BretFraz

Adams has a lot of videos out there, with a variety of styles, formats, lengths, and hosts. It's clear the company is trying to find a combo that works best. How many car care product mfrs create a consistent amount of YT vids? Beyond Chemical Guys, not many. Most vids are done by dealers (Autogeek, Esoteric, etc), or by users (detailers, car owners, vloggers, etc). So there's an opportunity to be a leader. Viewers are interested in two things - entertainment and information. Some want one or the other, some want a balance of both. So my thoughts are this: Develop a consistent story line. What do you want people to know about Adams? Some viewers need education on your products. How much education do you think they need? Who is the educator? Most people want entertainment video over informational videos. That can be a challenge as artistic style and imagery is far more important than content. How much emphasis is the company willing to put into entertainment-focused videos? Think about what Chemical Guys offers..... mostly entertainment videos that have a little bit of info in them. Do you like that formula? The company needs a spokesperson or host. Dylan filled that role. Who will be that person now? Can that person be consistent so viewers build a connection with them and the company? Hard core fans will watch almost anything. Some behind the scenes / day in the life/ 1st person videos would be great. beyond the hard core, who are you trying to reach? Lots of questions, I know. Hopefully some food for thought. Just brain dumping thoughts, that's all. If it were me, 1st thing I'd do is inventory all Adams content on YT and classify/ organize. How many car wash videos? How many videos per product? Avg age of videos. What needs updating? Start with that. Good luck, Can't wait to see what direction you take.

I'm sure you could mix some glass cleaner with water. Just be a diluted glass cleaner mixture. Drain your washer fluid tank and mix up a batch to try it. I use a concentrated washer fluid from Einszett / Nextzett. It's called Kristalklar or something like that. Just a couple ounces in a full tank. Works great!

Any chance it will be live streamed on Facebook or recorded for You Tube?

Welcome! That's my old stomping grounds. OC used to be chock full of car care products suppliers; Meguiar's, Mothers, Eagle One, The Wax Shoppe. Adam used to have a booth at the OC swap meet. That area is still pretty much the hub of a lot of detailing products and innovation. A great place for a detailing enthusiast.

Haven't tried: Ceramic products Machine polishes Strip wash Wash and Wax Glass boost Aerosol glass cleaner Metal polishes Liquid paint sealant Americana and Patriot waxes Many of the tools and accessories And I thought I had most of the product line......so much more to try.

This is a brilliant overall perspective. It really depends on what you need/want a PW for. Just washing cars and maybe some minor cleaning? Electric is fine. Need a PW to do a variety of tasks? Gotta go gas. Lots of talk about PW's here and on the web. Everyone has an opinion and experience. Let us know if you have a specific question, but honestly, you are on your own with the more general questions. It's the only way that will work for you.

Nice! Good thing you got to that brake dust before it became bonded on there.

Looks great. Can't say I've ever seen a BRZ in yellow. Hope you feel better soon!

Nicely done!

In a former job, I used to oversee the company's truck fleet; mostly service vans and trucks with utility beds like yours. Lemme tell ya, it wasn't easy keeping them somewhat clean. Forget about detailed. Anyway, if it were mine, I'd use a shampoo with some real cleaning ability, like Strip Wash. Mix in some APC if you have to cut grease and grime. Once clean, a good coat of paint sealant will provide solid protection. Regular washing would always end up with H20 G&G. That combo should maintain the shine and be easy to use.

Welcome to the forum from another Georgian. Great looking car!

