avimore

Had the opportunity to clean up this Jeep for a friend of mine this weekend while the weather was nice. I'm still learning things as I go and do this in my free time so I'll use this thread to keep track on my progress, take in constructive criticism and help others along the way.
 
I know the fundamental basics of paint correction and protection as I've done a few vehicles and most of them being black.
Here is what it looked like before. It wasn't in bad shape but it did need a little TLC.
 

 
Started off with a soak, laid down the strip wash with the wash pad, tire and rubber cleaner, and brought it over to clay.
Here is after the clay.
 

 
 
Now that I had it clayed. Washed it with the car shampoo and scrubbed the engine bay with the Eco All Purpose Cleaner and a soft bristle brush.
After washing the engine bay I just let it sit to dry while the outside was dried with compressed air and the drying towel.
 
 
 

 
 
After this the engine was left alone and looked great!!
 
On to the scratches, spots and discoloration. Always look the vehicle over and notate or keep a mental picture of the imperfections to address on the next step.
 
 
 


 
 
Used the DA Polisher with the orange pad and the correcting polish to touch up those areas that need some attention. Although not very noticeable, I wanted to take that extra step for the wow factor upon delivery of the vehicle. Once those are gone, its time to add sealant, glaze and wax.
 
 

 
 
Put sealant on the entire vehicle including the windows. Applied the brilliant glaze and finally the Americana Paste wax which took forever to dry!!!! Didn't help that it was very humid that day.
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
Finished up with the interior being vacuumed, spot clean with the interior cleaner then added the interior detailer.
Exterior was wiped down, inspected and added a little amount of tire shine for the clean, not overdone, look.
 

 
REALLY enjoyed doing this one!!
This is my first vehicle of the year and hope for many more to come.
Until next time!!
 

That sucks. But actually, they make a couple products for this. The Microfiber blanket to curl up in and cry, and the Ultra Plush Drying Towel for all the tears.  

Which "move" do you mean, Rich?! ? or 

Adam's used to have a similar feature but, if I remember correctly, they discontinued it because it was too much to keep up with the amount of special requests they received. Personally, I like the drop down menu idea as it offers a standard feature to the ordering process vs. a free-form field...best of both worlds for this particular reason.

Thank you for passing along some holiday cheer, really appreciate it.  One of many reasons why this community is so great!

Thank you for passing along some holiday cheer, really appreciate it.  One of many reasons why this community is so great!

Thank you for passing along some holiday cheer, really appreciate it.  One of many reasons why this community is so great!

Thank you for passing along some holiday cheer, really appreciate it.  One of many reasons why this community is so great!

Bingo! The Fibonacci sequence it is. 
 
I will be getting to all the posts and PMs shortly, and I will update with anything remaining. 
 
EDIT: All (and a few extras) were spoken for. I hope everyone keeps the spirit of the season year round. 

Technically, he used the reverse of the Fibonacci sequence... If we are both right, do we split the gallon?!  J/k...give that man the gallon of he got it. He put way more effort into figuring this out than I did.

I posted another Rinseless wash topic last winter, but just wanted to follow up with another.  It rained here on Saturday, and was cold enough to snow flurry and put a slight coating down on Sunday (Christmas Eve), which meant that PennDot was out salting the roads much to my dismay.  Anyways, I brought the dart into the garage this evening and used the rinseless wash on it, I took some before and after pics on the drivers side of the car as the lighting is a little better on that side of the garage.  For anyone contemplating whether to use it or not with some salt on the car, I'm hoping this helps make the decision a little easier, I looked very closely and don't see any scratches, swirls, etc.
 
NOTE:  My car was prepped for winter back in mid October (wash, clay, paint sealant, wheels sealed, etc.) so the car is usually in pretty good shape, but I just wanted to put this out there as a heads up, basically, I was starting with a "dirty" car in my opinion, but even when my cars are dirty in my opinion, most people think they look pretty good, so I had a pretty good slate to start with.
 
I started by jacking up the passenger side of the car, and sprayed some waterless wash in the wheel wells as they just had some salt crust in there and I didn't want to use any all purpose cleaner or anything without being able to rinse it out, plus I have a gallon of it, and I don't use it a whole lot so I figured it'd work well enough for the wheel wells.  After that I used detail spray on the wheels, and then invisible under carriage spray on the wheel wells, and tire shine on the tires, I then did the same process on the driver side.  
 
I then filled one bucket with a grit guard and warm water about 1/2 to 3/4 full and another bucket with grit guard about 1/2 full with warm water and a few ounces of Rinseless wash.  I also had a small 4 oz spray bottle that I put roughly one ounce or so of rinseless wash in and filled the rest of the way with water to use as a pre-soak.  
 
I worked my way from the roof to the bottom of the car, first by spraying the panel I was working on with the pre-soak and then I used the method shown in the Adams Rinseless Wash video where you slowly turn your hand as you wipe to reveal a new clean section of the towel.  
 
