Hello World!

[ERP]

Hello.

New to the forum, following the purchase of a new vehicle I have started getting more involved in the different aspects of detailing.
After claying and waxing my girlfriends car, my soon to be father-in-law asked if I would take a pass at his vehicle. So now I am in the process of picking out an entry level DA and came here looking for some advance and product help.

Any opinion/advice would be appreciated.
Here are the products I am currently considering, in the order in which they would be applied.

Dodo Juice Lime Prime PLUS 250 ml. (mild-to-moderate paint correction)
Griots Garage Complete Polish 16 oz.
Poorboy's World Black Hole Show Glaze
Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze
Collinite Liquid Insulator Wax #845

I personally own a white vehicle which does not have clearly visible defects, so I would skip the Dodo Juice step and use White Diamond instead of Black Hole.

Cheers,

[Bobby B.]

Welcome to AutogeekOnline!

I would recommend getting a Griot's Garage 6" Orbital Polisher with some Light Cutting, Polishing and Finishing Pads. Also a good amount of Microfiber Polishing Cloths. You always need extra clean towels.

The products you listed are great, but I would save yourself a few steps and just get the Blackfire One Step. The Blackfire One Step is awesome and super easy to work with. You can always apply the Collinite #845 Insulator Wax as your LSP.

I would also recommend getting an Iron Remover and Clay Bar & Clay Lubricant.

Iron Remover
Clay Bar & Clay Lubricant
Blackfire One Step
Collinite #845 Insulator Wax

BLACKFIRE Pro Detailers Choice Car Care Products, Midnight Sun Car Wax, black fire car wax
Griots Garage 6 Inch Random Orbital Polisher


Items you might also need for detailing these vehicles?
Car Wash
APC
Wheel & Tire Cleaner
Tire & Trim Protectant
Glass Cleaner
Interior Cleaner & Protectant
Metal Polish

[SWETM]

Welcome to the forum!

Just a friendly notice with Dodo Prime Lime Plus. It's like almost like a medium cut polish or polish with cleaning ability and a sort of glaze in. As an AIO almost but without the protection part in it or a abrasive prewax cleaner maybe would be better described. So if going with the Dodo Prime Lime Plus it's on medium defects and don't really need to be followed up by a polish. It can be needed if you where to used a cutting pad or work on a softer clearcoat. To be followed up by a finishing polish. But then a little of the whole point would be redundant to use the Dodo. If you don't get the cut you want with a clear LSP ready finish I would have used a compound or medium cut polish first and then finish with the Dodo Prime Lime Plus on a finishing pad or a finishing polish. Hope it makes a little sense. Or if you don't get away with an one step polish with the Dodo it's good to save it for those situations where it does and go with another combo to correct the paint.

The Poorboy's Black Hole Glaze is rarely needed to be used if you machine polishing. As there is the goal to get as clear and glossy from the polishing it self. And it's gets a little too much of different products in one go and can be a mess when you layer to much of products on the paint. For an example the Collinite 845 insulator wax on it's own you get around 4-6 months longevity from it. But when layering over other products you don't just ad the longevity from every single product you apply.

If you like the Griots Garage I would go with a setup of the GG BOSS polishes. Fast Correcting Cream and Correcting Cream and Perfecting Cream. There you have a compound and medium cut polish and finishing polish with great quality. And also as a first polisher the GG 6 with a 5" backing plate and a 3" backing plate. With a setup of enough pads from the GG BOSS pads and you are set to do many different correction with great results. Down the road if you want to get a little more effissient you could ad a longthrow polisher or a direct-drivenDA polisher. A little warning is that the first step of polishing often needs all from 5-8 pads in one color to get great results and not need to be washing the pads when you polishing.

There are so many protection products out there today it's real hard to chose which to go with. Often it's the looks on certain colors and the ease of use with the product and the budget you have. Also what products you already have which I think that you do have some if not all products you listed. No one is bad of them but there are always different ways to go and sometimes just keep it simple. The 845 for an example is great looking on white and light colored paints. So much is personal preference which you go with and what you like. Then what you expect or want from your protection is also a difference between personal preference. In the end I just thought when reading what order you would use the products and use them all as I understand it. It sounds to much of these kind of products you listed. And sometimes less is more.

When I started lurking around a couple of years ago. I looked much in the show and shine threads what people was useing. There you can get an idea of about what you would use. Even if every job is different you could get a know of what is good to have in your arsenal to do different kind of jobs. There is no recipe to follow when you do correction. It's testing what works on just that paint. And in the beginning IMO it's more important to focusing on the finish than getting every defect leveled down to defect free. As you don't have so much of clearcoat to compound on repeatedly. So if you get one from the family or a friend that comes back with the car swirled up again after 6 months. And you would need to be heavy compounding every time. It's just not worth it to get it defect free. As down the road you could have a mess with clearcoat failure.

