Newbie detailing questions
 

Posted this in the local one 'cause I'm hoping one of you guys might be willing to give me some pointers and/or help getting started with this. I'd also love to keep my money local but there's a limit to how much more I'm willing to spend to do that. Autozone/O'reilly/Napa/etc vs Amazon is a pretty substantial difference when you put together everything you need to start something like this so if any of you know a local spot which is cheaper, that's a big plus.

I'm starting to put together all the supplies to do a bunch of paint correction on my girlfriend's Camry since we've never really taken care of the paint. Good practice for my BRZ ;) Problem is, the extent of my experience is hand polishing carbon fiber molds in college. The goal here is to bring the paint up to a condition where I can consider throwing some opti-coat on there. I'd like to practice on a $3-4000 car before considering touching a brand new near-$30k car with it.

You can pretty much just consider me as having nothing yet -- I've got the paint supplies I need to fix all the rock chips and a couple odd gouges in the bumpers but I'm not really sure what to get as far as polish/compound/etc... The car has pretty noticeable swirling and a couple scratches on all body panels, as well as rust in a few of the hood chips. The rust is what really got me started on this, I figure it's already at the point where it needs to be sanded so I may as well just fix everything at once before it gets worse.

I'd planned on just getting a detailing clay kit and some Meguiar's ultimate compound but if anyone has recommendations that'd be great. I've got a 10" electric random orbital buffer coming up from my dad's house that needs some minor electrical repairs, but as far as I know there aren't any hoods with it.

Go down to Griot's Garage in Tacoma. They are a local company, owned and operated here in WA. They are pricier than the general meguiars stuff, but... if you go during a slow time and start asking a lot of questions and ask for help, they will pull your car into one of their detail bays and walk you through the detailing steps on one of your body panels. Clay bar, polish, sealant, wax, and so on. I've talked to Richard Griot a few times, and he's really a stand up guy, and definitely worth spending a few extra dollars to support a local company and have the support of a local group of very good auto detailers.

I had considered that, but it's a 5 hour round trip :/ It's on the table though!

See what they think of my seriously oxidized rear bumper :P

Where is @Zach in this topic? Shout out!

^ that's a neat function, nice it lets you know in the notifications.


Anyway Aetyrno, swing by Darrens garage for a meet sometime or just shoot me a PM if you have a afternoon free and want to swing by my place off i5 in north portland. Bring whatever you have and you can try some of my stuff to see what you like, its really all about how much work you want to put in. Some products turn out better but require more work.

BTW -- just ordered a grit guard for the bottom of my car wash bucket... to keep from scratching my paint!

http://amzn.com/B000N3W8J0

O good deal, I use two buckets at home but somtimes get lazy, I should pick one of these up. I also need a new buff pad for my orbital, perhaps a griots run this weekend :burnrubber:

I just bought a new wash setup in preparation for my future BRZ...I'm planning on having it fully prepped and opticoat installed before taking the car home. I'd like to keep it looking new or better than new for as long as possible. I kinda went overboard, but my setup before was am old dirty and ratty mf wash mitt, and old dirty 3 gal bucket, and whatever cheap car wash soap that was on sale, thats it.

128 oz. Meguiars D108 Super Degreaser
128 oz. Meguiars D301 All Purpose Cleaner Plus
128 oz. Meguiars D120 Glass Cleaner Concentrate
128 oz. Meguiars D110 Hyper-Wash
128 oz. Meguiars D155 Last Touch Spray Detailer
Meguiars C-2000 Mild Professional Detailing Clay
Mothers Tire, Wheel & Well Brush Kit
Two 5 gal buckets from home depot
Two Grit Guards for the buckets
Microfiber Tech Microfiber Glass Towel 12"x16" (pack of 10)
Microfiber Tech 16"x16" Extra Plush Terry 530gsm Microfiber Towels - Blue (pack of 10)
Microfiber Tech 25"x36" Waffle-Weave Drying Towels - 2 pack
Autofiber Zero Cuff Mitt
Gilmour 75QGFMR Foamaster Adjustable Multi Ratio Cleaning Gun (My first foam gun, it's fun!)
6 Commercial Spray Bottles of 32 Oz. (for diluting and using the 128oz liquids above)

Next on my list are the following items...
128 oz. Meguiars D170 Hyper Dressing
32 oz. Meguiars #105 Ultra-Cut Compound
32 oz. Meguiars #205 Ultra Finishing Polish
33 oz. Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze
Porter Cable 7424 XP Variable Speed Polisher

I have a feeling I will soon be practicing detailing on all my families vehicles.

I have those for my buckets, they are nice. I am still trying to decide if I am going to have my car opticoated or not.

That'd be pretty nice. I haven't really picked up much (anything) yet beyond the paint so it'd be nice to see what the different products are capable of. I figure it's probably worth the extra time since once the finish is fixed I can keep it from getting this bad again. I'll post a pic of the rear bumper; it will make you sad.

I'll probably touch up the paint some time in the next week or two once I fix the switch on our 10" random orbital... As I understand it that takes a few days since you need to really let the color dry before clearcoating it. I'd love to meet up some time after that to do the general polishing and such. Practice on the GF's before I get my car :D

SoA says November or so, October if I'm lucky. :/

Also, I'm a Zach as well :P First few times I saw Darren posting talking to/about you I was like "how in the world did he figure out my name"

I think the Portland First 86 guy is also a Zach, haha.