I used 4 double soft towels for the rinseless wash, I reused them over and over throughout the process, but I was very careful to clean the towels against the grit guards each and every time before re-using it.  
 
I ended up using 2 double soft towels to dry the car as my first one got a little saturated about 3/4 of the way through the car.  I did use detail spray while drying as well.
 
I did also dump my "clean" water after doing half of the car, probably not necessary, but just something else I decided to do.
 
Hope this helps, I'm really happy with the results!
 

I'm fairly new to Adam's, and very new to the site. I was always a was and wax with whatever guy until I found Adam's and discovered there was so much more to it. I'm hooked and always looking to learn more. This is my daily driver truck with paint sealant and then buttery wax after we got a good rain, love it! 

So here it is Christmas Eve, I was going to come up with some cheesy poetry but way to much going on around here to get a poetry groove going. So plan and simple here it is. 
 
Its been a good year for me overall and Im deciding to share that with several more folks. 
In the spirit of the holidays I am opting to donate some products to some of my fine detail hobbyists. 
The following are available for you, I am not capping a limit but just asking for everyone to take what you will use. 
16oz Bottles:
3 Glass Cleaner
2 Blue Shampoo 
1 Leather and Interior Cleaner 
1 Old Formula Buttery Wax 
 
And for the first "geek" that names a sequence that was used somewhere in this post I have a Gallon of Detail Spray. 
 
So there it is some holiday cheer passed along from one to another! Keep the spirit going all year. 

Glass cleaner please.  Thank you!

You had me at W&W. You lost me at...<checks spelling, says screw it, copies/pastes>...hydrophobicity. 

Since your rolling out coffee samples for a short time, why not make a coffee scented detail spray? Like the holiday theme, but a year round Adams Cars & Coffee detail spray?

Well done, Chris!  I can't believe how dirty those floormats were.  I did a double-take because I originally thought they were black in that 3rd picture 

Last weekend, I took my first swing at doing a car I don't make the payments on . They only wanted a "wash & wax" and interior cleaning, so no paint correction this time around. Overall, the car was in pretty decent shape to start, but some Adam's love proved to take it to the next level.
 
Products used: 
Red CS (to get the crud off) HGG (to add a base sealant and shine) BW (to add another layer or protection and shine) BG (to show off! and for interior windshield) APC (for wheels, tail pipes, floormats and trunk liner) WC (for deep cleaning the wheels) TRC (for tires) TS (added two coats because the customer wanted them extra shiny!) UCS (make the front fender liners disappear; rears were carpeted so didn't use it there) VRT (for all trim) RW 16:1 to make WW-like solution (door jams) ID (over all interior surfaces to make the inside look great) LIC (extra cleaning power for some interior surfaces) GC (clean glass!) DS (nav screen and instrument cluster) LC (to treat the interior and add some nice fragrance) CUC (spot cleaning where necessary) ON (added fragrance) Wash Pad Fender Brush Tire Brush Wheel Woolie Cockpit Brush Interior Red Foam Applicator Foam Block Grey MF Pads DSTs GC Towels Sidekick Lots of elbow grease  
Before shots:

 

 

 

 

 
During shots:
 

 

 

 
And now for the SHINE!
 

 

 

 

 

 
Hero Shots!
 
The shiniest picture was also the largest file. Coincidence?! I think NOT!  (and yes, I later cleaned the small mud flap by the rear tire and applied TS to where the tires were missed )...
 

 

 

 

I read this post a while back and thought it was something I needed to try out as I couldn't stand the crazy dust and the constant cleaning of wheels!
Well I took the plunge and had Akebono's put on my A5 and also on my wife's Q5 (although I went EBC's on the front as Akebono doesn't make fronts for the Q5).
I used to do RW on my wheels at least twice a week on each car which worked well but was really time consuming, now the dust has been reduced to virtually zero.  Basically the cars get dirty before the wheels do.
Thanks @AudiOx for the recommendation.  The only thing I regret is not doing this earlier.

The one of the left, is probably bad, send it my way, i’ll dispose of it properly

Yeah that's a shame.  Figures that we get a leaked product that is not meant for our environment lol

Just like it says, here is some pics of an awesome 65 Shelby I had the pleasure of bringing back to life. It has been in many a show, been restored 30 years ago, and was just sold so the new owner needed to have a little love done to it before it hit the track with other Shelby's. All Adams products used to bring back the shine !  Enjoy
 

Hey Ed,
 
it's a cloudburst mitt, which is a non-Adam's product. Feel free to message me and I'll let you know some more details about it.
 
it's cool to have something that's not available yet! It's a shame I can't use it.. 
 

An Aussie exclusive!!  
 
Nice pickup, Joel.  What kind of mitt is that?  Is that like the Red Wash Mitt but in green?  I've never seen it in a different colour.
 

Yeah I've noticed this before, something about DS definitely attracts bees. 
I'd probably want to avoid taking out the DS in this spot: