A Professional's Guide to Detailing

[BamaKID]

:bow:
i been waiting for this great job unfortunately i wont be able to clean my car til next weekend thatnks to the rain but i cant wait
thanks

 

[BamaKID]

is it better to use a variable speed buffer?

 

[WickedLou9]

Considering you are going to wax it right after it's clayed, the water spots don't matter.

but I agree, i'd rather spray and clay

wax doesn't remove water spots. you need to polish them out. Wax might hide them for a week or so but they are there. Waiting.. watching..

 

[FliGi7]

Cotton Towels are fine as long as they are 100% cotton and not some ployester blend.

Well, "fine" is quite relative and we obviously have different understandings of it. Cotton towels have their place but it's not in drying a car, particularly with the ridiculous array of MF towels on the market. But, to each their own.

 

[FliGi7]

but I agree, i'd rather spray and clay

You do still spray and clay when the car's still wet, you're just also drying the water off the car instead of just the lube.

 

[WickedLou9]

Well, "fine" is quite relative and we obviously have different understandings of it. Cotton towels have their place but it's not in drying a car, particularly with the ridiculous array of MF towels on the market. But, to each their own.

I know MF is better, but when it comes to just drying the car, it's seriously not a big deal. You aren't applying much pressure, and a 100% cotton towel won't do any damage what so ever. Think diaper cloth. MF is a somewhat new invention. People were using cotton diaper clothes for decades and thier paint still looked good. I find that Cotton tends to be more absorbent than a comparable MF towel and dries the car more completely. Either way, I don't think it's a bid deal.

For what it's worth, I do have a big box of micro-fiber towels that I use to do everything else.

 

[FliGi7]

Well, the disagreement lies in the fact that cotton can and will scratch a car's surface. Paint still looking "good" after decades is quite relative again. The point is that if you have a mirror surface and you use cotton towels all over it, you will get more marring than if you used a dedicated drying WW MF. People also used Chamois for decades but that doesn't mean it's ok to use. Cotton diaper cloths don't have enough nap to trap any remaining dirt like a WW does. Absorption is not the only issue. If it was, we'd just dry our cars with silica.

 

[Murf]

This thread delivers.

For a guy that doesn't know jack about properly detailing a car, this just helped me out tremendously.

 

[BamaKID]

do u have to wax everytime after u clay it?

 

[FliGi7]

Yes. Clay bar strips the protection off of the paint.

 

[RelientOne]

Ahhh so many opinions Im lost, lets forget about the "best" what should you NOT dry your car with?

 

[FliGi7]

Do not dry your car with...

- Remotely dirty towels (I'm talking about any dirt, even if it just fell on the ground for a second)
- Chamois (there is not enough nap in the fabric to trap dirt and keep it from being pinned between the rag and the car's surface)
- Squegee/Water Blade (again, you are just dragging any remaining dirt particles around the car, although these are helpful tools for windows)


You should really only be using waffle weave towels, or some use 100% cotton towels. personally, I don't use cotton towels but I can't say it's for any certain harmful reason. It's more for the fact that waffle weaves are just so damn perfect, it's hard to consider anything else.

 

[agpatel]

WW drying towels are the best one top is to stray a little QD when drying the car this will help dry the car faster and provide some lubrication to gain that much more insurance of not marring the surface.

Claying - I always was the car and use my foam gun to foam sections of the car and clay the car using the soap as lubrication. After I am doing claying I do a quick once over with my washing mitt and try the car with a WW. I stopped using cotten terry towels long time ago because the good quality ones that did not get stiff were expensive and I could get a good WW for just as much and soaked up more water.

One a year i do a full decontamination using FK1 decontamination kit which is a 3 stage cleaning process that gets more contamination out than claying. Clay just cuts the top of the iron or contamination off, the FKI decon kit open the paint pores up using acid to pull out the particles. Yes it may seem scary but it really is not and is OEM approved and TSB are out for which kit to use and to use it for high fall out ares by many of the big name manuf. It also neutralized acrid rain spots so that they do not come back and get rid of the mineral deposits from etched water spots that do not wash away from washing. Washing with water will bring the acid back as the deposits will get back into a water solution and can cause more etching. Using acid neutralization will neutralize the minerals and acids to wash away the contaminants so they can not cause more damage.

 

[Jax$MkV]

Damn, I'm getting some WW towels asap to try those out. I'm tired of using cotton towels or the like... thanks!

 

[agpatel]

Advance Auto has some nice blue WW drying towels that are nice and large and can soak up a large amount of water. They are right on par with more more expensive boutique brand WW towel.s