Detailing Newbie... need help

[rico_g]

After realizing that my car's monthly wax regimen at the neighborhood carwash wasn't enough, I took matters in my own hands...

Been to the Detailing Newbie thread here... pero ang dami pa ring jargon/ technical terms... totally got lost...

Anyway, here's my prob.

Car is Civic FD, 18 months old.. black

1. Had too many scratches from the neighborhood, so I had my car detailed; some parts repainted... I had to return so many times as they we not to "detailed"... so much for the term detailing..

Since I was planning to start waxing my own car, bought a ROP and thought it would make the problems left by the detailer go away... to my surprise, d pala ganun ka-simple.. and i'm tired of returning to the detailer as the leave me car-less for more than several days..

Here's the prblem I am left with, need your help with tips on how to remove..

1. After first wash after they detailed, I got watermarks on my hood. and no place else.
2. The back of the side mirror does have a glossy look, but rough when touched. The same goes for the back of the door handles and part of the roof.

I had this problem with the passenger door, it was the cause of my first return, all they did was buff it with some glaze and the rough surface turned smooth! what did they use???

3. There is some adhesive tape residue on the roof. (It loks like tape residue as it is rectangular, but it just doesn't come off, its like tar.. been there for months)


4. Suddenly noticed there were paint spatters (hardly noticeable, but there) on the hood... tried rubbing compound but it ddnt come off, plus the place where i used the rubbing cmpd left a non-glossy spot... good thing it's not in a way too visible area.

5. Last is on my windshield. When it's cold (Dec - Feb, also when drizzling) there's Fog on my windshield, would use my wiper but it comes back in seconds. Have to put my wiper on even if nt raining. Wiper blade replacement? or just a better windshield cleaner?


6. Lastly... I wanna do regular detailing, can somebody orient me with products, where to buy them, how often to use them? Specifics on the 3-step detailing will also help. I just currently wash my car every week, and wax it monthly with Turtle Wax (green tub). I hear that there's like cleaning, waxing, polishing process... plus, I'm not parked under a roof, so i need some tough protection.


Sorry mga sirs, sa dami ng tanong... I'm just another OC on my car's paint job.

[leomar]

hello. I would sugguest http://www.meguiarsonline.com/. I learned alot from that place when i first started out. Seems like you need to claybar it then polish then wax with a machine.

[jmpet626]

*rico_g
Clay
Megs Swirl X
Collinite 845. Or since may ROP ka na collinite 476s for durability and protection

[rico_g]

thanks for the suggestion....

one jargon here... clay.

How does one apply clay?
is there a particular brand to get?

sorry total dummy pa po. I hope you don't mind the question.

[zj09]

if you want to buy a clay bar kit...
im selling MOTHERS CLAY BAR at cheaper price than hardware stores.
you may visit
http://myworld.ebay.ph/j-z22/

[madkatz]

*rico_g: its ok, no worries we all start out that way anyway, i also started out with that scenario and since then became addicted

ok i'll be replying based on the order of your post

for starters its really essential for people who want to maintain their cars to find a detailing shop that would meet their expectations, lately as you would have noticed there are a lot of detailing shops opening which is good since it means that people are now more conscious about taking care of their cars, but one sad reality behind it is that most of these detailing shops have poorly trained personnel doing the detailing and some aren't even properly trained at all, all they do is monkey see monkey do, so its best to look for a detail shop to tackle most of your problems, this way you save a lot of time and save money in process, even for a premium payed detailer like me and my BF we still go to detailing shops to have our cars washed and waxed simply because there are really times where our main job and businesses and sideline jobs ( detailing ) really takes a lot of time from us, so even for us detailers we still depend on detailing shops for the maintenance of our private vehicles.

My suggestions would be
Big Berts
Hillsborough ( recently learned about them and they're also good )
Meguiars Kamias
Mothers in santolan.

As for buying a ROP, thats actually a good first step of learning detailing since you have the initiative, all you need right now would be to have the proper knowledge and skills on handling those items.

Firstly when it comes to a ROP, one important factor would be what brand and model you bought? does it have enough power to do the correction?

Next would be do you have the necessary products to make the ROP give you the results you want? the basic items you need along with the ROP would be a foam pad and a wax or polish

One other thing to consider would be that not all problems would be solved by using a ROP ( random orbital polisher ) since this is basically for beginners, there are some problems that should be tackled with a Rotary polisher ( for experts )

Now since you already have a ROP, my best suggestion for you would be to attend a detailing seminar or a detailing EB, this way you would see first hand how people use the polisher and they can share their tips and tricks with you, my BF recently held a detailing seminar where he taught the basics, but there are also tsikoteers around that have enough knowledge of using a ROP, take jon and jmpet626 for example, you could try to learn from them, nothing beats actually learning by doing.

Next the water marks can be removed via polish and a pad but its also advisable to have someone look at your vehicle before you start hitting it with the polisher and the polish, so a good suggestion would be to post pictures here

as for the rough surfaces that went smooth, chances are they just used a finishing polish to refine the surface.

as for the tape residue you might need to spot treat the affected area with kerosene, or a safer but more expensive alternative would be to use a body solvent. Megs Body Solvent is my standard body solvent.

Paint splatters for starters should be removed via claying, claying is the process of using a certain type of clay product and dragging it across the paint to remove bonded contaminants, its like having a super sticky clay bar that sticks everything on top of the paint into it, next, if claying doesn't do the trick then spot treatment of rubbing compound should be able to remove it, but let an expert do it so you don't damage the paint, next after the rubbing compound part, its normal to see the paint blur a little and this is when you need to follow it up with a polish to bring back the shine to the dulled surface.

as for the fogging problem, that would most likely be a case of road film, if the fogging only occurs on the front most part of the windshield you might try to look at aircon problems probably there is a aircon duct leak near your windshield that causes the condensation, and the other like i said might be road film, in both cases wiper replacement won't be the best solution, making sure your aircon doesn't blow cold air into the windshield would be a first step, and second would be using a strong windshield cleaner like Glass Science Glass Scrub to remove the road film, one thing you can do would be to put a cardboard on your dash board to cover the aircon vents there and check if it still fogs, if its gone then chances are you aircon ducts need cleaning.

As for your last question, all i can say is too bad that you didn't attend the recent detailing seminar, but hey there's always a next time, just try to be there next time so you could see the products and machines used first hand, how they are being handled and etc, that way other tsikoteers could also diagnose what to do with you car, also if you want to join the detailing seminar you might want to try and contact Chickselog to get updated when the next one would be

[rico_g]

*madkatz: thanks for the advice!!! You have been more than very helpful!!!

[madkatz]

*rico_g: you're more than welcome, and i hope you continue to maintain your car via DIY, nothing beats DIY care.

[rico_g]

since my car is not parked under a roof, i need really good paint protection.. i heard the collinite's are great for this..

un nga lang... san nakakaili ng collinite?

also, can I use collinite as a replacement for step 3 in Mothers 3-step... for example, use sealer&glaze, then collinite?

[madkatz]

*rico_g: yup collinite is very good, especially for the rainy season, and yes you can use collinite as a replacement for step 3, you could get collinite from jerome medes at autobisyo, just do a quick search and it'll come up, or if you happen to attend a detail seminar chances are my BF might still have some left for sale, the last 476 he sold was to doc scharn at still a great deal.