jp2015

I was fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to get into detailing as a result of trying to keep my Black Hyundai Elantra GT looking brand new. It has the softest paint I've ever worked on, and even has a repainted panel which is softer than the already soft Hyundai factory paint. So I've learned through trial and error and not knowing any better that the way to finish soft paint without micro-marring is: 1) Finest polish you can get. There is a huge difference in finishing polishes when it comes to soft paint. Even Menzerna 4500 hazes on my car in certain spots. Scholl S40 finishes haze-free on the repainted panel (softest paint I've ever encountered). Adam's finishing polish is more or less equal, but smells better. 2) Either a yellow lake country jeweling pad, or a white CarPro fast gloss pad (I haven't tried the Adams white pad). 3) Slow arm speed, 3-4 pad speed on a DA polisher. I'm sure other types of polishers would work, but I've only ever used a DA. 4) Work in the shade. Soft paint gets softer when it heats up, so you'll get micro-marring in the sun. 5) Make sure everything is basically surgically-clean. Microfiber towels, pads, etc. This isn't crucial, but some stray debris might cause you to think your pads / chemicals are at fault when they aren't. And that's pretty much it.

I use the bottle itself as the "handle" portion of the sprayer, and just use my index finger on the spray trigger. May not work for everyone, but I find it very comfortable to use and it doesn't hurt my hand at all.

Odor Neutralizer smells like artificial blueberry / grape. The old liquid paint sealant smelled like licorice and solvent, so I'm glad that one's been updated. Ceramic Boost smells like almond / amaretto to me. Detail Spray smells like fruit cocktail. Coating prep smells like sour grape.

I love the 8oz. bottles because they just seem tidier and I wind up using (maybe perceived) less product. This is great for me, because I can go through a gallon of detail spray in less than a month if I'm not careful.

One thing to consider is that if you're not doing an IPA wipe after polishing, the fillers / polishing oils in whatever polish you're using are masking defects that you haven't actually removed. Depending on what polish you used, it could actually be acting as a glaze itself, because glazes very often contain everything a polish contains, except abrasives. It just depends on the glaze in question. On top of that, Brilliant Glaze isn't durable. Even water alone will remove it. (Nothing wrong with that - it's a wonderful product and I just ordered another bottle). So I would say that you're missing defects when you polish, as well as using a glaze that isn't known to be durable even among glazes. It's the most temporary of temporary gloss enhancers - very much like a detail spray with more gloss enhancers. Also, if you're not using a foam gun or cannon on a black car, you're going to be installing visible swirl marks every time you wash it. Even a few days after you just spent 72 hours (or whatever) detailing it. Those pressure wash bays are great, but there's no shortcut or way to avoid having to foam the car if you want to avoid scratches. If you absolutely must use a wash bay, I would buy a pressurized foamer, fill it with a generous amount of Adams shampoo and water, and foam the car by hand before washing it. Let it dwell for a few minutes to allow the suds to lift the non-bonded contaminants, hose it with the wash bay's wand and continue your wash process as usual. That will help you avoid swirl marks. But before all that, I would guess that you need to use a more aggressive polish once to remove defects, follow up with a finishing polish, and if you wash the car correctly from here on out, you shouldn't ever have to touch anything more aggressive than a finishing polish again.

I'm a huge fan of Adam's products, so please take this as constructive criticism (it truly is). The latest generation of labels are, in my opinion, a step back from the previous generation. The metallic silver and clear coated labels on the last generation of products were very much superior to the current design that (at least as far as I can tell) isn't clear-coated. I've noticed that it takes very little effort to scratch, scrape, bend, etc. the new labels. They're not nearly as durable as the old ones. Add to that - they don't feel premium, and that's where I feel Adam's products excel - in feeling premium. It's one of the tag lines, after all. Maybe things have changed and the detailing market has gotten more competitive, so corners have to be cut, etc. But I feel like this is an important aspect of the premium feel of the products that should be brought back in the next generation of labels. Does anyone else agree? (P.S. - the inconsistent capitalization / font size of the product names on the new labels drives me nuts)

Leather Conditioner smells exactly like professional boxing gloves.

Same here! I buy it for that reason alone now. It's so good on glass, I feel like the shine it produces on lighter paint colors is the off-label benefit.

