Dan@Adams

Easy there guys, we were all new to detailing at one point. Matt is here to learn I'm currently working on a new and updated Detailing Flow Chart, but it's not yet ready for prime-time yet. Kyle's post above mine gives a nice order of operations for detailing, and our video series provides great information on cleaning and maintaining nearly every aspect of your vehicle: http://adamspolishes.com/video I also made a specific Winter-Preparation write-up in our Detailing Write-ups section a few days ago that you might find useful: http://www.adamsforums.com/topic/29429-in-depth-winter-preparation-on-a-2016-toyota-tundra/

Wow, those are some wild rides Matt! Thanks for all of the great pictures!

Good catch guys, I'll talk with Joe today to get the image updated if we are going to always ship this kit with the Premium Dilution Bottle now. Back when I bought this kit a year ago, it didn't come with any extra bottle, so that's pretty cool that we added one at no extra cost There are also quite a few product pages that need descriptions for "What's in the Box?" and I hope to be addressing those soon too!

Hi Daniel! Welcome to the forum The picture didn't post, other than the one you have as your avatar. You have some great questions! Even with brand new cars, I will usually need to clay the surface to get them nice and smooth, because they can pick up a lot of contaminants being shipped across the country and sitting on dealer lots. If you feel that's not necessary for your car, then you can absolutely jump to Brilliant Glaze and then Buttery Wax for a nice deep shine and some protection. There isn't really an immediate need to apply another coat of Brilliant Glaze over top of the Buttery Wax - you could wait a few weeks since the Brilliant Glaze is designed to be a shine enhancing product. It doesn't really add any protection like a wax, and it can wash off after a few washes or rain storms, so that is why we recommend applying a wax on top of it. If I'm going to a car show, I will apply another coat of Brilliant Glaze just to give my car that extra 'pop' to the metallic paint! And remember, a little bit of product goes a long way - a few drops of BG on an applicator should be able to cover an entire front fender for example. Our Revive Hand Polish would be an option after you wash and dry the vehicle and before you apply the Brilliant Glaze, as Robert mentioned. It is a very fine hand polish that would help to clean the paint and minimize some of those very fine imperfections. If you rub the polish between your finger and thumb you can't even really feel any abrasives in it, so as long as you use light pressure with our blue hex grip applicator, you will not create any new scratches or swirl marks on the surface. I would definitely recommend a two bucket wash method with grit guards, a good pH neutral soap like our Car Shampoo, and quality washing and drying media like our Wash Pads and Great White Drying Towel to keep your finish looking great and to have the least chance of creating swirl marks during the washing and drying process. Please let us know if you have any other questions

Hi Derek, maybe you're thinking of our older 36oz spray bottles from a few years back? Yes, those were discontinued, but like Chris linked, we have the 32oz premium dilution bottles now They have an adjustable sprayer and ounce markings on the side of the bottle to help in diluting products like Rinseless Wash or APC.

Hi Nafees and welcome! The link that John provided is a nice one-stop write-up to answer just about any microfiber question you may have, and I definitely suggest reading through it when you have a few minutes. A quick answer to your question is that yes you can clean them in your washer, but make sure you only wash microfiber towels with only other microfiber towels - do not mix in any other types of clothes or cotton towels and so on. I would recommend our Microfiber Revitalizer & Brightener to wash them, as it's a detergent specifically designed to break down and clean polishes and wax residue out of the towels, but you could also try a dye free/perfume free liquid laundry soap - no powders or granulated detergent. Also, do not use any type of fabric softener at all. To dry them, you can let them air dry or you can put them in your dryer on the lowest heat setting, or no heat at all if your dryer has that option. Do not put any dryer sheets in with them. Please let us know if you have any other questions and we will be happy to help out

Yep, I've applied Liquid Paint Sealant, Americana, Patriot, and Buttery wax on various vehicles in my garage during the winter months when I just have my little space heater running and the temperature in the garage is in the 50-60 degree range. They might require a little bit more effort for buffing off with your microfiber towel, but other than that should be fine

I know Adam has been discussing things, and we will certainly be offering some of the new Rupes machines! They should be available the same time that other vendors will be getting them. I will talk to Adam, Matt, and Ben to see if we will be offering preorders soon, and I will make sure to keep our forum members up to date as soon as I have more information!

Good eye! I didn't catch that. Joe, can we send out a prize? lol

No fair Matt! Consider me extremely jealous! I have some pictures that Kourtney took too that I need to post up. Stay tuned!

It's a great machine, I love mine. Please let us know if you have any questions about it or anything else! Thanks!

