Another day, another mod. Oh, and some detailing mixed in there too!!

**Neothin** · 06-01-2006, 08:34 PM

I got my lip kit installed onto my car finally. After a torrential downpour earlier this morning, this afternoon cleared up to be very nice. I decided to go to a friends house and clean up the tC.

last week the car got clayed, polished w/ menzerna po85rd, xmt carnauba finishing glaze, and topped with max wax

today was-
wash
spot clay with the pinnacle green claybar (the name eludes me at the moment, the really fine one)
XMT carnauba finishing glaze on the front bumper
another coat of max wax on the whole car
dp krystal vision glass cleaner inside and out
meg's endurance on the tires

i was getting all sorts of stares from my friend billy. he had never experienced my washing technique before :P

without further adeau, here are the pics!

and no, i didn't wax the freshly painted lip kit pieces

**justin_murphy** · 06-01-2006, 08:46 PM

Man......Looking sweet!
Scion has some of the best colors. I noticed the charcoal color on one like yours yesterday. Last week my wife pointed out one with the dark wine colored red. The metallic pigment was crazy. I'd love to get ahold of one of them!

**abrcrombe** · 06-01-2006, 08:53 PM

Very nice detail, and your car looks really clean! Definitely not overdone. Keep up the good work.

**Brace1** · 06-01-2006, 09:03 PM

You keep outdoing yourself, the car looks better in every set of pics than the previous.

Don't forget to stock up on ONRWS and/or S&W before heading off to school....

**Neothin** · 06-01-2006, 09:08 PM

and a covercraft car cover :P

bill, do you use the ONRWS/QEW? I'd like to see someone use it. All i've ever used to wash my car over the past year or so has been my foam gun or a regular bucket wash. This is going to be such a tough change

**Surfer** · 06-01-2006, 09:15 PM

I've seen people mention your "slow" technique to wash, what do you do lol?

**Neothin** · 06-01-2006, 09:52 PM

3 buckets. 2 of straight water, 1 of soap solution. 1 water bucket is for rinsing (and it gets changed like 3 times during a wash). the other is for soaking the many mitts used during the wash.
about 7-10 wash mitts
a foam gun.

1. do the wheels with foam and a dedicated wheel sheepskin mitt. tires get foam + tire brush. While you're down there, wipe out the wheel wells with the wheel mitt.
2. this step is debateable, but i do it anyways. Presoak the entire car with foam. let it sit for a minute and then thoroughly rinse.
3. to actually wash the paint, put the mitt on you're hand, foam it up (before touching the paint with it), foam the area you're about to wash. at this point begin to *gently* glide the mitt over the paint. At the same time, spray foam directly at the point where the mitt meets the paint. I like to sorta cup my hand a little bit so that the foam can get sprayed directly into the middle of the mitt inside of just in front of it.

I only make 1-2 passes on each of the sides of the mitt. After this, agitate vigorously in the rinse bucket and start all over. foam the mitt, foam the paint, glide the mitt while foaming, etc etc. instead of making long passes that go the length of the panel, divide the panels into sections. for instance, i divide my hood into quarters when i wash it. each quarter i can do with 1 rinsing of the mitt (unless my car is really dirty). Periodically change the mitt out. I like to change mitts every 1 - 1.5 panels.

any questions

**abrcrombe** · 06-01-2006, 10:42 PM

Wow, thats quite the process! I wonder what your neighbors think when they see you go all out.

**justin_murphy** · 06-01-2006, 11:11 PM

Heck ya it is!
I couldn't do that on all my customer's cars....wish I could but can't.
I've been using ONR for about a week now.......LOVE IT!
The process save me about 20-30 for a sedan since you don't rinse and you dry at the same time. No water spots either. Amazing how well this stuff works.

**FloridaNative** · 06-02-2006, 02:52 AM

Neo I have to admit that my washing techniques are similar to yours except that I use one bucket for paint wash water, another bucket for paint rinse water and a third bucket for tires & wheel wells wash water. (All buckets are labeled with permanent markers) I never thought about having an extra one for just soaking mitts in, but I think it's a great tip and I'm going to have to steal it from you now because I have one of those telescopic poles for the top of my SUV that I opened up fully and have never been able to retract it since and I'm always trying to figure out where the hell to put it after I've used it and move on to the lower panels! Your soak bucket sounds perfect!

Thanks for the tip! And by the way, my neighbors gave me strange looks too when they saw me with the foam gun! My one neighbor who is like 82 years old saw all of the foam streaming down the parking lot to the gutter and he was like, "okay, that's enough foam now! You're getting it all over the place!" lol

Oh P.S. Great pics! The car looks perfect!