zapdon

Just checking...you use it plugged-in? 

Admit it. Despite how easy Adam's makes it, whether you've been detailing for days or years, we've all made a mistake or two along the way. It comes with the territory. So I figured, while many threads on here contain solid advice of "How To's" and "To Do's," I thought it'd be fun to have a thread dedicated to our "Don't Do's." A catalog of lessons learned, if you will. Those things we did that we still scratch our heads over. Those little golden nuggets you want to share a laugh with over a "virtual" beverage of choice with fellow detailers.
 
Now, this sort of thread is liable to stall after my post, or go on for a while, so I'll start and we'll see what happens.......
 
 
I love my Sidekick, as I proclaimed here and other threads across the forum. Awesome tool, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone. When I first got it, though, I was a little apprehensive about its performance. Sure, the air was blowing like crazy, as advertised, but I had to get pretty close to the car for it to be effective. I was also very deliberate, even careful, while doing so. Still, I wasn't getting good results, and I even nicked one of my rims. That is, until I came across and actually "studied" the picture of it on the Adam's site...

 
Pretty straightforward tool, right? The Sidekick itself, all 1.3hp of warm, filtered air. The long 12' extension cord. The comfort grip handle. The Adam's logo. The 2 nozzles...wait, what? See those black things? The rubberized cone and fan shaped nozzles, meant to focus the air stream and protect your car? Yeah, I forgot to install them. For...let's just say, a while...I was using the Sidekick with a small, sharp metal nub as my blower. There's a reason they're in the box.
 
Don't forget the nozzle!

I like the tire shine better because you can knock down the shine with a utility towel if you don't like blindingly shiny. Also, it lasts longer than VRT, and isn't water soluble. VRT always ran badly in the Florida rain.

Surprise I'm on here as well!
 
Fellas! Thanks! Anytime you need advice, guidance or just want to show off the shine, reach out anytime and I'll get to you as soon as humanly possible.
 
@AusTroy I love answering questions, it's what I'm here for.
 
@joelilton23 looking forward to the next 6 months and beyond of shine
 
@bagration I never sleep so happy to answer your emails asap

Wonder if that was my bucket before getting shipped out

Got the privilege to see both of those at last week's clinic (and maybe a few other things that I can neither confirm nor deny knowledge of ). Stay tuned! The Matte Detailer smells awesome, by the way...

Welcome, nice little collection you got going.

Thanks guys! I've had the car for 27 years now! Painted 23 years ago. Never sees any bad weather. Can't count how many times I've polished it! Just did it with Patriots wax.

Pictures of the 33 as requested!

I have a huge amount of waxes and glazes. Many different brands from $60.00 to $880.00 a can. I've used the old Patriot Wax many times on many cars and trucks that I've detailed. Just tried the new Patriot Wax on my own car again and the wax is hard to beat! Thanks Adams for always improving your products.

Detail Spray
Rinseless Wash
Wheel Cleaner
All Purpose Cleaner
Tire Shine
 
I have H2o GG and TID but I don't use it enough to justify a gallon

I use it to seal my wheels. Gives them a good shine.

must be the name as i have the same problem.

​Typically I can rinse all of the chemicals out of mine after using it just by rinsing with the hose until there is no residue coming out of the brush area.

I finished coating the bike I gotta say, I think a vehicle would be way easier!! 
 

I use it to seal my wheels. Gives them a good shine.

I use it to seal my wheels. Gives them a good shine.

Finally was able to use the ceramic boost I had lying around.
 
Used it on a Toyota Tundra as a standalone sealant, paint had been corrected, and strip washed already.  Went ahead and gave it a rinseless wash to knock the dust off then applied as per the instructions.  I liked the application process, it felt really quick and even coverage, I immediately buffed off with my other towel in my other hand.  Once I stepped back I did notice some serious streaking though. Went back over the panel with DS and the streaking was gone. The paint felt really slick and was very shiny, we shall see how long the protection lasts. 
 
I wonder if you can spray it on an applicator and use that instead to apply it to the paint? I feel this would mean less product usage and less possibility of getting it on the glass.  Just curious as to if it would work as well, or if it needs to be sprayed directly on the paint?
 
The smell of course was amazing! Like everything else Adams (except for the wheel cleaner of course lol).

I would like to, but my current schedule is already 12+ hour days on most days just fulfilling customer service and other duties, and I do like to have a little time to spend with family and sleep 
 
 
That would technically be me since I'm Technical Director, but I would never claim to be able to fill his shoes with detailing knowledge or experience, and I don't want to be called Jr 
 
Where DvK/Shine Doc focused more on product development and testing, forums, videos, and technical emails, my role in the company is slightly different from his in that I'm now much more heavily focused on customer service support as a whole - through phones, email, and live chat for placing orders, technical questions, shipping questions, status updates, order issues, etc. Our customer base has also grown substantially over the last two years, which means the influx of calls/emails/chats have dramatically increased as well, and our 2-3 person customer service team is stretched pretty thin.
 
