit but still, gotta store all this stuff somewhere and protect from freezing.

**lalojamesliz** · 03-20-2018, 11:00 AM

Thank you for the great advice guys, I'll stop ordering stuff for now and use up what I currently have.
I just got the hyper wash and optimum spray wax. The jugs are still sealed because it's been raining and it's supposed to continue the next 4 days off and on.
For now I'll just take care of the interiors and other stuff.

**howardm4** · 03-20-2018, 11:11 AM

solid choices. I ended up w/ a gallon of Opti Spray Wax too. Gallons are so much cheaper in the final calculations but only if you're going to use them.
Like gallon of Power Clean, Tuf-Shine tire cleaner, Opti Car Wash, UWWW, salt remover

**LEDetailing** · 03-20-2018, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by howardm4

quote:
Here is what I do. When I read about something great that I don't have, I add it to my buy list. When I run out of the product I am using I order the new one. If it's something entirelly new that I do not have an equivalent for, and I think it would be useful, I add it to the next order I place. Otherwise, I wait for my current product to run out. If you don't do this, you will end up with countless products you never use and waste a ton of money.

EXACTLY. I have spent an embarassing amount of $$ on trying this and that. Buying stuff before having enough experience to know between good/better/best.
I have several lifetimes supply of car wash, various polishes, interior stuff, ..................

At the end of the day, if you buy on sale, it's less expensive than your wife's shoe habit but still, gotta store all this stuff somewhere and protect from freezing.

Great advice. I’ve “tried” to do this and haven’t ordered from AG in months. I’m excited to order a gallon of car wash this spring and also need to replenish my interior detailer. Meguiar’s Hyperwash or OPT for car wash and Meguiar’s Quik interior or McKee’s for interior. Gotta Love great product choices.

I too buy by the gallon. I will never run out, or more likely, exhaust my supply of Meguiar’s glass cleaner or Meguiar’s APC

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**JDGolden** · 03-20-2018, 02:02 PM

I agree with others, replace when needed if you want to try something new. I waited a year before even buying a new detail spray. Have not tried it yet.

**howardm4** · 03-20-2018, 02:43 PM

serious addiction. I have another order pending for stuff that I dont really need :/

**howardm4** · 03-20-2018, 02:54 PM

but dont scrimp on cheap microfibre, esp. for the ones that touch paint.

**dlc95** · 03-20-2018, 03:21 PM

I started on Meguiar's over 20 years ago, and it was a great starting point. In 08 I started up again, but just used my old Megs, and some of the newer TW stuff at the time - Ice, and the newer liquid rubbing and polishing combos. I'd use a Wen rotary, and one of the few 6" parts store orbitals I had lying around. In 09 I got a 1st gen GG6, and didn't really like it.

Fast forward to 2011, I got a PC 7424xp. By 2013 I started getting serious as people started paying me to polish their vehicles. That's when I joined this forum. I had been on the Megs since 07, but AG was mote active.

The most notable thing in those days was the acronyms, and the sheer volume of products that went with them. It was overwhelming!

I kept, and still keep close to Megs, because they just work. But I branched out to companies that seemed to be at the forefront of the industry. That took me to Optimum with ONR, and Menzerna with their FG400, PF2500, and SF4000 family of polishes. Today, they've since undergone a label and number change. Then to Rupes system for polishing, which was a clear jump in performance for what I do.

Still today, I tend to steer clear of copycat tools and products. Simply because I'm still discovering new ways to approach the systems I already have, and because I don't like a lot of redundancy and "stuff" littering my shelves. Seeing some of the old forum members with garage shelves and cabinets full of product was sobering. I made the decision right there to temper the amount of detailing related products to what I considered a "reasonable" amount. I had been down that road in the 90's already anyway.

I've since sold a ton of stuff on the FB trading posts, and eBay. TONS. Heck, I threw away a bunch of the stuff I had from the late 90's when I thought my detailing days were over, which was about 01/02 ish?

Not having every neat sounding product hasn't hampered the enjoyment I get tending to our vehicles, or seeing a client's face light up when they see their vehicle swimming in gloss. Enjoy the process!

**ducksfan** · 03-20-2018, 04:22 PM

A lot of good advice. Now, let me give you some bad advice (at least financially).

Get the ONR and some Opti-seal too. These Optimum products in my opinion work noticeably better as a system. I never saw the value in ONR, OSW, or Opti-seal until I quit using anything but them on a black car. It took about 3-4 washes to clear what was previously on the paint. Afterwards, there was a noticable difference in the look from the previous washes. Just go easy on how much product you use or you will have problems with streaking.

I would encourage you to watch the video (and again after first use, and again after maybe the fifth use) Yaun made when he was at the Rag Co.

Oh, one more thing. I have a lot of Uber. But, now that Ech2o has come out, I doubt I'll ever use it all. Ech2o 1:20 wiith 2 oz of Reset in a quart is wow. See why they told you to not buy too much product?

**VISITOR** · 03-20-2018, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by lalojamesliz

Thank you for the great advice guys, I'll stop ordering stuff for now and use up what I currently have.
I just got the hyper wash and optimum spray wax. The jugs are still sealed because it's been raining and it's supposed to continue the next 4 days off and on.
For now I'll just take care of the interiors and other stuff.

if you have some products that you aren't too fond of, list them in the samples thread (below). you can also see what others have that you would like to try out (and vise versa) so you don't have to commit to buying a new bottle/gallon in case you don't like it...

SAMPLES (original post updated)