12 Hour Detail - Wash, clay, compound, polish, & wax

[SPARTAN sui]

Hey guys, figured I'd share my recent detailing experience. I detailed my car not only because it needed it, but in preparation for the local car show. I did the same thing I did last year, except this time I applied a longer lasting and durable wax instead of a "car show wax" that I wasted $50 on. Lesson learned!

The biggest reason for this detail was the amount of swirls, my car needed some paint correction done again due to last year's wax wearing off fast.

I didn't take pictures of every step, but I did take quite a few, and I took some just last night as I had to drive my car when it was storming out and it got pretty dirty. I spent 10 hours Saturday (2 hours night before) doing the majority of the detail. I spent 4 hours last night washing and cleaning the interior. The car show is in two days!

Here we go

These are the products I used for each step

Wash

• Adam's Polishes Car Shampoo
• Adam's Polishes 2 buckets with grit guards
• Adam's Polishes Wash Pad
• Adam's Polishes Waffle Weave Drying Towels

Clay/Tape

• Adam's Polishes Clay Bar
• Adam's Polishes Detail Spray
• Rag Company Microfiber towels
• Scotch 46334 233+ 18 mm x 55 m Performance Masking Tape

1st Step Polish (compound)

• Meguiars M105 Cutting Compound
• Chemical Guys Hex Logic Orange Cutting Pad (5.5")
• Rag Company Microfiber Towels
• Porter Cable 7424xp DA Polisher
• 5" Velcro Backing Pad (for polisher)

2nd Step Polish (finishing)

• Meguiars M205 Finishing Polish
• Chemical Guys Hex Logic White Polishing Pad (5.5")
• Rag Company Microfiber Towels
• Porter Cable 7424xp DA Polisher
• 5" Velcro Backing Pad (for polisher)

Wax

• Collinite No. 476 Doublecoat Auto Wax
• Meguiars Applicator Foam Pads (hand)
• Rag Company Microfiber Towels

Pictures!

Washing the night before, it's been too hot and humid to wash my car during normal hours, 11:00PM felt nice. Good thing I have a couple work lights!



Two bucket wash, using Adam's car shampoo and synthetic wool wash pad



I had a decision to make, either stay up all night and get to work on my car, or go to bed and get up early tomorrow. I ended up waiting until the next day since I was pretty beat from work and washing my car.



Until tomorrow!



Claying - I really like this Adam's clay bar. Last year I used Chemical Guy's clay bar, it worked, but left my hand blue. This stuff is the same appearance, but doesn't leave my hand blue, wooo! All my microfiber towels are from The Rag Company.



This saved my calves!



I used Scotch 46334 233+ tape to mask off the windows and trim. Love this stuff, great adhesion without being too sticky.



I used Chemical Guys orange and white pads for the polishing, hit my car with M105 for the first step, M205 for the second step. I used distilled water to mist the pads as I went along. I followed the same methods as last year and got pretty good results.



It was a long and hot day. What I would give for a large AC cooled garage with great lighting.



After many hours I'm finally done with the paint correction. The next step is waxing. I used Collinite No. 476 with foam applicator pad. I applied it by hand to two panels at a time. A lot of people claim that this is a difficult wax to buff off the paint, I've never had issues. It comes off pretty easily.





All done! The following set of pictures are after driving around for a couple of days.













Picked up a cheap sponge for the wheels wells, worked great! I use this freebie mitt I got from The Rag Company for the rims, it is the perfect size.



Here's the setup for cleaning the wheels. I use the long brush for the wells, the small brush is for the tires, the two buckets are for the rims, and the one bucket is for the wells. After I'm done with the rims, I dump the two buckets, hose them out, and set them up for the paint.



I used chemical guys air blower to dry the wheels, it worked really awesome. I've owned it for over a year and never used it until this day. It really made drying my car A LOT easier.

All clean! These pictures were also shot with my new camera, so much better than using my iPhone.



















Corgi Tax

[Welker2]

Very nice, looks great; excellent job!!

[13FastBlkSS]

Looking good!

[drew peacock]

looks great
i detail mine after every drive so it never needs a lot of work..clay bar is a revelation in car care...

[PalmerGA]

Looks really good, but you are way more anal about this than most. No way I'd spend 12 hours detailing my car. The most I've spent is about 2 or 3 hours and it looks great. To each their own.

[SPARTAN sui]

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by PalmerGA

Looks really good, but you are way more anal about this than most. No way I'd spend 12 hours detailing my car. The most I've spent is about 2 or 3 hours and it looks great. To each their own.

Oh I know, don't get me wrong, it was a tedious and tiresome task, but the payoff is seeing it out in the sun, swirl free...well as close to swirl free as I can get it. I'm not a pro by any means.

[Roto-fab 1]

Now that's some TLC!!! Looks great!

[flyer08]

I'd rather pay the 125-150 for so eone else to spend their day doing this than me. Seems crazy to me to waste 12 hours like this

[PalmerGA]

Originally Posted by SPARTAN sui

Thanks guys!
Oh I know, don't get me wrong, it was a tedious and tiresome task, but the payoff is seeing it out in the sun, swirl free...well as close to swirl free as I can get it. I'm not a pro by any means.

Hey... not saying I don't appreciate your effort and your results, just saying...

[SPARTAN sui]

Originally Posted by flyer08

I'd rather pay the 125-150 for so eone else to spend their day doing this than me. Seems crazy to me to waste 12 hours like this

Not a waste if you want to actually correct damaged paint. Auto detailing takes a good amount of work to do well. $150 is not going to buy a whole lot from a reputable detailer, at least IMO. I could be wrong.

Plus I take longer because it's my own car and I'm pretty green.

Originally Posted by Roto-fab 1

Now that's some TLC!!! Looks great!

Thanks!

[rock1962]

Originally Posted by PalmerGA

Looks really good, but you are way more anal about this than most. No way I'd spend 12 hours detailing my car. The most I've spent is about 2 or 3 hours and it looks great. To each their own.

OP washed, clayed, compounded, polished and waxed. Doing that in 12 hours is good time I have spent longer on some cars depending on the condition of the paint. What looks great to one might not look so good to another. I see you have all the tools OP good job I appreciate your work

[Ice-Forever]

I kinda like the look with the green tape over the trim, tbh...Have you considered painting...lol...? That red looks sick with the lime green

[SPARTAN sui]

Originally Posted by rock1962

OP washed, clayed, compounded, polished and waxed. Doing that in 12 hours is good time I have spent longer on some cars depending on the condition of the paint. What looks great to one might not look so good to another. I see you have all the tools OP good job I appreciate your work

Thank you! It takes doing it yourself to realize how much work goes into detailing. It took me about 45 minutes just to tape off everything. Things you think that won't take that long, end up taking longer than you would expect. This guy gets it!

Originally Posted by Ice-Forever

I kinda like the look with the green tape over the trim, tbh...Have you considered painting...lol...? That red looks sick with the lime green

Hahaha, you know the thought crossed my mind, I think it just shows that the Camaro will look good in just about any color combination. But no, I wouldn't actually do lime green and red, not my style!

[jdrop01]

M105 and 205 are my favorite go to items for paint correction! So easy to use and great results! Awesome detail man!