RayS

Ignoring the point that I was being invaded by Blue things, these four vehicles represent some of my work. The members that have been around for a while may know what I've done with each vehicle, others might not. While the Mustang is a bit hidden, hopefully it shows enough. Can you really tell which one is Ceramic Spray Coated and which three have Ceramic Paste Wax? This is where the fun begins, one of the three that has CPW will be converted to CSC this upcoming weekend, the question is which one? I'm open to suggestions and as part of the process, I'll do a full write up on stripping a vehicle with CPW and transforming it to a vehicle with CSC.

Welcome to the forum Eric.

The Soft Shell case is outstanding. I received mine a couple of weeks and it is a perfect size for small trips or when when need some extra supplies. In my case, was looking at for the ceramic line when I travel since my 8 bottle bag is already full. Here's a link with some pictures that @Rich put together in response to my question.

I use Eco Wheel cleaner on about half of the wheels and full strength on the Range Rover, I hate those wheels, and wheels that are older and needs lots of help. For the high end wheels and ones that I've been treating with Ceramic Boost, the Eco Wheel Cleaner works great and smells so much better. It will be interesting to test the new combined product on the Rover and also on some of the ones I've treated. If the product meets in the middle then I won't need to have three products and can go to one. Even if it can only replace one of the two, then I'm still ahead on the number of products needed per vehicle. What is most important to me is the outcome, I learned a long time ago that being in a hurry usually slows you down and I'm not doing this as a business trying to make money, where time really does matter.

@falcaineer As requested in another thread to document what I'm seeing for the wishlist. When I try to purchase products that you recommend, such as the Wheel and Tire Cleaner or Spray Compound, the option to add them to the wishlist does not exist. You can add them to your Cart or Buy now, but the wishlist bar does not show up. I have one item in my wishlist, which proves that it was working. Sorry about the poor pictures, they are screen prints from a Windows machine, I know I should have used the Mac. Of note, I did try to add items that you didn't recommend just to make sure you were not jynxing the wishlist. For anyone that is curious, the Blue & Red Patriots Wax Applicators are outstanding for putting Brilliant Glaze on your vehicle. I put a sprayer in the bottle of Brilliant Glaze, spray the wax applicator with 2 or 3 squirts and then start going over the car.

I keep trying to put it my wishlist so the wife will order it.... But, the wishlist hasn't worked in over a week for adding anything. I also will need to get the glass ceramic and the new tire & wheel cleaner, I believe they were all your recommendations.

@John707 your next objective is to ensure your wife's vehicle is perfect. Once she realizes how much you appreciate her and that all of the money and time to learn the craft is to take care of her vehicle, she'll not only say ok to the purchases, she'll tell you when there are sales and even put in the orders for you. Then if you are really doing a good job and showing her that you are trying to save some money, it only takes a suggestion from @falcaineer or one of the other members and she'll question you on why you are not using the best towel or whatever on her vehicle. Then you'll find out that she questions everything that is going to touch her vehicle to make sure it is the best. Seriously, if you watch your inventory and hit the sales, you can get the products you need over time and at a reasonable price-point. Once you know the primary products you are going to be using, purchase the gallon refill kits, that way you get a second bottle to rotate and cost is considerably less than the 16oz bottles one at a time. For the infrequently used products, I only get them in the 16 oz and there are products that I don't need, so I won't stock them. If they ever do another mystery towel box, grab it, you can never have enough towels. The borderless gray is my go to towel and I bought the largest bundle possible. My towel inventory is 3 decades old with the worst of the towels being used for engine bays and such, but I buy a few towels every quarter to replenish the stock.

I do tend to keep notes on what I do and this was no exception. The wheels and tires took about 45 minutes. The first one took longer since I was trying to get them shiny. Once I realized they were stained, I just cleaned the wheels and did the tires properly. The body took about just over an hour to wash, plus 3 plastic razor blades The correcting polish took 4 hours, including breaks and 4 Orange pads Round 3 of polishing was 2 hours and 2 white pads Revive took 1 hour Buttery Wax 1 hour It was close to 10 hours from start to finish with getting everything out and cleaning up afterwards with regular breaks. I did start at just about 6:00 AM, that is nothing unusual since I generally am in the office by 6:30 AM on weekdays.

