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adorai posted:lets pretend for a minute that I suck at detailing, and I didn't mask off the rubber/plastic bits before I waxed one day last summer. How do I get the wax off of these pieces without expending an entire days effort? You do what I do: wait until next year. I sujk at detailing. I'm hoping this thread will make me care more and/or teach me some tricks that are easiy enough to not exceed my laziness barrier.
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Mar 26, 2012 00:41
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InitialDave posted:I need that sticker.
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Apr 19, 2012 00:06
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MrChips posted:It's definitely crappy tire dressing. Before the body shop put that crap on my summer tires, the sidewalls were still black. I swapped my summer tires back on a couple of weeks ago and in that short time, they've turned brown. It seems that some of the cheap stuff actually dries the rubber out and makes them turn brown. You can do the same thing by wiping some acetone or similar solvent on a tire and leaving it there for a while. Then let it dry for a few weeks....the rubber dries out along with it and you're left with brown crap unless you keep dressing it. I assume the cheap stuff contains incorrect/cheap solvents.
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Apr 19, 2012 00:29
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Rottingham posted:Is a clay bar ever a bad idea? If the paint was so beat that it had rust spots under it with just the slightest bit of paint covering them up, yeah....the clay bar is going to take that paint off. But so will washing it or just letting it go for another few months. Once you have rust going on under the paint you're in for a serious amount of prep work and a respray.
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May 2, 2012 14:57
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Rhyno posted:I didn't think that would work at all. There's a few stress cracks in the clear from the removal of a sticker (PO did it) so I might have to chip off some more clear before I start. Not chip, sand. This is basically small panel repair at this point, not detailing. And spot repairs aren't that expensive if you just want to bring it somewhere.
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May 18, 2012 23:12
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Probably no, but there's no indication of scale there. How big is the damage? Throw a quarter or a dime in that photo. Or a newspaper if it's really horrible.
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May 21, 2012 03:08
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Polish posted:In other news, we noticed last night the paint is chipping in a few spots.. this thing is only a week back from paint and its chipping already. We are gonna see if the company who painted it will come out and touch up those spots. So you got a worse than Earl Scheib job done on it. Unfortunately with prep work that poor the best thing you can do it not touch it too much and hope for the best.
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Aug 10, 2012 15:09
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JerseyDevil posted:it's not necessarily the ends of the blades per se, but the end of the pass. If it's the end of the pass it sounds like you have something nasty on there, probably where they change directions, and it's spreading out. Clay bar that crap off. It will take you 10 minutes. Clean the blades as well after you do this.
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Oct 26, 2012 18:23
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DJExile posted:What I'd like is something that keeps the leather cleaned and well cared for, but I don't want it having that really slippery/shiny feeling like some of Armor-All's stuff seemed to do on my old Jeep. I don't use anything vehicle specific on leather. While I'm sure some product that doesn't suck exists, it's just not necessary. What you are looking for is saddle soap. Put a light coat on with a wet terrycloth rag. Scrub any parts that needs scrubbing. Walk away for 20 or 30 minutes until it dries/hazes up, and buff it off with a microfiber towel. It not only looks great (not too shiny) but it's not totally slippery, not greasy, smells good and it conditions the leather to keep moisture in it. It buffs right out of perforations (if you have any) on seats if you let it dry before your final buff.
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Dec 11, 2012 17:09
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Reggie Died posted:So let's say you were stupid and naive and decided to try and strip away the clear coat from your alloy wheels. How would you go about sealing/protecting them? What kind of product would you suggest to polish them up first? I'm not so sure that's foolish if the clear coat has failed. There are plenty of older allow wheels that aren't coated. If you want to protect them again I'd say about the best thing would be power coating. It even comes in clear. As far as polishing and prep, that really depends on how bad they are. You may need to start by sanding or grinding for particularly nasty spots and move to progressively less abrasive materials until you get the level of shine you want. You can go nuts and turn them into a mirror finish if you want, but that's probably a bit over the top.
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Feb 11, 2013 00:47
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Reggie Died posted:Would standard carnauba wax be an okay temporarily seal over fresh polish? My original classic Porsche Fuchs are bare on the lip and all I use is some carnuba to make the brake dust easier to get off. This has held up for 5 years so far (I wax them along with the car a couple times a year). I'm not any sort of expert on the topic, but I can tell you that this works for me.
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Feb 11, 2013 02:28
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revmoo posted:I dunno if I bought the wrong brand.......aircraft remover......it says 'not for use on aircraft.' I just need to quote this for your own edification.
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Feb 12, 2013 04:28
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Clay bar them off, get some wax on there and be happy.
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Mar 1, 2013 00:19
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Full Circle posted:Sounds good, Thinking about this has made me think I may as well use this as an excuse to fix a few paint chips I noticed while detailing the car. Any opinions on the easiest route for a total beginner? The touch up paint/clear coat pens seem like the most user-friendly approach. Just don't. You'll make it worse. I'm not sure I can be helpful here other than to tell you to go get a junk panel out of a scrap yard and try it. You'll be horrified at how much worse touch up paint makes....well....everything.
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May 7, 2013 00:04
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Reggie Died posted:Somewhat car-detailing related; any tips for cleaning and polishing an diamond aluminum truck box? You know those pool noodle things...the long brightly colored semi-rigid foam floating things? Cut 2" rounds off of them and use that to buff metal polish on the diamond plate. This is how we clean the fire trucks before parades. It works amazingly well. I forget what kind of metal polish we use, but really anything for aluminum should work. The real trick is being able to scrub around the profile of the metal easily and effectively.
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May 10, 2013 23:21
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MrOnBicycle posted:I have some plastic bits that turned slightly milky after I had to use gasoline Well, I think we've found your problem. It doesn't look "old", it looks melted and ruined by an incorrect solvent. My guess is you'll need to mechanically remove the haze on the top layer, meaning no matter what you slater on it's not going to help: you'll need to remove damaged material. I'd say a compound or a polish might be an easy way to do it, but I'd definitely be seriously testing that idea somewhere you can't see before going at it.
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May 30, 2013 14:55
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So can you help out a detail-tard? Everything in the driveway needs a wash and wax. Normally what I'd do is to wash them with dish soap, chamois them off, clay them, then put some Mothers Carnauba on with the little foam pad that comes in the can and then take it off with a terrycloth pad on a Craftsman orbital buffer followed by a microfiber pad or a final wipe off with a microfiber towel to get the remaining bits. I have started taping off trim since I realized that's easier/faster than dealing with cleaning the wax off of it (which I usually just don't do so my stuff looks like crap). I now know a lot of this is sub-optimal or all out wring. Because of this thread I've bought a bottle of Megs #7. I have the buffer I mentioned. What pads should I buy to make this as useful as possible and exactly where should I use it? A quick procedure run-down would be great. If I must buy things to do this properly I will (like the porter cable buffer in the OP), but even with my incompetence nothing is in terrible shape and in need of any kind of serious fixing. I just figure if I'm gonna go waxing everything I may as well do a better job so it looks better and/or lasts longer. Also, if I need to "try things out" that I need to get a feel for I have poo poo laying around I can do that on (old body panels - got a door and a fender with enough good paint on them to test things out) so I'm not worried about learning how to do something that could screw up paint.
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Jun 18, 2013 00:27
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revmoo posted:You working with single-stage paint? M#7 seems to be a SS kind of polish. Yes, the Rovers are single stage. The Porsche I painted base/clear, like from the factory. So I shouldn't be putting #7 on the Porsche? It says on the bottle SS and base/clear.
