[ashis89]

A small contribution from my end. I was a kid, studying in class 4 (you can guess my knowledge of detailing and stuff). We had a new M800 and I had volunteered to clean it. My previous experience with cleaning was my own cycle, which was always gleaming. I also had washed our scooter on a few occasions and performed a good job each time. Now this time round, I was going to wash a car, one which has lot of surface to clean and, it was going to take more time.

I went down to the ground floor (from 2nd floor apartment) with a bucketful of water, hair shampoo (don't blast me for the blasphemy), a mug and, a couple of clean rags. Washed the car with plain water and applied shampoo all over it. Then I used a wet cloth to slowly spread the shampoo all over the body. I even covered the rims and tyres. Being a summer morning, the Sun held its head high. After probably half-an-hour (or more), I was done. The shampoo had dried up by then. Climbed 2 floors to get more water. Then I blasted the car with mugful of water till it was all shiny and clean. After surveying it from all angles and happy with my work, I went home and called dad to the balcony to show him efforts. He was pleased too.

He left for office in a while and returned a couple of days later (he was posted 130kms away from our city). I immediately and found the car to be still clean. He then told me that he had got the car cleaned again by his office driver as the whole car was full of dried soap marks. Being a deep blue car, it looked all patchy and white. What had happened was I had applied the shampoo and it has dried quickly due to the Sun. Now, when I threw water all over the car, it gave the impression of being clean and sparkling. But when it dried up, the shampoo marks were pretty much visible. I hadn't rinsed/wiped it at all assuming it to have been washed away with plain water.

From that day, anything I clean, I wait for it to dry down. Then I survey it thoroughly to inspect where the marks are still present before cleaning those areas again.

[honeybee]

Searching for Meguiars on Team BHP landed me on this thread. After reading the post by Secretariat, I was laughing my a££ off for a whole minute while my wife worried I had probably lost a nut, or screw.

[ecosport rules]

I was searching for threds on waterless wash systems and ended up here.

Secretariat sir Take a bow!
Laughed my butt off,wish I had read this befor meeting Rudra

[snaseer]

Your new post bought me here. You have excellent skills in writing, you should stop detailing with immediate effect.

Guess by now you would have become a pro in detailing and can start your own separate thread.

[procrastinator]

Great thread!
I have tried my elbow grease in shampoo washing and waxing a hatchback.
And learnt from the experience to Get the job done from expert. It’s worth every penny.

Also the car’s paint can be taken care by
1. Covered parking or covered car(when it’s not in use)
2. Regular wash with soft/microfiber cloth
3. Pressure wash with shampoo when car and underbody is too dirty.
4. Polish/wax once in three months.

Let’s Keep it short and simple.

[100Kmphormore]

In any case, hair shampoos have long disappeared from yours truly’s bathroom on account of the fact that the item of the anatomy they are supposed to clean has also vanished.

I remember my Sanskrit teacher describing a poet who could make a paragraph of a sentence. This is living proof that it can be. Excellent writing! What is supposed to be a mournful event ends up as a ROFL moment :-D

[saket77]

Wise people learn from other's mistake. Say wise men.

Unfortunately, looks like I am not all that wise that I thought myself to be all these years. In the hind sight, there must have been 101 better ways to spend a home alone Saturday but destiny was such that I chose that I must elaborate my car. (Google tells me elaborate is the correct synonym for detail).

To make matters worse- I have two. To make matters slightly better- one is a small hatchback. But it all depends how you look at the world- some look it as glass half full and some as half empty. I could have looked it as the other car is a sedan. Could have served as a warning, if nothing else.

The seeds of this detailing, err...elaboration had been sown long ago in my mind- courtesy the same thread that gave birth to this thread. But I have nothing but loads of respect for Rudra! Post Saturday.

Also, just crosses my mind that after almost a decade, it should be a good time to ask Secretariat and hope he is as good as before he tried 'imitating the detailer'. That will give me much needed hope for a long term recovery.

Thankfully unlike Secretariat, I didn't go through 11913 posts on the mother thread (updated count) and hence the damage to bank was limited and helped me maintain the minimum balance requirements.

