Your Ideal Product Line-Up for My Small Budget Please

B

BlueBoxer1

New member
Well I've been soaking in a ton of info over the last few days. One things that is overwhelming is the variety of products out there. As a Noob, I really can't figure out how to match products in a way that makes sense. That's where you veterans come in! I don't have alot of cash to burn on product, so I'd like to get a simple line-up of products that work well. Please post what you would recommend I get for my starting detail line-up, both for exterior and interior.



As a guideline, I have about $50-$100 tops to spend on my exterior line-up, and about $50 for my interior line-up. In my garage I have some Meg paint cleaner and polish, but I'm happy to replace those if there is a "system" that works better. I also have lexol leather cleaner and conditioner which I'll keep and use. I'd like to replace my carnauba with some synthetic that will last longer. I'll need something for the dash, wheels, tires and glass (although maybe I can just use 303 on the tires since I'll get that for the black trim, and I have some non-ammonia Windex kicking aorund here).



Although I still don't fully get the whole "accelerator" concept, using polishes and waxes that cure in less than hour instead of in 24 hours makes sense to me since then I can recoat in the same day.



So let's see it, your full ideal product line-up for my basic budget! Thanks alot in advance!
 
optimum hyper compound

optimum polish

mix the two and you have something close to optimum compound

meguiars APC+

optimum protectant plus

optimum poliseal

DONE - everything you may need to keep your car clean....

except tire dressings and window cleaner....but use APC+ on everything...carpets, dash, leather, etc
 
Save your $$ for a polisher if you don't have one. At this point unless you want to spend hours upon hours of agonizing hand polishing, I would stick with just getting some wax for protection. The Collinite 845 is a good one to start with, awesome durability with a very good look. OH, and get a clay bar if you don't have one either.
 
If you want to go budget and get great results...get the Duragloss line..



great products for the money...will rival some of the top contenders...a complete product package will keep you under your 100.00 budget..they ship for 4.95 for what ever you get



also can be found at some carquest stores



Duragloss Car Care Products





get..



Duragloss 105 Total Performance Polish ..it is called polish but is a sealant



DuraGloss Aquawax...a spray sealant to use monthly after a wash..really brings out the shine and slickness...



Collinite as a topper if you need one for winter ...can be found at some boat Marina's or Advanced Auto can get it for you..







But check out the Duragloss line...you will not regret it..look at the posts here about it....



Al
 
What Meguiars products do you currently have? Most people here are pretty brand focused, but the truth is you can get great results from most brands. If you are on a budget, use what you have. Like Grimm said, a PC is a wise investment, especially if you already have the polishes. Doing things by hand is very slow and tedious (a week to do what a PC can do in a day). The look you see here in many pics is all prep. The wax or sealant really adds maybe 5% to the look.
 
A key question - Do you intend to detail just your car(s) or others as well?



As yakky and grim stated above, the Porter Cable DA should be your first investment IF you intend to polish frequently - removing marring can be like pulling teeth if done by hand. I say if because it's a matter of preference. I use to break out the PC for everything (polishing and applying as LSP). However these days, it's relegated to polishing work - I can apply an LSP by hand faster and just as thin and even. I digress...



Anyways in regards to your original question, I recently tried the Hi-Temp line of polishes/levelers from Top of the Line and they perform extremely well at an unbeatable price (32oz for less than $8!). I think if you will be polishing many cars then Hi-Temp polishes may be a good line to start with . I actually prefer Menzerna polishes, but they are expensive and would not be good for your budget.



For LSP, get *any sealant of choice* and top with Duragloss Aquawax. Sounds strange buts AW really brings a lot to the table in terms of looks and added durability.



Hope that helps...MCA
 
Zaino is well worth the money. You can get most of the Zaino stuff for under $150 interior and exterior. If you want to spend less the go with Mothers Powerpolish, Duragloss 105, AW.
 
Well, if budget is your main goal then Optimum.



PoliSeal

Protectant Plus

Optimum Tire Shine-Armor All-Bold&Bright for tires.



You don't really need a glass cleaner as plain ol water works just great.



If you have a polisher than Optimum Polish and Hyper, as suggested earlier, are great not only performance wise but cost also.