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Jun 18, 2013 00:29
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Scott808 posted:What's the goal, and what kind of condition are the cars in now? OK, so as far as long lasting maybe I was confusing it with opticoat? From your description, this seems like the right thing for the rovers. One of them was pretty lovely but I took care of it with clay and some crappy white polish on a terry pad with the buffer (am I a monster or what?). Been fine since then after a wax. They are both just...old, but still pretty shiny. I was hoping to maybe punch that up a bit with the #7. No swirls or scratches to deal with here.
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Jun 18, 2013 01:02
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Scott808 posted:I can't believe you don't have any swirls or scratches to take out. Any car that gets washed (maybe not a total garage queen) will eventually pick some up, even if they're light ones. I should clarify that: they are both while and while they certainly do have some they aren't bad and/or I'm not discerning enough to be bothered by them until I start looking more seriously. Maybe I should wash/dry them and get some pictures. ratbert90 posted:Read this about Megs #7. Thank you. I'm working my way though this. It's a lot of information and seems pretty good. (but what do I know?)
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Jun 18, 2013 02:07
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Scott808 posted:So when you say it's pretty shiny but you want to punch that up a bit, in my opinion you get that extra bit from doing the proper prep work - removing or minimizing imperfections in the paint. OK, I'll buy that. This is why I'm posting here - I don't know poo poo about this stuff. If that's how you get it looking better then I guess I do have a bunch of work to do. I should start looking at them closer the way I do on new paint. bull3964 posted:I've mentioned it before, but if someone wants an amazing finish with minimal amount of work, pick up Meg's microfiber system. It's dead simple to use and it's magic. It can do as much or as little correction as you want and the pads are very safe. The product also wipes off with minimal effort. Is there anything similar I can use with the random orbital I already have, or is a DA (I assume I can't use my air sander  ) the only reasonable way to make these things happen?I appreciate all the help here. I'm just trying to wrap my head around it well enough so I'm not wasting my time or materials and can get a decent job done. If I can get a basic procedure worked out and have the stuff around to do it I'll be happy, but honestly there is so much poo poo out there that it's hard to pick out what's right, what wrong, and what's useless. Most of the marketing I see on any of this stuff is right around the level of "mechanic in a bottle" type solutions so it's all quite off-putting to me.
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Jun 18, 2013 15:35
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ratbert90 posted:
Done processing the infodump. It makes enough sense to me. Orders placed per your recommendations. Thank you very much. This may get me off my rear end to cut and buff the spots on the Porsche where I screwed up when painting it (every...drat...place I didn't have sufficient light, surprise). I've wet sanded jobs I've painted before, but always had someone else around with a rotary buffer to finish the job. I guess I'll see if the PC buffer will work well enough. From the bottle, 105 SHOULD be able to pull it off, but the "removes 1200 grit or finer sanding marks" may not apply to a DA polisher. Edit: Is there any reason at all for me to keep my Craftsman random orbital buffer around now? If not I'll toss it on eBay. Motronic fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Jun 18, 2013 |
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Jun 18, 2013 21:19
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ratbert90 posted:5) If you are to wetsand a whole car, USE SANDING DISCS OH GOD USE THEM PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD USE THEM I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH THAT YOU SHOULD USE THEM I AM YELLING THIS BECAUSE YOU SHOULD USE THEM. While I don't need to wetsand nearly the whole thing (just most of the bottom end of the passenger side....for now, that may expand with good results) I'm an air tool guy. There is no way in hell I was about to do that poo poo by hand. I also knew enough from previous experience that my first base/clear AND by first metallic rolled into one was going to be problematic, so they were laid on thick, especially the clear, for just this occasion. The hood is a disaster....you can't fix tiger stripes in the flop on the base coat (gun clogged on the second coat, looked fine after 3 more.....not so much after it all dried with clear on it), but I'm sure I can make things much better overall. And if I can I'll probably be motivated to repaint the hood better. And the driver's side fender that I'm still not happy with the bodywork on. A lof of my hesitation on this was not being able to much more than barely adequately paint. If I can learn to wet sand myt blends (has been done before by other people on my paint blends, just don't know enough to do it myself) I'll be opening myself to a whole new facet of AI. Scott808 posted:Did you ever want to paint your car with wax? Here's a helpful how to video: At this point I think I'll just throw it in the trash so no one will every use it for that. Thanks.