Sorry this got a lenghty respond LOL. It's nice with a new car and a new hobby. And follow and interact in threads on this forum you will find out what suits you and your needs. Then comes the actually doing and you can be satisfied and you can feel to like to look at another product or method.

[ERP]

Thanks for the welcome Bobby.

Interior gets vacuumed with a heavy duty wet vac, GG interior cleaner is sprayed on any of the problem areas but I generally don't do much to the interior besides vacuuming.

As far as the Exterior right now my process is to:
(1) 1/2 CG Honeydew + 1/2 Rain X soap mixture to clean the wheels.
(2) Use a generic 2 gal. pump sprayer filled with CG Honeydew to foam up the car a bit then spray that off.
(3) Handwash w/ CG Glossworkz
(4) GG Synthetic clay bar + Speedshine
(5) CG Synthetic Quick Detailer
(6) GG Best of Show Wax (old formula) by hand.

Unfortunately doing all this by hand is taking more time and effort than I would like, and I am not seeing the results I would like--likely due to user error/exhaustion. Its 95 F by noon here.

I have a number of cheap microfiber towels and a bunch of Rag Co. microfiber towels are currently on their way to me.

There are 4 vehicles I'll be working on in the next month: 18 White Porsche Macan, 18 Metallic Grey Rav4, 05 Grey Avalon, 01 Grey Aprilia SL1000 (motorcycle).
The paint on the Aprilia and the Avalon is in need of serious correction, the Macan and Rav4 are fairly defect free but a light polishing would make a significant difference.

GG Iron & Fallout Remover is on my list to buy.

I need something for the trim, especially on the Porsche which has the plastic black siderunners.
I have clearly visible hard water buildup on my glass that the synthetic clay bar doesn't do anything to, so I'm assuming I'll have to polish and seal that.

It's incredible how complicated all of this is... Mind boggling.

[ERP]

Welcome to the forum!

Just a friendly notice with Dodo Prime Lime Plus. It's like almost like a medium cut polish or polish with cleaning ability and a sort of glaze in.

The Poorboy's Black Hole Glaze is rarely needed to be used if you machine polishing. As there is the goal to get as clear and glossy from the polishing it self. And it's gets a little too much of different products in one go and can be a mess when you layer to much of products on the paint. For an example the Collinite 845 insulator wax on it's own you get around 4-6 months longevity from it. But when layering over other products you don't just ad the longevity from every single product you apply.

If you like the Griots Garage I would go with a setup of the GG BOSS polishes. Fast Correcting Cream and Correcting Cream and Perfecting Cream. There you have a compound and medium cut polish and finishing polish with great quality. And also as a first polisher the GG 6 with a 5" backing plate and a 3" backing plate. With a setup of enough pads from the GG BOSS pads and you are set to do many different correction with great results. Down the road if you want to get a little more effissient you could ad a longthrow polisher or a direct-drivenDA polisher. A little warning is that the first step of polishing often needs all from 5-8 pads in one color to get great results and not need to be washing the pads when you polishing.

There are so many protection products out there today it's real hard to chose which to go with. Often it's the looks on certain colors and the ease of use with the product and the budget you have.
Sorry this got a lenghty respond LOL. It's nice with a new car and a new hobby. And follow and interact in threads on this forum you will find out what suits you and your needs. Then comes the actually doing and you can be satisfied and you can feel to like to look at another product or method.

I actually don't have any of the products I listed! I have heard good things about Dodo juice and thought that their Lime Prime would be a good place to start for vehicles needing more TLC than normal. I was under the impression that Polish, then Glaze, then Seal, then Wax would provide the maximum aesthetic and protection, but now that I see that written out it does seem a bit much.

Right now I have a motorcycle which has some significant scratches, two new vehicles with just light surface scratches from daily driving, and my girlfriends father's vehicle which has not been washed in many years.

Do you mind explaining what you mean by the first step of polishing? I assumed you would use one pad for the entire vehicle and just continuously reapply the polishing compound.

[VISITOR]

to AGO

check this out if you haven't already...

Here's what you need to get into machine polishing - Recommendations for a beginner by Mike Phillips

[ERP]

to AGO

check this out if you haven't already...

Here's what you need to get into machine polishing - Recommendations for a beginner by Mike Phillips

I had not read that, I'm watching the "How to do Automotive Exterior Detailing" video now.

