Detailed my daily driver - my first ever detail :-)

[walletless]

I have a lot more details on my blog post (see link in my signature at bottom), so I will keep this post to necessary pics and details. I detailed my 4-month old 2012 Nissan Altima (daily driver) today. I just completed a road trip, so the car is filthy. Once the dealer glaze wore off, I could see tons of scratches and swirls in the car.. the pics below explain it better than any words.



Before Pics:

Products Used



Wash & Dry:

Claying:

Compounding:

Polishing:

Sealing/Waxing:

After Pics:

Laundry for tonight:

What next?

It is best to have two layer of wax or sealant. Some people top the sealant with a Carnauba wax, while some top it of with another sealant. My goal is to get the best durability, which rules out Carnauba. I decided to top off with Collinite 845 – a highly durable hybrid liquid (i.e. sealant + wax mix). FK1000p has a cure time of 3 days for best looks, so I have decided to wait a full week and top off with #845 next weekend. Stay tuned for an update

My blog post has a lot more detail and pics from each step. Follow the link in my signature if you are interested.

Thanks for looking!

 

[darkonion]

Nice job. That looks great!

 

[walletless]

Thanks darkonion!

 

[cptzippy]

Nice work.

 

[imported_WCD]

Wow! Thank you for the email and for using our towels!



Rob

 

[Underdawg736GTC]

For your first detail, you did pretty dang good! Looks like you did a helluva lot better job then the dealership did....but then again I have yet to see a dealership car look as good as the majority of the cars on here!!

As for layering sealants and 'nuba, I usually lay down 2 coats of sealant and then a layer of 'nuba as you will get the protection of the sealant along with the depth and wet look of 'nuba! I usually use NXT 2.0 and M26 and that'll last me at least 3 months before reapplying more coats.

Again your dd looks awesome, keep up the great work!! :2thumbs:

 

[tom p.]

I detailed my 4-month old 2012 Nissan Altima (daily driver) today.

I'm going to ask the question: how can a nearly brand-new car have that amount of damage?



Very good job with the fotos and recovery. It looks really good :thumb:

 

[imported_MCA]

Nice job on your first ever detail! Since you have a black car (specifically soft black Nissan paint) that is near perfection, this is where the real work begins :chuckle:

 

[walletless]

Nice work.

Wow! Thank you for the email and for using our towels!

Rob

Thanks cptzippy & Rob.

The towels were awesome - very soft and plush!

For your first detail, you did pretty dang good! Looks like you did a helluva lot better job then the dealership did....but then again I have yet to see a dealership car look as good as the majority of the cars on here!!

As for layering sealants and 'nuba, I usually lay down 2 coats of sealant and then a layer of 'nuba as you will get the protection of the sealant along with the depth and wet look of 'nuba! I usually use NXT 2.0 and M26 and that'll last me at least 3 months before reapplying more coats.

Again your dd looks awesome, keep up the great work!! :2thumbs:

Not all the scratches were dealership installed.. After the glaze wore off, I could see lots of swirls and scratches.. and my poor handling added tons more.

I'm going to ask the question: how can a nearly brand-new car have that amount of damage?



Very good job with the fotos and recovery. It looks really good :thumb:

Yes, it was in pretty bad shape.. its tough the maintain the finish when the car is parked outside in direct sunlight and lots of trees around (bird droppings galore) about 10 hours everyday.. My work place does not have covered parking, and to top it, there is lots of construction going on that make things worse :-(

So, what you are looking at is a car that has gone through several road trip in torrential rains, which has been exposed to sunlight, bird dropping, and construction dust everyday 8-10 hours, and neglected by the owner (me) for so long.

Nice job on your first ever detail! Since you have a black car (specifically soft black Nissan paint) that is near perfection, this is where the real work begins :chuckle:

Thanks MCA. Someone told me that black car is like a second job.. I think he was wrong - its like a first job!!

Next week: Collonite 845

 

[tom p.]

So, what you are looking at is a car that has gone through several road trip in torrential rains, which has been exposed to sunlight, bird dropping, and construction dust everyday 8-10 hours, and neglected by the owner (me) for so long.

You may be an excellent candidate for something like the "permanent" OptiCoat product. Give it some future consideration.

 

[Accumulator]

walletless- Hey, that turned out *great* :xyxthumbs



One thing though...do you currently have FK1000P on it? IF so, I would *NOT* top it with 845 (which I also use). I simply can't see any benefit (not any appearance boost, for instance) to using that instead of a second coat of FK1000P, and the FK is, IME, a lot more durable. It also really *needs* two coats IME.