I use the Glass Sealant on every vehicle and would gladly go with the Ceramic Glass Coating, on the Colorado, Mustang, Fiesta and 240z. For the others, I'll have to take a wait and see including the Range Rover, Terrain and F-150 all have cameras and sensors in and behind the windshield and I'd sure hate to mess up or interfere with any of the integrated systems. However, since the Floridians do have challenges keeping their windshields clean, I would absolutely doe the Equinox, Suburban and the golf carts. When I get to Florida, I'll be doing a ceramic coating on the golf cars, so this would be perfect edition for the windshields.

That is a very cool design.

Under skilled

I might be a little obsessed with how I'm organized and what I use and when I use it, but for the most part the outcome is what really matters. I also know that I didn't build the inventory of products used overnight, so I'm not advocating going into hock to build your inventory. As you think about what you want to accomplish and plan for the next 20 years, think about how you are going to rotate items that wear out and increase your skills over time. I have a 3 1/2 gallon bucket strictly for the wheels and exhaust tip, plus any other grimy area. Then a 5 gallon rinse bucket and 5 gallon soap bucket. I don't care what vehicle I'm doing, the pattern is the same for a full wash, the difference will be the wash mitt. For large vehicles, I'll use the Adam's Car Wash Wedge which works exceptionally well on motorhomes, campers and enclosed trailers, garage doors and similar large surface areas. The Red wash mitts are reserved for very dirty vehicles when I know I'm going to pick up debris, they get rinsed after each panel and then once grubby enough tossed to the side I grab another one. The Gray wash mitts are used on vehicles that are daily drivers that are kept in good shape and just need a bath or are going to be clayed and polished The 10" wash pads are upper level vehicles that need a good wash and won't be touched beyond using boost, brilliant glaze or maybe reply Americana. The Lambskin wash mitt gets used on the wife's garage queen and vehicles that are pristine and are coated, have Ceramic Paste Wax or Patriots on them and only touched by me.

It was fun and I did get to learn more about the Swirl Killer which is good since this was only the 3rd time I have been able to use it. I can't believe the difference that ~20 years in equipment makes for how smooth it works. If you are old enough to remember Ames department stores, that is where my original equipment came from and they went bankrupt and closed in 2002 according to Wikipedia, but I know it was much older than that since I had it before the '98 Mustang. I also know that the old would stop rotating almost immediately when I'd like go of the trigger, the new keeps going for a long time. You really get the understanding when the daughters dog walks up behind you and barks. I'm pretty confident that my shirt, grill, trucks windshield and various other things needed to be speckled with compound and detail spray. Given that wasn't good enough, it also has this newfangled thing called a trigger lock and lets just I'm glad I hadn't cleaned off the grill, windshield and various other things when I discover that handy feature. The old one had three speeds, barely moving which was less than 1 on the SK, moving about the same as 3 on the SK and going like a bat out of hades, which I always avoided. Trying to learn the speeds and going from single action to dual action is a big relearning task and the SK weights multiple pounds less. If there is anyone out there with older equipment, I can tell you the upgrade is well worth it, just be prepared to relearn.

That is looking really good Jeff. On the sunroofs, I have been using Ceramic Boost and it seems to be holding up well and keeping them clear, so if you are using Ceramic Spray Coating on yours, I'll be interested to hear how it turns out.

Welcome to the forum Josh

Thanks Chris. If you read the entire thread, especially the last sentence, you'd would have caught the point that is was worth losing the battle to win the war. One-Time Green truck to get do the Red truck many times. Absolutely a time where losing the battle resulted in the ultimate victory.