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate your perspective on this. Not to turn this into more than it is, but a couple thoughts from me: 1. Certainly, the chemical composition is important. Car care products have changed dramatically over the past 20-30 years. Technology and gov't mandates have had a big impact. I know I've used detailing products that had aggressive acids (hydrofluoric, oxalic, etc) and aggressive solvents (benzene, MEK) in them. At least for consumer products, those products are mostly gone from the market. 2. I understand why you might think E1 tire cleaner could have dried your Gatorback sidewalls, but I honestly can't imagine that happening. It's a product that's on your tire maybe a couple of minutes, then rinsed off. An old school tire dressing could affect sidewalls (and many of them did). A dressing would sit on your tire for days/weeks at a time. Many of them had silicones and/or solvents that would react adversely with rubber. Ultimately, we all want our car care products to perform to our expectations and demands. No reason to spend good money on a poor performing product. Chemical technology has progressed to a point where risks are minimized, or at least risks are lower than in years past. There are still many aggressive products on the market. My local grocery store sells Mean Green, Simple Green, Purple Power, and others. I have LA's Awesome cleaner at home; $1 at Big Lots. And there are plenty of "hot" alkaline (high pH) APC's on the market. I can easily find a cheaper product that will clean tires. I'm happy that Adam's has a dedicated product that can perform as well as it does, and provides the results I expect. I will keep using it and recommending it to others.

No doubt. It's kind of a moot point since one product is discontinued and another works just as well. But, a fun test to see if a current product can perform as well as a "retro 80's" product. Thanks for the comment.

Looks great, Dustin. I'll bet your helpers were happy to go for a ride in a freshly detailed truck.

Greatest Car Detailing Product in History?!? Hi everyone! I was rummaging thru my collection of car detailing products today, and came across something that brought up a lot of fond memories. Like many of you, I love to try new detailing products. I am especially fond of wheel & tire cleaners and dressings. Don't know why. I guess I have always liked the challenge of detailing dirty wheels and tires. Over my 30+ years of detailing, I've tried all types of products. Only a few stand out, but maybe the most impressive product I've ever used is Eagle One Tire Cleaner. Wheel and tire care products were something Eagle One made their name on. For many years they offered the industry's best line of wheel & tire care products. For me, their tire cleaner was the best product they offered. It's just one of those products that over-delivers and outperforms everything on the market. Simply put, it is the best car care product of its kind I've ever used. Anyway, today I'm looking thru my stash and find a well-hidden bottle of my all time favorite car care product. I've been preserving it like a bottle of fine wine. Since this product was discontinued many, many years ago, I know it's the last bottle of tire cleaner I'll ever have of theirs. I really like Adam's Tire and Rubber Cleaner. I started thinking, "I wonder how Adam's tire cleaner compares to a detailing relic from the 80's?" Well, let's find out! My old and trusty '98 Dodge Ram is in the driveway, needing a little TLC. The perfect test subject! I start off by a quick wheel cleaning with Adam's Wheel Cleaner. I love the simple spray-on-and-spray-off process. Nothing fancy here. I just wanted to do a quick cleaning. Once rinsed off, I decided to split the tire in half. The Eagle One Tire Cleaner will be applied to the left half of the tire, and Adam's Tire and Rubber Cleaner to the right. Now, to be fair, I am using a brand new bottle of Eagle One. Never opened, never used. My Adam's has been used, but it's fresh. How fresh is the Eagle One? 1999? Well, I guess that's when the last version of the stuff was created. I think the code on the bottle means 2007, but I'm not sure. Regardless, I've had this stuff on hand for at least 10 years! I sprayed the Eagle One first, then the Adam's. I let them sit for about a minute. Then, I used a stiff bristled tire brush to scrub the sidewall. First pic is both products sprayed onto the tire. If you visually divide the tire in half vertically, the left side is Eagle One, the right side Adam's. Next pic is the tire scrubbed with a tire brush. Then rinsed thoroughly with a pressure washer. The results!! Rinsed and dried with my Metro Vac & Blo. So, what do you think? Looks to me like the Eagle One slightly outperformed Adam's. The left side of the tire is nice and black, with less brown residue. Both did a great job on a tire that I haven't detailed in, well.... a long time. So, to be fair, why not hit them again and get the tire really clean. Round #2 What was the verdict of Round #2? You'll have to wait until tomorrow. It started getting dark and I didn't think the pics would come out well. I will post a pic tomorrow morning and let you decide who the winner is.

