Well, I did my first full detail yesterday. Strip wash, clay, 2 step polish, sealant, glaze and wax, interior and of course tire/wheels, hit the engine bay nothing major.
All of this took me 9.5 hours. The car was a Toyota corolla. This is a co-worker's car who graciously 'donated' her car for my first full detail; as I have never used a polishing machine before. I do enjoy the detailing process and as many of you I am thinking of starting something on the side. So, we came up with a barter payment - she is design my logo and stuff.
So, I started with the wheels. They seemed to take forever but the deep wheel cleaner and apc did an amazing job.
On to the wash - a rinse, foam gun soak and 2 bucket wash with the car shampoo and some apc for the stripping action. Pretty simple and easy enough, despite the occasionally battles with beatles - bugs - arrgghh! Dry it with a GWDT.
Next, we pull it into the garage, out of the sun. Whew, was warming up out there. I started on the interior first - vacuumed, and used the interior cleaner. Being detailed oriented I feared that I would spend too much time on the interior so I decided to move on. On to the clay bar - should be able to get faster here. This is pretty easy too, have done this before on my vehicles. Now, on to the new part - polishing.
The polishing was not too bad but I was really getting discouraged when non of the scratches were coming out. I had put a mark on the pad - a tip from one of the videos. That helped as I was able to notice how fast the pad was turning. Much faster than in the video. So I applied more pressure and FINALLY a scratch disappeared!!! YAY!!! Then I went back over some of the others. They got better but I did get a little timid over some scratches which were taking many passes, so some I did not get out completely. I eventually realize that the polish was flashing very quickly - I guess do to temperature and humidity. I think the 2 step process took me like 2 hours - I can probably shorten this time some as well.
Next was the sealant - this was pretty simple. Must wear a mask next time. While that cured, I returned to the interior - hit the windows, applied the TID, upholstery cleaning - ugggghh the door jams.
Returned to exterior. Applied applied glaze and wax. Pulled out of garage to apply final touches. It is probably about 7pm by this time and I started at 9am. I forgot about the gas tank door - was pretty gunky in there. Did not get it clean but was better. I opened the trunk and arrrgghhh, just needed to clean around the opening.
So, about 8:30 my friend returns to pick up her car and is like- OMG, this looks like new! Who, it is so smooth - omg!
So some things I learned -
Must wear back support
Don't be timid about applying pressure during polishing - get the mark to spin close to a second.
Definitely be organized - thankfully I was but I see how that is a big thing.
Question
compudiva
Well, I did my first full detail yesterday. Strip wash, clay, 2 step polish, sealant, glaze and wax, interior and of course tire/wheels, hit the engine bay nothing major.
All of this took me 9.5 hours. The car was a Toyota corolla. This is a co-worker's car who graciously 'donated' her car for my first full detail; as I have never used a polishing machine before. I do enjoy the detailing process and as many of you I am thinking of starting something on the side. So, we came up with a barter payment - she is design my logo and stuff.
So, I started with the wheels. They seemed to take forever but the deep wheel cleaner and apc did an amazing job.
On to the wash - a rinse, foam gun soak and 2 bucket wash with the car shampoo and some apc for the stripping action. Pretty simple and easy enough, despite the occasionally battles with beatles - bugs - arrgghh! Dry it with a GWDT.
Next, we pull it into the garage, out of the sun. Whew, was warming up out there. I started on the interior first - vacuumed, and used the interior cleaner. Being detailed oriented I feared that I would spend too much time on the interior so I decided to move on. On to the clay bar - should be able to get faster here. This is pretty easy too, have done this before on my vehicles. Now, on to the new part - polishing.
The polishing was not too bad but I was really getting discouraged when non of the scratches were coming out. I had put a mark on the pad - a tip from one of the videos. That helped as I was able to notice how fast the pad was turning. Much faster than in the video. So I applied more pressure and FINALLY a scratch disappeared!!! YAY!!! Then I went back over some of the others. They got better but I did get a little timid over some scratches which were taking many passes, so some I did not get out completely. I eventually realize that the polish was flashing very quickly - I guess do to temperature and humidity. I think the 2 step process took me like 2 hours - I can probably shorten this time some as well.
Next was the sealant - this was pretty simple. Must wear a mask next time. While that cured, I returned to the interior - hit the windows, applied the TID, upholstery cleaning - ugggghh the door jams.
Returned to exterior. Applied applied glaze and wax. Pulled out of garage to apply final touches. It is probably about 7pm by this time and I started at 9am. I forgot about the gas tank door - was pretty gunky in there. Did not get it clean but was better. I opened the trunk and arrrgghhh, just needed to clean around the opening.
So, about 8:30 my friend returns to pick up her car and is like- OMG, this looks like new! Who, it is so smooth - omg!
So some things I learned -
Must wear back support
Don't be timid about applying pressure during polishing - get the mark to spin close to a second.
Definitely be organized - thankfully I was but I see how that is a big thing.
Pictures coming...
Next week - my mom's explorer.
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