Detailing thread: Grim determination and sanding

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Detailing thread: Grim determination and sanding

Astroman: Apr 8, 2001

Oh, this is the car geek thread for me! I love detailing.

Last year I mastered the clay bar. This year I'm gonna borrow my buddy's Porter Cable to tackle the swirls.

I have a big question: what would anybody recommend for repairing leather? I've used SEM paint in the past and it did a great job on my DD, but before I even whip out the SEM for my 65 Caddy I have to do a massive seat repair job. Lots of cracks and some tears. I'm pretty confident I can do it, but I need to find the right stuff. One note: since I'm going to be dying the seats with the SEM I won't need to worry as much about color matching the crack filler as long as it's whitish-beige.

For anybody who wonders what I'm talking about with the SEM paint:
http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadillac-tech-tips/162477-diy-freshen-up-leather-seats-20-a.html

This works wonders and is super easy!

# ¿ Mar 26, 2012 01:45

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 10:47

Astroman: Apr 8, 2001

Frozen-Solid posted:

I'm getting my first brand new car in a few weeks (build date is April 9th ). It's nothing super fancy, just a Chevy Sonic Hatchback LTZ Turbo, but I'd like to try and treat it as right as possible.

A few problems in my case:

1) I live in an apartment and don't have access to a hose.
2) I don't have a garage so my car is parked outside and in the elements 99% of the time.

Once or twice a year I'll drive to my parents' house and wash/wax by hand, but that's not something I can do very often. Instead, I just put $5 in the Shell gas station's automatic drive through car wash and get it done. Someone in another thread said doing that is bad. What's the best way to do a good wash every now and then given my circumstances? I'd love to be able to wash once or twice a month, but not having access to a hose kinda kills it.

I'm considering paying extra for a carport or a garage, but that's another $30/50 a month, which solves #2, but there's nothing I can do about the first issue.

Also: what's so bad about a drive through car wash? I can see sperging out if you have a nicer car, but for a Chevy Sonic it seems kind of overkill.

Touchless car washes aren't as good as doing it yourself, but it's better than nothing. I pretty much use them on my DD all winter long, because here in the NE you gotta wash your car a lot to keep the salt off. Would never use a regular automatic car wash though.

My washing rig:
2 buckets
2 mitts (one for the lower parts of the car)
Wash: Meguiar's NXT Wash
Clay: Mother's Clay Bar
Wax: Meguiar's NXT Wax-I really like the way this looks
Drying: leafblower and synthetic drying chamois
Detailer: Meguiar's Detail Spray
Glass: Invisible Glass Foam-so much better than liquid cleaner
Tires: Black Magic Tire Wet Foam
Tire Whitewall Trim: Mr Clean Magic Erasers-a million times easier than scrubbing with Bleche-White and they don't seem to dry out the tire
Hubcaps-Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish
Black Trim: Mother's Back to Black
Chrome: Turtle Wax Chrome Polish

Interior:
Seats-Mequiar's Gold Class Leather Cleaner and Conditioner
Armor All-most of my interiors are leather, but this shines up some plastic stuff like the foot thing on my door and the plastic in my trunk
Carpets and Mats-Woolite/Resolve/Rug Doctor Spot Remover. They all work pretty well
Simple Green-Other plastic and trim pieces, seatbelts, etc
Weatherstripping and seals-Liquid Wrench Silicone Spray

# ¿ Mar 27, 2012 02:04

Astroman: Apr 8, 2001

Tai-Pan posted:

So I have some clearcoat failure on the hood of my Mercedes.
There is that one guy in Malaysia who posted his success with Opticoat, but are there any other stories out there?

Also, would I need to compound the all of the clear coat off in the affected areas? How do do I blend in the opti-coat?

What is Opticoat? Is it some ghetto home weekend solution to get you by on a car with a destroyed clear coat? Because that's would be perfect for my car. At this point I lack the $$ to pay for a decent paint job and don't want to cheap out with a Maaco one. I just need something to get my paint looking a little better as a temp solution.

# ¿ May 6, 2012 09:20

Astroman: Apr 8, 2001

ratbert90 posted:

I don't think Meguiars is better, it's just what I use.

And no, it's maintenance, cracking is just that, it's cracked and it's not coming back.

If it was torn then this stuff is pretty good: http://www.autogeek.net/3m-leather-vinyl-kit.html

I've seen many threads on autogeek where people have used that and it worked out pretty well.

Any how to's out there or tutorials? I need to do some serious work on my leather. It's got issues.

And is there really nothing for cracks? I thought I saw leather crack repair stuff in the past, I just wasn't sure what was the best.

Basically my seats are really really hosed but it would be a 2k custom job to get them redone and so I want to do as much as I can to look decent as a stopgap til I have a pro job. Cause I don't have $2k right now.

I have done good things on my other car with SEM products but these seats are nowhere near ready for that.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2012 20:38

Astroman: Apr 8, 2001

Frozen-Solid posted:

Other than those, the only issue I've been having is that the rear end of my car gets exceptionally dirty. I haven't been able to wash it lately, because of the drought and water use restrictions, so here it is after a few weeks:

As you can see, the side and front don't look that bad. They're obviously dirty, but not an eyesore. The back, though, is disgusting. Every time I clean it, the first thing that gets dirty is the hatch. Is this just something that hatches do, or maybe some kind of weird "design flaw" in the Sonic itself that it collects dirt that way?

I'm just wondering if there's an easy way to prevent it from getting dirty like that. Mud flaps on the back tires or something?

California Duster? I use it fairly frequently, but I'd probably be breaking it out daily if I was under water restrictions.

On the subject of touchup paint, I too wouldn't mind a "how to" myself...I've never done it and I've got a dime sized piece that flakes off my hood that's morphed into almost quarter sized. And it hasn't rusted...yet. But I'm playing with fire neglecting it.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2012 16:19

Astroman: Apr 8, 2001

SEM Soap is good for cleaning leather.

# ¿ May 30, 2013 01:43

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 10:47

Astroman: Apr 8, 2001

Motronic posted:

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.

The only way to damage paint with a Porter Cable.
:colbert:

Can't get the timecode to work; but just skip to 2:46 detailed instructions.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2013 17:59

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Detailing thread: Grim determination and sanding