AIO is also a nice product but can be costly.



No-Rinse is a nice product as you can use it not onlt to wash your car but also as a clay lube and quick detailer.



Anthony
 
My recommendations for the budget minded detailer:



Another vote for Duragloss. I'd recommend the Duragloss #105 ($10.00) topped with Duragloss Aquawax ($6.00). The Duragloss wash ($5.00) is also nice.



If you have a polisher I'd recommend Optimum polish ($20.00).



Tire foam ($5.00), just pick one....You can use your wash soap to clean the rims. Just get a good soft brush.



Meguiar's Waffle Weave Drying towel ($8.00) from a lot of parts stores.



Sheep Skin wash mitt ($6.00)



For interior I would get:



Folex ($5.00) for your floor mats and carpet. It's very cheap and can be had about anywhere and works pretty much better than anything out there....and it doesn't have a bad odor either.



Meguiar's Natural Shine vinyl and rubber protectant ($5.00) for the dash and such. Again, it can be had about anywhere (Autozone).



Swiffer ($.5.00) for dusting the inside of the car.. These things are great for getting dust and hanging onto it. I keep one tucked down inside my door all the time. You never know when the urge to dust will hit......I'm ready :-)



Stoners ($4.00) to clean your windows.



Woolite ($5.00) to clean leather seats if you have them. Mix 10-1 with water.



MF towels ($12.00) for a 25 pack at Sam's



And on and on and on. Point is, there are a lot of nice products out there that won't break the bank.



Russell
 
Why Woolite for leather? I have Lexol leather cleaner the spray kind. I heard to stay away from bars because they have glycerine, I guess I should check and see if the spray has it too. Thanks for all the advice guys, keep it coming! What's a good "one stop shop" website where I can get my line-up and only pay shipping once?
 
BlueBoxer1 said:
As a guideline, I have about $50-$100 tops to spend on my exterior line-up, and about $50 for my interior line-up. In my garage I have some Meg paint cleaner and polish, but I'm happy to replace those if there is a "system" that works better. I also have lexol leather cleaner and conditioner which I'll keep and use. I'd like to replace my carnauba with some synthetic that will last longer. I'll need something for the dash, wheels, tires and glass (although maybe I can just use 303 on the tires since I'll get that for the black trim, and I have some non-ammonia Windex kicking aorund here).



Although I still don't fully get the whole "accelerator" concept, using polishes and waxes that cure in less than hour instead of in 24 hours makes sense to me since then I can recoat in the same day.
Click to expand...



I know it's over your budget, but this is what I use......



Porter Cable (or Meguiar's G100)



Meguiar's backing plate



Meguiar's 8006 and 9006 pads



Meguiar's #83, #80



Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax or #21 sealant



(The above all work together very well. )



Meguiar's Detailer Window Cleaner concentrate (makes 10 gallons and works great).



Meguiar's Detailer Leather Cleaner and Conditioner (one step easy to use - good price).



Meguiar's Detailer All Purpose Cleaner (concentrate - low concentrations for interior cleaning, higher for carpets, still higher for engine compartment)



Meguiar's Quick Interior Detailer (one step product - cleaner and dressing for all interior surfaces)



Meguiar's NXT Protectant (plastic, rubber vinyl)



Meguiar's Gold Class Wheel Cleaner (safe for ALL wheel types including uncoated aluminum)



Meguiar's Endurance tire dressing





Although NXT Tech Wax and #21 may take 12 - 24 hours to cure, according to Meguiar's the added benefit of layering is minimal, if for no other reason that the process of applying a second coat mechanically (friction) removes some of the underlying coat.



Two coats applied one after the other ensures maximum coverage.





Obviously, I like Meguiar's because their products perform well, work together with each other and are applied with a minimum of hocus pocus B.S. Further, it has been my experience that Mreguiar's is the easiest company to get answers from and Mike Phillips knows his stuff and is available - he posts his cell number on MeguiarsOnLine.Com



For newbees, the MeguiarsOnLine has some of the best instructional threads. These are worth reading no matter which products you wind up choosing.



