shane@detailedreflections

Oh yeah, not thinking me forgot to thank everyone for the compliments. I try to take a lot of pride in my work and when I work for clients in particular, I tend to be overly critical of my own work. I'll post some more write ups and before and afters as some more scheduled work comes in.

It varies really on the condition of the car to begin with. This car didn't need to be polished and was in great shape to begin with. That being said, it still took two of us about four hours to complete it. We charged $250 for this particular job. If it needed correction or extensive work, the price would go up proportionately. I'll usually add on $50 or so if we are going to do a simple two step correction for improvement and not perfection. If perfection is the goal, it tends to be hourly rate multiplied by the time spent. If it were a large SUV I'd add $75-100 based on condition. They're much larger so it takes more time and product obviously. But that's a small insight into my pricing among other factors that I weigh when pricing a job. I'm not the cheapest, but also not the highest. If I don't value my work, nobody else will.

Well you can't say you went shopping and not share what you purchased!

Nice start of a collection you have there. It'll grow quickly.

I haven't used it with my microfibers yet. I may take one to try it. I don't see why it wouldn't work. But I don't want to say it will for sure. I'd say 95% of my polishing is done with foam pads. It's just the way it's been.

I actually have the Grit Guard Pad Cleaner. It works well. If I only have a pad or two, I'll hand wash. But otherwise, the cleaner works great for me. I do realize in itself it'll wear a little bit faster than the hand method. But I've never gotten the pads as clean by hand as I can with the cleaner.

I found that the Rupes was quicker to make the pads ineffective this week when I detailed a heavily damaged vehicle. I ended up going through more pads than I typically did when using just a Cyclo. I didn't have the chance to clean them yet though since I finished later than I planned. I'm going to run through the pad cleaner and see how they cleaned up. Fortunately, I realize that wearing out pads is part of the "cost of doing business," but I was hoping they'd last longer. It's a combination of really having to work the pad and the extent of the damage on the car that caused it. But it was a good lesson to learn. When I clean the pads this week, I'll post it up and see how well they clean out (or don't clean out) and if they're usable or not.

Looks great. Top it with some wax too to really pull even more shine out and it'll help the glaze last a little longer. Glaze is a short term product mainly for appearance. I always top it all off with some wax...your choice of buttery, Americana or Patriot if you still happen to have some.

Excellent idea since it doubles as a cleaner and polish. Wish I thought of that! Nice call.

All purpose cleaner maybe? The tire and rubber cleaner is a cleaner as well that works on plastic. In fact, it's actually a prep step for the ceramic trim coating which is made of plastic. I don't know how it would do with the paint though. I've never used it on a painted surface.

Tape can be used to prevent polish and wax residues from getting on trim. I don't use it often. Instead I put VRT on the trim before any of those processes and it prevents the residues from sticking. When I'm done, I reapply and level it. Either method works.

So I got the chance to play with the heavy correcting compound today. The whole car didn't really warrant the heavy compound, but there were some spots and I was eager to play. Given where they were, it was also a chance to test the real power of the Rupes Nano since I have limited time using the tool. Anyway...on with it. The combination of the heavy compound and the nano with a blue pad on it was pretty powerful. Quite honestly, it was better than I anticipated for the combination. The heavy compound made rather quick work of some heavy scratches and improved the appearance quite a bit. After I did the correcting with the compound and the Nano, I just did a quick correcting polish and finishing polish as I did the rest of the car with the bigger polishers. The goal for this car was to improve it and not perfection. What that translates to is a pass of correcting and a pass of finishing and it improves as much as it can. I'll spend a little time working heavy spots, but it's not the full on flawless look and working of the polish that a full on correction gets. The reason it wasn't looking for perfection is it's an older car with 100k+ on it and they've been some hard miles. The car lasted the driver through college and into early married life. The car was never given much thought in the way of protection and cleanliness. All in all, I think the heavy compound will be a great tool in the box and could be a starting point for those jobs where you're looking to improve and trying to do so in reasonable time. The pics aren't great, but hopefully you can get a feel for the power and there wasn't a great time investment into it.

It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Are you looking for improvement or perfection? If you're looking for perfection, you'll wipe every step to see your progress. If you're looking for improvement, you may choose to skip the additional buffing. Once I've done my test spot and figured out what works, I tend not to buff the panels between steps. If I'm doing a car for someone else, time is money. Buffing every step adds considerable time. That being said, if I'm aiming for a flawless finish I'm going to buff it every step and check my progress. I'll do one panel at a time until I'm totally satisfied. To define the process, understand the goal.

