lasers

Thanks for the input guys. Sounds like I'll increase my first figure a little bit. Plus, I may get the word around that I am detailing and get a little side business going, charging more for people I don't know and as I get experience. I am not touching the wheels or wheel wells, even though they need it. I'll ask him, though. I can do those at the house. 

Nice car! My sister has a Focus like this but it's the Titanium. I told her to get the ST but she didn't listen, and now wants one. They are pretty awesome. Paint looks nice as well. 

First off, I hope I never have to make another topic like this as I am sure that there are many of them posted all the time. However, I need advice on how to approach this. I have detailed my TBSS, Cobra and other family/ friends vehicles, but overall do not have a ton of experience. I had a friend (not a super close friend, but still I know the guy well enough) that just bought a Dodge Ram sport (single cab). It is the dark metallic green color, and is a 2011. He bought it from a used car place and they "buffed" it. There are swirls in the paint from this over the whole truck. As stated in my other thread, I have horrible water at my house and cannot wash anything. So he is going to wash the truck and I am going to clay/polish/seal it. I am guessing it's got about 8 hours worth of work with a PC to get it nice, so basically my entire saturday. Since I'm not washing it, I'm not going to use a horrible amount of product, just both polishes, sealant, VRT, and detail spray/clay. So, how should I charge him? I'd do it for free but it's my saturday and there are a lot of other things I'd rather be doing/need to do than detailing his truck. I'm thinking $150 is pretty fair for a correction, I KNOW I can get it looking nice though. What do you guys think I should do in this situation?

My apc did that, the 32 oz one and I spilled all of it in my driveway. Oh well

Excuse me,,,,,,,, you said it does nothing specific to remove brake dust. I'm fine with the answer, believe me not trying to start anything just want to buy the cheapest product to do the best job,,,, lol. I will try some wheel cleaner next. Thanks,,,,,,,,,, I also think its best that you change that it will stop confusion ,,,,,,,,,,,Wayne

Is your comma button stuck?

APC seems to be fine for wheels on daily driver cars with regular brakes. Used it on my sister's new focus last weekend and it did fine, they had about 3 months of brake dust on them lol but it's very light colored dust and not as heavy or sticky as brake pads with more metallic content. I tried the DWC on one wheel, pretty much nothing except the brake disc turned purple. Her wheels had more dirt and road grime than brake dust.

On the other hand, my TBSS's wheels look worse in 3 days than the Focus's do in 3 months. They look black right now. APC works alright, but the deep wheel cleaner made them spotless and yes it turned purple. However, I barely have to use the APC even on the tires on my weekly wash because I don't pick up as much road grime as I do brake dust.

So moral of the story, asses your condition. You could use the APC only, or APC + DWC on a higher performance vehicle.

Nice job! Where did you get the headlights?

Dude. Get an F150 Fx4 package. I've seen used 2011s with the 5.0 for $33,000 and pretty low miles. I'd get the 5.0 over the ecoboost.

Got to try out my last shipment of Adams stuff on my Cobra and my buddies 13 GT500. All these photos are with my iPhone and I think they came out nice. I used brilliant glaze and Americana wax on the Shelby. I waxed the cobra last weekend but I used deep wheel cleaner and quick sealant on the wheels, really did amazing work on the front wheels and they pop like the gloss black is supposed to

Super VRT and in n out spray doing WORK

Also I did not have to use as much product on the wheels as other OTC stuff I've used (and looking at the Sonax videos on youtube I'm guessing that too)... And this is my daily I used it on so it was pretty caked in brake dust.

It works well. As far as the smell, I took the little red cap off and it had some product, left it in the box all my stuff cam in in my room and just that small amount of product stunk up my entire room! But it worked extremely well on my SS's wheels and they look better than ever! Got them spotless and hit them with some spray sealent... Great product and extremely effective. When the weather doesn't suck I will hit the cobra and GT500 with it. Winner in my book

Nice pics! Are those tail lights stock? Look awesome

Added an "LSP" today and snapped some photos with the big camera

Wish I had Adams in and out spray back then. I Used stoner trim shine for some though its not bad for a OTC product and cheap enough. But greasy.

My lightning

Looks great man, I love a shiny TBSS.

 

Did you tell the Sonic guy, "yeah I JUST washed it" with a face full of sarcasm?

I was like "yeah something like that" haha he had to do a double take it was priceless

Awesome work man! Nothing like a dripping wet black paint on a TBSS to cause some serious face melt.

Yes sir very pleased with the results. Your thread helped motivate me although your paint was much much nicer to begin with.

I just saw a sign at the local Home Depot for Free Water Tests 11-3 March 16th. You might want to check with the one in Odessa to see if they have this going too.