Head-on-71K.jpg
 
If you won't be buying a polisher, I'd recommend picking up some polishes that work well by hand so you can at least have some type of paint correction. The 1z line works great by hand in my experience, and the Sonus polishes are supposed to work nicely by hand as well. A hand-polisher like the Polishin Pal or Power-Palm can be helpful there as well.



A product with fillers is also a good idea while working by hand to hide the defects that you can't fix. Clearkote's Vanilla Moose is a nice all-in-one cleaner/basecoat wax that fills well - top it with a carnauba or a glaze-friendly sealant like Poorboys EX/EX-P. If you do go the Zaino route as some suggested, Z5pro has decent filling abilities.
 
I guess it depends on the paint condition, but on my new car I've pretty much settled on:



2 buckets with Grit Guards, Shmitt and Einszett Exclusive Glanz shampoo.

Carlack (basically Klasse AIO) paint cleaner.

Collinite 476 Wax

Chemical Guys Extreme Synthetic QD to help with drying

Sonus drying towels and applicators.

Einszett Tyre Foam.



And for the interior:



Einszett Cockpit Premium

Gliptone (not sure UK Gliptone brand is the same as the US Gliptone) Liquid Leather Cleaner and Conditioner



All that said, if I were in the US I'd probably just go buy a ton of Duragloss products as they seem dirt cheap over there and everyone seems to have only good things to say about them.
 
BlueBoxer1 said:
Why Woolite for leather? I have Lexol leather cleaner the spray kind. I heard to stay away from bars because they have glycerine, I guess I should check and see if the spray has it too. Thanks for all the advice guys, keep it coming! What's a good "one stop shop" website where I can get my line-up and only pay shipping once?
Click to expand...



If you have the Lexol I'd just use that, never found anything wrong with it myself. Woolite is just something that usually works quite well and is cheap and available.



One-stop shopping: Top of the Line Auto Detailing Supplies and/or Aloha & Welcome to Our Oasis for All Your Auto Detailing Supplies & Accessories but I'm overlooking *so* many others that I really hate to post (only) those two (see also http://www.danase.com/ and Welcome to Excel! and "sorry" to everyone I didn't mention).



I'd spend some money on stuff that many take for granted: wash suplies including a foamgun (Danase again) and some very good MF towels.



And I agree with Firegate, you can get by with 1Z polish and some LSP like Collinite if you work by hand. Polishers are nice (hey, I have five of 'em) but they aren't essential (look at how long ScottWax did everything by hand and MirrorFinishMan still does...and those guys are making their living at this stuff).
 
Anthony Orosco said:
Well, if budget is your main goal then Optimum.



PoliSeal

Protectant Plus

Optimum Tire Shine-Armor All-Bold&Bright for tires.
Click to expand...



I'd add Optimum No Rinse for washing, plus at QD strength, it works great on paint and glass.
 
hutchingsp said:
Gliptone (not sure UK Gliptone brand is the same as the US Gliptone) Liquid Leather Cleaner and Conditioner
Click to expand...



I contacted Gliptone to ask this question for the following reasons:



a) it seems to be regarded as a high-end product in the UK and as a "as seen on TV" low-end brand in the US

b) the instructions for the conditioner is different for the UK/Europe 250ml bottle vs the US 8oz version -- the UK bottle says no wiping is required after applying the conditioner because it is fully absorbed -- the US version says some wiping may be required



This was the response verbatim from Gliptone:

Almost Identical. You would not notice any difference. As I mentioned in my

email, we ship the concentrate over in bulk. In the final processing of the

product, you may detect the slightest difference in viscosity. The labeling

is different for the different to better suit the UK market.​



I had purchased both versions prior to asking and they look about the same. The write-up on the UK site (gliptone.com) is pretty compelling and what convinced me to try was that it was the first product I've seen where the conditioner is fully absorbed and doesn't require wiping. I've only used it so far in a spot test on an area treated previously with Leatherique and Lexol and I think it compares favorably -- seemed to soften the leather. Supposedly there was an independent test in the UK that found Gliptone superior to Leatherique and UK, but I haven't been able to find it (just heard about it on a web forum and that's what made take a look at it). Unfortunately, I haven't tried it enough yet to make a strong statement about how effective it is.
 
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