Jared, Jason, and Rich got things covered, so the only thing that I will add is that once bug blasts do start to show up, I like to spray a heavy concentration of Waterless Wash onto those bug splatters and bird bombs and let it soak in for a couple minutes to help break down that nastiness and make removal a little bit easier.

Awesome! Did you get the Cyclo in that order too? Sweet! Let us know how you like it and thank you for your order

I did give them a quick scrub down with APC but I forgot to take pictures of that! With them being so new, the owner didn't have any other brand of tire shine on them yet, and there was minimal mold release on the sidewalls, so it didn't take much to get them clean. My crazy bright garage lighting made the 'before' pictures of the tires look worse than they actually were.

I should also add that you don't have to worry about Glass Cleaner removing or reducing the performance of our Glass Sealant or H2O Guard & Gloss, it's safe to use with both!

I agree with Tim. I use about 2 sprays per side window...a little bit goes a long way to give a nice clean and streak free finish Just curious for why you're thinking of diluting it, are you looking to do glass cleaning on a much larger scale?

I've always loved your car good buddy, and this is a great review. Does he do all of his reviews around our area?

I typically wait at least a half hour or so before applying anything on top of Liquid Paint Sealant, but you could even wait until the next day. I apply LPS one panel at a time, allow it to haze up for a minute or two, and then buff it off with a Single Soft or Double Soft Towel. By the time I get to the last panel on the car it's been a half hour or so and the first panel would be good to put on a coat of Brilliant Glaze, Americana, or Patriot Wax.

If I was just a little bit closer to Illinois, sure! If Delaware wasn't a 6 hour drive I would come help out! I have no idea how or why, but Delaware is the only state on the entire East Coast that I have never visited yet, I need to change that Thank you everyone for the kind words and encouragement, I will keep the write-ups coming!

Welcome to the forum Matt! Unfortunately you just missed out on our 15% off Pumpkin Spice Detail Spray promotion over the weekend, but like Ron said, you can use the forum code of "SHINEON" for 10% off of your order. We're also doing free shipping on orders over $150.00 right now. Please let us know if you have any other questions, and post up some pictures of your ride if you get a chance! Thanks

Paint Protection with Adam's Liquid Paint Sealant Now that the truck was polished and looking great, it was time to put on a coat of Adam's Liquid Paint Sealant to have a great layer of protection on all of the paint to last through the harsh winter months that most parts of the U.S. have to deal with. I elected to use my Cyclo to apply the Liquid Paint Sealant, due to how well balanced and vibration free the machine is, and to give my Flex polisher time to cool off some. These two X's of LPS were enough to seal the driver-side front fender and the driver-side half of the hood: Note that I applied the LPS onto the top of the chrome front grille as well. Chrome can be protected just like clear coat: For the smaller and tighter areas such as the side mirrors, headlights, bumpers, and the rest of the front grille, I used a microfiber application and applied the LPS by hand. I used a Single Soft Towel to buff off the residue, focusing on one panel at a time. Lastly, while I forgot to take some pictures to document it, I did use the Adam's Glass Sealant on all exterior glass to give the glass some good protection against snow, freezing rain, salt, and all of the other nasty things that get sprayed back onto vehicles driving down a messy highway in the winter. Final Results It was an overcast day when I finished the truck Sunday morning, so unfortunately these final pictures don't truly show how much this truck truly shines: I hope this write-up is useful and that you found a few good tips or learned a few things along the way. Thanks for looking and as always, please let us know if you have any questions! ​

