RayS

Town square

I got back from a business trip to the big city of Lebanon, VA, which is just about in the middle or nowhere. However, I did receive several compliments about my truck and how well it shined. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lebanon,+VA+24266/@36.8970353,-82.2181572,77118m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x88500504f0fa0f53:0xec8a9d31faea132!8m2!3d36.900942!4d-82.0801309

Hi @mantis, a ceramic coated vehicle does not mean it is maintenance free. You still need to wash them to get the road grime off, pollen, dust and other stuff from the door jams and the brake dust still sticks to the rims. A coated vehicle will still need to be loved, as @Nickfire20 stated, on a regular basis whether it is a two bucket wash or a ceramic waterless wash. As for the waxing part, you can use ceramic spray wax or ceramic paste wax, which has become my favorite that I use on non-coated vehicles. About once a month the ceramic waxed vehicles get a fresh coat of ceramic boost. Then hit the vehicle with ceramic wax with a topping of brilliant glaze and it will really pop for that special weekend or show. I'm slowly making my transition to the new ceramic line, although it will take a while before all the vehicles are transitioned - probably years - and I may not even do the daily drivers until they are replaced. When the wife's car gets replaced, that will be going to a professional to have a professional coating put on it. The wife's vehicle is the one we use for trips, it is garage kept and it always spotless and we usually keep her vehicles for 7-10 years. When it comes to the classics, they may not end up with anything more than ceramic wax on them, I'm undecided at this point. I consider anything over 20 years old to be on the classic side with the oldest right now being 1972 Datsun 240Z. My recommendation is to keep reading and pick what is best suited for your situation, vehicles, financials and outcome desire. The one thing I have learned in my many years of doing vehicles is that each situation is different, including having different vehicles you own maintained in different ways.

Welcome Craig. While I have not made the switch to Ceramic coating yet, I can tell you that the Cajun-Red can be made to shine and have incredible depth. My Cajun-Red Chevy Colorado receives a lot compliments. Don't forget to post before and after pictures.

Pop bottles

I also use APC for the exhaust tip and I use a wheel woolie. I had one vehicle that was from the early 70's and I have no idea what the exhaust tip was made of, but APC would not clean it, so I tried regular wheel cleaner and it cleaned it just as if it was a wheel. I can't advocate using wheel cleaner for the exhaust tip, but knowing there is a option if APC won't clean it is something I keep in my book. The video shows the method I follow for exhaust tip cleaning.

Beautiful car and great job on it.

Bottle fed

Professionally polished

The brown sand tends to come out with the shop vac alone unless it is damp, but the white sand clings. What I have found that works the best, although not perfect, is to use the shop vac, plus a somewhat stiff stiff brush like @mc2hill showed. It seems that once the brush gets the sand to move, the shop vac has the power to pull it the rest of the way out. I tried one of the brushes that goes on the end of the shop vac, but it was not effective, I think there was too much distance between the brush the real suction.

Chris, as long as you keep providing the excellent advice, you'll be at 5k before you know it. Maybe we can get a @falcaineer LE Detail Spray when you hit that milestone.

I'll be the first to answer this: Yes to either or both. The general rule of thumb is the most durable product first, but in the case of BG it helps hide minor imperfections and in my experience it has not changed the durability of the products I have put it under. When BG is on top, it will really make the vehicle pop, but it only lasts a couple of days. Generally, when I'm putting BG on top, it is for the weekend or a show. Don't forget to do the inside of your windshield and house mirrors, it does an amazing job on both.

^ One of the all time great songs^ Bird Bath

@TheWolf Thank for you for such a thorough answer - this is the type information that helps educate all of us, even those of us who have been doing this for 40 years and still want to improve the outcome.

@DanielChaves The Buttery Wax does have a pleasant smell and is very easy to work with. I use it on the cars that need a quick wash and wax with the full expectation that it wont' last very long in the sun, if you get 2 or 3 weeks you are doing good. I also have the Spray Wax which is also very easy to use and you can use it in the full sun without worry and it also has a pleasant smell, as does pretty much everything except Wheel Cleaner. With your car, if you are looking for something with longevity, @falcaineer can tell you everything you want to know about H20 Guard and Gloss which does an amazing job on White or Silver cars. Myself, I've moved up to Ceramic Paste Wax and while it takes a bit more effort, but not much, the results are awesome.

Wouldn't the Ceramic Waterless Wash be an effective product for claying a coated vehicle?

