Safet

I recently bought a '00 CLK430, silver and black, and was interested in doing a complete detailing job to it. I've been reading up on all the various detailing steps, and various products out there that are available, and have come up with a gameplan for which I am allocating an entire day for.

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in pictures along the way? As of right now it seems as if the paint isn't as smooth as it could be, and it could use some shining up.

So here's what I'm planning on doing for an entire day (and DEFINITELY taking after pictures):

1. Wash the car using special car soap (I have Zymol here.)
2. Wash the wheels using a wheel brush, the tires using a tire cleaner and harder brush.
3. Wash the body once more (just to ensure that all the dirt is off and remove any water spots that may have formed while doing step #2.
4. Dry the car, from top to bottom using soft cotton terry cloth.
5. Dry the wheels/tires.
6. Using clay bar and clay bar spray, go over the entire car with the clay bar. This should smooth things out.
7. I ordered Klasse Polish which I will apply one light coat of to remove any oxidation/light swirl marks.
8. After removing the Klasse Polish, apply a coat of Klasse Glaze (a synthetic wax)... this protects the paint against the environment.
9. Since they recommend letting the synthetic wax dry well, I will use this time to use wheel polish on all four wheels, and tire polish on the tires.
10. While still waiting, vacuum everywhere in the interior and trunk.
11. While still waiting, wash the windows from the inside and outside, including all mirrors.
12. With a slightly damp cloth, lightly follow thru on the seats to remove any loose dirt, and the dashboard and console again to remove any light dust/debris.
13. Armor-all the dashboard to protect it from cracking. Not too much to get extreme shine.
14. Clean the engine compartment with a general cleaner.
15. Ensure car is full of fluids, tires at proper tire pressure, etc.
16. Clean up a little and get lunch.
17. Come back and take off the synthetic wax.
18. Using a caranuba wax, apply to the body. Wipe off the wax with soft cotton terry cloth.
19. If there's extra time, apply another coat of caranuba wax.
20. Apply nice scent to inside of car.
21. Take pictures!!!

I already ordered all my components for the above steps and am getting ready to do this starting early one Saturday morning. I expect the car to be an almost, or at least a mirror-like shine.

I am considering doing a step-by-step, or maybe just show before/after pictures here. What do you guys think?

Safet

revstriker

Before and after pics would be great. During (or after each stage) would be better!!

Can I make a couple of suggestions? First, wash the car with a dishwashing soap like Dawn. This will remove any old wax and/or polish. Regular car wash soap will normally not remove wax (as you would not want to during normal, between wax car washes). Also on the inside, I would avoid armor all. Go with a cleaner made for cars like mothers or mequires. I've heard some nasty things about armor all.

Most of all, have fun taking care of your ride, and post some pics so we can all be jealous!!

Safet

Does anyone else have any other steps/suggestions to incorporate into the list of todo's I have made? I'd like to refine it to a reference point for other car enthusiasts and even include pictures.

karl k

Change # 13 ARMOR-ALL and insert VINYLEX a Lexol Product for ALL plastic surfaces.

http://www.lexol.com/vinindex.html

Use LEXOL on ALL leather surfaces.

http://www.lexol.com/newauto.html

tnx for the effort.
Karl

Safet

Ok I have the Vinylex on order and some Lexol at home.

I have to bring the car in to the dealer (low freon-- stays in EC mode??) for a quick boost of freon, and can't wait to begin detailing the car.

MercManiac

Make sure the carnabu you use is 100% wax with no polishing agents. Malms, Zymol, Pinnacle ans PS21 carnabu are all good choices....with Malms being the best.

Also, treat your wheels as paint. Wheels today have paint and clearcoat, unless they're chrome. Using wheel polish is highly abrasive and will dull your wheels.

MercManiac

If the wheels are chrome use Simichrome from Germany.

For vaccuming....get a "horsehair" duster attachment, use this on vents and all over dash buttons, seams, etc. Make sure it's a soft horsehair and not plastic as this will scratch wood veneer.

You can get a horsehair duster attachment at Sears.

Safet

Mercmaniac,

I have ordered Pinnacle Paste Glaz Car Wax, which is supposed to be a great caranuba wax for light colors, i.e. white, silver, etc.

After clay bar, I am going to use the Klasse polish, followed by the Klasse synthetic wax for protection, and then the Pinnacle wax for shine, and possibly another coat of Pinnacle wax for good measure.

I have the AMG aluminum alloy wheels, I have ordered the Eagle One mag-chrome-aluminum polish. Have you had any experience with this product, would this be overly-abrasive for my wheels? I believe it said it was safe for aluminum and chrome, and if it was fine for chrome I'd think it wouldn't scratch it, or am I wrong?

Thanks for your help,

Safet

awiner

The AMG wheels are clear coated. DON'T use anything abrasive on them or you will scratch the clear coat. Personally I just use soap and water to clean the wheels. Seems to do the trick. Anything harsher will eventually and prematurely wear the clear coat thin.

MercManiac

Yes, Awiner is right....the AMG wheels are alloy but they are painted then clearcoated. Treat them just like you would the hood of your car, polish, protect and wax.

If they are really soiled from brake dust.....use PS21 wheel cleaner only....and use the little yellow soft sponge "lightly" that comes with the product.

Thereafter just wash them with your wash mitt. Suggest you have seperate wash mitt for wheels, since brake dust in mitt can cause scratching on clearcoat of your paint.

PS If you want a "show car" get the Porter Cable orbital buffer with foam pads. After claying use Meguairs #7 show car glaze with buffer at 4000rpms, then use the klasse all in one at 3000rpms then the rest of products by hand. This is how cars are prepped for Pebble Beach Concours competitions, except they just use the #7 then Malms carnabu since they are not looking for road/long term protection.