Just curious, but why layer buttery and Americana? The buttery doesn't last as long and there's already a sealant through the GG. Just seems like a step without a lot of benefit. Americana is a higher quality and longer lasting wax all alone. If I were to layer it up I'd seal it (sealant or GG), glaze and Americana. Food for thought.

I think I paid around that for my Mytee Lite 8070 hot water extractor. In looking quickly now it seems the price has come down a little on them. Commonly used in the auto detail field and a great product. I don't have any experience with the one you are asking about though. Just providing a basis of comparison for a known model in detailing.

I have a friend who had how while car wrapped in clear film. And then they put ceramic right over it. That car is easy to clean and shines for days.

I actually have an older turbo stick. I haven't used the newer version. It is an improvement over the wheel whoolies.

Welcome. That's a gorgeous car to start with. It has to be fun to drive. I think you'll find a lot of great knowledge here as far as any detailing project you might choose to take on. Enjoy your time here. We all seem to.

I agree. A stiffer option to work on wheels that aren't well maintained would be great. Working on maintained wheels is rarely the challenge. It's ones that haven't been done in a long time or regularly.

Thanks Jason. I've slowly built my collection up pretty significantly. With time, I've also built up a small number of customers who I detail for along the way. In the spring here, I'm probably going to push it forward a little further to continue to obtain new clients. I'd mostly been doing word of mouth and a referral here and there. Detailing won't ever replace my career for me, but it does have the potential to bring in some extra cash on my schedule, which is always good. In deciding to try to obtain new clients, I came to the realization that you have to be able to either offer a level of service that isn't readily available, but more importantly to be able to have the right tool for the job. By that, it usually means having the tools a client doesn't have or won't invest in. The other component for me, is that when I'm doing a job for someone else time is money. The more efficient I can make the process, the more profitable it becomes for me. And let's not forget the real reason, I'm bit of a tool geek! But the decisions I've made to invest in the equipment that I have are not entirely geek based. Let's hope it pays off. But I guess if it doesn't, I still have all the tools to make my own vehicles flawless.

Hopefully someone from Adam's will chime in on the constant varying of the pads as well. I've noticed that the pads are constantly being updated. I haven't noticed a huge difference in the final result when using different versions of the pads (I don't have them all). I can also kind of understand why one wouldn't take the four steps to "perfect" your paint as you say when there are similar two step systems out there. The thing that having more steps to really get the process down does offer is the ability to really choose a least aggressive process without being too aggressive. I have a car coming in on Friday that I'm going to try just the heavy correcting compound on followed by the correcting compound. I'm going to see if that's a better two step process for most vehicles and save the finishing polish and the two steps of heavy for the true show car finish. All of that being said, you do raise some valid points. I'm curious how this discussion will go and what thoughts others have, including Adam's staff.

I use a little bit of polish, a shot or two of detail spray and then I spread it around the panel and go to town. Once the pads have a decent amount of polish in them, there's no need for repeating the detail spray. Out of curiosity what is it that has you uncomfortable about using the microfiber pads? Technique is the same. You just have to brush the fibers up from time to time once they flatten out. It's an added step that offers a better cut than foam pads. So microfiber pad and correcting polish followed by foam pad and correcting polish and then a foam pad with finishing polish. This same procedure will hold true with the new heavy correcting polish. Simply start with the least aggressive and work until you've found the process that works for a vehicle. That way you aren't more aggressive than needed. I think with a little use, you won't fear the microfiber pads. I even have some 4" white microfiber pads for finishing polish I'll break out occasionally. It's not often I find that needed though. Just another tool in the tool box.

You can also put glaze down before sealant if you've done any polishing. The glaze can go down before you buff. That way you can polish, glaze then buff it off instead of polish, buff, seal, buff, glaze, buff. Just food for thought if you're trying to cut down on time and trips around the vehicle. The results look the same.

The mirror effect comes from more than the wax that's used. It has everything to do with the layers and the condition of the clear coat to begin with. You don't mention what other products he uses or what you use in your process. When I want the best shine, I go with the Patriot on top of sealant and glaze. Most vehicles get the Americana. Here's a vehicle I just did the other day with Americana and my old truck done with Patriot for your comparison.

It seems like I underestimated the ability of the tire and rubber cleaner a bit against new tires given how well it's performed for me in the past. I'll have another car Friday, but the tires definitely aren't new. Might try to find a brush with shorter bristles for these scenarios. I like always having the right tool for the job. I hadn't seen anyone else have this happen which made me wonder even more.