I had a 1999 Ford F-250 delivered to me yesterday in need of a cleanup and I believe first real wash in preparation to be sold. The truck has been outside for a long time and there is plenty of etching on the hood and roof, but overall it wasn't in bad shape. There are places that the clear coat is dead, but not completely failed yet. The wheels are rust stained to the point that after two rounds of Wheel Cleaner they are as good as they'll ever be. Should I mention it was a beautiful day in South Carolina at 61 when I started and it only get to 84 by the time I was done - don't ask how early I started this morning... I knew this one needed to have some time for the Strip wash to dwell and get through the road grime. Using the foam gun, I sprayed the truck and then took a 5 minute break. After the break I sprayed the truck again with the Strip wash using the foam gun and then started washing it using a red microfiber wash mitt. The rinse bucket got a real workout and I had to change to the water once. After the wash and follow up on some areas with APC and few spots that required some Lube and a Plastic Razor Blade, it was finally ready for an old clay mitt to be used. There was still too many nicks and burs to allow me to use a newer one, which is the reason why I keep some old ones around. After the Clay it was on to the Orange Pad with with Correction Polish and I hit a few test spots by hand and decided that was as aggressive as I was willing to go, so I grabbed the Swirl Killer 15mm and got at it. After going over the truck with correction polish, it was on to finishing polish and it started to look like a real vehicle. I purposely skipped the places where the clear coat was bad to reduce the risk of additional damage. The truck was looking good, but I knew it could be a little better, so I grabbed the Revive Hand Polish and got the clarity and depth I was looking for. Then it was on to giving it a coat of wax and that took a little pondering to decide what to use. Given that is a vehicle being sold, I immediately ruled out Ceramic Paste Wax and Patriots. That left me with Americana, Spray Wax and Buttery. I did a test spot of each on the box and the Buttery looked the best, so that is what I went with. The owner is pleased with the results and that is what really matters and more importantly, the owner now has a Red truck and will be bringing it to me to get protected.

I have one other suggestion based on your picture:

Temperature inversion

When it comes to the door jams and area around the hatch, you can always do them later. You want to make sure you have plenty of time to take care of the vehicle and not get rushed because you are tired or it is getting late. I have even done 1/2 a vehicle one day and the other half the next, but you always make sure you do an entire side if you have to do that. A few things to keep in mind: 1. Always use the least aggressive method possible. 2. Do test spots, including using the baggie test before you clay. 3. Don't try to be achieve perfection, if you can't see it from 3 feet away it is good enough - you'll get better over time. 4. Do small areas at a time, guaranteed that trying to tackle the entire hood in one shot will overwork you, frustrate you and come out less than desirable. 5. Take breaks and admire your work. 6. Keep notes of what you did and how you did it, you'll appreciate it in three or six months when you want to repeat the process. 7. Temperature and humidity changes throughout the day and have a big impact on the cure or drying time. Finally, take lots of picture, before , during and after and share them on the forum.

I'm going to give you another thread to review about preparing your vehicle: This thread has some good questions and recommendations on the process and some options.

Hi Rich, If those are Birch leaves they act like Tea leaves and stain almost anything. The Ceramic Paste Wax has been good to me for being able to keep the stains down, but what worked the best is the regular Spray Wax. I'd use the Spray Wax as a drying agent after a wash following the Use When Washing Directions. It was easy to apply, looked good and kept the gunk from sticking or straining.

Welcome to the Forum.

This is not a technique that is unique to Adam's. There are companies that sell various items on Amazon or other web vendor sites that are packaged differently, which can mean a lower price point. This is generally enough to get people interested and then the person will seek out the vendor site to make larger purchases. There is also the Vendor Exclusive models which means you need to go a 3rd party to get it as an incentive to keep your resellers. While I have not checked and do not know for fact, but there is a possibility that the smaller kits are also available at the resellers.

I don't think you'll find anyone that has used the Adam's Ceramic Spray or Ceramic Paste Wax to disagree with your thoughts. I have used both CSC and CPW and torn between which one I like better, so I'll probably leave 1/2 my vehicles with CPW and the other half I'll end up coating. Either way, the prep is the key to the best outcome, so plan a weekend, put it inside and take your time. The results are amazing. @Rich did a Black SUV to perfection, so I'll ask him to chime in on this one also.