LSX Maestro

M1 Concourse, Birmingham/Pontiac area.

Ha. She'll be at Cars and Coffee this Saturday. Gotta get the break in miles in too. The LSP's really make cleanup a breeze. Hoping the wheels won't get too bad of a buildup or I'll be regularly breaking out the WC.

We tell people who are anxious to wax their rides fresh out of the bodyshop to wait at least 2 weeks. We bake all of our paint work. I've never seen a failure if it was waxed before the 2 week point, we just don't want it to be you. I have seen paint crack if it doesn't gas off properly. But for a wheel caliper, I wouldn't be too worried. But if you can wait for at least 10-14 days, then I'd recommend doing so.

I just applied LPS by hand yesterday on my Camaro. It's a very simple process. Use a little bit too much on the first panel/section to get the pad loaded a bit and then go very light after that or buffing off will be a pain. I just go around the whole vehicle applying the LPS and then buff it off once I get done. 20-30 minutes max.

As a Golden Retriever owner I can vouch for the stones effectiveness. They work well. Some seats (Like my GM trucks/SUVs) have a plush felt surface on the back of the seats and my god is that stuff impossible to clean the hair out of though. Air compressor, shop vac, stone, and the grace of God and you might get it clean.

Yes Adam's offers a terrific paint sealant, it's called Liquid Paint Sealant. Highly recommend applying a thin, even coating of LPS on top of freshly polished paint. You can choose what you want for a topper, for a daily driver or a garage toy you want to save time on, H2O Guard and Gloss is outstanding. Easy to apply, great gloss, great durability, can be used on all surfaces. If it's a garage show queen, then I would recommend following with a Paste Wax for a little extra glow. Correct "Full" Process (This is IMO, but it is backed by research and professionals): Wash (Strip Wash preferably but if you're claying/polishing then any wash will work) Decon (Iron Remover or Wheel Cleaner work well. This step CAN be skipped but I'd recommend doing it) Rinse off Clay (Visco Clay and some sort of lubricant. Rinseless Wash diluted, Waterless Wash, Detail Spray, and soap suds all work.) Rinse off or preferably Re-wash (Repeat step 1 only) Polish. Depending on the condition, Correcting Polish/Orange pad may be all you need. If you have scratches/bad damage, Heavy Correcting will be necessary with a Blue pad/MF pad. Finishing Polish works best on new cars with little/no damage or following Correcting Polish. Finishing has very very little cutting properties. Isopropyl Alchohol wipe-down or Adam's Coating Prep or Eraser etc. Something that will cut the polishing oils off. Use only the best microfibers available for this step, your paint is perfect from the polishing phase (Hopefully) don't re-scratch it by using old stuff. Apply Liquid Paint Sealant (By machine with Adam's Gray pad is faster and easier, but I've done it several times by hand with their applicators and it works just as well) Apply your choice of a topper (H2O Guard and Gloss or Glaze/Wax) Boost the LPS every couple washes or every couple weeks with a new coat of H2O Guard and Gloss. H2O is very versatile. You can apply it to a wet car after washing, you can apply it to a dry car, you can apply it to a dry car and mist the panel with water before applying to replicate a "wet" application, and you can do it before buffing off rinseless wash if you do a "Garry Dean" type rinseless system. Hope this helps.

I'm probably not. I think I'm going to the Scottsdale, AZ one though. That's supposed to be the biggest with the most exotics. Las Vegas is also pretty big, but not as big as Scottsdale.

Thank you. Here's a few more. I've got some aesthetic mods done to it now, will have to take new pics soon.

Spent about 10 hours on the ZL1. Got it all detailed and she's ready for summer. Wash Decon with Iron Remover (Had lots of purple spots, good thing I left this step in) Clay Rinse and dry Full polish with Adam's Finishing Polish + white pads Coating Prep wipe-down Liquid Paint Sealant Brilliant Glaze Americana Paste Wax Glass Sealant (Actually did this before polishing and made cleaning the glass a breeze later) Wheel Sealant (Used a touchless silica sealant, worked great, left them glossy and slick and I didn't have to bang my knuckles up wiping and buffing) The Carbon Fiber came out crystal clear. The mosaic black trim polished out amazingly well too. The paint was pretty much perfect but I did remove a few light sanding marks from the factory and a couple scuffs, Finishing/Correcting handled it all. The gloss is great, really started noticing after the Brilliant Glaze. Americana put it over the top. The whole process was extremely rewarding. Some pics:

We are not using the Rotary on the whole car, only 2 scratches that were in the fender and rear deck lid, the PC/GG and Correcting polish wasn't going to remove those. Also where we used the Rotary, we will not use Heavy, no need as mentioned. I tried Correcting Polish/Orange pads with a few passes on the other areas and it gets it done but the Heavy/MF is going to get there a little quicker and there are some damaging that's not going to be removed by Correcting. We're done using the rotary as of now, the rest of the car doesn't need it. And not sure how many GM cars you've done but these things have a very hard clear coat. Correcting polish works more like Finishing polish on them, and I'm assuming Heavy Correcting is going to fill the role of what Correcting Polish does on most other cars. Most detailers that I've spoken with say they have to go a step more aggressive when they have flaws to remove on Vettes/Camaros. Great work there Jimmy with the Flex. Next time there's a sale I'm going to move up and buy a Flex or Rupes machine.

