Advice on products?
 

I sent this in an email to Stay Fresh, but it was already the weekend so they might not see it until after the sale. Can you guys give me some advice? Here's what I sent:

Hi! I have read reviews and posts about your products on the FT86 forum, and I think I want to try some stuff during your sale. I have a Firestorm Monogram FR-S, got it just under 2 months ago. It is my daily driver, so I know it will not remain pristine. I also do not want to wash it every few days, or even every week. So far I have washed it about every 2-3 weeks. I just bought a DA polisher and would love to be able to give it a super shine. I bought the Maguires new car kit and have been using the products out of it so far. I keep the car in the garage, and I work from home full time, so the car is only out when I am out driving it. I will not be entering it in any shows or anything like that.

I am thinking that I would only need the shampoo and maybe the wax for the DA, and I think I would like to get one of the blue towels for wiping off dust or quick detailed between washes. I have considered getting a clay bar kit, but not sure if that is something I need to do on a brand new car.

Does that sound like a good plan, or am I over- or under-estimating what I should be doing for my car?

You don't really need a DA polisher, but ok. Those are great for paint correction, commercial work, etc... A wool wash mitt is wonderful. For between washes, Adam's quick detailer, meguiar's quick detailer, etc... all work very well. A clay bar is for cleaning contaminants from the paint, which probably isn't an issue if you don't leave road tar, sap, bird shit, etc... on your car for a while. Phil @DetailersDomain has a lot of good info.

Here's my stash:
Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner - AWESOME! Spray it on, let it sit, rinse it off. Clean wheels!
Sonax Insect Remover - Also awesome, a little less awesome than the wheel cleaner. Spray on, let sit, rinse off. No more bugs!
Sonax Car Shampoo - So much foam!
Sonax Paint Cleaner - Not used it yet. Haven't been able to devote that much time at a single time. Soon...
Sonax Polymer Shield - Not used it yet. Waiting until I use the paint cleaner.
Uber wool mitt - It's like you're washing your car with a sheep! :D
Grit Guard bucket inserts - Keeps the dirt in the dirt in the bucket, not on your car.
Uber super drying microfiber towel - x2. Super freaking fluffy and absorbent. Wash them first, or you get blue lint on your car.
Costco microfiber towels - 36 for $22. Hard to beat.
Extendable pressure spray wand - Very useful.

And finally, and most important, In-line water softener/filter. The water here is SHIT. This keeps me from getting hard water deposits on my paint.

I have various Sonax interior products as well. Phil is the man.

All i can say is, buy a shit load of products and find out for your self. Not only stop by an Autozone and pick up stuff there, but check out Adams, Ammo, Stay Fresh and other "boutique" detailing company's. I don't have a specific pattern of brands for what i use on my cars.

For majority of people, the stuff you can buy at a automotive store is good enough. But car guys are very picky...

I have a whole assortment of car care products. I now live in an apartment and those products I own require the use of a Porter Cable. Here are my every-6-month full paint detailing procedures when I had a garage:

I wash the car with Pinnacle Bodywork Shampoo. It has oils in it which leave the surface smooth to the touch. I then clay the whole car. Honestly, any clay bar will work. I then apply some Griot's Spray Detailer and wipe dry it at the same time. I have a set of Menzerna polishes, which I apply about once a year on any car I've owned. The use of a Porter Cable is essential for that, but it gets rid of swirls and leaves the surface shiny and smooth. Once all that is done, I apply some Collinite Marque D'Elegance, which takes some time to apply and remove, even with a Porter Cable. Not an easy wax to apply. It's even harder by hand. I let it haze and spray the surface with Griot's spray wax, and then remove and buff with a Porter Cable. The results are breathtaking. The Collinite lasts a good couple of months, and during washes, I normally just use a spay wax or a cheap liquid wax to finish it. This procedure takes me a good 5-6 hours of work.

I now live in an apartment with no garage, so I wash my car at one of those car wash stalls. I don't use the difficult to apply and remove products anymore. For wax, I use Meguiar's Gold Class liquid wax and apply and remove it by hand, along with Griot's Spray Wax. It looks great, but doesn't last nearly as long as the Collinite. I still use everything else above, except the clay bar and ones requiring the use of a Porter Cable. When I want to do another full detailing, I just head over to my friend's house.

I wash my car every 2 weeks or so. Wax once a month. And spray my car down with water once a week. Pollen here is excessive.

I have way too many car care products to name off the list, but I would recommend
The wash kit from stay fresh. The shampoo, brilliant glaze, and preserve wax. The hex pads
As well if you don't have an applicator and the two microfibers. One large, and one from stay fresh to clean off the wax. That there is a good start. You only need to clay bar with quick detailer if your paint is rough with dirt and oxidization stuck to it (run your hand with a clean plastic bag on it to check for roughness) if it's smooth then don't worry about claying.
Hope this helps!

First thing you should do to a new car is clay bar it. New cars are often extremely contaminated with particles you cannot see or feel with your bare hand. Secondly, don't use off the shelf products that you can buy at autozone or pepboys. More often than not they are just watered down and uneffective. Meguairs's professoinal and detailers line are good but not readily accessible and their consumer products are iffy at best. For a shampoo you want something with suds that lasts and offers good thick coverage when applying to the paint. A polish job will be necessary if you want to give it that nice shine (shine comes from polishing not wax). Check out my review on the great job the polishes by Stay Fresh did on 10 year old sun faded paint (http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66313 ). For long lasting protection use a synyhetic wax. Stay fresh is also offering their prototype wax for free I believe with 20% off for memorial day. They offer great customer service that isnpractically unmatched :p. Feel free to PM me with any questions

I like Zaino. Second choice is Meguiars.