Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi All,

As a new member offering specials to other members, i have started getting questions about what different terms mean ect so i thought i would post this which i put on another forum i advertise on and helped alot of people.

Hey Guys,

As some people or most people in general get methods, terms, and processes mixed up or incorrect I have decided to do a know all tell all post on the difference and what is what. I will post in the order that I do a car.

Wheel cleaning: This is self explanatory. I use a few cleaners, P21s, Sonax, Chem Guys, and use soft wheel face brushes and E-Z reach brushes that have a rubber coated wire and soft bristles

Degrease- This is not a “must-do” but I like to use a citrus degreaser on the lower half of the car and wheel wells. I also use a chem. Degreaser on tires to “pull” dirt out from them. DO NOT LET THESE DRY

Foaming- Most of you know what a foam is and I do this whilst having the degreaser and wheel cleaner on the wheels it allows it to dwell longer without drying.

Rinse- All of the above off and repeat wheel or tires cleaning is needed

Hand Wash- 2 bucket method, this is highly recommended though not always a must either I believe “grit-guards” are a MUST HAVE though. Wash top half of car then bottom half after preferably using a different mitt but not necessary.

Rinse- Again

Clay Bar- This is a special clay used to remove contaminants from your paint and leave it A LOT smoother and nicer. You must use a lube for this to avoid marring the paint and should only be done if you have read and know what you are doing to avoid scratches and marring.

Rinse- Yep again

Polishing- This is a term to describe the use of an abrasive medium generally in the form of a liquid to REMOVE paint from a surface. This is done to remove the scratches by levelling the surrounding paint to the lowest level.

There are many different pad and polish combinations around polishing is as much about the pad choice as it is the polish DO NOT USE MICROFIBRES OR RAGS TO POLISH!

THIS IS HIGHLY RECCOMENDED FOR A PROFFESIONAL AS TO NOT BURN YOUR PAINT OR POLISH THOUGH YOUR PAINT!

Buff- Buffing is using a cloth or microfiber to remove residue left over from polish, paint cleansers, waxes, sealants and quick details. This is not abrasive nor does it have anything to do with the surface your left with except removing residue.

Paint Cleansing- This is not a necessary step but does make a different in the scheme of things. This helps pull out any further residue, oils, and can also help “jewel” your paint or “refine” it to that next level admitably most people wouldn’t tell the difference. It also helps prep the surface for wax and sealants to bond better.

Buff- Off the cleanser

Sealant- Sealants are generally a synthetic that have a higher bonding and are longer lasting than a carnauba wax but do not have as much depth and gloss. Sealants are generally “sheet” water rather than “bead”

Buff- Off the sealant

Wax- Waxes can be synthetic, carnauba, bees. , and other waxes, always a mixture the biggest selling gimmick is 70% carnauba or whatever it is a high percentage.

Carnauba is like cement when 100% and is not workable nor can you apply it to a car. There are different grades of carnauba but I’ll leave that to another day.

Generally that 70% carnauba is 70% by volume which means 70% of the wax content is carnauba which could be only 30% of the total volume or less! Wow now we are under 30% carnauba wax already! Then again some could be 70% of the carnauba is grade 1 white the other is lower grade yellow then the total of that is only part of a mixture that is 30% of total volume so it gets lower again.

Key thing with a wax is remember 2-3 microns of wax is all a layer is, most paints from factory are 150-200microns and resprays up to 500microns but normally around 300-400 microns so your wax layer should only be 1/100 of that! That’s why you do two layers to ensure you got full coverage.

I try to apply the wax in the direction of the wind or water will bead off some say wanky but I just do.

Next step is Buff for a final time.

Then stand back review and my favourite thing is getting a bottle of nice water not ****ty mineral water if you have bad tap water use a bottle and pour it gently on the surface to see it sheet and bead off!

Any more questions just ask.

Ps I know this is a long post but I had to do it redface.gif

Hopefully its left no one feeling confused.gif oreek.gif

Regards,

Mitch

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/369354-detailing-and-car-care-de-coded/
Share on other sites

good info thanks

I'm looking at doing a basic wash, clay, wash, polish/sealant and wax on my car, nothing hardcore and something readily available

between mothers and meguire range, which would be your preference?

This is what i like:

Wash Shampoo- Bowdens Own Body Gel or DODO Juice Born to be Mild

Wheels- Bowdens Wheel Cleaner, Sonax Full Effect Cleaner

Clay Bar- just make sure you use the right bar they come in soft medium heavy for varying levels of contaimination, the heavy will marr your paint and is used prior to a paint correct of a extrmely soiled paint.

Polish/Sealant- I dont believe in this polish/sealant polish/wax, get a polish and a sealant not a "one product all jobs" thing. I dont believe in hand polishing because it way to labour intensive and also you will never get the same finish, well within reason, as you do with a machine due to automatically pushing hard. When machine polishing you only apply around 6-8kg of force including the weight of the machine approx 2-3kg push on a scale and see how much pressure that is to get an idea.

Wax- Bowdens Own Wax quick easy and great, for a paste wax i love Naviwax which you will find on UK ebay its one of my favorite and also reasonably priced it comes in dark light and ultimate for different paints

Hope that helps you.

Also i would strongly reccomend visiting waxit.com.au for a microfibre chamois and cloths bowdensown.com.au for their products all can be shipped to your door at a low cost $10 flat fee i believe you save that in fuel and time easily.

Regards,

Mitch

Mitch I'd get my car detailed by you just so I could meet the models on your site .. LOL

but good info :)

why are all the good detailers in melbourne! I don't think perth has anybody that does really professional detailing .. I do all my work from home even though I work at a detailer and we can do our cars there for free whenever we want ... although i do do my $700 sexcel there thumbsup.gif

will definitely be getting mine done with mitch!

Nice meeting you yesterday, look forward to detailing the Stagea

Mitch I'd get my car detailed by you just so I could meet the models on your site .. LOL

but good info :)

why are all the good detailers in melbourne! I don't think perth has anybody that does really professional detailing .. I do all my work from home even though I work at a detailer and we can do our cars there for free whenever we want ... although i do do my $700 sexcel there thumbsup.gif

Thanks, Im doing a trip in a couple months for a few Muscle car owners, 57 Chev, 69 Camaro, Firebird and a couple others over in WA. Could always squeeze another in :P.

Regards,

Mitch

will definitely be getting mine done with mitch!

Nice meeting you yesterday look forward to detailing the Stagea

Mitch I'd get my car detailed by you just so I could meet the models on your site .. LOL

but good info :)

why are all the good detailers in melbourne! I don't think perth has anybody that does really professional detailing .. I do all my work from home even though I work at a detailer and we can do our cars there for free whenever we want ... although i do do my $700 sexcel there thumbsup.gif

Im doing a trip in a couple months for a few Muscle car owners, 57 Chev, 69 Camaro, Firebird and a couple others over in WA. Could always squeeze another in

  • 2 weeks later...

Nice meeting you yesterday look forward to detailing the Stagea

Im doing a trip in a couple months for a few Muscle car owners, 57 Chev, 69 Camaro, Firebird and a couple others over in WA. Could always squeeze another in

hey man....

COUNT ME IN IF UR "ANOTHER" BECOMES "ANOTHER TWO" :) also Jonno is a friend of mine...so im sure we cud get together to do both cars etc.

Rather then starting a new thread thought I'd ask in here

Whats your best method of removing overspray from paintwork?

I have pretty bad overspray on my car and it costs an arm and a leg to get it removed by local detailers, would rather do it myself

Clay bar doesnt seem to get it all off, so maybe I need to clay bar then give it a light polish?

Thanks :)

Rather then starting a new thread thought I'd ask in here

Whats your best method of removing overspray from paintwork?

I have pretty bad overspray on my car and it costs an arm and a leg to get it removed by local detailers, would rather do it myself

Clay bar doesnt seem to get it all off, so maybe I need to clay bar then give it a light polish?

Thanks :)

Hi Callan,

A claybar is the best way, I will make the assumption you bought a kit from a local autoparts store?

Claybars come in various levels fine medium heavy generally, try a heavier bar, this will have a tendancy to marr the paint so you will need to follow up with a polish to perfect it again.

What sort of prices are you getting for a claying?

Hi

Last time I ha it done my work payed for it as it was there fault. The time before from memory was about $450 for overspray removal and a full wax (I think)

I've used the mothers and Maguires clay bar kits and they work well but dont quite get everything off and was thinking maybe I should be doing a light polish after this

Thought all clay bars were basically the same so thanks for clearing that up :)

Hi

Last time I ha it done my work payed for it as it was there fault. The time before from memory was about $450 for overspray removal and a full wax (I think)

I've used the mothers and Maguires clay bar kits and they work well but dont quite get everything off and was thinking maybe I should be doing a light polish after this

Thought all clay bars were basically the same so thanks for clearing that up :)

BAHHH $450! I do a basic detail for $350 plus $50 for clay bar Thats full wash interior polish and sealant and wax!

Call Antonio at Waxit as said above and speak to him about a heavier clay bar. Id reccomend that first.

Not a problem :)

Yeah prices for anything where I live are pretty rediculous lol

Will check out Waxit, been looking at some of there products lately, looks like they stock some good stuff

And heaps that isnt on their site I reccomend giving them a call.

Plus 12.50 flat rate for shipping makes it well work while on larger orders and over 150 I think is FREE well worth it :P

  • 1 month later...

Hi Mitch,

From reading the thread, I've gathered that the steps are

1) Wash

2) Clay

3) Wash

4) Polish

5) Sealant

6) Wax

I have some Mother products which I do not know if they're what I think they are.

http://www.mothers.com/02_products/05701-05500.html ====> Cleaner Wax, Can this be step 6 or could be a replacement for step 4? On the Mother website it looks like this is the first step following sealant and Carnauba wax. If so, I'm missing the final Carnuaba wax.

http://www.autoglym.com/enGB/product-proddetail.asp?v06VQ=HD ====> Auto Glym Resin Polish, step 4?

Does it mean I have a double up for step 4 due to the resin polish and cleaner wax? I'm just trying to work out what I am missing for a proper full detail. Cheers.

hey mate, by "polish" it means cutting compound!

sealant and wax are interchangable or can be used together, generally people put the sealant down for long term protection followed by wax for extra gloss :) but you can use one without the other.

im not much of a fan of carnauba, for gloss i generally just use a quick detailing spray like gloss boost from final inspection. no doubt mitch will provide some good advice in terms of products as well though!

imo if you really want to detail your car, start purchasing products from places like final inspection or waxit.com.au, the products you can get are generally far superior than off the shelf products, and are generally not too much more expensive!

hey mate, by "polish" it means cutting compound!

sealant and wax are interchangable or can be used together, generally people put the sealant down for long term protection followed by wax for extra gloss :) but you can use one without the other.

im not much of a fan of carnauba, for gloss i generally just use a quick detailing spray like gloss boost from final inspection. no doubt mitch will provide some good advice in terms of products as well though!

imo if you really want to detail your car, start purchasing products from places like final inspection or waxit.com.au, the products you can get are generally far superior than off the shelf products, and are generally not too much more expensive!

Cool. Looks like I cant do the polish bit then. I've heard bad stories about trying to do them if you're unsure (making more swirl marks rather than getting rid of them!). I've got another product from Mother which is a pre wax cleaner which I use prior to sealant.

Sounds like the process which I have been doing with the products I have is correct. I'm pretty happy with the results all along but just wasnt sure if the steps were right. Only downside is the swirl marks are kinda still visible but cant really complain since I having done the cutting step. My last question is can that cleaner wax I have be used after the sealant or should it be before...?

Cheers for the explanation dude.

Jonno is correct, just remember you can top a sealant with a wax but you CANT top a wax with a sealant as sealants need to bond tou your paint and can onyl be layered if done within a flash time say 10-15 min depending on the product.

the mothers cleaner wax can be thrown in the bin its no good, use the AG SRP (super resin polish) as step 4 applied via hand is fine. I would reccomend a product called Prima Banna Gloss though instead, this is a glaze with carnauba in it also and is fantatic at hiding swirls as per Prima Amigo. see here keep in mind they will come back as they are filled not removed but makes a big difference. http://www.detailparadise.com.au/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3447 see the difference.