Finally got my Z06 and ZL1 home and into my garage, ZL1 was never touched so it's just about perfect. But the Z06 sat in a showroom for a year or more, countless wipe-downs with scratching rags and poor sprays, dusters, and who knows how many hands/jacket zippers/purses etc. dragged over it. It's in bad shape, I was really stunned how much swirling/halos and scratches it has in the paint. In a testing spot Correcting Polish + Orange pads barely even touched the big stuff, though it did bring the clarity up and dramatically reduced the halos/factory sanding marks etc. I ordered Heavy Correcting/Microfiber/Blue pads that night, hoping that will give me the cut I need. The clear coats on these GM cars are quite hard. My dad who has been buffing cars in shops for years, used some of his magic and we coaxed all of the deeper scratches/swirls out with the rotary/cutting compound but of course this needs to be followed by a 3 step polish because the rotary leaves all kinds of swirling even when used properly. We'll get it done, but going to need some serious elbow grease and lots careful time. Anybody have some suggestions? The plan is right now to go over the car and use the rotary to remove any more scratches when/if we find them, then Adam's Heavy/MF pad/Blue foam, then to Correcting, and then Finishing. Followed by Sealant/Glaze/Wax.

Nice work and you're correct, you'll want to wait probably a month between H2O GG applications after washes. If excessive weather/salt or strong cleaners (read: car washes etc.) have been used then you can do it sooner. If it hasn't been applied yet, I'd wash it and apply it now and then by about the third or fourth wash (or month or so) then re-apply H2O GG. Apply lightly, no need to go crazy with spraying it on the car. You'll use too much and can make the buffing step harder. Good thing about H2O GG is it can be applied to all surfaces.

Glaze/Wax and Sealant. Though it's marketed for the Glaze, it also handles Sealant. I have a gray pad for LPS and it does a great job.

Yep fixed for me too as of this morning. Definitely existed on all my browsers/devices yesterday though.

So looks like I'll have to do a cycle... Wheel Cleaner + Seal Car Shampoo until build up gets bad Wheel Cleaner + Seal Car Shampoo until build up gets bad etc.

So I'll have the wheels on my C7Z/ZL1/427 etc. sealed with likely H2O GG or a competitors touchless silica spray. Anyways, I'm wondering about picking up Eco Wheel Cleaner. Reason being, in a video Adam shows how the Wheel Cleaner eats off protection (Sealant/Wax) when used as a paint decon, and I'm guessing it will do the same thing on wheels. I would want something that would help out with dirt/grime but not strip the sealant off. Also, current Wheel Cleaner's scent is unpleasant. Win-win by switching to eWC (Preserve Sealants + Better smell)? Anyone have any experience?

It's definitely a must if you have exposed plastic fender liners like a pickup truck. Low cars or carpeted liners - no point, don't buy it. My duramax has a lot of exposed black plastic liners and the undercarriage spray is a must. It truly does make it disappear, and it smells amazing. You'll use quite a bit doing 4 big wheel wells, maybe 6-10 applications out of a 16oz. I'm going to order a gallon when I officially run out. VRT works for it too but the Undercarriage Spray is easier and covers better. I couldn't give you a direct comparison in shine but both shine/protect the plastic well. Stuff repels off of it pretty good but it goes without saying it's not like it's a coating or sealant, stuff still sticks and a scrub will be necessary if you get mud and stuff pasted in there. I've found that regular applications helps it to work better/keeps your plastic darker.

Yes it would be "safe". But probably would just be better to wash with Strip or regular blue Car Shampoo and then top it with Ceramic Boost every 1-3 months.

Nice collection! The Adam's community is a solid bunch, I'd have no fear of trading.

Yup, I was just about to create my own thread, good thing I spotted this one. I have it in all 3 browsers, Safari, Chrome, and Firefox.

Nailed it.

I agree with Chris above. On an uncoated car, I think it's unnecessary to use it over say H2O GG which is proven, easy, and adds lots of shine and also will give you a couple months of protection. I have not used Ceramic Boost, but it's just about the only product I haven't ordered from Adam's because of all of the info I've read. I pretty much read every thread on the Ceramic Boost subject here and while it works and does add considerable shine and leave the paint slick, it's behaviors are somewhat odd, it can be a pain to apply, could result in streaking, and is actually a bit sticky/grabby until it cures on the finish for a few hours. Plus it can't be used on glass, and it's more expensive and the list goes on but I digress. Basically, it's for coated cars. Making it work on uncoated cars can be done. But why not just use a product that was made for that (aka H2O GG)? On my white truck, a fresh coating of H2O GG leaves the paint and chrome stunningly shiny and glossy. I couldn't ask for more. It's immediately slick and beads for at least a month (longest I went in the winter without applying again but I'm sure it'd go for 2 months or more). Plus I can hit my trim, glass, wheels, paint, etc. all in one shot. Wet or dry. You have two bottles of it, try it out on your daily driver before you start using it on customers cars. See how the application process goes and how YOU like the shine/slickness. You may love it.

Their paint coating is currently 7H however their WHEEL coating is 9H. Maybe a new coating is coming or they have access to a coating that they only trust themselves to apply? Experienced Ceramic Coater's can step in here if I'm wrong, but I heard if a paint coating starts getting too hard, specially 9H or beyond, it can start to fail easier/crack or some kind of problem(s) that a softer coating wouldn't have. True?

What tires are you having issues with? That's more than likely the root of your problem, not the TRC/Brushes/Methods of using.

Let me tell you right now, as I had those exact tires on my GMC....they're browning machines. Literally a day after cleaning and dressing they're brown. Spend time in the sun or driving in the summer, and they're crazy brown. I couldn't ever get it to scrub off and stay off for anything more than a day or two so I upgraded to some Nitto tires and wheels...(Ok I didn't do it because of the blooming but still, solved that problem). Use the TRC in multiple passes, as it appears you've found. But no doubt about it, your BIGGEST issue is those Michelin LTX tires. Not that they're bad tires, performance wise/mileage they're great, but the blooming is out of control.