First Products to buy

I would return the MF "wash pad" and go to Wal-Mart or other local autocenter and find a quality lambswool washmitt. They are much softer and release dirt easier. You can tell if it is a quality lambswool if you look inside the mitt and you can see the leather hide.
 
ok, returning the washmit and the absorber to Walmart today. Looking for what you guys suggested. I'm also getting 303 interior cleaner and some type of cloth interior for my seats floor-board.



Recommend a good interior cloth cleaner for seats and floorboard I can get OTC at wal-mart, autozone, or home-depot? Thanks



-Cody
 
Well, I would get some products that can do many things. Like AIO (paint, plastic cleaner and protection) APC(cleans everything like mats, plastic, seats, doorjambs) ONR(great QD, clay lube, and wash) then a good LSP like UPP, MF towels, washmitts, and some pads.
 
Honestly, I love my absorber. It works a LOT better than the waffel weave microfiber drying towel I bought at Autozone. At first I was kinda hesitant to use it, but it really does a great job, I vote keep that.

For those who might say that it might cause scratches if theres any dirt or whatever on the paint, I think as long as you're careful about it and make sure that the car is actually CLEAN before you go dragging it along the paint, you shouldnt have anything to worry about. I dunno. I really like mine and I'd suggest at least giving it a fair try before you return itt
 
I know you only wanted to get stuff locally, but online can be cheaper and less hassle. Below is an extensive list of links to quality, good priced items from good vendors like Danase, Excel detail, and auto detailing solutions for great priced Meguiar's items.



DANASE



Lake Country Manufacturing CCS Pads Needed if you plan on using a polisher like a PC 7424



ClearKote Paint Care Package SMOKING price on a quality Clearkote package.



Four Star Medium Cut Compound Four Star MCC



Four Star Light Cut Compound Four Star LCC



Search Stoner products



Search Optimum



303 Cleaner and Spot Remover (32 ounce) The BEST interior spot cleaner



Towels & Accessories MF



AUTO DETAILING SOLUTIONS



Meguiars Microfiber Towels Meg's MF drying towels, buffing towels, thick wash mitt



Auto Detailing Applicator Pads Meg's yellow foam are the best to use because of the lack of wasted product and they are easy on the finish.



Meguiars Protecting Products Meg's 26 liquid yellow wax and 21 synthetic sealant



Meguiars Polishing Products Meg's 83, 82, 80, and 7 are good choices from this page



Auto Detailing Wash Mitts Meg's wash mitts



Also, order $100 or more from the above place, and you get a free Meg's duffle bag. :woot: They also have a lot of great gallon sized stuff in the "detailer line" on the site you might check out.



EXCEL DETAIL



3 Med. weight Pure Australian Sheepskin washmits. Great price on a quality 3 pack of sheepsking wash mitts



Detailing Clay Clay



Optimum Car Care Good prices on Optmum items, even trial 4 oz sizes too! :2thumbs:



Microfiber/Waffle Weave Drying Towels MF



Duragloss Duragloss



Collinite Waxes Collinite
 
there are many threads about the absorber, but if you are using one, I strongly recommend using the blot method for drying with one, so there is no change of dragging trapped dirt across your paint. No on is perfect, and even the best of us could accidently leave a small peice of grit on the surface, and with no knap for the grit to go into, you're going to get scratches unless you blot.
 
I'm sort of new to all of this detailing also so I just started off small. The products that I used are very basic but still did great job. Last week I did my red monte carlo and I got awsome results without spending alot of money of fancy products.

The products that I used:

exterior:

-mothers clay bar $18 at napa (does the same job as any other clay) came with spray and wax

-megs scratchX $10 at napa (hand polished entire car with $3 handy grip applicator from autopia...took some time and effort but it got out the light and most numerous swirls and left the car with a very shiny deep red look

-waxed with mothers wax that came with the clay...did two thin layers 24 hours apart

-for buffing and whipping all of these products I used 2 sonus der wonder buffing towels that were i think 7 or 8 bucks for both from autopia. They worked great and didn't leave any wax dust

For the interior I used good old armor all original. I still think it is the best product out there.

-only spent about 45-50 bucks and got great results...my cars color is now deep and very shiny. For the money I spent, I am very satisified. (pics soon to come)

Hope this helps,

Ryan
 
Look.. pictures of money in the form of cleaning products I just bought today...



cleaning007mediumwd4.jpg




Same products broken down for their close-up shots...

cleaning008mediumtk0.jpg




cleaning009mediummr2.jpg




cleaning010mediumvx6.jpg




all this was bought at Walmart.
 
A nice start! What's left of the budget?



A few things I can think of that are easy to get.



Woolite

ScratchX

sprayer bottle

Simple Green

Meg's Natural Shine protectant
 
Ok, now down to the Business end...



Plan:

- rinse car with water

- Use "Meguiar's Car Wash" to lather it on with my "MicroFiber Mit"

- Rinse off with water

- Dry by blotting with my "absorber".

- Wax with "Meguiar's NXT tech wax" using an electric buffer that I plan on buying tomorrow.

- Clean Windows and headlight covers with "PlastX" and "Stoner's Invisible Glass" using my ultra soft "microfiber rags

- Wash tires with water then spray on "Meguiar's Hot Rim's All Wheel Cleaner" on all parts of the wheel, rubber and rim.

- wait like 5min then scrub the **** out of the wheels with the same cleaner.

- Go Interior and vacuum using my "rigid 5hp" shop-vac.

- Clean interior with water and "micro-fiber" walffle weave towell.

- Use "ArmorAll Gel" to wipe down interior with my "micro-fiber applicator pad", using it on everything from the turnsignal to the dash and center console.

- Spray all the seats with a little febreze.



done.



Questions:

- Do I need to use a polish? my truck is 2004 and still pretty good looking when it's cleaned up, though I doubt it's ever been polished. If so what polish and how do I do it start to finish.



- Do I need something to "clean" the dash and interior other than water/rag before I ArmorAll it.





Whatcha think?
 
Woolite to Water 1:6 or even Meguiar's Quik Interior Detailer to clean the inside.



I wouldn't step up to a dedicated polish unitl you get a Porter Cable..Use ScratchX for any bad small areas and NXT has a decent hiding/filling ability



BTW..did you mean to pick up ScratchX instead of PlastX?
 
I would suggest cleaning your wheels and tires before you wax (or even wash) the rest of your car. This will prevent your recently detailed paint and trim from getting sprayed with grime/water from your wheels/tires.
 
Will do. My tires look kinda dried out I guess along the outer rim. Will the tire cleaner I bought take care of all this? All I do is spray it on and wait huh? pretty amazin.
 
I could be wrong, but I don't think the Meguiar's Hot Rims spray is meant for your tires. It does a nice job cleaning brake dust off the wheels, though. I usually scrub my tires with car soap and dress them with Armor All's Extreme Tire Shine gel ... but that's just me.
 
johny said:
I could be wrong, but I don't think the Meguiar's Hot Rims spray is meant for your tires. It does a nice job cleaning brake dust off the wheels, though. I usually scrub my tires with car soap and dress them with Armor All's Extreme Tire Shine gel ... but that's just me.
Click to expand...



anyone know if this is true? do I need anything else?
 
Eh, I've never bought anything specificly for cleaning the tires...... if they're dirty I'll scrub them with some APC and water, but rarely do my tires ever get dirty enough that just wiping them down quickly while applying the tire shine doesnt do a good enough job.......
 
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