Thanks for the idea! May have to take up your pizza and beer offer some time lol

Hello everyone,

I'd like to show you my 2006 Chevy trailblazer SS. I purchased this vehicle about a month ago out of Austin, Tx. It took some considerable searching to find it, and it has 27,000 miles on it. Pretty hard to find one with 60,000 let alone under 30,000 miles. However, the black paint does not look like it was taken very good care of. There were some of the worst swirls I have ever seen in the paint, along with some pretty deep scratches in the clear, and water spots and haze all along the doors and fenders. I finally couldn't take it and broke down. I purchased the Porter Cable kit from Adam's last Sunday. It contains all 3 polishes, along with the Machine Super Sealant, and some very nice towels (which I will be purchasing MANY more and replacing my current ones).

This process took me two nights after work, 6-10:30 the first night and 6-11 the next. I would say I removed 70% of the defects, which I consider VERY GOOD for the condition the paint was in, and the fact that I'm using the Porter cable and not the flex. I should have purchased the 4" Focus system, however I will be soon to try to fix a couple spots. Overall, I think my paint looks awesome now!

I've received a lot of comments, first was at Sonic when I was getting lunch. The guy giving me my food had to do a double take, said "damn man you just washed it huh? looks crazy".

Then took the blazer to get a tune put on by a local tuner. He said it looked super clean! He couldn't believe it was a 06, said it looked like a new car.

At least I have some good tools to use

After the severe swirl remover

Before:

After

Unfortunately had to go to work today and let it get dusty, looked good though this early

Hood looks pretty awesome I must say

I am becoming a big fan of simple, plain backgrounds.

Nice job makes me miss my old Lightning

i'd say 95% of the homes out here have water softener/RO systems installed for drinking water. but the typical RO system only makes about a gallon per hour.

 

Graham - give a local water system installer a call to see what they do for the well water in your area. the people that did it for our house were from Al's Water Systems. they may have something specific that differs from the RO systems.

Thanks for the help every one!

Going to try next time to wash in the morning and add the detail spray when I wipe it down. I also could just pull the blazer into the garage and shut the door which helps but isn't perfect. I will continue researching what to do

Red Fire 04 Terminator.. Looks stock though minus the fluidyne. Any upgrades to the Eaton or maybe a KB/Whipple?

It has full Bassani exhaust, 2.3 whipple, injectors, boost-a-pump and clutch

Thanks everyone for the kind words

Hello everyone, I am new here from Odessa, Tx. I purchased a Porter-cable kit from Adam's yesterday, it has the polishes and sealant. I also bought the undercarriage dressing, fender brush and all purpose cleaner. All are items I was not able to buy over the counter and should be a step up from what I use now. I plan to correct some heavy swirls in my Trailblazer SS that I just purchased, it looks like it was buffed incorrectly by a dealer or body shop. It only has 27,000 miles and even the fender wells look new, however the paint leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully I can learn how to use the DA correctly and fix a lot of it, I was not having good luck polishing by hand with over the counter remedies. I also have a 2004 Cobra with 23,000 miles on it, that will receive a full detail once I learn how to use the polisher. I am very excited!

Here are a couple pics of my rides, I try my best to keep them spot less! I love taking care of my cars, I am very OCD about them.

Ignore the Illinois tags, this picture was taken right after my dad and I purchased the Cobra and drove it back to Texas.

Hello everyone, I am new here and searched through a few topics regarding hard water and I have come up with a few ideas. I live in Odessa, Tx and we are on water rations, meaning I cannot (legally) wash my vehicles with the city water. I suppose I could, but it is almost as hard as my well water. I also have a water well which I have been using to wash with, however the water is horrible out of it, very hard and etches the clear coat if it even has the slightest chance to dry.

I've researched a couple of options or came up with the idea myself, tell me what would be the best choice for spot-free, usable water.

First idea would be an inline filter set up with the softener. My concern is the water from my well already contains large amounts of salt, and since the softener just replaces harsher minerals with salt, it may have a null effect on my water. Also, the setup I saw was on ********, not sure of the effectiveness of the filter either.

Second, is a deionizer. I am not exactly sure what these do, other than remove particles. I assume they are similar to a reverse osmosis machine. There is a compact unit relatively cheap ($299) but again I am not sure how well this would work with the crappy water out of my well, or how long the resin inside would last.

Third idea is basically free besides some pvc and fittings. My water softener is located in the garage, and runs off the city water. I could tee into it and run a line outside. The water would no be perfect, however it would probably not leave as harsh of spots. It would have ample pressure since it is connected to the city line.

Here is how bad the spots are, I drove down the street and the water dripped from the mirror and etched my door

Thanks for any input