Treating Exterior Plastics and Trim with Adam's Super VRT Next, I did a few clay bar tests and decided that the truck was smooth enough that it didn't need a full clay treatment. Doing a visual inspection out in the sunlight and with various light sources in my garage, there were very little to no swirl marks in the majority of the truck as well, with it being so new, so I decided to go straight to polishing the truck with Adam's Paint Finishing Polish with a white foam pad. Before I began to polish the truck, I made sure to go around and treat all of the plastic and rubber trim around the truck, like the bed rails in the picture below, with Adam's Super VRT. By having these areas treated with SVRT, if the polishing pad and polish would happen to come in contact with them, the polish residue will wipe off rather than stain the trim surfaces. This is an alternative method to taping off all of the plastic and rubber areas, which can take considerably more time. There were just a few key areas left that I wanted to treat before I jumped in on polishing the truck. First up were the plastic trim pieces on the front and rear bumpers. Here's a nice shot of the rear bumper, with the driver side treated with SVRT, and the passenger side untouched from when the truck was washed earlier in the morning. Since I treated the wheel wells and the inner portions of the mud flaps with IUC earlier, it was apparent that the outer portion of the mud flaps see a good amount of weather and were a little dirty and faded. Applying a small amount of SVRT onto the Tire Hex applicator: And then squeezing the hex applicator together to spread the product more evenly before applying it to the mud flap: I used the Pro Tire Hex Grip Applicator because it was the closest applicator nearby, but our foam block applicators will work just as good here. With the SVRT applied, much, much better! The final spot of plastic that I treated was the faded wiper cowl. Adam's In & Out Spray works great for areas like this, especially if the cowl has a lot of slots for ventilation for the spray to get into every tight crevice. I sprayed it liberally onto the trim piece, to ensure that I got coverage across all areas, and then I took a Single Soft Towel and wiped everything down - the overspray on the windshield, the cowl, and the overspray onto the hood. I didn't go overboard with removing every trace amount of overspray, because I knew I still had to clean the windshield with Glass Cleaner and polish and seal the hood. Machine Polishing with the Flex and Adam's Paint Finishing Polish Now that I was finally ready to begin polishing the whole truck, I applied four drops of Adam's Paint Finishing Polish onto the white foam pad. Each drop was about the size of a dime, and slightly more polish than I really needed on the pad. I gave the pad one quick shot of detail spray to prime the pad, and I then spread the polish on about half of the passenger bed side, since I did have a little bit too much on the pad. Normally I would try to work in an area no larger than 2'x2', but rather than scrape off some of the polish and waste product, I decided to spread it out in a slightly larger area. After thoroughly working the Paint Finishing Polish into this area with the Flex set to the maximum setting of 6, I buffed off the residue and admired the results. Other than the factory orange peel, the finish looked perfect! When I got to the back half of the bed side, I noticed some abnormal overspray immediately in front of the tail light. In the image below, the horizontal line is a reflection of the gap on my garage door panels, but you can see the vertical oval-shape of overspray that goes right through that area: The Flex with the white foam pad and Paint Finishing Polish was all it took to remove it, no trouble at all: This was the only such area of overspray on the truck, so I then continued on with polishing the rest of the truck with Paint Finishing Polish and the Flex. ​

Tires, Wheel Wells, and Wheels With the scratch fixed, I moved onto the tires, wheel wells, and wheels. The first thing I did was apply Tire Shine to the tires to treat them and offer some protection from the elements, while at the same time, give them a great shine! I sprayed the Tire Shine directly onto the middle-to-outer edge of the sidewall, so as to avoid getting too much overspray on the wheels and reduce the amount of cleanup. A foam tire block applicator was then used to spread the Tire Shine evenly, in an up-down motion around the tire to follow the groove pattern in the side wall. This ensures that you will get a uniform level of shine to the tire and cover all areas. I also made sure to not let any of the product pool up into any of the thick tread blocks at the edge of the sidewall, in order to prevent any slinging onto the mud flaps or door panels. And the final result of the Tire Shine applied: Once the Tire Shine dries, it will leave an awesome, non-greasy shine that will not sling. Next up was spraying down the entire inner fender liners with Adam's Invisible Undercarriage Spray. IUC is a very easy way to treat all of the black plastic and undercoated areas inside of the wheel wells and give them a nice dark black appearance, that will dry to a nice satin finish. The IUC also makes spraying off dirt, dust, and other road debris easier the next time you wash the vehicle. Here are two before and after comparison shots of the driver side front fender liner and inside portion of the mud flap: With the tires and wheel wells addressed, I moved onto the wheels. Liquid Paint Sealant was my choice here, since it is a durable sealant and an excellent alternative to our aerosol Quick Sealant. I applied the LPS by hand with a microfiber applicator and allowed it to haze up for a few minutes. Then I buffed off the residue with an Edgeless Utility Towel. For a more delicate wheel face, I would have used a Single Soft or Double Soft Towel, but the painted inner spokes and brushed outer surfaces on these wheels were not nearly as delicate as a bare polished aluminum lip or an entire polished aluminum wheel. And the finished result:

