New here!

[amd241997]

Completely new to the detailing scene and looking to get some pointers.

I’m a relatively new owner (since March of this year) of a well kept 2004 Dodge Ram Cummins. Before that I had an ‘06 F-150 that I literally only ever hand washed and that’s that. Used to let it dry “naturally” and occasionally use windex on the windows.

My current regimen is a lot of products by Chemical Guys, Maguires, and Mother’s. Detail today consisted of a full wash (wheels first), pat dry, clay bar, wax, and then just some QD over top to get any remaining marks.

Also just happened to rain about 8 hours after the wax job. Anything I can do about that? How do you guys detail after a rain?

Also, how often is it recommend to wax? I’m using a paste carnauba wax from CG and applying by hand. Detailing can be a pain sometimes, but it’s my investment and as much as I love to get it dirty I also like it to be super clean and pristine.

Thanks guys!


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[Mike Phillips]

Welcome to AGO!

I edited your post.

See how I broke up the huge chunk of text into smaller bites?

People won’t and don’t read chunks of text.

[PaulMys]

Welcome to AGO, fellow Ram owner.

[SWETM]

Welcome to the forum!

If you get rain just after the detail you could do a waterless wash or rinseless wash. And if don't have been to dirty you could just use the QD to do a wipe down with it. The thing to be doing it safe as not getting any fine scratches in the paint is to use multible mf towels to work as to have them as clean as possible. But get you a waterless wash or rinseless wash concentrate to be getting it more economical.

As for how often to wax the paint is depending on a lot of things. A first tell would be you see the water behavior degrades while you are washing. It can be hard to see if you use wash solution with wax left behind or a drying aid that leaves protection behind or a spray wax after the wash to spruce up the protection and gloss. Then it's those products you see the water behavior from and not the wax layer of it's own.
Generally speaking it's between every 1-3 months or so if you use a natural wax. Then many waxes today is with some kind of synthetic wax in it or polymers. That can make a wax last long. And if you have more of a show car wax you don't get more than a couple of washes before the need to be reapplying it.

Then you have many different paint sealants that useally is easier to work with and last longer than the waxes. And if going for the longest lasting protection the ceramic coatings is outstanding in that range. From 1-3 years before you need to be reapplying it with proper maintance. It's much about personal preferences in what looks you like that the LSPs gives you or how long they last and the ease of use and also the prep work you need to do.

Which paste wax from Chemical Guys do you use now?

And there are a lot of options that are easy to work with and gives great protection and longevity. Then if you get into polishing with a polisher you get your truck looking awesome. As mostly the looks comes from a marring and scratch free paint. Then seal it in and maintain it to not getting it to be marred and scratch up again.

You have come to the right place to get your truck looking as great as you want it to be doing. In how you get there and maintain it. It's just to sorting out what you want to be doing to get there.

/ Tony