I went through this same thing a couple of years ago when my car was vandalized and had to be repainted. I couldn't wax the entire side for 90 days, but my car was just fine. Yours will be just fine as well. Add to that, you'll want to polish the repainted areas when they've fully cured, anyway. I'm willing to bet the body shop left compounding swirls - just like they left them in mine. So, even if you got the odd hard water etch here and there, it'll polish right out. If it would make you feel better, basically any product labeled "body shop safe" can be used on a freshly painted panel. So that includes detail sprays, glazes, etc. Honestly, the worst part about a repainted panel is that it will always scratch and mar more easily than the original factory paint, so you'll have to adjust your paint correction routine from here on out. I basically have to use the finest polish / pad compound to remove all the swirls and holograms from the newer panels on my car. It's a shame, but you get used to it.

I hope this resurgence in favor of the Throwback shampoo leads to an entirely new formulation that combines the best of both shampoos. Blue • Requires less soap in a foam cannon • Hardier suds • (I actually prefer the fragrance of the blue) Red • Slickness throughout wash • Cleaning ability • Seems to be gentle on LSP If you combined those qualities and gave it more lubrication, I think you could pretty much call it the best shampoo out there. And I honestly prefer the scent of the blue soap to the red, but I know I'm not in the majority there.

Goldenrod was a fantastic color choice for this (and I mean that sincerely as a designer - I've used that color before). I want to buy it just because of how good the bottle looks in the photos - I don't even need the stuff!

Everyone above knocked it out of the park with the advice, but I'll add my own personal experience. The two bucket method is obsolete. You need a single bucket with multiple mitts so that a dirty wash mitt never touches your clean wash water again. If you think about it, the two bucket method is an overly-complicated way of solving a problem that is really easy to just avoid altogether by simply using a single bucket and extra wash mitts. 4-5 mitts will work for most cars. Also, the foam gun (or foam cannon) is the absolute best thing I ever invested in to avoid scratches on black paint. That alone will reduce swirls by about 90%, and I'm saying that as an owner of a car with very soft black paint that I had to polish every three months - even when using the two bucket method - before buying a foam cannon. And as mentioned above, I would foam the car an extra time after foaming / rinsing initially so that you're not touching "dry" paint. You already have the extra soap left over, and any steps you can take to add lubrication to your mitt are certainly not going to harm anything.

Brilliant Glaze has more off-label uses than any other detailing product I've used. But I find that it gives a bright shine - the opposite of what I'm personally trying to achieve - rather than having a darkening effect on my black paint. For metallics, or even darker metallics like your truck, it's a fantastic choice.

If you really want to avoid scratches, you'll need to use a hose to remove pollen. I've tried rinseless wash methods before and wound up with swirls no matter how careful I was. There's no way around it if you have soft, black paint. Harder clearcoats might be fine with rinseless, but I would never use anything "less" such as detail spray or waterless wash to remove pollen. Under a microscope, pollen literally looks like a spiked weapon and basically acts like sandpaper. Since you have black paint, I would use a hose. I wish there was a way around it, but unfortunately, there isn't. I'm living with the same issue of washing my car and having it covered in pollen fifteen minutes later the same as everyone else is.

Kevin, I asked that exact question to the chat support, and they said it would actually be the old formula.

Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere, but I've been trying to figure out when the Throwback Red Shampoo formula is going to be available. I saw it on the Instagram feed, but haven't seen it anywhere else yet. Anyone know?

Forgive me if this has been covered before, but I just ordered H20 G+G after running out of the 16oz. spray bottle I'd bought last year when it was first introduced. I noticed three things that seem different between the new order and the last order. 1) The smell. The old "grape preserve" scent seems to have been replaced by a more flowery smell. 2) When the product separates, it looks more like a dark orange color in the clear area instead of being entirely clear like the original bottle I had. 3) It works much, much better (in my experience) than the older bottle I had. Beading is on par with some of the best sealants I've used, and I've used lots of different sealants. It's basically my new favorite product. Has there been a formula improvement that I'm just not aware of? It's almost like it's an entirely different product now - especially because of how fantastic the beading is. I do miss the old smell, but that's subjective, of course. That being said, I have to ask - am I just imagining all of this? Maybe I got a bad batch initially? And again, please forgive me if this is old news and I just completely missed it. Thanks!

HGG is definitely great, but I found that it sprays on too thick on a single spot if you're not careful. For the best application, I pull back about 50% more than normal 'detail spray' distance and it sprays much more consistently and thinly. I was able to avoid streaking on my black paint after making this adjustment. Great stuff.