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Jun 19, 2013 02:15
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Scott808 posted:Actually, here's a supposedly legit Really? Because that looked like dumping a whole poo poo ton of extra product on the car/ground/his shirt to me. Like I said, I don't know a drat thing about this, I'm trying to learn....but not much about that looked correct to me. Admittedly, as soon as he said Harbor Freight I started waiting for it to catch on fire. Should you be slopping wax around like that? Even more importantly, should I cancel my Meguiars order and buy wax from Harbor Freight instead?
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Jun 19, 2013 02:35
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Scott808 posted:I was giving you a possible use for your orbital that's totally unrelated to autos. My bad.
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Jun 19, 2013 02:46
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UPS dropped off presents. Time to give this a shot. I think I'll start on the $500 Rover....... 
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Jun 21, 2013 19:34
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NitroSpazzz posted:Post some pictures as you go along, progress pictures are awesome. Well, here's what we're starting with. It just took me a couple of hours to wash and dry and it's still not great - moss and poo poo in the corners around the door handles and the like. It hasn't been washed since.....well, I guess since this time last year when it was way worse and I had to scrape moss off the roof and hit it with clay and the random orbital and white turtle wax polish to get some of the oxidation off. It actually made a huge difference, not because I knew what I was doing but because it was just that freaking bad. So actually, let's start with when I bought it:  There is no shine at all on the hood, not even after it was washed. The roof and most of the sides were the same. This is 2 hours ago:    So, I know it's hard to tell from pictures, but it's not tan-ish anymore. It's actually white again. Looking at it with a more critical eye, it's really impressively not that bad. I'm not sure how to get much better pictures, so I guess doing comparisons as I go panel by panel will probably work best. There are some sections that have some reasonably bad scratches, and some paint is missing down to the primer above the windshield (typical on these....I just don't care, especially not on this truck). So here's after a wash. This is our starting baseline:  That makes it look a whole lot better than it is. But then again, here's the passenger side door:  It's really not bad at all. Then there are spots like the back:  So I'll just keep working my way though this in the morning and update with pics as I go along.
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Jun 22, 2013 00:34
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OK, so this is how you end up down this dark path, eh? Since the hood was dull still after clay I figured I'd try some 205. That got it very clean. Too clean, now I can see everything that's wrong with it. So I went to 105 and it got better. Definitely not fixed...there are scratched all over the place, but it looks a LOT better. Yeah, I know I really should be using Megs 80 instead of 105 on this one, but I'm using what I have on the truck I care least about. You bastards. Now I have something else to obsess over.
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Jun 22, 2013 16:47
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meatpimp posted:Just be thankful it's white and not black. Yeah, seriously. Here's the before (cleaned and clayed): After being done with 105:  So, yeah...it's a huge difference so far. This seems to be a decent representative shot, so I'll just keep using this door as the before and after. Edit: Now done with 205:  It didn't look like much of a difference until I looked at the older pictures. Definitely not as dramatic as the 105, but that's to be expected. Last edit, after 2 coats of wax:  I hit half the hood with #7 on a white pad and couldn't tell the difference. So I hit the rest of the hood just in case and skipped the rest of the truck, moving on to wax. Two coats, letting the last one sit dry for a bit longer than normal per meatpimp and it does seem to make a difference. I know the photos aren't the best, and it's hard to really take accurate representations of stuff like that but I can tell you based on what I saw these are about right. It's quite a difference and totally worth the time. Now that I've managed to pull this off I realize you have to be a complete moron (as in, leaving your pad in the dirt and then running it on the car) to damage paint with this buffer. Pushing too hard just makes it stop spinning and it sits in place vibrating. Sure, you could do damage like that but you're have to be trying really, really hard. I'm going to move on to the other Rover, which will be more (actually less) of the same. The next interesting thing I'll be doing will be the wet sand and buff of the Porsche. I'm not sure when I'm going to get on that, but I'll post pictures as I go. So thanks again for all the advice. Motronic fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Jun 23, 2013 |
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Jun 22, 2013 19:17
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KozmoNaut posted:I've been wondering, this may just be a crazy idea, but hear me out. Some of you guys use garden hose-powered foam guns for your cars. Unfortunately I don't have that option, as I live in an apartment. Well, technically I could drag a hose to the gas station across the street, but I think they'd disapprove. Mine is full of liquid deer fence at the moment, but if you don't get an answer I'll try it out later tonight - need to spray once it cools off and that should empty it and I need to wash the car anyway. I doubt it would make much foam, but who knows....maybe it will.