Stuff that I got:

1. Pressure washer nozzle with clamps to tighten water pipe.
2. 3M car Shampoo.
3. A bucket- old bucket qualifies only for washing the car; not detailing job.
4. Different Microfibers for all type of surfaces, drying, wiping and everything else. I bought a pack of 12 to be on the safer side. You don't want to run out of supplies in the middle of the job.
5. Small 3M wiper- for cleaning water streaks from windows and windshield.
6. 3M Liquid Wax
7. 3M Tire Dresser
8. 3M dashboard dresser
9. Set of fine brushes to clean interior dust.
10. Isopropyl Alcohol to clean glue marks.

I was going to order some other stuff like a foam pressure sprayer bottle and sponge applicator pads but realized that my bank balance has reduced to a smaller number than the CVV on my card, hence had to stop.

I was eyeing that Saturday from long to scratch the itch of detailing my car and using all the stuff that I had in my arsenal. Come Saturday and I was down to my parking, all prepared for the long session.

Washing was probably the easiest process in the entire saga. Both the Honda City and the Zen underwent a nice wash and the 3M shampoo works well for sure.

Mortals mostly end the car cleaning processes here but how could I, when I had all the stuff and the knowledge. I progressed to the next stage- dried both cars with separate microfibers. I don't know what the world would look like without microfibers. They deserve all the respect and more.

Wiped all glasses with the small 3M kitchen wiper which I bought especially for the purpose much to the dismay of missus. You know, kitchen cleaning can be done with rags and similar other stuff too.

Next stage was interior cleaning. This was a very thoughtful strategy as the time I spend in doing the interiors will also allow to dry any water before I wax the car. Good time management as well. I wish my manager gets to read this and identify the talent I put at work. Coming back, the 3M dashboard dresser worked well. I avoid the polish business on the dashboard area as it reflects on the windshield making driving difficult at times. Also in my experience, windshield fogs a bit too much. Dear Manager- please pay attention to my attention to details. Rest of the fiber area like door pads, console etc were cleaned with liberal use of the polish.

By this time, both cars were totally dry and it looked like a good time to apply some liquid wax. Things went downhill from here- as I went overboard on my time management skills. I applied the wax on the City. Good. Time management lesson kicked in. I had read that the wax should be let dry for 15-20 minutes. It looked like a great time window to do the same on the Zen. Applied wax liberally on Zen as probably it was more in need of some TLC.

I was so engrossed that probably a little more than 15-20 minutes passed. And the wax coat on the City had dried up. Things started going further downhill from here- it took a good deal of effort and time to clean all the wax. To make matters worse, the universe decided to conspire against me. The Zen which was parked in a shade had sun light all over it when my attention went back there. And the wax dried up even more on it. While *scrubbing* the small Zen, I wished it was smaller.

I was completely exhausted by now. Visible patches of dried wax while running my eyes over my work wasn't particularly encouraging as well. Manager- please ignore.

But still tires needed to be dressed. Couldn't leave them 'undressed' when everything else on the cars were in their best Sunday suit. Or Saturday suit.


3M Tire dresser promises brand new look on tires after use. In God we trust, everything else we test.
The apartment guard had a confused look on his face and must be at his wits end that why am I cleaning the tires which ultimately are meant to be contact with all the dirt and debris on road. Will I stop driving the car on roads? Or the roads in our city have magically become so squeaking clean that they deserve cleaner tires to ply upon. Probably the questions he wanted to ask. For some reason, he couldn't believe that there was a special product to clean the tires. But who cares to explain a detailer's thought process to the lesser mortals.

In the hindsight, I should have trusted 3M too rather than putting everything to test. They all work, at your expense- both financially and physically.

It has been 2 days since Saturday. I guess I better head to the free doctor's consultation thread as painkiller doesn't seem to be working as much. Any idea if 3M sells a paracetamol too?

Leaving with end results just for some viewing pleasure- as it was all worth it. Please don't mind, tires first:

[Secretariat]

Ha ha. Classy post and even classier "elaborating" ! You will be treated with high respect in that scary thread for just that tire photo, despite the 3M paracetomol.