I would love to film some videos, but again it comes down to finding time to do them, edits, etc, which is difficult for me working remotely without our man Joe to do the filming and edits. I do know that Joe and Adam have been trying to set aside more time for videos, but with the busy travel schedule of summer show season approaching, it becomes more difficult to find time to shoot video each week.

Pistachio something for sure, I think it smells like pistachio ice cream myself. 

UPDATED: nice desert photo shoot on sheet 2.
 
Traded my Jeep in for a 2016 Camaro SS with the 2ss package one week ago. Dealer was want to buy our $700 sealant, I showed him a picture of my detailing cart and he said yeah you don't want that hahahaha. Paint is called mosaic black and has gold flakes in it.

So this past Saturday did my first detail on her.
Started by cleaning wheels and tires using wheel cleaner and rubber and tire cleaner. Then foam gunned the car, followed by a 2 bucket washed, then dried.

Did clay bar test with plastic bag to see how it was. I figured it would need to be clayed, but was surprised how bad it really was. Guess it makes sense sitting out in lot and transport. So clayed whole car.

Then applied paint sealant to whole car including glass, wheels. Then followed up with patriot.











Reflection shots

ceramic boost to me smells like pistachio pudding.

Don't forget the Leather Conditioner scent = awesome

Nope, my friends and I don't know anything at all about using Adam's products on lawn equipment 
 
All joking aside, I bet there are a lot of people on here using various products on their tractors - Car Shampoo, Tire & Rubber Cleaner, Paint Sealant, etc! Ben our Wholesale Director even used Paint Sealant on the hole inside of the blade shroud on his new mower when he picked it up!
 

I had the honor of working on a buddies 1977 Pontiac Trans Am SE yesterday, Yup, a real Bandit TA! I brought Kyle along with me. Several of you may recognize Kyle, he's been working for me at some of the Carlisle Events recently, and really knows how to run a polisher.
Mike had bought the car off eBay almost two years ago and after closely looking it over, decided it needed a bit of work.

 

A full Rotisserie Restoration ensued.

 

After 15 months it was out of paint, Cut and Buffed and back into Mike's garage.

Mike wanted to get the paint much closer to perfect before the yards of graphics are applied, and that's where Kyle and I stepped in. Mike owns a Porter cable, and has all the Adam's products to do the job, but was aware of the time it would take him to do the complete correction with the tools he had by himself. He cleaned and clayed the car prior to our arrival.
I loaded the Magnum up with about everything we'd need on Friday evening and picked up Kyle early Sayurday morning. We got to Mike's at 9:00am, unloaded the Magnum and looked over the TA.
The car looked really nice to start with and we were excited to get started.
First order of business was to start taping off places we didn't want to touch with a machine.

 

I placed Adam's Swirl Killer into Mike's hands and we worked a test area to figure what we were going to have to do to correct the paint to his satisfaction.

It took Heavy Correcting Compound on a Blue Foam Pad, followed by Paint Correcting Polish on an Orange Foam Pad, and finished off with Paint Finishing Polish on a White Foam Pad. In several areas we started with the Blue Microfiber Pad in Place of the Blue Foam.
The rear deck lid, spoiler and surrounding areas were in need of extra attention, so while Mike and I sorted out a plan, Kyle jumped right in. Here he is with the Rupes Mini. Kyle switched back and forth between the Rupes Mini and Adam's Swirl Killer Mini. Kyle noted a slight weight increase in the Swirl Killer Mini but found Adam's machine to not have quite as much vibration as the Rupes. He liked both equally.

Here he is with the Swirl Killer Mini on the rear bumper.

Mike stuck with the 15mm Long Throw Swirl Killer

Kyle used the 15mm Rupes Bigfoot Mark II and I with my 15mm Rupes Bigfoot LHR ES

The Rupes iBird Nano also came in handy inside the front fender vents and in the recessed area of the rear bumper at the license plate where even the Mini's were too big to reach completely.
 
A local fire company was holding a chicken bar-b-q not far from Mike's place, and while we worked Mike's wife went out and brought us each a half chicken dinner for lunch!
A Panel Kyle was working Before Heavy Correcting Compound

After Paint Correcting Polish

Same panel finished with Paint Finishing Polish

Another panel Kyle was working
Before

During

After

The white specks are dust and there's a slight bit of polish residue creating a haze at around 8:00 in this above pic, but believe me, the paint was like a mirror.
 
Here's a couple videos Kyle made of the front bumper while he was working it


We wrapped up around 5:00pm, eight hours work, with three guys, equals 24 man hours on this car. She came out looking sweet!