For a lot of veteran detailers / enthusiasts, QD has been the go to "all purpose" product. It's great for a lot of tasks. I know I've bought the stuff by the gallon, I've used so much of it. Now, with modern rinse less or waterless wash products, QD can be use in more limited applications. The wash products are taking the place of QD. The wash products do the same thing as QD, but do not leave a shine, or a slickness, or even a scent. It just gets the area clean, which is what most detailers want. Example: I washed my car a couple of days ago. Used a QD as a drying agent & shine booster. It rained a little bit yesterday so my car now has light water spots all over it. I could bust out the QD and do the whole car, but instead I'll use Adams Waterless Wash and a couple of MF towels. Should take me about 10-15 mins to get the car looking great again. Could I use a QD? Sure, I've done this exact task 1,000 times with it. But now I have a product that is specifically made to do this job; quickly clean a slightly dirty car. I'll leave the QD for "quick detailing" and shine enhancement. The "quick cleaning" can be done with no rinse or no wash product now.

I like the idea but agree it will have to be "organic" and local instead of a national, formal program. Adam's users living in large metropolitan areas can easily organize an event and invite locals and those willing to travel nearby. For users living in more rural areas, small cities, towns a good distance from a large city, any effort will have to be home grown. Maybe start with a few folks in a large metro area organizing a GTG and announcing it here. Generate some interest locally and regionally. I could see, for example, a decent sized GTG in metro Atlanta, with smaller groups in places like Birmingham, Greenville, Columbia, Savannah, etc. The biggest issue is communication and awareness.

hmmmmm..... I don't know....... ...... I don't see anything I really need........yeah, not too much here for me....... I'll just look around some more although I don't need any of this... I guess I'll grab some detail spray....... maybe a bottle of glass cleaner........ well, I'm almost out of wheel cleaner so I'll get a quart.........I could use a replacement bucket........oh, glass towels!.... gimme a couple of those......A gallon of shampoo will hold me over........some tire shine, too.........I hear the paint sealant is good........hey a new foam gun!............might as well grab another bucket......... and a couple grit guards.........

Wranglers are super challenging to detail well, especially by machine. I used to have a regular customer with a Wrangler Unlimited soft top. I could polish maybe 90% of the surface by machine, the rest had to be done by hand. I used a lot of 3" pads and 3M blue tape. No way to get around some of the trim and pieces of a Wrangler without going small. Protect everything you can, use products that don't stain trim, work the tight areas by hand. Buttery Wax doesn't have much durability. I'd use a sealant, or at least a tough paste wax. Not an easy car to detail. Plus, the carpets held onto dirt like it was holding a winning lottery ticket.

Nice! I just did something similar, and it was super easy. I have the cheap 4 ft fluorescent light fixtures hung in my garage. I upgraded to LED bulbs bought at Costco for $18/pair. Removed the old fluorescent bulbs, popped in the LED's, and instant brighter garage. Took all of 10 mins. No mods needed. I highly recommend this upgrade if you already have the 4 ft fixtures.

Welcome from Gwinnett Co.

http://raskysautodetailing.com Not inexpensive but one of the best detailers in the nation. Chad is really world class.

To add to LT1's thoughts.... don't be afraid to experiment with settings and products. That's half the fun! I'd use a little less product; more like 1 oz max in the mix bottle. A couple of squirts, really. Add water first, then shampoo. Use warm/hot water in the mix bottle for better results when cold outside. 3000 psi is almost overkill for car washing. That will add plenty of air to the cannon and produce a nice thick foam. Test out a few shampoos to see what you like best. I have maybe 7-8 shampoos on hand and all perform differently with a foam cannon. There are snow foams that are formulated for cannons. Some mild shampoos don't produce a lot of foam, but enough to do a weekly light wash. Others will stick to the car; some will fall off quickly. Some users foam the car, let it dwell, rinse off, then do a 2 bucket wash. Other users foam, then start washing with the shampoo on the car. Try both processes. Most importantly, have fun

The clue is the swirls are circular. Before you started, where the sanding marks in a circular pattern, or show pig tails? What kind of machine did you use with the correction polish? Black almost always needs to be finished off with a finer polish. Repaints almost always (in my experience...) softer than the factory paint job. So, fully expect to do a 2 step polish process on repainted panels in black. I'd recommend a milder polish and a soft foam pad, using a RO polisher if you have one. Moderate speeds, do a small section as a test spot first.

Sales manager for the largest used car retailer in the nation.