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Car Detailing: Do you have a preferred routine?

Ryan

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Keeping your car clean can be a lot of work, especially if you live or frequently travel on a dirt road. Personally, I don't get to detail my car as much as I'd like but occasionally I get to do a thorough cleaning. I wouldn't consider myself an advanced detailer, but since my passion for cars started young, so did my detailing habits.

When deep cleaning, I use a foam cannon. I don't think it really has much benefit over the traditional two-bucket system, but it looks cool when my car is covered with foam. After that, it gets a clay bar treatment, spray detailer to get any additional residue off, and then a wax. I don't really worry about using a polish or compound unless I have a scratch I need to get off, but my car is white so most of them aren't visible anyway. I bought a dual-action polisher a while back that I've been wanting to practice with. I've put a ceramic coating on my car myself before, but it required hours and hours of thorough cleaning before it was ready to apply.

Anyone else enjoy detailing their cars or have a preferred method/product?

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redriderbob

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My dad owned a detail shop... I use similar methods... but I have yet to wheel out my Charger... I still do it by hand. I use Chemical Guys products for basic cleaning and good old Turtle Wax for the shine...

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mopar22

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Do the same for the most part. I only clay when needed so i don't end up stripping the wax. I prefer Ammo products but most times i stick with Meguiars
 

Ryan

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Do the same for the most part. I only clay when needed so i don't end up stripping the wax. I prefer Ammo products but most times i stick with Meguiars
Meguiars is my favorite too.
 

Ryan

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I use meguiars sometimes, but if I am going to do a good hand wax I have found that Turtle Wax outlasts Meguiars.
Ultimate Liquid Wax is a good one from Meguiars. I haven’t used their NXT synthetic wax but I’ve heard good things about it.
 

UN4GTBL

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Depends on the amount of time I have and what needs to be done:

No time: touchless car wash
Some time: foam cannon + two bucket wash, and then dry with a blower and a quick interior vacuum/wipe down
Semi-annually: foam cannon + two bucket wash, and then dry with a blower, ceramic coating top-up and a full interior vacuum/wipe down/leather top-up
Full clean: foam cannon + two bucket wash, and then dry with a blower + paint correction (clay, polish with a DA, seal/ceramic coating) + full interior vacuum/wipedown/leather coating
 
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mopar22

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I actually use collinite 845 for my wax. Great wax and longest lasting i've used. It's actually made for boats but man does it go on thin
 

Jared B

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I actually use collinite 845 for my wax. Great wax and longest lasting i've used. It's actually made for boats but man does it go on thin

I've heard a lot of good things about collinite 845, I'm going to have to order some and try it out.

I'm pretty picky about detailing my car, I've got two huge Rubbermaid containers full of products, 2 dual action polishers and a rotary polisher. I actually spent about 10 hours a few weekends ago polishing the paint on my truck. I'll do a foam cannon and dry the truck with a leaf blower when I can get away with it, if not it's the two bucket method.
 

mopar22

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I've heard a lot of good things about collinite 845, I'm going to have to order some and try it out.

I'm pretty picky about detailing my car, I've got two huge Rubbermaid containers full of products, 2 dual action polishers and a rotary polisher. I actually spent about 10 hours a few weekends ago polishing the paint on my truck. I'll do a foam cannon and dry the truck with a leaf blower when I can get away with it, if not it's the two bucket method.
Its gotta be my favorite wax. Comes in a nice hard bottle and it's thick when cold so when you heat it up it's like straight liquid which goes on smooth
 

Jared B

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Its gotta be my favorite wax. Comes in a nice hard bottle and it's thick when cold so when you heat it up it's like straight liquid which goes on smooth

I'm going to have to order some this week. My truck was ceramic coated but that's been polished off now.
 

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