As for me, a decade has done nothing to lessen my terror, and the sight of numerous detailing studios that have mushroomed all over the place makes me wonder if I should seek treatment for "elaboration disability" !

[saket77]

Originally Posted by Secretariat

Ha ha. Classy post and even classier "elaborating" ! You will be treated with high respect in that scary thread for just that tire photo, despite the 3M paracetomol.

As for me, a decade has done nothing to lessen my terror, and the sight of numerous detailing studios that have mushroomed all over the place makes me wonder if I should seek treatment for "elaboration disability" !

The master has spoken!

Thank you so much for this epic thread. There is never an instance when I elaborate my car and don't think of you and this thread.

[Tony2298]

Originally Posted by saket77

3M Tire dresser promises brand new look on tires after use. In God we trust, everything else we test.
The apartment guard had a confused look on his face and must be at his wits end that why am I cleaning the tires which ultimately are meant to be contact with all the dirt and debris on road. Will I stop driving the car on roads?....

Haha! Even I'm a person who has a can I say,.. fetish towards squeaky clean tyres and wheels. Upon reading your story I remembered a funny story which happened about 4-5years back, it was during lockdown time when I was looking for ways to kill time and what a better way of doing so by getting cars deep cleaned but I was already done with that, therefore called up my friend who had bought a new Creta about an year back but due to lack of proper cleaning caught up a lot of swirls and looked older than its age, therefore offered him my help to clean and restore his SUV, since he too was equally bored we decided to dedicate an entire lazy Sunday towards car cleaning.

Asked him to arrange stuff like Meguiars' shampoo, ultimate compound, interior polish, microfiber cloths, buffing pads etc while I used my own stuff viz Ultimate Compound, QuikDetailer, Wax, Tyre Polish etc and together made our hands dirty.

After a couple of hours, we both were exhausted totally but believe me, there was no better feeling than to clean a car with an equally enthusiastic friend and results too were quite amazing. Since it was already more than 6hours since we were out of our homes, my friends' Dad got a bit worried and decided to pay us a visit, when he reached, he saw us engrossed in cleaning and polishing the alloys and tyres, upon which he had a similar reaction as your security guard had and even asked the exact same questions as you mentioned!. Still the results were fantastic and it was a Sunday well spent!

The car before, badly dusted, swirled made it appear older than it actually was


The dirty wheels, seemed like they were never ever cleaned!


The same car looked so better after a thorough cleaning!


The squaky clean tyres and alloys!


Even I keep on ordering hell lot of tyre polish from different brands and regularly clean them no matter how many times they get dirty, also nowadays I've gotten one step ahead and regularly visit a tyre store which removes individual alloys and cleans the alloys from inside too, watching the alloys deep cleaned somehow gives me an immense sense of satisfaction even though I completely know they'll be soiled the moment I drive my car out on the road.

Look at all the accumulated dirt inside the alloys!


Post thorough cleaning, so eye pleasing!


Clean alloys and tyres!


Also,.I don't know I also tend to prefer tyres depending on their sidewall design and somewhat dislike plain generic looking tyres viz MRF, Ceat, JK etc. BluEarth has a very premium sidewall look which even exceeds Michelin Primacy4ST IMO. I personally love the design of Michelins' LTX Trail series which looks even better than Yokohama GeoLandars and Bridgestone Dueler A/Ts.

Thank you
Tony

[MC@1986]

Me too very much a sucker of clean Wheels and Tires. Will never miss an opportunity to get the wheels cleaned thoroughly inside out when they are removed for Brakes cleaning or Wheel Balancing(WB) during service and regular WA/WB sessions. Thanks to the Service Advisors & Tire shops who support patiently.

[wheelspinner]

Originally Posted by saket77

It has been 2 days since Saturday. I guess I better head to the free doctor's consultation thread as painkiller doesn't seem to be working as much. Any idea if 3M sells a paracetamol too?