 

[walletless]

You may be an excellent candidate for something like the "permanent" OptiCoat product. Give it some future consideration.

Yes.. but I already have lots of sealants and waxes.. Need to get through them before dropping more $ to buy another LSP.

^^ The pic above is missing several paste wax.. I have Megs Ultimate Paste wax, the FK1000p, and one more (don't remember the name)

 

[walletless]

walletless- Hey, that turned out *great* :xyxthumbs



One thing though...do you currently have FK1000P on it? IF so, I would *NOT* top it with 845 (which I also use). I simply can't see any benefit (not any appearance boost, for instance) to using that instead of a second coat of FK1000P, and the FK is, IME, a lot more durable. It also really *needs* two coats IME.

Thanks Accumulator. Thats good advice.. I will try that - top with fk1000p instead of 845. I have read so many great things about 845, I thought it would be a good candidate to top with.

 

[Scottwax]

Good job fixing the dealer's hack job!

 

[walletless]

Good job fixing the dealer's hack job!

Thanks Scottwax. Hopefully, I will be able to maintain the car better this time around.. following your ONR guidelines

 

[SamS]

Incredible work! How long did it take you?

 

[walletless]

Incredible work! How long did it take you?

Thanks SamS. This was my first time, so I took plenty of time and did things very slowly. Washing/drying and claying took about an hour each. I spent about an hour on the test spot to ensure that I am using a product that will be effective. UC worked great, but I also tried SwirlX and M101. SwirlX did not give me enough correction, and M101 gave me great correction but left behind a lot of powdery/dusty mess, so UC seemed like the best product. Compound and polishing took about 2-3 hours each!!! After compounding, I took a break and resumed next day (I washed the entire car with ONR QD strength before starting next day - so another 45 minutes spent there). Yes, I was THAT slow. I am sure things will be faster when I do this next time, but I wanted to be as careful as I can for the first time. Waxing was the EASIEST - took about 15-20 minutes to put on, another 15 minutes to take off..



Overall, start to finish, I spent about 10 hours between 2 days.

 

[imported_truzoom]

From what I understand, you used Meguiar's Ultimate Compound with a random orbital. How did that work out in terms of:



1. Working time

2. Dusting

3. Cutting/Finishing

4. Pressure needed to get results

5. Ease of wipe off and any residual oils



I briefly experimented with UC on my 7336 and a orange LC CCS pad and was surprised at how well it did for 95% of the imperfections on daily driver paint. It got rid of swirls, a few deeper scratches, and left a very clean finish that didn't "smear" during wipe off (no evidence of oils left behind). I only did one panel, though, as I did the rest of the vehicle with a rotary.



I read that UC is a reworked version of M105 so it should cut but finish very close to LSP application...

 

[walletless]

I don't know the history of UC and M105, but I found UC a PLEASURE to work with. M105 gave me much better cut and correction, but left lots of powdery dust (in fact, in one of the pics in the OP, you can see that I remove the tape, and the test spot was full of white chalky dust.. that was from 105). As far as I can tell, UC removed all the swirls and scratches, but I had to put quite a bit of downward pressure to get that correction.



I would chose UC any day over 105 for light scratches and swirls. For deep scratches, I have heard great things about Megs DAMF, and several people have reported that it is much easier to use than M105.. so I plan to add that to my supplies list soon and get rid of M105 if DAMF works fine.



To answer your questions directly:

1) Work time: About 5 section passes removed all the heavy swirls and scratches you see in the OP pics. Again, good amount of downward pressure was requried.

2) Dusting: None seen.. the product breaks down, and after 5 passses, I can still see a faint "path of travel".. so pretty long dry time if you ask me

3) Cut was great.. you can judge it from my "after" pics

4) Pressure: Yes, significant.. I put a mark on my backing plate, and I can clearly see the backing plate rotating.. if the mark shows and dissapears quckly its rotating too fast and you need to put more pressure. YMMV depending on the condition of the paint

5) Super easy wipe off.



IMO, Megs UC is a keeper. Easy apply, long dry time, and easy wipe off.

 

[JohnAndrew]

Nice job, the results speak for themselves. I am very interested in doing my car like this, BUT my self seems like I have lot to learn before I do that. Hell, I think I love doing this so much I once even went to a franchise consultant to start a car wash business, too bad I was not meeting the minimum experience requirement... Loving my time here and learning how to detail.