Welcome Ken. Are you still in the Palmer area? We have some other members from Alaska on here. Myself, I left Kodiak nearly 30 years ago and still miss being up there.

Polishes everything

Using the wet method, I usually spray the panel. However, when it is a smaller panel or things like the back of the mirrors, I spray the towel if the towel does not already have plenty on it. For a 2 door car, say a Monte Carlo SS, I'll use one spray for an entire door and that is plenty. For the hood, it is usually two sprays.

Up scale

@Asbobcat83, I know a bit about this leather, although I will claim to be an expert by any means. There are a couple of products for cleaning, conditioning and if needed recoloring. The first thing to do is determine what the condition is and what needs to be done. @Rich is correct that you should not use a harsh cleaner unless it truly needs to be deep cleaned and @falcaineer is correct that this is not your typical leather. I'm a bit of a leather buff and have many different jackets that are made of specialty leather. If you want to keep the dash of your truck looking great, I highly recommend the Adam's Leather Condition and it works like a charm on many other items, including vinyl seats and door panels, golf cart seats, leather house chairs and both regular leather and leatherette seats in most vehicles. Given that this is the Adam's Forum and the intent is to discuss Adam's products, all I can do is recommend a google search for "Ford King Ranch Aniline Leather conditioner and cleaner". You'll get several options to choose from and a couple of forum posts about Ford trucks. There is also a place that will come up in Washington State that has a Leather Cream and Bees Wax waterproofing- it is what I used on my nearly 40 year old Australian sheepskin leather jacket and saddle bags. From the Wiki: Aniline leather is a high/quality product. Aniline actually refers to the dyes that are used in making the final product, once the hide is tanned. It is a special treatment process used on the fine Napa hides. No matter what you use, make sure you do a test spot where it won't be visible and let it cure overnight since it can take upwards of 24 hours to have the final result show.

What a beautiful car and great save on getting it all cleaned up.

The same daughter that has the Mustang decided to be the one to go rouge and get a non-Red vehicle. Maybe she's aged and been married long enough that she thinks she can chart her own course, whatever the case, she bought a Blue car for her daily driver. Being the good father that I am, I won't disown her for it and I even took the time to make it look as good as possible. The one thing I will say, is that I am very disappointed in the quality of the paint on the car. It is a car that if it goes without protection, there won't be anything left in a few years. I had her bring it over last night and put it in the garage so I could get started early this morning. My overall goal was to give the car some depth, clarity along with some reflective properties and I think I accomplished the objectives. Once the car was cleaned I went over it using the baggie test and didn't even need to break out the Clay Mitt, so I started in polishing. I did a test spot with Revive and it just didn't give me what I was looking for, so I did a test spot with One Step Polish and the results were very good, so that's that route I went. This was my first time using the Adam's One Step Polish and I'm pleased with how easy it was to use and the end results and it was the least aggressive method I could think of, especially since it didn't need to be Clayed. Once I had the car polished, I started with the Ceramic Paste Wax. The car is very small and the humidity was high, so I was able to do two panels at a time, treating the hood and roof as two panels. I do a very thin coat of the Ceramic Paste Wax and use a 1/2 turn of the applicator per panel and if the applicator starts to feel dry, then I know I'm trying to do too big of an area. The first picture is after the wash and before I started polishing, the second picture is after the polish and application of the Ceramic Paste Wax. For reference the Malibu is sitting 48 feet away from the Fiesta, so I believe I met the goal of getting some depth and reflective properties into the Fiesta. If nothing else, I at last got a Red car into the picture...

That is correct on the H20 Guard and Gloss and WW is Waterless Wash, while W&W is Wash and Wax. According to which browser you are using, when you hover any of the abbreviations, it will show the full name associated with it. Here is a link to the list of abbreviations, although this might be a bit outdated with the newer products:

I have gotten to where I only apply CB after a wash using the wet method and in the rare case where I do use some and the vehicle isn't wet, I spray it on the towel instead of the vehicle. I also have to reminding myself to use very little, it is must easier to go over a section twice with a dampened towel than try to remove excess CB. For the vehicles that have Ceramic Paste Wax, I have found the CB to be even easier to work with. I think the ceramic liquid wax would be the same way, but I have not tried it yet. As for going over the Ceramic Wax/Boost with a maintenance product, I have used regular Detail Spray and regular Waterless Wash and when I want it to really pop, I use Brilliant Glaze. Since I started using a sprayer with the Brilliant Glaze, it makes it even easier to do the the vehicles.