Leaving with end results just for some viewing pleasure- as it was all worth it. Please don't mind, tires first:

Good job. The car looks as good as new. However, I think you would have saved up some money even after going to a professional detailer after buying so many expensive items from 3M

[ankitsharma]

Originally Posted by saket77

It has been 2 days since Saturday. I guess I better head to the free doctor's consultation thread as painkiller doesn't seem to be working as much. Any idea if 3M sells a paracetamol too?

Reminds me of the wheel and tyre "elaboration" that I took upon myself since I was changing the front brake pads on my Rapid few weeks back. After that session, I too was planning to get a doctor's consultation for the week long pain in my legs.

However a good full body massage did relieve me to some extent

[Old Dude]

You do have a keen sense of humour - have lived every bit of the elaboration through your detailing .. or is it every bit of detailing through your elaboration? Anyway, I’ve never been adventurous enough to attempt both my cars on the same day, what use is it watching your cars gleaming from inside an ICU? ( especially considering both my cars have larger surface area to cover - a Civic and a Kodiaq)

As someone who is philosophically against reading instructions, I’ve never realized there needs to be 20 mins between applying liquid wax and buffing it off - I’ve always done 2 panels together - as soon as I finish applying wax on the 2nd panel, I go and buff off the first one, followed by the 2nd one - This gives about 3 to 5 mins of drying time. Not sure if giving extended drying time will increase the longevity of the wax coating.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by Tony2298

Since it was already more than 6hours since we were out of our homes, my friends' Dad got a bit worried and decided to pay us a visit, when he reached, he saw us engrossed in cleaning and polishing the alloys and tyres, upon which he had a similar reaction as your security guard had and even asked the exact same questions as you mentioned!. Still the results were fantastic and it was a Sunday well spent!

Also,.I don't know I also tend to prefer tyres depending on their sidewall design and somewhat dislike plain generic looking tyres viz MRF, Ceat, JK etc. BluEarth has a very premium sidewall look which even exceeds Michelin Primacy4ST IMO. I personally love the design of Michelins' LTX Trail series which looks even better than Yokohama GeoLandars and Bridgestone Dueler A/Ts.

Thank you for sharing your experiences. Indeed a clean tire enhances the overall look of the car. I am all sold for tire dressers now! And agree that the sidewall of Bluearth looks very premium with its design and the font. Given the name of products that you used for detailing the Creta, you belong more to the 'mother' thread.

Originally Posted by MC@1986

Me too very much a sucker of clean Wheels and Tires. Will never miss an opportunity to get the wheels cleaned thoroughly inside out when they are removed for Brakes cleaning or Wheel Balancing(WB) during service and regular WA/WB sessions. Thanks to the Service Advisors & Tire shops who support patiently.

So, I see that there's a certain fan following for clean wheels- something I ignored for long!! Thanks so much!

Originally Posted by wheelspinner

However, I think you would have saved up some money even after going to a professional detailer after buying so many expensive items from 3M

Sshhhh...if I agree with you, we both would be banned from the original detailing thread for life!

Originally Posted by ankitsharma

After that session, I too was planning to get a doctor's consultation for the week long pain in my legs.

However a good full body massage did relieve me to some extent

Oh good idea. With recommendations from some other thread on TBHP, I remember buying a massager too! Will put that to use!! Thanks for the tip!

Originally Posted by Old Dude

You do have a keen sense of humour - have lived every bit of the elaboration through your detailing .. or is it every bit of detailing through your elaboration? Anyway, I’ve never been adventurous enough to attempt both my cars on the same day, what use is it watching your cars gleaming from inside an ICU? ( especially considering both my cars have larger surface area to cover - a Civic and a Kodiaq)

As someone who is philosophically against reading instructions, I’ve never realized there needs to be 20 mins between applying liquid wax and buffing it off - I’ve always done 2 panels together - as soon as I finish applying wax on the 2nd panel, I go and buff off the first one, followed by the 2nd one - This gives about 3 to 5 mins of drying time. Not sure if giving extended drying time will increase the longevity of the wax coating.

Thank you! All events in the post are actually true! But will never try the Civic and the Kodiaq in one go unless one wants that sight from ICU as you stated.

Now that you have pointed out, I will have to double check my sources if liquid wax needs that time window or not!

Thank you gentlemen for the nice posts.