[BoostJunkie]

So you prefer a foam pad? I can probably pick one up locally, we have a detailing supplier that I used to pick things up from when I worked at a shop.

[nandanrp]

Originally Posted by beesti

looks like someone's prepping a thread of interest. awesome!

Done Added to the threads of interest

[Insane06STi]

Nice job Peleg
It takes me at least 5 hours to wash and wax my car

[Peleg]

Originally Posted by nandanrp

Done Added to the threads of interest

You rock!

[Peleg]

Originally Posted by Insane06STi

Nice job Peleg
It takes me at least 5 hours to wash and wax my car

Thanks!

5 hours is normal, I do engine detailing and that takes a good 45 min as well.

[nandanrp]

Guide for the engine?

[Peleg]

Originally Posted by nandanrp

Guide for the engine?

Keeping your engine clean and detailed can add value to your car. It’s also very easy to go about.

Let’s begin with the materials you need:

• Husky Pressure Washer or any good pressure washer.
• Big Ziploc bag if you have an after market intake or an exposed air filter element.
• Rubber band to tighten the Ziploc bag.
• Autoglym engine degreaser. (it’s water based)
• A roll of aluminum foil.
• Leaf Blower. (optional)
• An all purpose brush. (Meguire’s has a nice selection)


Conditions:

The engine should be cool; the ideal is to start after the car has been sitting overnight.

Begin with the leaf blower or brush to remove all debris away from the engine bay. (Leafs, branches, squirrels…j/k)

Next, cut some pieces of aluminum foil and cover the MAF and other sensors, electrical and battery terminals. You do not have to seal them completely, but this will provide better protection. For the WRX STi, the plugs are sealed inside the engine cover, so you don’t have to worry about those. (Other cars may vary, so check first)

Next, start your engine. Let it get warm, but not hot. If you can place your hand on the intake manifold and not get burn, it’s ready.

Get your Husky or other pressure washer and wash the entire engine. Use a wide spread water stream. Work from top to bottom. Most of the grease, oil, dust, sand and other dirt should start coming off.

Once the engine is wet, spray Autoglym engine degreaser over the entire engine. When it comes to engine degreaser, go with water or citrus based degreaser and avoid the petroleum based ones. Petroleum based degreasers will eat through rubber hoses and seals overtime!
Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes and then start scrubbing the engine with your brush.

Hose off the entire engine. The engine should look nice and clean.

Grab your leaf blower and start drying. This will remove most of the water and insure no water spots are formed.

Once you removed most of the water, start the engine and go for a quick drive around the block to get the remaining water away.

Now comes the fun part, detailing the engine bay. I use Sonus Total Eclipse for rubber, vinyl and plastic to detail the radiator hoses and other rubber and plastic parts. You can also polish the intercooler and other metal parts (aluminum intake, chrome battery cover etc.) with Meguire’s NXT metal polish. If you planned to paint parts of the engine and get creative, this would be a good time to do so, thus the engine is clean.

You’re all set!

[nandanrp]

Damn...my engine is filthy from salt this winter and because I'm downtown I don't have the ability to detail like that...thanks for that though

[STiLLsLow]

wow thanks for all the info peleg, awesome write ups!

[Peleg]

Originally Posted by adidaSTi

wow thanks for all the info peleg, awesome write ups!

Sure thing.

[Peleg]

Some of you may own a daily driver or other cars that are older.

In my case it's a 1994 Integra. This car is 11 years old, and the headlights look like this:

<br>

I decided it was time to give these headlights some life.

Conditions:

* Wash the entire car or wash the headlights throughly.

Materials:

* Sonus SFX-1 polish.

* 4" buffing pad. (perfect for small headlights like the Integra)

* Porter buffer or any other orbital buffer. (NOT a grinder!)

* Towel to wipe excess polish off.


After the car has been washed and dried, apply some SFX-1 polish onto the pad. Without powering the buffer, smir the polish onto the headlight. Now lay the buffing pad onto the headlight and turn on the buffer to medium speed. The Porter has 6 speeds, I used about 4.5-5.

Each headlight took about 2 minutes. Make sure to turn off the buffer while you're still buffing, do not raise it off the surface until it's off.

Use the towel to wipe off access polish residue.

Here is the difference:

On the right, the headlights I just finished, on the left, the ones that are old and dull looking.

[BoostJunkie]

Wow, what a difference! Are those headlights glass or plastic?

[Peleg]

Originally Posted by BoostJunkie

Wow, what a difference! Are those headlights glass or plastic?

I believe they are glass, but I'll have to check.

[Peleg]

<a href="http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?autopia+TezQNw+inf-polishing.html+" target="_blank">Paint Polishing</a>

<a href="http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?autopia+TezQNw+inf-wax.html+" target="_blank">P21S Carnauba wax</a>

<a href="http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?autopia+TezQNw+inf-clay.html+" target="_blank">How to properly clay your paint</a>

<a href="http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?autopia+TezQNw+inf-wheels.html+" target="_blank">Detailing wheels & tires</a>

<a href="http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?autopia+TezQNw+tires---wheels.html+" target="_blank">P21S</a>


<a href="http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?autopia+TezQNw+zaino.html+" target="_blank">Enhance your Zaino experience</a>

Group buy on these and other products comming soon, stay tuned.

[Peleg]

Getting rid of scratches is a whole science by itself when it comes to car detailing, so today I decided to take care of some major spots in my Acura.

I gave the car a good wash and dry.

Once everything was dry, I started with the trunk and rear bumper. Again if you have an old car, claying is a great way of bringing the paint back to life. It does take some elbow grease and time, so plan on tackeling one area at a time and continue your work the next day. (You might have to rinse future areas that you wish to clay with water and clean them a bit)

I rolled my Sonus claybar into a ball and then flattened it out. I then sprayed it with Sonus Clay Glyde and sprayed the Glyde onto the area I was going to clay. I made a few passes.

I was pretty busy and didn't take pictures of the clay bar, but it was brown from all the dirt, contaminents etc. that built up on the paint in the past 11 years, this car defenitly needed claying.

After I clayed this part of the car, I decided to tackle these 3 scratches.



I got my Porter buffer ready and used Sonus SFX-1 that is good against aging paint and bad scratches. These scratches were deeper than the clearcoat, but didn't go all the way to the bare metal, so I decided to give this a shot and see what happens.

I used a 4" pad and the maximum speed (6) on the porter and gave it a few passses with a good amount of pressure.



The results came out pretty good. I succeeded to eliminate about 90% of the scratches, you can still see 1 of them (where the red arrow is pointing), but only from a certain angle.

I then swapped my 4" pad to a 6" pad and used the Sonus SFX-3 which is a fine polish to bring back the shine.

The paint is now silky smooth and clean.

Ofcourse I got the rest of the car to finish, so hopefully by this weekend I will be done claying it all.

Stay tuned, tomorrow I'm going to detail the Greddy exhaust I have on the car.