Efficiently Detail Your Car




Chapters
0. Car Detailing Tips
1. Recommended Car Detailing Products
2. Recommendations for time versus cost trade offs
3. How to wash a car
4. How to get an great shine
5. How to clean the interior of the car
6. How to maintain the shine

Recommended Product Sponsor Links

I read in detail what it takes to get a great shine, and frankly it's an overwhelming amount of work to me. Most people estimate the time at 6-10 hours. Knowing me, it's probably longer with lower quality! Finally some of these products are best applied with a random orbital buffer, and that's a pretty scary idea to me. Let me summarize everything must be done for paint in good condition (but add step 4 for damaged paint):
    1. Use two buckets to properly and carefully wash the car,
    2. Dry with a waffle weave microfiber towel,
    3. Using plenty of lubricant and small 3" X 3" pieces of clay remove the contaminants that remain working a panel at a time. Remember to fold the clay frequently,
    4. For bad paint jobs, polish the oxidation, and remove scratches. I wont even consider going there!
    5. Apply the paint prep wax,
    6. Apply the wax,
    7. Apply the special shiny final wax.
So, for detailing the paint I decided to hire a professional car detailer. I'm opting to maintain the paint myself with a combination of waterless wash, a well regarded automatic car wash, and hand washing. I'll continue to apply the final coat of wax with each washing to maintain the shine. I estimate this maintenance to be around 20 minutes of work per week.

Remember this whole thing started when I ran the car though a car wash. So yes, just using a car wash misses a lot of potential niceness. I mean a lot.

Cleaning the interior of the car was far less scary. I don't have heavily stained carpets or I might consider having a professional clean those stains. Careful vacuuming, cleaning of surfaces with simple green, and dressing of vinyl and leather surfaces only took around one hour initially. Weekly or bi-weekly touch ups take around 20 minutes. That's definitely within my abilities and time budget.

I'm not very fussy about my tires, so those will get washed when I go through the car wash and I'll occasionally dress them with their own applicator using the vinyl conditioner.

Going forward, every 6-12 months I'll have the exterior detailed again including clay and various waxes. I hope to never need serious polishing since I'll be maintaining the car regularly.

The result should be under $100 in various chemicals and materials. Semi-annual to annual exterior detailing should cost around $160.




           
Subscribe!
Enter your email to join our newsletter today!

 
Online Shopping
Auto
    American Racing Wheels
    ATV Tires
    BF Goodrich Tires
    Car Detailing Tips
    Centerline Wheels
    Cheap Tires
    Cooper Tires
    Discount Tires
    Goodyear Tires
    Motorcycle Tires
    Trencher Tire
Dell Coupons
Home & Garden
    Cheap Bedding
    Comforters
    Discount Bedding
    Home Coupons
    Overstock.com Coupons
    Discount Croscill Bedding
    High Thread Count Bed Sheets
    Luxury Bedding
    Masculine Bedding
    Tropical Bedding
    Duvet Covers
    Discount Tablecloths
    Tools
    Towels
Travel
    Cheap Air Fare
    Cheap Cruises
    Expidia
    Travelosity
    Travel Coupons
    Zero Haliburton