zapdon

I finally gave my truck the love it deserves. A few weeks ago I detailed my wife's Murano and this weekend it was my trucks turn. I had some new products that I haven't used before and needless to say I was blown away by the results. While I was doing my thing I had my oldest some using VRT and In and Out spray on the trim and then I hear "Dad, look at this". Immediately panicked because I didn't that was going to be good. Without me knowing he used VRT on my step bars. I have to say that they came out awesome!! Nice deep dark shine to them. My son can't clean his room but he took the initiative to do that so I was pretty happy.
 
Overall it was a great morning not only cleaning up my truck but hanging with my son doing guy things. Plus I learned a new purpose for VRT.

I traded in my 2014 Civic Si for this 2016 Audi A3 2.0t quattro.  The car is new and has never been washed but it did sit for nearly 6 months at the dealer without anyone touching it.  Here it is in my driveway with 300 miles on it.  Just a little dirty.  The color is Lotus Gray.
 

 

 

 
Wheels were cleaned with a product similar to DWC and the tires and wheel wells were cleaned with Adam's APC.
 

 

 
Here it is after a wash with Adam's Car Shampoo.
 

 
I then sprayed the car down with a product similar to DWC.
 

 

 

 

 
I then got the car fairly dry to pull into the garage and clay it.
 

 

 
Only the horizontal surfaces were badly contaminated.
 

 
Here is the initial condition of the paint.
 

 
Pretty good except a few areas had minor water spots.

 
Because the paint was in relatively excellent condition, I proceeded just to polish the car to get it closer to perfect.
 
Trunk

 
Hood:

 

 

 

 
I then brought it back into the garage to apply a ceramic coating.
 
I also went around and cleaned all of the rubber window trim using Adam's APC

 
Rubber trim and tires were then dressed with Adam's SVRT.  The wheels and windshield got Adam's Quick Sealant.  The rest of the glass got another sealant.
 
The final result:

 

 

 

 

Here's a link to my custom cart. I mainly wanted a way to get the buckets mobile and up higher.
 
http://www.adamsforums.com/topic/28581-detailing-cart/?do=findComment&comment=448023

Zapdon that an awesome tricked out cart!!  I found a better picture of mine for those that were concerned the wheels were on the side
 

EXTRAS

EXTRAS

The bottle holder there looks like a spray can holder that I have on my workbench. I forget where I got it but looks like it would work great for it now that I think about it. Hmmmm.....Thanks! 

All these orange sidekick's are making me jealous.

Dan, get yourself a box of popsicle sticks!
 

Now that's a cart with some attitude! I like!

EXTRAS

EXTRAS

Still an Adams newbie but she filled out nicely with clean and polish products with just testing the space. Someday I will be able to afford a full Adams transition...maybe.
 

This has changed a little, but still very close to this.    
 
http://www.adamsforums.com/topic/28812-diy-detailing-cart/?do=findComment&comment=450615

Here's a little cart I threw together...
 

 
 
I also found some totes that fit the bottles nicely.
 

I have changed my G&G sprayer to the red Tolco sprayer that comes on the Premium 32 oz. bottle.  It gives a finer, more consistent spray. 

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share some pictures of my wash today. H2O G&G is amazing! embarrassed to say I am late to the party, and this was my first time using it. I applied it using the wet method and topped it off with the pumpkin spice detail spray. For some reason I thought I would not like the smell but it actually smells pretty good. I do miss the old original smell. I still have a 36oz bottle which I cleaned out with APC and dried, and it still smells! but anyways here are the pictures. One question on the h2O G&G, does it have a certain spray head? in the video it seems to spray a finer mist and I got more of splats? even after shaking for 60 sec.

IN-DEPTH: Full Exterior Detail on a 2002 Corvette Z06
 

 
Products Used in this Write-Up:
Adam’s All Purpose Cleaner Adam’s Big Blue Clay Bar Adam’s Blue Hex Grip Applicator Adam’s Borderless Gray Towel Adam’s Detail Spray Adam’s Metal Polish #1 Adam’s Liquid Paint Sealant Adam’s Pad Conditioning Brush Adam’s Paint Correcting & Paint Finishing Polish Combo Adam’s Patriot Shine Kit Adam’s Pro Tire Hex Grip Applicator Adam’s Red Waxing Hex Grip Applicator Adam’s Revive Hand Polish Adam’s Single Soft Towel Adam’s Super VRT Tire & Trim Dressing Adam’s Tire Shine Adam’s VRT Super Block Tire Dressing Applicator Adam’s Waterless Wash & Towel Combo Adam’s 4” Orange Foam Pad (2 Pack) Adam’s 4” Orange Microfiber Pad (2 Pack) Adam’s 4” White Foam Pad (2 Pack) Adam’s 6.5” Orange Microfiber Cutting Pad Adam’s 7” Orange Foam Pad Adam’s 7” White Foam Pad Cyclo Model 5-Pro Mark II Polisher Flex 3401 VRG Dual Action Orbital Polisher Rupes LHR 75E Mini Random Orbital Polisher  
Background
 
