Please critique my plan and a few questions

[Editguy]

Here is my plan for doing the exterior of my new Acura. It's been on the road three months and been through one wash which didn't get it totally clean. It's my first time detailing a car beyond a traditional sponge and paste wax hack job and that was decades ago. Do I have the order correct? I don't have any polishing products/machines yet.

 

Pretreat stuck on bugs/tar with WW
Clean wheels the Eco WC
Foam car with CS
Wash car with CS
Dry car
Clay windows and car
Dry car with HGG
VRT tires
BW
Seal all exterior glass with GLS

 

Do I hit the car with some DS after the BW or is the unnecessary and/or counterproductive?

 

Do I rewash the car after claying or just rinse and go right to HGG?

Should I avoid getting HGG on my glass if I'm going to use GLS?

 

The car has painted pinstripes. Do I avoid going over the pinstripes with the claybar or is OK to clay in the same direction as the pinstripe? Same question for when I get a set of polishers, can I run machines over the pinstripes?

 

I appreciate any input as I'm starting from zero experience beyond watching a bunch of videos.

 

Enjoy the 4th!

Edited July 2, 2018 by Editguy

[Chris@Adams]

I think that I would clay your glass first then foam and wash the car, after washing then you can apply H20 as you dry.

Have fun!

[Beemer]

You don't have to dry the car after washing and before claying. Just clay while it's still wet.

 

I usually do a Rinseless Wash after claying to remove the residue but since you're going to H2OGG next you might want to rinse it off.  H2OGG likes a wet car. Depending on how bad the paint is another full wash is not a terrible idea and should go pretty quick.

 

I wouldn't use H2OGG on the glass if I'm going to use glass sealant. Redundant.

 

 

[ZMAN024]

3 hours ago, Editguy said:

Here is my plan for doing the exterior of my new Acura. It's been on the road three months and been through one wash which didn't get it totally clean. It's my first time detailing a car beyond a traditional sponge and paste wax hack job and that was decades ago. Do I have the order correct? I don't have any polishing products/machines yet.

3 hours ago, Editguy said:

Pretreat stuck on bugs/tar with WW
Clean wheels the Eco WC

Added step - Clean tires with T&RC
Foam car with CS
Wash car with CS
Dry car - Not necessary
Clay windows and car - be sure to use adequate lubrication - DS (or equivalent) on the paint and GC (or equivalent) on the windows 

Added step - Final rinse
Dry car with HGG
VRT tires  - and trim to help with removal of any errant BW 
BW
Seal all exterior glass with GLS

 

Do I hit the car with some DS after the BW or is the unnecessary and/or counterproductive? - Unnecessary step unless you really like the smell of DS ?. 

 

Do I rewash the car after claying or just rinse and go right to HGG?  Rinse and go to H2O

Should I avoid getting HGG on my glass if I'm going to use GLS?  Redundant step but won't hurt a thing

 

The car has painted pinstripes. Do I avoid going over the pinstripes with the claybar or is OK to clay in the same direction as the pinstripe? Same question for when I get a set of polishers, can I run machines over the pinstripes?  Work gingerly around the pinstripes with the clay bar and avoid them with the polishers

 

I appreciate any input as I'm starting from zero experience beyond watching a bunch of videos.

 

Enjoy the 4th!

 

Input above in red.

 

[Editguy]

Thank you all for your input, it is greatly appreciated.

[falcaineer]

Having a white car myself, and a daily at that, I'll add two things to the spot-on comments above...

 

Clay is probably needed (you can do the baggie test to make sure), but be aware it may cause some marring of the paint that a polisher would be recommended to remove. On a white car, probably not as noticeable, but be aware it could happen.

 

You could stop at HGG and likely be just as happy with the results. In my experience wax doesn't tend to add much to the shine on a white car above what HGG will, and HGG should last longer than the BW for protection. 

[Editguy]

So overall I'm really happy with the way the car came out after my first detail. I had some issues with the foam gun, I was getting way more water then foam coming out of the gun. I tried with and without the little inserts the gun came with but it really didn't change much. The only way I could get it foamy was to unscrew the canister and blast water into it to get it foamy in the canister. I would have to stop and do that like every 30 seconds. I'm going to play around with it some more to see if I can figure out what I was doing wrong.

 

Also using the WW to pretreat the stains I had was pretty ineffective. I had to use clay to remove the majority of them. I'll know better for next time.

 

I added an extra step before foaming and went out and got a bottle of IR from my local detail shop and it was pretty cool watching my new car cry purple tears of joy as the contamination dissolved away.

 

Best part was was when my wife came out and said the car looked as good as the day we picked it up from the dealer  

 

 

[Editguy]

On 7/3/2018 at 11:53 PM, falcaineer said:

Having a white car myself, and a daily at that, I'll add two things to the spot-on comments above...

 

Clay is probably needed (you can do the baggie test to make sure), but be aware it may cause some marring of the paint that a polisher would be recommended to remove. On a white car, probably not as noticeable, but be aware it could happen.

 

You could stop at HGG and likely be just as happy with the results. In my experience wax doesn't tend to add much to the shine on a white car above what HGG will, and HGG should last longer than the BW for protection. 

Yes I did notice it did not add much more shine but I still love the way it feels waxed.