Then you can top that with a wax not a sealant, such as DP max wax or another wax you have.

I reccomend STRONGLY Naviwax IONCOAT from ebay.co.uk it last ages and looks great if you use bannana gloss and top with that it will appear swirls free for ages! if you use a cheap wax that doesnt last long it means its wears off and then the bannagloss will also as it wont be "held in".

Regards,

Mitch

Ps as Jonno said I strongly reccomend checking out www.bowdensown.com.au and www.waxit.com.au Support the people that support you.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • The other problem was one of those "oh shit we are going to die moments". Basically the high spec Q50s have a full electric steering rack, and the povo ones had a regular hydraulic rack with an electric pump.  So couple of laps into session 5 as I came into turn 2 (big run off now, happily), the dash turned into a christmas tree and the steering became super heavy and I went well off. I assumed it was a tyre failure so limped to the pits, but everything was OK. But....the master warning light was still on so I checked the DTCs and saw – C13E6 “Heat Protection”. Yes, that bloody steering rack computer sitting where the oil cooler should be has its own sensors and error logic, and decided I was using the steering wheel too much. I really appreciated the helpful information in the manual (my bold) POSSIBLE CAUSE • Continuing the overloading steering (Sports driving in the circuit etc,) “DATA MONITOR” >> “C/M TEMPERATURE”. The rise of steering force motor internal temperature caused the protection function to operate. This is not a system malfunction. INSPECTION END So, basically the electric motor in the steering rack got to 150c, and it decided to shut down without warning for my safety. Didn't feel safe. Short term I'll see if I can duct some air to that motor (the engine bay is sealed pretty tight). Long term, depending on how often this happens, I'll look into swapping the povo spec electric/hydraulic rack in. While the rack should be fine the power supply to the pump will be a pain and might be best to deal with it when I add a PDM.
    • And finally, 2 problems I really need to sort.  Firstly as Matt said the auto trans is not happy as it gets hot - I couldn't log the temps but the gauge showed 90o. On the first day I took it out back in Feb, because the coolant was getting hot I never got to any auto trans issues; but on this day by late session 3 and then really clearly in 4 and 5 as it got hotter it just would not shift up. You can hear the issue really clearly at 12:55 and 16:20 on the vid. So the good news is, literally this week Ecutek finally released tuning for the jatco 7 speed. I'll have a chat to Racebox and see what they can do electrically to keep it cooler and to get the gears, if anything. That will likely take some R&D and can only really happen on track as it never gets even warm with road use. I've also picked up some eye wateringly expensive Redline D6 ATF to try, it had the highest viscosity I could find at 100o so we will see if that helps (just waiting for some oil pan gaskets so I can change it properly). If neither of those work I need to remove the coolant/trans interwarmer and the radiator cooler and go to an external cooler....somewhere.....(goodbye washer reservoir?), and if that fails give up on this mad idea and wait for Nissan to release the manual 400R
    • So, what else.... Power. I don't know what it is making because I haven't done a post tune dyno run yet; I will when I get a chance. It was 240rwkw dead stock. Conclusion from the day....it does not need a single kw more until I sort some other stuff. It comes on so hard that I could hear the twin N1 turbos on the R32 crying, and I just can't use what it has around a tight track with the current setup. Brakes. They are perfect. Hit them hard all day and they never felt like having an issue; you can see in the video we were making ground on much lighter cars on better tyres under brakes. They are standard (red sport) calipers, standard size discs in DBA5000 2 piece, Winmax pads and Motul RBF600 fluid, all from Matty at Racebrakes Sydney. Keeping in mind the car is more powerful than my R32 and weighs 1780, he clearly knows his shit. Suspension. This is one of the first areas I need to change. It has electronically controlled dampers from factory, but everything is just way too soft for track work even on the hardest setting (it is nice when hustling on country roads though). In particular it rolls into oversteer mid corner and pitches too much under hard braking so it becomes unstable eg in the turn 1 kink I need to brake early, turn through the kink then