A few weeks back one of my close friends parted with his red 1996 Camaro Z28. That car was near spotless as could be for a nearly 20 year old car, and I never thought he would sell it due to how many fun memories he’s had using the car for SCCA Autocross for over 10 years, even letting me co-drive it with him one year at the SCCA Nationals in Topeka, Kansas. He decided he wanted to step up to a more competitive car for stock class racing, since the trusty F-Body simply could not keep up with the newer technology Mustangs that can also run much better tires due to having 17 and 18 inch wheels instead of the 16” wheels on his Camaro. He shopped around for a while and found this awesome 2002 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 – very, very low miles and for a steal of a price!
 
When he purchased it, they told him right then that the car had an incident where the paint was pretty damaged but that it was not in a wreck…let’s just say that someone was sick and it ended up going all over the front half of the car and then it sat there for a few weeks, requiring the front half of the car to be repainted, so they went ahead and repainted the whole thing. He brought it over on his way home from work one day and asked if I would be interested in detailing it. He said “you’ll see why once we pull it into your garage under the lights…”, so I had a feeling this was going to be a good challenge.
 

 
Sure, it looks like it's in pretty good shape paint-wise in the picture above, right? Wrong! Once I started to take a look at it, we agreed to leave the car with me and I gave him a ride home to his house…blowing up cylinder #4 in my year old Regal G.S. daily driver in the process…but that’s a different story for a different thread…

One of my loyal/regular/repeat Corvette customers just took a little trip to Bowling Green to pick up this beauty.  I know there are lots of Vette guys here on the Adam's forums, so thought I'd post up a couple of quick pics.  Unfortunately, he came to pick it up a little earlier than I expected so I didn't have time for a more extensive photo session, but here are a couple of pics right before he drove away.
 
Do you own Googling, but rumor has it, they're only producing 500 of these.
 
Some may ask, "what needed to be done to a new car with only 850 miles?".....well, here's what I did:
 
Two bucket wash
Clay
Revive polish with a White pad on a PC7424 at speed 4(ish)
Two coats Liquid Paint Sealer applied with the PC7424 on speed 2  (with cure time in between)
Tire shine
Glass Cleaner
 
Enjoy!
 

 

 

 

Well the weather gave me a 60 degree day day I decided I would give the wife's Lexus a nice bath real quick. I used deep wheel cleaner, quick wash of car with a unknown soap lol (almost gone so adams shampoo will come soon), h20 g&g, and a unknown tire shine. I think the shine is out of bounds for the car never having wax put on it to my knowledge in the past 6 months I know since we purchased it then. If people are on the fence about h20 gg just buy it and you will be happy. I will attempt a photo but I'm not good with technology.

Well today I decided since it was a balmy 32 degrees here in tennessee that I would get the first detail done. My client just purchased her a slighty used Durango that received the dealership detail (poor lady). It was obvious once I did the double wash to get the gunk of this Durango that the paint has never seen a quality wax or any love. I did a adams 2 bucket wash then followed with h20 g&g. After getting the outside clean and dry i laid down a nice coat of paste wax to bring some shine to the vehicle, customer was against a clay bar due to a terrible experience before elsewhere so I had to reluctantly just wax it, the paint is rougher than a night in a New Orleans jail on New Years. We hit the trim with vrt and hit the wiper arms with in and out. Dressed the tires with tire shine and moved on to the kid zone interior. I forgot before and after interior pics and a entire shot of the outside unfortunately this thing was a wreck. I used the leather cleaner to remove some crayon drawings from the canvas known as a drivers seat back, I also found the lost kids drink under the seats once I removed them. After the sticky was gone i finished with the leather conditioner. Hit all the panels with the interior detailer after getting the carpets washed and vacuumed. Once I was finished i was happy with the results and went to get the client to come check it out. From 10 feet out she said here is your money I have never seen it shine like this. Once she opened the door she asked where she could find the air freshener for the leather conditioner I used i laughed hard and said I will try to order some for the rest of the year. She was beyond happy and said she wasn't sure what products I used but she loved the results and has never had a car so clean before. Awesome for business since she was a new client and signed up on the spot for monthly washes and bimonthly full details, best part for me was when she said next time you detail it make sure your bring the clay bar thingy you were talking about. I love adams products they are making me happy and make me momey what's better than that.

New to the forum, fairly new to Adams, but not exactly new to detailing. In some form or another I've been detailing cars since I was 14......so somewhere between 14-15 years. It's always been a side gig kind of thing, and of course my own vehicles.
 
Found out about Adams when I bought an S2000 earlier this year, and on a popular s2k forum there was a very decisive line between Adams and Menzerna. I chose Adams due to their pad per polish type kit. Sooooo here's some of the rides of done in the last couple of months.
 
My S2000. Had the front half repainted when I bought it. Can't see it in the pics but the front is terrible as far as orange peel goes. I'll be wet sanding it over Christmas when I'm off work.
 
Before-Washed and clayed already at this point


All done




 
Altima 3.5 SE coupe
Job
Wash, Clay, Polish, Wax
 
Equipment
Porter Cable 7424XP
Adam's Fine machine Polish and Adam's Sealant.
 
 
 
Before



 
 
Washed

Junk in the paint.......this stuff was a PITA.
 
 
During clay

 
Clayed


 
Didn't get any during the polish
Done all but wax





without flash


got the crap outta the paint


 
2004 S2000. Did a full detail( wash, clay, 2 rounds of compound, polish, sealant, wax).
 
This took about 17hours. I could have finished earlier, but when people pay me I put 150% more effort into it.
 
Before
Left is obvious compound, right is not.

You can see the swirls here.



 
 
After
Completely swirl free

Mirror Finish


Yellow in yellow

Looks good







Damn this looks good.

Don't mind my grass. I've planted new grass and can't mow right now.


Comparison....mine's dirty right now.

 
Gotta say I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out.
 
99 F150 Lightning
Full Detail
*************************** Compound
Adams Swirl & Haze Remover
Adams Machine Super Sealant
**************************** Wax
 
Before
Left half is done, right is obviously not.

Bed completely done.

Roof half and half


Swirls and Misc scratches

Half and half when working on the hood.
 
 
After
Bed








Only pic I have of the rear. Hadn't done the final clean up so ignore the wax every where.

dammit my shadow got in the way.

 
 
Will be doing my s2000 again over the break with a mixture of *****, Adams, and ***** products. Also getting some Adams goodies for Christmas as well that I'm itching to try out.

Now this is class a customer service. Willing to replace products that are 3+ years old to make sure you and your car are happy. This makes me happy to see and just confirms I have made the right choice for my car care products. Class act by Dan and team Adams!

Hi Jeff, I'm very sorry you were not satisfied with the products or results on your S4. From the picture you've attached, I see our old green Severe Swirl Remover, our orange Swirl & Haze Remover, our white Fine Machine Polish, and the gray Machine Super Sealant. All of these products have either been discontinued or reformulated for at least 3 years and sometimes longer, so I would question the shelf life of all of these 4 products, especially first they have not been in a temperature controlled environment or if they were not throughly shook up before polishing. Are the pads you used just as old and are they in good condition and cleaned of all polish residue before use? If the products were temperature controlled and the pads are ok, then the polishes themselves would not have caused these swirl marks.
 
Nearly all swirl marks come from improper washing and drying. A polish will not introduce them but the severe swirl remover or Swirl & Haze Could cause fine micro scratching that the Fine Machine Polish would take care of. Has the car ever been washed at a dealership during a maintenance checkup, or at any other automatic brush washes? Either of those would be the most likely situation for the swirl marks. If you did machine polish, did you do a test 2'x2' section and then inspect with several different light sources for a perfect finish prior to polishing the rest of the car? Are the swirl marks all over the car or only in that rear area?
 
Are you sure the microfiber towels you are removing the polish with are soft enough and not contaminated? As a test, take the microfiber towels you were using and wipe them on the blank data side of a blank CDR you do not mind ruining. If the towels scratch the CD, odds are they will scratch/swirl your clearcoat. Proper microfiber care is imperative in not reintroducing swirl marks into the finish of your vehicle. We have a writeup dedicated to proper cleaning of microfiber that I will link in my next post.
 
We want to make this up to you for being dissatisfied with the products, so I would like to replace those old outdated products for you free of charge. Please give our Customer Service number a call after 830am MST this week. 866.965.0400.
 
Respectfully,
Dan

Did my 2015 Challenger Scat pack over the weekend.
 
 
Started with a good wash . Next I masked off all the trim and started claying followed that up by swirl, haze remover then polish.  Finally used Americana on the whole car.   Trying to get it all done before putting it away for the winter. This weekend putting on the rack and cleaning the under carriage.