Getting the annual polish in while on baby's time.

PouncingPanzer

PouncingPanzer

Well-known member
May 11, 2017
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So, nine weeks ago my wife and I had our daughter. Needless to say my world has changed drastically since. We are on Mila-time now. That said my hobbies(all of them) have been put on hold for the most part. She gets fussy when the Xbox is turned on, it never fails. I haven't been to the boat in about a month and I'm fiending to give tours. I stress about when and how I will manage to get stuff done on the weekends that I didn't get done Mon-Fri while also being a dad and going to the plethora of family gatherings that occur this time of year. As a result my car is dirtier than I'd like it to be and I don't think I will be keeping up with it as usual. Historically May has been "Spa Month" for my daily drivers. I typically get a 4-5 day weekend lined up and I clamp down and do it all inside and out including a machine polish. But how do I make this happen now while on Mila-time? I have been brain storming my options...

I think focusing on a single panel at a time is my solution. Start and finish the process here, then if baby allows it move on to the next. Prewash and wipe down a panel, decontaminate it, and then polish it. It may look silly when I drive to work and the only spotless panel that day is a passenger rear door skin....but I will have to ignore that part for the sake of the greater good. Hopefully in a couple weeks I will have managed to complete the entire car.

If you were planning on this approach yourself, how would you go about it?
 
Congrats! And I've been there. I didn't make it happen until I took two days off of work and the in-laws were here wanting time with the little one.

Otherwise, the SO and I just have an agreement that we need the "me time" on occasion and how we spend it is up to us.

Your plan seems logical though if you go about it that way and I'm guessing 95% of people will never even notice that shiny rear quarter... unless you live near other AGO members

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My wife is on-board with this method so I will give it a whirl! I will start with the horizontals and less obvious panels first.
 
Go for it now. It only gets more difficult once they start walking and talking!

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Congratulations and great plan .

My situation is different....My wife's car sits outdoors in a gated lot. However, I can never seem to find enough time to do a full exterior detail. I'm also planning on doing one panel at a time, (pre-wash, wash, chemical decon, clay, polish, and apply a ceramic spray coating).

I know that polishing a car outdoors is not recommended but I don't have any other option.

Has anyone done the process I outlined and has any feedback or recommendations for me?
 
I do my cars like that actually. It's more enjoyable.

Rinseless is your friend.
 
Maybe decon more than a panel at a time. If you end up with more time to polish, you can keep going. If you have to polish one of the other panels a few days later, it'll just need to be cleaned.
 
^^ Yeah i usually clay at least 2 panels before i wipe down with a rinseless and then polish. You can do a bonnet quickly using RW and clay. Less than a hour.
 
Congrats!

When I was a new dad, I was working off a much different detailing regimen than I have now. In those days, I was simply keeping everything clean/washed and then applying a sealant every six months to keep it all protected. I hadn't discovered machine polishing and fallen totally down the rabbit hole...

As kids get older, you don't really get any more time. You trade nurturing a fussy baby for their hobbies/sports or simply spending quality time with them. I found rather than trying to cram in "spa sessions" for all the vehicles into one block of time, I'd spread it out over months. I'd even do simple stuff like washing whenever I found a gap of time.

One thing that really helped me when dad time was more important than car time was using coatings. When using a high solids coating, I only do in-depth detail sessions every 2~3 years and I off-set the vehicles so I almost never have to do more than one every year. I found it is much easier to find time to jam out a vehicle once a year than it is to do 2~3 every six months... If you take the approach you describe where you do a panel/section at a time it could make it even easier. Once you finish the car, all you have to do is keep it clean for the next couple of years.
 
And this is why I asked.. Great advice everyone. Good point about prepping more than a panel at a time, just in case the baby is merciful. Lol.

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I grew up in a different time... If I had work to do, I did it.

Taking care of the kids was essentially Mom's job.
 
2black1s said:
I grew up in a different time... If I had work to do, I did it.

Taking care of the kids was essentially Mom's job.
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My wife is still on maternity leave so with her all day while I am at work, so when I get home I like to help. At nine weeks I quite often enter to a crying Mila after work and a stressed wife. Getting better days more often though. My wife works from home so she will still be around Mila far more than me and the routine will likely continue.
 
