I just detailed my car and figured I'd share my regiment with everyone...all pictures were taken with a Canon A95 digital camera. I only used Photoshop to resize the pictures and convert them to JPEG High.
What you'll need for a full detail
- Lots of microfiber towels (I used 3 waffle weave drying towels and about 5 detailing towels for today's detail)
- Two wash mitts and two buckets
- Car wash soap (I use Clearkote's Soap)
- Swirl Remover (I use Poorboy's SSR2.5 and SSR1)
- Clay bar (I use Wolfgang's clay)
- Polish (I use Clearkote Vanilla Moose aka VM)
- Wax (I use Clearkote Carnauba Moose Wax aka CMW and S100)
- Tire shine (I use Poorboy's Bold and Bright)
- Random orbital buffer (I use a Porter Cable 7424 aka PC7424)
- Cutting pad, 1 or 2 polishing pads, finishing pad for the PC7424
- Metal/Chrome polish (I use Mother's)
Here's most of the products I used...the blue towels are microfiber detailing towels:
Steps
Note: I didn't clay my car or use the SSR2.5 since I clayed my car about 3 months ago and didn't have any major swirls.
1) Put some car wash soap in one bucket and fill it up. Fill up the second bucket with water only. Wash the entire car, starting from the roof and working your way down to the bottom of the car. You will want to do the bottom of the car last, since that's where all the dirt is. Your wash mitt will go from looking like this:
to this:
Use the second bucket of clean water to get all that nasty gunk off your mitt when needed.
Use the second wash mitt (preferably an old, beat up mitt) to wash under your fenders. Do this at the end so that you don't get that gunk back into your bucket, then back onto your paint.
Tip: When you are done washing the car, "sheet" the water off your car using your hose (if you using a special nozzle, remove it). This will make life easier when drying your car.
2) Dry the car using waffle weave microfiber towels. Start from the roof and work your way down. I typically use two towels on the body...one to drag the water off, and the second to finish up the job. Place the first towel flat on the body like so:
and drag it towards you. Fold up your second towel a few times and use that to dry the area completely:
I then use a 3rd towel to take care of the windows and the wheels.
3) Clay the car. Use either the supplied lubricant, or fill up a spritzer bottle with car wash soap and water and use that as your lubricant. Spray the area with your lubricant liberally, and the clay should just glide across your paint and pick up all the gunk that got embedded into it.
4) Wash and dry the car again, as shown in step 1 and 2.
5) Now it's time to take care of those annoying swirl marks. I typically use SSR1 on my entire car, and SSR2.5 on areas that have severe swirling. This time, I did not need to use SSR2.5 at all.
If you need to use SSR2.5, use a cutting pad. You will also want to spray your pad with a bit of quick detail spray. This will prevent the SSR2.5 from "dusting" up on you.
Use a polishing pad with your SSR1. Apply some on your pad, as such:
and dab it onto your car like this:
Set your PC7424 at about a speed of 3, and turn it up to about 4 or 5 until the SSR has almost vanished:
Buff it off with a clean microfiber detailing towel:
Continue doing this in sections until you've done the entire car.
6) Polish your car using a polishing pad. The process is similar to step 5. Buff it off with yet another clean microfiber detailing towel.
7) Wax time! You may apply the wax either by hand or with a PC finishing pad. Today, I applied one coat of CMW with a PC finishing pad, and one coat of S100 by hand.
8) Clean the plastic trim around your exhaust and the plastic scrape guard below your front bumper using your rubber/vinyl cleaner.
9) Apply tire shine to your tires
10) Apply chrome polish to your wheels and exhaust tips
Where can I get this stuff?
I purchased everything from two places:
Specialty Motoring - sells Clearkote and Poorboy's stuff, along with Lake County pads and excellent microfiber towels
Autogeek - sells everything else I have, including the S100, Wolfgang stuff, and waffle weave microfiber towels.
What you'll need for a full detail
- Lots of microfiber towels (I used 3 waffle weave drying towels and about 5 detailing towels for today's detail)
- Two wash mitts and two buckets
- Car wash soap (I use Clearkote's Soap)
- Swirl Remover (I use Poorboy's SSR2.5 and SSR1)
- Clay bar (I use Wolfgang's clay)
- Polish (I use Clearkote Vanilla Moose aka VM)
- Wax (I use Clearkote Carnauba Moose Wax aka CMW and S100)
- Tire shine (I use Poorboy's Bold and Bright)
- Random orbital buffer (I use a Porter Cable 7424 aka PC7424)
- Cutting pad, 1 or 2 polishing pads, finishing pad for the PC7424
- Metal/Chrome polish (I use Mother's)
Here's most of the products I used...the blue towels are microfiber detailing towels:
Steps
Note: I didn't clay my car or use the SSR2.5 since I clayed my car about 3 months ago and didn't have any major swirls.
1) Put some car wash soap in one bucket and fill it up. Fill up the second bucket with water only. Wash the entire car, starting from the roof and working your way down to the bottom of the car. You will want to do the bottom of the car last, since that's where all the dirt is. Your wash mitt will go from looking like this:
to this:
Use the second bucket of clean water to get all that nasty gunk off your mitt when needed.
Use the second wash mitt (preferably an old, beat up mitt) to wash under your fenders. Do this at the end so that you don't get that gunk back into your bucket, then back onto your paint.
Tip: When you are done washing the car, "sheet" the water off your car using your hose (if you using a special nozzle, remove it). This will make life easier when drying your car.
2) Dry the car using waffle weave microfiber towels. Start from the roof and work your way down. I typically use two towels on the body...one to drag the water off, and the second to finish up the job. Place the first towel flat on the body like so:
and drag it towards you. Fold up your second towel a few times and use that to dry the area completely:
I then use a 3rd towel to take care of the windows and the wheels.
3) Clay the car. Use either the supplied lubricant, or fill up a spritzer bottle with car wash soap and water and use that as your lubricant. Spray the area with your lubricant liberally, and the clay should just glide across your paint and pick up all the gunk that got embedded into it.
4) Wash and dry the car again, as shown in step 1 and 2.
5) Now it's time to take care of those annoying swirl marks. I typically use SSR1 on my entire car, and SSR2.5 on areas that have severe swirling. This time, I did not need to use SSR2.5 at all.
If you need to use SSR2.5, use a cutting pad. You will also want to spray your pad with a bit of quick detail spray. This will prevent the SSR2.5 from "dusting" up on you.
Use a polishing pad with your SSR1. Apply some on your pad, as such:
and dab it onto your car like this:
Set your PC7424 at about a speed of 3, and turn it up to about 4 or 5 until the SSR has almost vanished:
Buff it off with a clean microfiber detailing towel:
Continue doing this in sections until you've done the entire car.
6) Polish your car using a polishing pad. The process is similar to step 5. Buff it off with yet another clean microfiber detailing towel.
7) Wax time! You may apply the wax either by hand or with a PC finishing pad. Today, I applied one coat of CMW with a PC finishing pad, and one coat of S100 by hand.
8) Clean the plastic trim around your exhaust and the plastic scrape guard below your front bumper using your rubber/vinyl cleaner.
9) Apply tire shine to your tires
10) Apply chrome polish to your wheels and exhaust tips
Where can I get this stuff?
I purchased everything from two places:
Specialty Motoring - sells Clearkote and Poorboy's stuff, along with Lake County pads and excellent microfiber towels
Autogeek - sells everything else I have, including the S100, Wolfgang stuff, and waffle weave microfiber towels.
Last edited:
epper: :thumbsup: :banana: 
