Chewy

I use my Sidekick to blow my car off, then use WW in a hand held pump pressure sprayer to spray the area down and MANY WW towels to finish it off.  My car is a garage queen. 

Check to see if it needs clayed using the bag method.  Stick your hand in a plastic grocery bag and rub it over the car (CLEAN CAR) and if you feel bumps, it needs clayed, if not, I'd do a IPA wipe down of the paint and seal it. 

It could be the oils in the products.  Did you try some IPA on a MF towel? 

Barrett Jackson has some nice cars, but IMO they're one of the lower end auction houses compared to MANY others out there. 

IMO, they're the WalMart of auction houses.  Successful yes, but not the best quality. 

does green wheel cleaner strip sealant?

Over time yes!  

I too use shampoo diluted in a spray bottle 

Any Adams product will work!  Just FYI: Stay away from anything containing silicone.  MANY OTC products use it.  This is why you'll see Marine specific products.  They don't contain silicone.  Thankfully, neither does Adams which are MUCH better than the OTC Marine products. 

Oh, Silicone will cause the gelcoat to turn yellow.  No matter the color, it'll turn it a yellowish color.  White of course is the worst. 

It's funny, but from the look of it, it's the exact same pump that's on my hair shampoo!  I've used them for years and they've NEVER leaked. 

If money is NO object, Metabo has the largest milliamp battery on the market by a large margin.  They also have a great warranty. 

I use deep cleaner once a year, in the spring.  THAT'S IT! I have NO need for it any other time of the year. 

I commonly use Adams Car Shampoo diluted in a spray bottle, but will use APC if I have a greasy or oily wheel.  

IMO, DWC is MUCH too expensive to use every time I wash and it's not needed in my instance.  

Does your nail get caught in/on it?  

Met up with some friends for C&C and then some breakfast on Saturday.  My cars 2015 maiden voyage.  32ºF, extreme summer tires and 500HP at the wheels makes for some fun times!  

I got my car almost 2 years ago, never once been through an auto car wash with it and never plan to over its entire life with me.  No thanks.  Even the ones with the guys on the other end wiping the cars down, seeing them use the same towels for each vehicle makes me cringe as I drive past.  I'm still young enough, i'll spend a day in the driveway doing it myself!

Come up here in the winter and do it for me then!    

I like the whispering "soap soap" during the video!  Nice touch! 

A few more things completed!  Installed the new chrome free arrow heads from gtog8ta.com and primed up the plugs to fill in the holes left behind from removing my front license plate.  Just need to pull out the Flex, correcting and finishing polish and hit the spot where the plate once was and then I can put the plugs in.  

That's it for chrome on the car.  It's now chrome free other than inside the head lights. lol 

Next, I have to install the hidden plate under the front.  No need to draw any MORE unneeded attention.  When at the car shows, I can tuck it back under the car and BAM!  Clean lines once again! 

Chris

I go though the local coin op touch washes with our DD's.  Screw it... I don't have time to mess about anymore.  My G8 gets ONLY the best treatment and is fully corrected, but my truck is gone after three years lease so I could care less.  As long as it resembles the color white, I'm good.  That being said, I AM amazed at the lack of swirls or fine scratches I'm seeing.  I think it helps that it's only blow dried at the end so you don't have the 16 year old rubbing dirty cotton towels over the paint.  It's by NO means as good as a two bucket wash, but it's better than nothing too.  

Absolutely!  Powder coat is dang strong stuff and it takes a lot more than DWC to hurt it!  Just remember, don't use it on hot surfaces or let dry.   

lol, no kidding?  I need to look into it.  If I'm not busy, I wouldn't mind driving through...  

Welcome!  I'm from Iowa, but I can see IL from my house!   

I've thought about doing a light under my hood. Where did you mount the light?

I mounted the strip right above the back of the engine.  I ended up using 100% pure silicone to glue it up there incase the engine heat caused adhesion issues.  See the link for the page of different LED strips.  The nice thing is these can run for hours without killing your battery.  

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_15?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=12v+led+light+strip+waterproof&sprefix=12V+LED+light+s%2Caps%2C210

I haven't done much to the car since the weather has been poo for so long.  Seeing that I do a lot of shows and cruise-ins, I found that I needed a way to illuminate my engine bay in a clean way.  My goal was enough light to make it worthwhile, while not being able to see the light source.  

This is ONLY for hood up night time shows/cruise-ins.  There are NO lights under the car or in the grill.  NO FPFQ for me.  

Anyway...  I thought I'd share.  It looks a lot better in person.  The iPhone camera is only capable of so much in the dark.  

Kind of a lame post...  

Don't forget that Infinity has the healing paint.  It lasts about 3 years and works OK.  Not amazing, but OK. 

My cars from now on will be white or silver.  

Mines been in the refrigerator for 2 years.  As hard as it is, I don't think freezing would affect it as much as a liquid.  

Welcome!  If you have questions, many of them are answered already so do a search, but if you don't see what you need, ask away! 

My GXP gets less than 1000 miles on it a year.  Last year I started with Quick Sealant as a base and topped with Patriot. 

GQ or not, I want the protection of a sealant. 

Yard stick and an Adams glass cleaning towel.  Those glass cleaning tools are chinsy at best.