That's it for now, it got dark on me. I took the spoiler off and went to go get some hose washers and it's too dark to do anything anymore. The rest tomorrow.

/\ /\ /\ /\ What he said.

i have detailed for side money for 4 years, i usualy use a wheel but for not useing a buffing wheel( takes some practice so u dont burn your paint) this is an amazing guide

I performed a:
1. Wash
2. Clay
3. Cleaned a little, then Wax 10" and 6" buffer.

Mine looked awesome. However, I am very interested in the steps after your claying.

This thread gives me some inspiration to clean up my car this weekend. Last time I clayed my car I dropped the clay on the driveway. Dirt bits in the clay FTL.

This is a very good point. Putting forth the effort to maintain a car is vital to it looking and performing as it should. Most everyone knows that of course you have to take care of mechanical things or the car won't run. On the appearance side of things, people seem to let this slip more, and whenthey do this and it comes time to sell it or trade it in, it's going to look like crap and the price people offer for it will reflect that.

Besides, doing what I am talking about here will make it A LOT easier to do the next time around as most of the years and years of grime will be taken off this first time around. It will make it tons easier to do a simple wash and wax the next time the car needs it, also, because the dirt will slide right off.

Speaking of maintenance!

Now that we've gotten this far into detailing, if you check your spoiler, you may notice that around and under the edges, there is probably still some grime and soap scum, as well as maybe some old wax residue from earlier cleaning. If you want to scare yourself, take it off.



Yikes! And you all know how much I bust my butt on keeping my car clean! Don't worry, they're all going to be like this, and it's best to go ahead and do this extra step just so you can save yourself the trouble later on. Depending on the climate that you live in, you may also find rust under here, which needs to be dealt with ASAP. You'll obviously need to wash it first, claybar it too, it will need it. Then find yourself some touch up paint, which I talked about in a previous post, and touch up the parts of the lid that have chipped paint. It doesn't have to be perfect, no one will be seeing under your spoiler.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to put a little bit of clear coat on these touched-up spots as well, just as a kind of sealant so that it doesn't chip off again.

If you want to raise your spoiler at this point, there is a guide here . This will prevent your trunk from leaking from the seals you probably broke getting the spoiler off, as well as raising it to where water will go underneath the spoiler instead of pooling in front of it, and all preventing any further paint damage from debris getting caught underneath.

If you DON'T want to put forth the effort to raise your spoiler, you don't have to. Get some RTV or other similar sealant and put it around the bolts underneath the trunk lid when you put the spoiler back on. This will prevent it from leaking water into he trunk. Also, if you choose to do this, redo the under-spoiler-cleaning regimen at LEAST twice a year. If you found rust, you MUST keep an eye on it and get it repaired if necessary.

Lovely...

sweet write up so far, Arc. Maybe a link to this thread could go in the FAQ?

Great write-up! Makes me want to get mine looking that nice!!

Great guide Arc. I do recommend to anyone reading this that if you do take off your spoiler to clean underneath it to use touch-up paint to hide the chips and scratches. Don't skip doing this, I did because I didn't have any paint when I did my spoiler and now it's 100 times easier to see the wear marks at the edge of the spoiler without any dirt to cover them up.

Sorry for the delay everyone, getting the bugs off this car was more of an undertaking than I thought it would be.

But I digress, on to paint cleaning!

* Make sure you have washed the residue off your car from the claybar! * If you don't, your applicator for the paint cleaner will get very unnecessarily dirty.

Whatever paint cleaner you get will undoubtedly have instructions for use. Follow them. The bottle I have is wipe on, wipe off stuff. Sounds simple? Mostly.

This is where you will wear yourself out if you don't have a buffer. I don't think the individual cleaners will make you use anymore than this, per area that you do:



With applicators, it really is enough to do a substantial area. Take the claybar approach and do a bit at a time, and really put all your effort into it. Go back over the area you've done more than once, and really rub the cleaner into it so it can do it's job to clean that paint really good. Like someone already mentioned, it puts the depleted oils and 'life', if you will, back into your paint, so really have at it. It can be pretty oily stuff, and you may find it soaking through the applicator and into your hand.

Hopefully it smells good at least. I know mine does.

If you have particularly noticeable swirl marks, get a cleaner/polish that will help fill those in. You'll have to put your back into it to work on filling in swirl marks, and make sure none of the things you use to wipe your car with have any debris on them, or you'll negate all your work.

Once you think you've scrubbed that stuff in there good, depending on what the instructions advise, do that. Mine is just wipe off immediately kind of stuff, so this is where the microfiber comes in. Use that to get the cleaner off, and get it ALL off. If there are streaks, go back and get it buffed out. You will need to fold the towel often and begin with a cleaner spot, or the stuff on the towel itself will begin to leave streaks.

Repeat process until the whole car is done.

Your paint should be looking better by now, with some depth and more color to it, especially if you haven't ever, or rarely, clean your car to this extent.



See how it is starting to reflect well! It may look a little mottled like in the above picture, but polish and wax usually takes care of that.

If it doesn't, you may have some deeper paint problems. The effect on this car went away a bit after polish, but not completely. It's been repainted on this side before, so it may be caused by inferior paint or general crap paint job.

That's pretty much all there is to it for paint cleaner! Have fun wearing yourself out and building up some arm muscle mass.

Polish -

Basically the same process as paint cleaner unless otherwise directed by the products that you bought.

You can probably step back up and do it panel by panel again, just remember to put effort into it; it needs the same kind of tenacity that the cleaner did. Most basic polishes will help repair minor swirl marks, oxidation and other such minor paint damage, so get after it! If you have more serious swirl mark damage or oxidation, you'll need to use a more abrasive polish designed for it.

Have a different microfiber towel for this, DON'T use the same one you used for the paint cleaner, or the two will mix and could leave some stubborn streaks or funky stuff behind. Again, when the towel starts getting dirty and gummy on the side you're using, fold it and start using a clean side.

Polish, wipe, repeat until the car is done! Keep up with the 'get everything' motto here, everything with paint on it needs to be maintained and protected! It may just be paint in your wheel well, or under the rear window weatherstripping, but if it starts to peel or crack because of poor maintenance, you'll have a potentially big and expensive problem on your hands.

Main points:
* Use a different towel for different steps. Don't mix them up!
* Wear yourself out and really work at these particular steps, this is where all the real paint work happens.
* Remember to keep folding the towel and use cleaner sections when it starts getting dirty.
* If cleaner and polish don't solve some of your paint issues, it may be a deeper issue that could require more professional tactics.
* Get everything that has paint!
* If you have swirl marks, make sure you have a cleaner/polish that is designed to fill them in, and really work the stuff in to get the best results.

makes me want to do all those steps of cleaning and the spolier this weekend since I have an extra 30 bucks to my name to spend on cleaning stuff.

Sweet!

Man I need to detail the GP before the winter.

Even though it makes people want to wash their cars, there is one problem, seeing it is going to take a week for this procedure, I find it hard for some here to go through the process! LOL

It wouldn't take me so long if I didn't have to go to school in the morning.

We also wasted a lot of time looking for rubber washers for spoiler raising.

I really advocate doing this at least once, for any car. It will protect it for a loooong time, and the next few times you wash it, the dirt will practically fall off because it doesn't have anything to stick to.

Not to mention it has the odd tendency to continue looking good even when it's starting to get dirty again.

I updated my previous post to include polish, it really didn't need a post of it's own since it's so similar to paint cleaner.