I think I am going to use Sonax Perfect Finish with a Lake Country One-step microfiber pad on the G9 for the polish. Gonna start with the most rewarding panel, the hood. With warm weather here and a couple weeks since the last wash I have plenty of dried on bugs to remove. Bilt Hamber Touchless and OPC should do just fine in removing them. I will clay with a Chemical Guys blue clay bar and ONR and after polishing wipe down with Eraser. Haven't decided on what Collinite product to finish with yet. Probably 915 though since I consider that my summer wax.

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PouncingPanzer said:
My wife is still on maternity leave so with her all day while I am at work, so when I get home I like to help. At nine weeks I quite often enter to a crying Mila after work and a stressed wife. Getting better days more often though. My wife works from home so she will still be around Mila far more than me and the routine will likely continue.
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My wife worked too and I did what I could to help her out and share the load.

My dad had a similar philosophy and I didn't see him much while growing up because he was always working. With my kids, I wanted to not only team up with my wife to share the workload of raising them, but I wanted to be more present. My girls now have some great memories of doing mundane things like working in the yard, getting ready for bed, doing chores etc, because we did them as a family. I was military for most of thier childhoods, so it didn't always work out, but we made the most of the time we had.
 
I got the hood done yesterday. With getting my stuff staged up and taken out to the garage it came to three hours roughly. Other panels will certainly go quicker since I left everything out in the garage. I did one pass with Perfect finish and the Lake Country "Light cutting one-step pad" and was easily able to remove the usual washing and drying induced swirls and light scratches. I also got off some light spotting from gosh knows what. It wasn't water spots though. At the end of the day I don't expect miracles with the GLIs hood because after 4 years of freeway commuting and keeping the left lane clear it is somewhat sandblasted and rough(Huge regret not spending the cash on a PPF but oh well....). But elsewhere on the car I can achieve much better results with this set-up.

I noticed grease/oil splatter on the front bumper cover too so while I was doing the decon wash(Lift prewash with Reset in the bucket and the panel misted in OPC that dwelled for a few minutes) I cleaned that as well. Obviously if the hood is rough the front bumper cover is even more so. I didn't polish the front bumper cover but got it spotless clean and slapped some 476 on there too.

I sat there staring at the cans of Collinite 915 and 476 and decided since it perform so well through rainy season last year and this year 476 can be the base coat once again. Once I am done polishing all panels I'll do a single pass of wax on the whole car to even things out. That is likely a couple weeks away yet at this pace.
 
Progress! And if only people didn't sleep at 6am or 10pm. I remember between days just wanting to keep it going and get it done but the wife was right... baby sleeping, neighbors sleeping

Sounds like it'll look great when done!

And 476 is a cleaner wax if I recall, right? It should cover up anything small. I've got a tub of it not touched yet. I've got a bad wax problem and need more cars to use it all. Find it more fun to play with and don't need a year of protection.


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Uncbrs said:
Progress! And if only people didn't sleep at 6am or 10pm. I remember between days just wanting to keep it going and get it done but the wife was right... baby sleeping, neighbors sleeping

Sounds like it'll look great when done!

And 476 is a cleaner wax if I recall, right? It should cover up anything small. I've got a tub of it not touched yet. I've got a bad wax problem and need more cars to use it all. Find it more fun to play with and don't need a year of protection.


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Yea last year I went past 10PM three nights in a row...I certainly don't have the energy anymore to pull that off again haha.

476 aka "Super Doublecoat Autowax" is Collinites "winter wax" vaunted for it's durability. I can concur that out of all "waxes" I've used it has very good durability. 325 is their cleaner wax. I've used that too.

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PouncingPanzer said:
Yea last year I went past 10PM three nights in a row...I certainly don't have the energy anymore to pull that off again haha.

476 aka "Super Doublecoat Autowax" is Collinites "winter wax" vaunted for it's durability. I can concur that out of all "waxes" I've used it has very good durability. 325 is their cleaner wax. I've used that too.

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Any light protection in the meantime until you apply the wax? I keep hearing about people now doing their polish wipe with something that had a little protection in it and wonder if that's an idea that'll quickly strip before you do the wax job?

Thanks to this place I'm now petrified of running at all without protection.

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