Scratch Correction with the Rupes Mini and Adam's Paint Correcting Polish Next up, I wanted to tackle the scrape in the side of the bed. My neighbor walked over to my garage at this point to see how things were going and to learn a little about Adam's Polishes products, so I said "Perfect timing, I'm going to fix that scratch for you right now!" Due to how close in proximity the scratch was to the section of factory clear bra right below it, I opted to use the Rupes Mini Random Orbital Polisher with the Adam's 4" Orange Foam Pad. These four drops of Adam's Paint Correcting Polish were more than enough to work into this small section of the bed side. One quick trigger-pull of Detail Spray serves to prime the pad and polish. I then set the machine to speed setting 2 to quickly spread the polish evenly across the surface to avoid any slinging of polish onto myself or other areas of the truck or garage, and to avoid any wasting of product. ​ With the orange pad face pressed uniformly against the surface of the vehicle, I then switch the machine to the ON position and spread the Paint Correcting Polish across the trouble spot in a cross-hatch (up/down, left/right) pattern. Important Tip: When turning the machine off, I always ensure that I keep the pad face on the surface of the vehicle as I turn the switch to the OFF position, and I am still moving the polisher and pad across the surface, or "walking the polisher" as the motor throttles down. This ensures that you don't have a large buildup of polish in one area, which will be more difficult to remove, and it also causes less wear and tear on the Velcro backing of the pads than if you would just pull the machine and pad off of the surface of the vehicle as soon as you click the rocker switch to OFF and the pad is still oscillating. Next I bumped the Mini to speed setting 6. And I began to work the Paint Correcting Polish into the target area, in slow, left-right horizontal passes followed by up-down vertical passes. I apply a small amount of force to the machine with my palm on the top of the machine, directly behind the backing plate and polishing pad. An extreme amount of force is not necessary, as the polish, pad, and oscillating motion of the machine are doing the majority of the correcting work. I wiped the polish residue off with an Adam's Borderless Gray Microfiber Towel, but our Single Soft and Double Soft Towels are just as suitable for polish removal. After just one pass of working the Paint Correcting Polish until it flashed over, all that was left of that big scrape was a trace amount of a scratch. It took me about 10 different picture attempts until I got the light and angle just right to be able to show what was left of the scratch, directly above the middle light reflection in the photo below. He seemed more than pleased that the scratch was now essentially gone...and that was even before I went back over the area with the Paint Finishing Polish and a white foam pad - more on that later in this write-up. ​

Hey Everyone! This will be the first of many regular detailing technical write-ups from me, in a similar style and format that our friend TheWolf has done in his excellent and very informative Raptor thread here on our forum! The vehicles used in these write-ups will be either mine, friends and family members of mine that have given me permission to post up the photos, or maybe even some forum members if any of you guys and gals live nearby and would like your ride featured...and maybe get some free Adam's products in the process too! Adam's Polishes Winter Preparation on a Brand New 2016 Toyota Tundra Products Used in this write-up: Adam's Can't Touch This Winter Kit Rupes LHR 75E Mini Random Orbital Polisher Adam's 4" Orange Foam Pad Adam's Paint Correcting Polish​ Adam's Detail Spray Flex 3401 VRG Dual Action Orbital Polisher Adam's 7" White Foam Pad Adam's Paint Finishing Polish Cyclo Model 5-Pro Mk II Polisher Adam's 4" Gray Foam Pads Background While I was outside assessing my house for any wind damage Saturday morning from a nasty storm that went through when I was out of town at Adam's HQ last week, I noticed my neighbor across the street was repairing some damage to his fence. I walked over to see if he needed any help with the fence, and before I could even ask him about detailing his brand new Tundra for him, like he had mentioned to me a few weeks back, he said "Hey, do you still have time to wax my truck before winter gets here?" I said "Absolutely!" The timing worked out great, because this would be a perfect vehicle to show the Winter Preparation process that Adam demonstrated in our most recent video release from about a week ago. I told my neighbor that my whole weekend was free, and after I had a late lunch, we pulled this super nice truck into my garage! He had already washed it earlier in the morning before I even woke up...I slept in just a bit since I didn't make it home from the airport until 3am due to a delay in Charlotte...but it did have some water spotting on it from the wash. Visual Inspection and Waterless Wash Wipe-Down I start each detail by doing a full visual inspection of the vehicle to identify and note (with camera) any imperfections that will need to be addressed. My neighbor only requested for the exterior of the vehicle to be detailed, so I spent all of my time on the outside, in order to be as efficient as possible and get the vehicle back to him quickly. There was only one minor imperfection on the vehicle that he pointed out to me before I even began to look it over - a nickel-sized scrape in the paint at the front of the bed on the passenger side, that was there where he picked up the vehicle. You can see it right near the center of this picture: With that scratch noted, I walked around the rest of the vehicle. The truck only has a few thousand miles on it, so it was in great shape other than the typical dirty tires and plastic areas on the rear bumper and wiper cowl - after all, this is a work truck that sees construction sites on a daily basis. So the first thing I did was give the majority of the truck a wipe down with Adam's Waterless Wash and one of our Adam's Microfiber Waterless Wash Towels. For those not familiar with either product, Waterless Wash is a spray-on car washing solution that provides a safe way to clean a slightly dirty or dusty vehicle without having to use a hose and water, and the accompanying Waterless Wash Towels are premium microfiber towels with a waffle weave pattern that work excellent with Waterless Wash to clean a vehicle without creating any new scratches or swirl marks in the finish.