Car detailing newbie, looking for concrete directions

[SixZee]

Hello folks,

Looking for a better school district, I moved recently. In past, along with some co-workers, I had a deal at an automated car wash place where I would wash the car twice a month for very cheap. Although I already have swirls on the car, I am not bothered by it much. My goal is not to let the clearcoat disappear and make my car looking gaudy. Now that option is not available.
Plus, I am renting where utilities, water are all inclusive in the rent. The landlord doesn't want me to use water and electricity for car washing and detailing. The local carwashes are expensive.

My goal is to find a coin-operated carwash and wash the car there. I would like to do minor detailing at home though, preferably by hand. I have not thought of getting battery operated detailer. Plus, I will be parking car under the sky here.

I have been checking threads and stickies on this forum for a while but more I read, more I get confused. I found The Chemical Guy's flowchart. http://www.chemicalguys.com/v/vspfil...gflowchart.jpg My paint is between good and moderate, more on the moderate side. If I have to follow that flowchart, what products should I get for
- protective coating,
- glaze,
- paint sealant and finally
- wax?
I guess I can use Meguair's Ultimate waterless wash and wax as a quick detailer.

Other than Meguair's Ultimate waterless wash and wax, I have 303 Aerospace protectant that I use on the interiors and Costco's house-branded microfiber towels (yellow ones).

All ideas are welcome.

[SixZee]

Bump. Anybody?

[Goonie75]

Well hi. To fix anything one can compound by hand but wow. That wil will be harder and take time so correcting anything is maybe out unless you go to a buddy's house. Optimum ONR for a waterless and rinseless wash would work. Protection maybe a good sealant. And maybe clay bar it. Good luck amigo.

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[Belo]

I am so confused by your post. It's all over the place and I'm not even sure what you're asking.

That said, does your landlord have it written that you cannot wash your car? Seems very unreasonable. If so, i'd certainty look into the rinseless washes and start with an all in one product like hd speed, mk360 etc. Then go from there after doing some reading.

[andy0902]

In my limited experience you will not be able to remove swirls effectively without a machine polisher. The PC sold here is an inexpensive way to get started. I have even heard pros here say they do effective work with one of the Harbor Freight knock off polishers. I recommend starting with a copy of Mike Phillips "Complete Guide to a Show Car Shine." You will learn all you need to get professional results. I did.

Also, lots of reading here and asking specific questions will go a long way to getting yourself great results.

[Toolhead]

based on the OP situation and desire to detail by hand...

find the coin bays where you can use hose etc..bring your buckets and wash car.

by onr and make detailing spray from it...

after driving home from car wash you will want to usw detailing spray and wipe the car clean.

i could be wrong but most products talked about here should be used with a DA polisher...

for hand detailing ..which i did for decades..you may want to look at a consumer brand..ie..mothers or meguires which are effective for hand detailing....youd want to look at a system which has a glaze step..to fill swirls and scratches ..bc it wont be feasible to remove a certain level of scratxhes /swirls by hand.

[Toolhead]

and given ur lack of home hose access..read up on how to use ONR as a rinesless car wash..where you only use a bucket of water with rinsless car wash

[SixZee]

Thank you folks.

Instead of ONR Rinseless wash, Is it OK to use Meguair's Ultimate waterless wash and wax that I already have? Once I am done with this one, I can buy ONR.

I am not going to try to fix swirls just yet as I just don't have enough knowledge at the moment to fix those. I don't want to mess the paint so, my goal is to try to maintain the car the way it is. In future, if I get enough time to educate myself on this, I will try to fix it or just find a local detailer to do the job. But until then, the question is, if waterless wash and wax, be it Meguair's or ONR, is enough to maintain the car, esp because I don't have covered parking here anymore?

That was my actual question if waterless wash and wax are not enough what else can be added to the regimen if anything?

Protection maybe a good sealant. And maybe clay bar it. Good luck amigo.

Which sealant is this? Can you link the product, please? I definitely plan to clay bar it, if not whole car, at least a part of it.

I am so confused by your post. It's all over the place and I'm not even sure what you're asking.

That said, does your landlord have it written that you cannot wash your car? Seems very unreasonable. If so, i'd certainty look into the rinseless washes and start with an all in one product like hd speed, mk360 etc. Then go from there after doing some reading.

I am sorry, it was confusing to you.
It seems there is some town ordinance that prohibits anyone from washing the car in their drive way.

Are you talking about these products?
3D HD Speed
I could not find anything for mk360.

The PC sold here is an inexpensive way to get started

I recommend starting with a copy of Mike Phillips "Complete Guide to a Show Car Shine." You will learn all you need to get professional results. I did.

Also, lots of reading here and asking specific questions will go a long way to getting yourself great results.

Thank you so much for this pointer. I will read the book.
I agree with asking specific question. At the moment, I am just getting my feet wet into this (unexpectedly). Hopefully, will get there eventually.

BTW, what is PC you are referring to?

based on the OP situation and desire to detail by hand...

find the coin bays where you can use hose etc..bring your buckets and wash a car.

by onr and make detailing spray from it...

after driving home from car wash you will want to usw detailing spray and wipe the car clean.

i could be wrong but most products talked about here should be used with a DA polisher...

for hand detailing ..which i did for decades..you may want to look at a consumer brand..ie..mothers or meguires which are effective for hand detailing....youd want to look at a system which has a glaze step..to fill swirls and scratches ..bc it wont be feasible to remove a certain level of scratxhes /swirls by hand.

Thank you for the clear directions.
Can you link USW detailing Spray? Dr Google gave Meguair's quick detailing spray link.

Can you pls recommend specific products from either of the brand lines that I can look at so that it will be easier for me to search for the use of the products and consider if I should take a jump into it.

Thanks for the comments again.

[glen e]

There are 100 ways to do this, I choose easy but effective.

I think some people are making it harder than it really is. If you want a specific way,that you can get a good looking car in an apartment complex , do this
1. Take it somewhere or you can wash the car with Dawn dishwashing detergent.
2. Then "wax on /wax off" a good polish like Meguires 205. Put it on just like you did your dad's car, buff it off , you can do this by hand. Make sure you get all the polish off before you proceed. By six good microfibers, the kind that are a couple bucks each. You only do this polish step annually.
3. Then buy some blackfire SIO2 spray and put it on essentially like Windex. A little goes a long way. No need to use a lot. A couple spritzers per panel. Do this every couple months after the car is clean. I actually run through a touchless carwash that set on strictly rinse before I put mine on.
4. Then every week to 10 days or so ,learn to do a rinseless Blackfire rinseless is fine, McKees, frankly without splitting hairs, all rinseless products are essentially the same. Here's a link to a document I wrote on how to do a rinseless. Also, Make up a Windex bottle of rinseless and use that for bird bombs, a quick wipe down etc.…



Dropbox - Rinseless 1.pdf

This car was done exactly the same way as I listed above. Is this enough gloss for you?

[showbbq]

It seems like you're on the right track if you're trying to maintain the condition of your car. Decon, rinseless wash, wax, and 303 for the interior and trim sounds like a plan until you're prepared to correct the paint.