shane@detailedreflections

If you coat your car, it will take the place of the sealant. The car is sealed by virtue of the coating. If you have your vehicle coated, you can simply use the ceramic boost to keep it looking fresh. If you were to seal over the ceramic, you lose some of the hydrophobic properties that the ceramic offers which somewhat defeats the purpose of the coating in the first place. Somewhere Dylan explained it perfectly. I believe it was one of the many coating threads if you search it.

Thanks Dan. I'll shoot her an email in the morning. I didn't mean to come across overly negative or complaining, just trying to manage costs. I don't necessarily do huge volume like a full time shop, but I consume enough product that the discount of bigger quantities is more than worth it for me. I'd be afraid to see how much my account totals are. In the spring, I have a feeling my workload is going to increase considerably as I'm actually going to actively try to bring work in rather than working off of referrals only. Being set up like that would be a huge plus! Thank you again! I'll send Ashley that email.

If they're very minor it may work. Realistically the correcting polish is a better one step product. This will hold true in most cases with the exception of black vehicles. Black almost always requires a finishing polish aster correcting.

I understand and agree the pricing isn't logical. My comments were more observational than anything else. As someone who goes through product, it's frustrating seeing the trend. I try to keep an inventory of product so I'm not without what I need when I need it. The trend has been going more towards the occasional use as opposed to multiple uses. Well minus the coatings.

Unfortunately they offered the smaller packages at the expense of a larger alternative. There are products that aren't offered in a gallon size (odor neutralizer comes to mind) and they only offer 8 ounce bottles of polishes and such now. Unfortunately, in doing that they've raised the price of their products per unit. It used to be $29.99 for a 16 ounce polish and it's not $19.99 for 8 ounces. For those of us who do enough detailing to buy in "bulk," they've taken away that option. There should be a couple of sizes of each product offered or at least a means to purchase in whatever quantity you need. The smaller bottles have hit the "weekend warrior" market and increased profit margins, but left the people who do consume more product in the dark with higher prices. I've been waiting to see what options they come up with for shops and those who do go through products. Hopefully answers come soon.

Nice work and a great gift!

This thread needs pics!!! Before and after!!! Nice work. It's a lot of fun watching a vehicle transform when given the attention they need.

The Brembo's definitely leave a ton of brake dust. I know the Lotus wheels are next to impossible to keep clean for that reason. I just don't know if I want to go through the trouble of jacking the car up and pulling the wheels off. The jack points aren't the easiest to find on it. And the idea of leaving them off for a day makes it an extended time frame to do a wheel. Wait a day to finish it. Move to the next wheel. That being said, I'm still debating coating the entire car this spring. I go back and forth on it personally. The cost is up there for the three kits (which I may be able to skip the trim kit since it doesn't have much of it on it). We will see. I've never been displeased with my results using conventional methods. But this is all very tempting.

I believe it's caution advised on satin wheels as it may cause unwanted shine. It was in the video or I read it somewhere. So will it work? Yes. Will your wheels stay satin? Maybe.

Nice work. Love the color. It really pops and stands out.

Jason, I didn't find any dead spots in the paint. I looked it over before I did it. Unfortunately I don't have a paint thickness gauge so I can't answer how much it takes off. I didn't go overly aggressive with this vehicle by any means. It was a couple of quick spots of the heavy compound and then a once over with the correcting and finishing polishes. This car wasn't perfect when I was done by any means. There were imperfections still left in the paint. But given the age and mileage and lack of care, it came out pretty well.

This. As much of an investment as it was, it's become one of my favorite tools. It's not necessarily a time saver, but I don't have to touch my car with a towel anywhere near as much (you'll still have to wipe here and there). It's great for getting water out of trim. I also use air when I clean interiors to get rid of loose debris. The more I use it, the more I like it and wonder why I waited so long to order one.

The master blaster is too much for an interior. The sidekick works pretty well. You will have some resettling, but since that's entirely on the surface it cleans or vacuums right up with ease. The blower gets everything dislodged from little tight spots that aren't easily accessible.

Nothing there to be harsh about really. Looks like you did some high quality work from here. Nice work for not having the "heavy hitting" tools. You can often achieve a similar result without them, it's just a tradeoff of time to get there. The tools make the work go quicker since it's more efficient. That's largely the biggest difference. Sometimes you'll really need them if it's bad, but not often. For reference for those learning from these posts, where that took the OP two hours I'm thinking it's a 30-60 minute job with the tools. The extractor makes quick work of carpets. And the blower before vacuuming does wonders to push everything towards a central spot or out of the car. That is a technique I would have employed on this vehicle and on any interior really. I start by blowing everything towards a footwell and out of the car. I also blow all of the seams in panels out too to free them of debris, cup holders, etc. Impressive quality work. You should be proud and it hopefully brought your neighbor a little bit of happiness if they're going through a hard time!

Exactly this. Once it flashes, it's on to the next panel. For many cars there's a considerable improvement by simply going that far with it. If they're trying to obtain a specific result (flawless or close to it), it's obviously a more time intensive process since it can take multiple passes to get it as flawless as possible.

I agree that the white pad is less aggressive. I guess it depends on the finish that they're after. The abrasive green pad leaves it looking nicely brushed. The white pad would clean it and leave it with a softer look. Either or would make it clean and take anything off of the aluminum.

If you're going for a brushed look, take a green scotch-brite pad and go back and forth in the same direction. You can probably use APC with it or even Simple Green.

I used to dry my old Ford Raptor with two towels (sometimes one). They work better when they're damp. And I'd just let it get full and then ring it out. Then repeat until I was done. Now I don't towel dry. Instead I blow dry with a MBR. Worth the investment if you're in the market.

Solid advice on least aggressive to most aggressive. I think we often tend to lose that concept. We test a heavily damaged spot that we think takes the most work, settle on a process to fix it...then we carry that process around the entire vehicle. Not that you need to do a panel by panel test and process, but a quick glance at the surface you're working and you should have an idea of how aggressive you need to go with it compared to that heavily damaged area you tested to start.

Yup. I used the Rupes blue pads with heavy Correcting Compound. Then went over it with the Rupes 15 using an orange and white pad with corresponding correcting and finishing polishes. Read Dylan's thohhhts on long neck vs short neck before deciding. It swayed my decision from long to short. Food for thought. The nano is a big investment, but one I have no regrets about.

Nope. Think of a shop-vac, but that uses water with it. So I spray the carpets with a cleaner. Next step is to agitate it with a stiff bristle brush (or softer bristles for seats). Then the extractor sprays it with hot water and vacuums water and dirt out together leaving nice clean carpets usually. The additional step is to blow out any loose debris with a blower before vacuuming. Push it right out of the vehicle with the blower and it makes it so you are only left with dirt that needs to be worked.

Exactly this. I've also done it with the extractor by extracting in different directions.

The applicator can slowly absorb the wax. They're packaged that way simply for shipment.

Thanks for the compliment Dan! It's much appreciated. Especially since I feel like I still have a lot to learn along the way. I'm constantly reading and thinking.

No problem. Feel free to ask any questions you have from what I used to how I did something. The biggest thing I found when I was learning was to have the right tools for the job. Not every vehicle is maintained as mine are. Where my vehicles rarely (if ever) need a hot water extractor, most client vehicles do. Purchasing one was a great investment in my time savings. The same thing with having multiple polishers. The right one for each spot saves time. And it allows two of us to work a car faster since we follow each other. There's always more to learn. I learn on every car I do. Sometimes it's a silly thing I realize makes a job easier. Other times it's just that "next level" idea.