Kar don

If I were you I would layer more klasse SG on there. I would do five layers and then start the carnuba. It will give u a much higher gloss. You must wait 12 hours between coats or the klasse will gum up. This is my silver car with 5 coats of SG and 1 coat of #26 meguiars yellow hi tech carnuba wax.

Safet

Yesterday was a nice day (earlier in the day) so I decided to start on my detailing project.

First off I started by washing the car with dishwashing liquid. Top down, rinse off the car. Then I washed the wheels with wheel brush, I sprayed the tires with a special tire cleaner and let it stay while I did the other wheels, then come back and with a harder brush did the tires too. In the meantime the water on the body started to dry out a little, so with a fresh bucket of water and now with Zymbol car wash washed the body again top down. I ordered the California Water Blade and decided to try it out. For large areas (hood, roof, trunk, doors, windows) the thing is great, in a few whisks it took off most of the water from the car, however for tight spaces I wouldn't recommend it. Next using terry cloth I wiped the car down dry, starting with the roof, hood, trunk, doors, bumpers, side skirts last. Then using a terry cloth just for the tires, I dried those too. Using a paper towel to go thru the spokes/smaller areas of the wheels to make sure there is no final brake dust, and dried off with the tire terry cloth towel.

Now being that it was a bit sunny earlier in the day I put the car into my two car garage to work on. First thing I did was clay the car. I ordered the Pinnacle Clay Bar and Clay Lubricant spray. The first time you do it, there is a bit of a learning curve involved in the process, but once you get the hang of it it is no sweat. Being that my car is two years old, it was smooth, but not as smooth as it could be. I went around the car, starting on the hood, roof, two front side panels, doors, rear panels, trunk hood, front and rear bumpers, and side skirts. I found it easier to break down your car to these separate areas because you will be need to keep track of what you did to where, etc etc. Spray a small area with clay lube, run over the area with the clay bar applying pressure on it (first time I did it I ran over it with less pressure and it wouldn't pick it up - the bar will glide over the car anyway because of the clay lube, just have to press down more on it.)
Well lemme tell you this, after I clayed the car, I was VERY IMPRESSED. The car was VERY smooth to the touch. But it gets even better.

I ordered the Klasse All-In-One and the SG (Sealant Glaze?) The All-In-One is a polish to get rid of any oxidation from the sun, acid rain, bird poop, swirl marks, minor scratches, thats why they call it All-In-One. I did one section of the car at a time, applying Klasse then wiping it off with terry cloth towel. After I did the whole car, it was VERRRRRY smooth. The clay bar and Klasse All-In-One combination yielded a very smooth car.

Next I applied the Klasse Sealant Glaze, this is a synthetic wax designed to protect your car up to 12 months (although I plan on detailing the car like I did yesterday/today in another 6 mths for winter) I applied SG last night to the entire car, and let it stand overnight. The helps it bond to your car well to protect it.

In the meantime I knew I couldn't touch the car for some time, so I went ahead and cleaned the engine compartment (light spray and disposable paper towels just to get rid of most of the dirt- it was mostly clean from before) vacuumed the car, cleaned the windows, shined up the wheels with a No-Touch Wheel Shine product (forgot the name, but was very impressed with it) washed up and got dinner.

This morning I took it off and it yielded an ok shine, but now not only is the car smooth, but it is getting very slick. I put a finishing terry cloth towel on the hood of the car and it SLIDE OFF THE CAR! That's when I started getting excited!

Now the dilemma: apply another coat of Klasse SG, or go with the caranuba? Unfortunately I have to bring the car to the dealer to recharge the freon system this week (and will put a big note on the car saying, "DONT WASH THE CAR.") and I want to let the SG sit for at least 10-12 hrs before taking it off, so I might just go with the caranuba, although I think another layer of SG would do it good.

I will be posting pictures soon, today it's raining so I'm still working in the garage. Hopefully it'll stop later today or tomorrow.

Safet

Kar don

here is an updated silver pic. after 4 layers of KSG and 2 layers of #26 carnuba.

Safet

Ooh that does look shiny...anyway being the first time I did the waxing I only did 1 layer KSG and 1 layer Pinnacle caranuba...about a month from now when most of the caranuba's worn off I will layer another 2 layers of KSG on it, then caranuba.

I'm gonna try to upload some pics.

apacket

You should never use dishwashing liquid on your car - that's an old theory.

If dishwashing liquid was good for cars, they would put a picture of a car on every bottle of Palmolive to market it.

Dishwashing liquid is made for dishes. Car wash soap is made for car.

I think a company like Meguiras would know more about cars than Palmolive.

Just my 2 cents...

Safet

I used Dove, which is supposedly one of the softer dishwashing cleaners...I don't think dishwashing liquid is harmful to the car, some people say use it others say don't...I used it on the first wash, then with a fresh bucket of water and car wash soap on the second wash. Either way once there's wax on the car I'd exclusively suggest one of the car wash soaps that are meant not to strip wax.

revstriker

Most car wash soap is not made for stripping the wax off of cars. That is what makes them good to use in between waxing, unless you like to wax your car every time you wash it. As far as dishwashing soap goes, palmolive or dawn (types) are very mild soaps that contain ingredients designed to cut through grease which is what it does to the wax. If your car's finish is not able to withstand this mild detergent, then just think what the elements must do!

Now I'm sure that there are probably car wash detergents out there that are designed to strip wax. But I think the dish washing detergent is a cheaper alternative. I have also seen companies such as Zaino recommend using dawn to strip the wax.