All things Auto Detailing related. Or, how do you clean your car?

For the last 20+ years, cleaning and polishing my cars consisted of the pressure washer or waiting for it to rain. They were lucky to get a scrub brush once a year. 

Well, now I have this big shiny green thing in my shop that I want to keep shiny. With that in mind, I bought a wash mop instead of the scrub brush I usually use. I've bought a spray detailer and microfiber towels. I bought a leather conditioner and wheel scrubbers. The car looks very good. 

But if you get up close and personal with it, there are some micro scratches that I think are from the cover the PO used. It was a cheap cover and wasn't as soft as it could have been. They are honestly fine enough that I can't get a decent picture of them and from 5' away they are invisible. I am super hesitant to try to polish them out. Swirled paint would look infinitely worse than the minor scratches that are there now. My instinct says wax it and let it ride but there are a lot of new products out there to make cars shine. 

I have watched the GRM and CM videos on detailing. They are pretty good but probably next level from what I'm looking for. I'm not headed to Pebble Beach or Hilton Head to show. At the most, I might hit up a Cars and Coffee. I'm more interested in keeping it clean and making the paint last as long as possible. 

What I have bought so far for the exterior is Adam's Spray Detailer, a car duster, and some microfiber towels. What I have used in the past is Meguier's past wax and Meguier's cleaner wax. 

So what do y'all use? Is ceramic coating worth it? Is it DIY or are you better off paying someone to do it? Is there a magic product that makes micro scratches disappear? 

How do you detail your cars? 

The beast in question. 

This is how I do it–at home and it's not too hard. (It's basically Tim McNair's recipe for normies.)

How to easily, quickly detail your paint

Having the car ceramic coated is 1000% worth it. 

It's not cheap, but the pros will clay, then polish, then apply two coats including the glass and trim. I just had the BRZ done last month a week after I took delivery and it was $1200 here in OKC for what I just described. 

The great thing is, it will last for years if you maintain it, cleaning it is literally running through the self-serve car wash. Soap, then rinse, then spot free rinse. You don't have to put a brush on it. 

And for pre-show prep, this:

Notice what he's not doing:

No foam cannons.

No dusters.

No hoses.

Off the top of my head I try to abide by these rules...  I take a 80/20 rule to washing the car (that I can achieve 80% of the best possible result with 20% of the effort)

1. wash top down
2. rinse off everything loose off first before touching it with a sponge
3. soak with foam before washing with a sponge
4. rinse the sponge in a large bucket with a grit guard after every touch on the paint
5. always use clean products.  

In practice this is my process.  I start with clean products (clean micro fiber towels, a clean micro fiber wash mitt) I use Meguiars gold car wash for both my bucket and my foam cannon.  I use chemical guys towels and microfiber drying cloths.  I use a harbor freight electric pressure washer with a modified handle to accept a standard foam cannon and pressure nozzles.  

1. rinse off the car with the pressure washer using a medium width nozzle, start at the top and rinse down, put the wand pretty close to the wheels and try to get as much of the brake dust off the wheels as possible with the pressure washer

2. soap up the car with a foam cannon filled at about 75/25 water to Meguiars gold class car soap.  I adjust the mixture screw so that the soap appears to stay on the car for a bit of time... I generally can wash 1 large car or 2 small cars with one 16 oz. foam cannon bottle.  

3. fill up a 5 gallon bucket of water /w soapy water and use a grit guard in the bottom of the bucket.  

4. starting at the top of the car wipe in straight lines that run parallel to the body lines, run the mitt once on each side then rinse thoroughly in the bucket repeat working top down until the entire car is clean.  

5. rinse the car off with the pressure washer

6. dry with a micro fiber towel designed for drying a car

7. if time permits I apply 1 coat of turtle wax spray on ceramic coating to the car.  

8. all of the cleaning products I used get air dryed and then put into a laundry basket to be washed before the next use.  I wash micro fiber without fabric softener if they get any grit on them they get relegated to kitchen cleaning duty, messy cleanup, dog paw cleaning, etc.  

David S. Wallens said:

This is how I do it–at home and it's not too hard. (It's basically Tim McNair's recipe for normies.)

How to easily, quickly detail your paint

This is very close to what I do for the nice cars that live inside. Just a quick spray and wipe down. For our daily drivers parked in the driveway, they get a bucket and hose wash when it looks dirty, about every 2 weeks or so. Just quick and easy. Every other wash if I feel like it, I might apply fresh wax after drying. I like the Griot's 3-in-1 ceramic and can confirm it smells really nice. About once a year I clay bar and polish if I have the time and the weather is nice. For polishing I have the Porter Cable 7424XP DA 6" buffer with a set of Chemical Guys velcro buffing pads and Meguiars 105/205 compound. I use the same DA with a sanding pad for other projects.

I agree the online world of auto detailing is pretty intimidating but you don't have to overthink it. The first real clay bar and compound polish is a lot of work, but will make a huge difference, so take your time with it. 

Touchless car wash to get the major dirt off without scrubbing it into the paint. Quick detailer to finish it off. An occasional coat of spray wax to keep it shiny. Brake dust repellant on the wheels. It probably couldn't hurt to clay bar it, it takes a while but is pretty easy. If you do feel inclined to polish, dual action buffers make it very difficult to screw up the paint.

I have all the detailing stuff including a DA polisher/sander.  I stopped doing any of it aside from washing a few years ago when I noticed that I could bring it to a pro retailer who would do the whole exterior for under $100.  That's so worth my time, one of the circumstances where a checkbook does seem to be the best tool to use.  

In reply to maschinenbau :

Have you tried that new Griot's clay pad? It's magic.

I'm about to clean up the Miata for the $2000 Challenge. Free lesson in my garage in 3, 2, 1....