brake again so I don't pirouette like an AE86. I need to get some decent shocks with matched springs and sway bars ASAP, even if it is just a v1 setup until I work out a proper race/rally setup later. Tyres. I am running Yoko A052 in 235/45/18 all round, because that was what I could get in approximately the right height on wheels I had in the shed (Rays/Nismo 18x8 off the old Leaf actually!). As track tyres they are pretty poor; I note GTSBoy recently posted a porker comparo video including them where they were about the same as AD09.....that is nothing like a top line track tyre. I'll start getting that sorted but realistically I should get proper sized wheels first (likely 9.5 +38 front and 11 +55 at the rear, so a custom order, and I can't rotate them like the R32), then work out what the best tyre option is. BTW on that, Targa Tas had gone to road tyres instead of semi slicks now so that is a whole other world of choices to sort. Diff. This is the other thing that urgently needs to be addressed. It left massive 1s out of the fish hook all day, even when I was trying not too (you can also hear it reving on the video, and see the RPM rising too fast compared to speed in the data). It has an open diff that Infiniti optimistically called a B-LSD for "Brake Limited Slip Diff". It does good straight line standing start 11s but it is woeful on the track. Nismo seem to make a 2 way for it.
    • Also, I logged some data from the ECU for each session (mostly oil pressures and various temps, but also speed, revs etc, can't believe I forgot accelerator position). The Ecutek data loads nicely to datazap, I got good data from sessions 2, 3 and 4: https://datazap.me/u/duncanhandleyhgeconsultingcomau/250813-wakefield-session-2?log=0&data=7 https://datazap.me/u/duncanhandleyhgeconsultingcomau/250813-wakefield-session-3?log=0&data=6 https://datazap.me/u/duncanhandleyhgeconsultingcomau/250813-wakefield-session-4?log=0&data=6 Each session is cut into 3 files but loaded together, you can change between them in the top left. As the test sessions are mostly about the car, not me, I basically start by checking the oil pressure (good, or at least consistent all day). These have an electrically controlled oil pump which targets 25psi(!) at low load and 50 at high. I'm running a much thicker oil than recommended by nissan (they said 0w20, I'm running 10w40) so its a little higher. The main thing is that it doesn't drop too far, eg in the long left hand fish hook, or under brakes so I know I'm not getting oil surge. Good start. Then Oil and Coolant temp, plus intercooler and intake temps, like this: Keeping in mind ambient was about 5o at session 2, I'd say the oil temp is good. The coolant temp as OK but a big worry for hot days (it was getting to 110 back in Feb when it was 35o) so I need to keep addressing that. The water to air intercooler is working totally backwards where we get 5o air in the intake, squish/warm it in the turbos (unknown temp) then run it through the intercoolers which are say 65o max in this case, then the result is 20o air into the engine......the day was too atypical to draw a conclusion on that I think, in the united states of freedom they do a lot of upsizing the intercooler and heat exchanger cores to get those temps down but they were OK this time. The other interesting (but not concerning) part for me was the turbo speed vs boost graph: I circled an example from the main straight. With the tune boost peaks at around 18psi but it deliberately drops to about 14psi at redline because the turbos are tiny - they choke at high revs and just create more heat than power if you run them hard all the way. But you can also see the turbo speed at the same time; it raises from about 180,000rpm to 210,000rpm which the boost falls....imagine the turbine speed if they held 18psi to redline. The wastegates are electrically controlled so there is a heap of logic about boost target, actual boost, delta etc etc but it all seems to work well
    • hahah when youtube subscribers are faster than my updates here. Yes some vid from the day is up, here:  Note that as with all track day videos it is boring watching after the bloopers at the start.  The off was a genuine surprise to me, I've literally done a thousand laps around the place and I've never had instability there; basically it rolled into oversteer, slipped, gripped and spat me out. On the way off I mowed down one of the instructor's cones and it sat there all day looking at me with accusing cone eyes as I drove past. 1:13:20 was my fastest lap, and it was in the second session, 3rd lap.  It (or me!) got slower throughout the day as it got hotter.      
×
×
  • Create New...