Thank you for sharing this! I absolutely needed these resources.

[ERP]

Ok so, I've decided to hold off on polishing the Macan until I sort out which polish is most appropriate.

Currently I've decided to go with the:

GG 6 DA and get the 5 inch backing
3 correcting, 6 polishing, and 6 waxing pads (specifics tbd) .
The original Forum favorite kit (klasse AIO + klasse sealant + souveran wax ).
Collinite 845

I figure I'll save the souveran wax for the Porsche while I determine the specific products for that vehicle.

The RAV4 will get Klasse AIO + Sealant (2x) followed by the #845.
The Honda & Aprilia will require a swirl remover, that will be used before receiving the same treatment as the RAV4.

So I'm still working on:
A newbie compound
Iron fallout spray
Glass polish + Sealant
Pads
Exterior trim sealant
Paint tape/trim tape?

[Paul A.]

Welcome into the madness, ERP. Sounds like you are picking it up well.

[SWETM]

Ok so, I've decided to hold off on polishing the Macan until I sort out which polish is most appropriate.

Currently I've decided to go with the:

GG 6 DA and get the 5 inch backing
3 correcting, 6 polishing, and 6 waxing pads (specifics tbd) .
The original Forum favorite kit (klasse AIO + klasse sealant + souveran wax ).
Collinite 845

I figure I'll save the souveran wax for the Porsche while I determine the specific products for that vehicle.

The RAV4 will get Klasse AIO + Sealant (2x) followed by the #845.
The Honda & Aprilia will require a swirl remover, that will be used before receiving the same treatment as the RAV4.

So I'm still working on:
A newbie compound
Iron fallout spray
Glass polish + Sealant
Pads
Exterior trim sealant
Paint tape/trim tape?

Most compound and polish sold on AGO is great. Then there are some personal favorites. I like the set of 3 Sonax polishes. Sonax Cutmax and the Sonax Cut & Finish and Sonax EX04-06 or Sonax Perfect Finish. The Cutmax is a compound and Cut & Finish is a medium cut polish and the EX 04-06 is a finishing polish made for DA polisher and the Perfect Finish is also a finishing polish but for rotary polisher but it works great on a DA polisher too. Easy no dusting polishes and use the pads to dial in which combo that works for the paint you working on. It's impossible to say what works for you and that's where the test spot comes in to see which combo that works for the paint you working on.

The first step when you polishing is where you also gets the polishes and the pads to clean those contaminants that your prep work does not desolve or takes off. It's almost every time you have some stubborn contaminants that only the polishing removes. So the first step or if it's the only step needed. Will get you a little more dirtier pad. And to have great results from polishing you get by working clean. The build up on the polishing pad will not be able to get perfectly clean during the polishing. So a pad before the need of being switch to a clean one is around every panel or every 2 panels you polishing. It also gets saturated with polishes and also abraded clearcoat you polishing off. So to keep the pads delivering the same cut and finishing you switch to a clean one when necessary. Look at the polishing work Mike Phillips does and on the pictures he shares on the detailing cart. There you see how many pads he have used on that vehical and is great to get an understanding of how many is needed to be used.

Lake Country and Buff and Shine and Griots Garage BOSS is polishing pads of great quality. Many like the thinner pads on the GG6 polisher and like those to have them keeping the rotation easier. I will put in the Rupes Yellow Foam Pad too. It's a very good finishing pad and also durable and gives you a little cut too so not the finest in aggressiveness which is their white one. But this pad is just awesome. And here comes the little unusual recommendation to get the Rupes yellow pad for the Mille polisher. This is cause of it's thinner and I think would work awesome on a DA polisher with a 8mm throw as the GG6 and XP polisher have.

If you want an iron remover that just work very effectively and has been a kind of standard for iron removers is Carpro IronX.

Also Carpro CeriGlass is a great glass polish and combo them with their rayon glass polishing pads is great. Just mask of thoroughly around the glass you polishing as it's messy to polish.

Masking tape I also like the Carpros tape of different sizes. The 3M masking tape is also very good.

Glass sealants and exterior trim protection there is a lot of great ones. Since I'm from Sweden I have not so good on all the brands that I don't have ability to get. And also here you have an option with going with ceramic coatings. The exterior trim is also if they are in good shape or needs to be revived. If revived the Solution Finish seems to be an awesome product to get the black back. McKees 37 glass sealant I have heard good about. I have used Aquapel with great results and prep work is always a key to get great results and that you get with the glass polish and a panel prep wipe down product to get the polishing oils off or other oily dirt.