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Jul 5, 2013 21:20
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KozmoNaut posted:I don't know how different that nozzle is to the standard one, though. Pretty different. I think you need a lot more aeration than the standard nozzle:  That being said, you can see it lifting the dirt anyway. It did a pretty decent job, but I'm sure it would do better wit more foam. Once I started running out and it was sucking up some air it got real foamy but of course the volume was cut immensely. I dunno....works better than nothing if that's what you've got. I haven't looked around for a replacement nozzle and don't have one of the hose foam cannon things so I dont' know which one I'd rather use at this point.
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Jul 7, 2013 18:54
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Polymerized Cum posted:What powerful, super bad-for-the-environment glass cleaner can get really stubborn water spots off my side view mirrors? Detailing clay. Sorry, it's probably quite harmless to the environment, but you could just dump your next coolant change on the ground to make up for it.
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Jul 18, 2013 03:48
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Cage posted:Well I certainly don't, so looks like Ill be hiring some guy on craigslist to do it for me. Or read through the thread, buy the right equipment and do it yourself. Which will pay for itself by the second or third time you use it as compared to hiring the job out. That's the way I went (recently with a lot of help from these guys) and it worked out great.
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Aug 25, 2013 23:52
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coolskillrex remix posted:Dont loving take a porter cable to the edge of a door sill youll take off a ton of paint How did you manage to take off paint with a Porter Cable buffer? Were you using it upside down or after you'd dropped the pad on your driveway? I'm a detailing retard and I can't make mine take paint off unless I put sandpaper on it.
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Sep 6, 2013 16:11
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That guy is awesome.
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Sep 6, 2013 18:23
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ratbert90 posted:Sure, if you like brown tires in a month. Brilliant engineering and marketing: now you always have to reapply it.
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Oct 21, 2013 22:41
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bandman posted:MOLD/MILDEW CHAT ITT Any chance of drying it out first? Sticking a heater in there or something? That way you can start with surface wiping and vacuuming. Once you're done with that I would still want to use a carpet cleaner with an upholstery attachment on absolutely everything I could get to (mold is no joke....you don't want to be breathing that crap). And, next time (if there is one) a sealed up car that will be sitting for months at a time is the perfect candidate for a bucket of damp rid or similar.
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Dec 7, 2013 20:13
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Fucknag posted:I'd go even further and remove the seats, That's always a good plan, but often met with a lot of resistance from the less technically inclined (even though it's easy and straightforward). So yes.....do that if you can. It will make your life easier rather than harder.
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Dec 7, 2013 23:16
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If it's interior latex it's likely to come off with nothing more than soap and a sponge.
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Mar 14, 2014 18:53
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InitialDave posted:I never understand the "damage to the UV protection" angle. Look, they're hosed anyway, have at them. The point of that is that once the UV protectant is off of them they will end up looking just as hosed forthwith (like 3 to 6 months depending on where you live) so then you have to do it all over again. Or just spray it with a UV protectant to begin with and get some more time out of all of the sucky labor you did.
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Apr 3, 2014 21:51
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