The W204 Detailing Regime
 

As we all convene, we all love our cars CLEAN.. and by clean, i mean Perfectly cleaned! with the best products.. so i'll check in my regime and i'll start learning with all of you, which is the best and create "THE LIST" of best products for the w204's ....for further reference ;)

This is not my detail regime, this is the regular wash ... Detail goes way longer and the last detail .. i paid the dealer for it..

First: I use an autozone microfiber cloth.. usually i buy the package of 12

...for the wash I use 2 microfibers... usually a green and a yellow one, this combined with a full bucket of Formula 1 or Meguiar's Shampoo. I mix like 5-8oz of shampoo @ the bottom of the bucket and then fill it up with water.

Rinse the car for any heavy residues and w/e

I wash the car from TOP to Bottom.. using the same bucket.. always having in mind that my washing cloths Have to stay CLEAN... so the water stays clean.. I have tried maaaaany methods as i've gone along (2 bucket method).. watched maaaany tutorials about the proper ways... and sincerely... the one i always beleive.. is to HAVE THOSE Wash cloths CLEAN.. that's it.. Why's this?.. yep we all know... those HATED SWIRL MARKS... oh well, continuing with this.. I pass the cloth onto the car and if i see heavy of little residue of dirt... i put it on a piece of table i have, hold it with my toe and blast the cloth with the strongest mist of water from my nozzle

So i go from top to bottom... Front to back (since our cars always accumulate the most dirt and grime in the back) then rinse and go directly to the wheels... using the same bucket!, change the cloth and arm myself with a spray can for the wheels, called Dr mechanic (local product of a multipurpose cleaner) ... soak the cloth in the bucket and fully spray the wheel in the MPC ... then.. follow the same method of always keeping clean my cloth.. clean my calipers and then Blast the inside wheel wells, and use an old microfiber cloth and stick my hand, or arm as deep as i can.. to clean...

clean the chrome tips with the green cloth and rinse the whole car... dry it with an "Absorber" drying towel.. then use a Crystal X tire shine and that's that..... and call it quits outside

Interiors... ... take all the floor mats and put em outside in a dry spot, vacumm the seats, dash, interior floor and then vaccum the floor mats and use "Tuff stuff" to bring their "blackness" up again... then, before putting them in i use lexol spray on for vynil products with a blue cloth and wipe the interior doors, seats, steering wheel and dash.. check the glasses if there's been anyone touching them or anything... if they're clean.. they stay like that and that's my regular wash...

I want to start detailing the outside.. but my buffer just doesn't work anymore... i have to buy another one... and this is the reason i post this.. so the experts out here help me choose new products.... when i used to detail was when i had my 04 330i.... i used to do a clay bar routine, then Zymol HD cleanse, meguiar polishing compound once and then use Zymol wax and apply it by hand with an applicator and call it done..

Lately i send my w204 to the dealer.. every 6 months... they do a full detail wash and wax for 60$.. and always comes out perfect, and after 3 years it has no swirl marks of any kind.... but, i would like to start saving something and start doing it myself.. because.... honestly.. i don't feel i'm giving my car "the love" that it deserves from my part :D .... so guys

:naughty: LET'S START an EPIC thread !

:rolf:.... hopefully:rolleyes: :D

Maybe I'll post a full breakdown later, but before my show starts I would highly recommend this:

Harborfreight has a great microfiber wand for cleaning rims that are practically disposable at their price and work great.

98508-VGA 2 Piece Microfiber Wheel and Rim Wands @ $2.99

I've been considering doing one of those step by step photo documentation on my detailing process, but with limited time as is, don't have the chance. I'll post my step by step written method with my current products for maintenance wash and show car shine for white later. This could be a good thread as long as mods don't relocate it to detail subforum.

I hope it doesn't.... then it would be lost to the pits of nowhere :eek:...

i labeled it as w204 ... i hope they let it here for general info of the owners and the w204 community..

Please mods don't change it ! :D ..:rolf: :p:

I think that ANY detailing demo would work best with a BLACK car... With that in mind, I'll let you borrow mine so you can put together that show and tell you're planning... :rolf:

Wow... where to begin.

I know a local professional detailer that I met off of autopia.org and he's babied my car literally since day one. I little more than drove it home before I took it to him and had him do his thing to it. I remember when I bought it I thought, wow it's so good it couldn't get any better. Wrong! When I picked it up from him the next day it was heaven. Since then, I have him detail it once a year and I fill in the blanks. But I digress...

I wanted to say, I bought a 5 gal. bucket with a "grit guard" in the bottom of it. It's a round plastic piece that stands a few inches off the bottom of the bucket and it has a mesh grate on it so it lets the stuff the would scratch your car fall to the bottom and you can drop your cleaning mitt drop in the bucket without worrying that it will pickup anything bad that would scratch your paint. It's cheap peace of mind and in a word, it's awesome.

Basically my regular summer wash & mini detail routine is:

1. Clean wheels & tires. I've tried a few different products. Right now I'm using Mothers Foaming All Wheel & Tire Cleaner. Seems to work good but I used almost half the 24oz. bottle just to coat my tires & wheels ONE time. I have some P21S that I'm going to try next.

2. Wash car top to bottom using Z-7 Show Car Wash. I use 2oz per gallon of warm water.

3. Rewash tires if necessary. I like my tires really clean and deep black without a lot of shine. I want to be able to rub my finger on the dry tire and not see any residue. If I do, I wash them a second time, maybe using Meguiar's Tire Foam.

4. Dry car.

5. Bring it in garage and turn on about 2000+ watts of halogen lights. Inspect car.

6. Apply Z-AIO All-in-one. Let dry to a haze (1-4 hours). Wipe off with a x-large plush cotton towel.

7. Wipe down with Z-6 Ultra Clean Gloss Enhancer Spray.

That's my usually wash routine. If I have time I may do a mini detail which would continue with...

8. Depending on how much time I have, I may use Z-5 then Z-2 or just Z-2 if I'm in a hurry. (both are polishes) Which ever I use, I let it dry to a haze and wipe off with a clean unused x-large plush cotton towel. Time permitting I may repeat this step a couple times to try and get a really deep complex wet look to the gloss. I use a "little" Z-6 in between each application.

9. Wipe down again with Z-6 Ultra Clean Gloss Enhancer Spray. Or if it's a special occasion, I might use Z-8 Grand Finale Spray Seal instead.

10. Clean the glass inside and out. Lately I've been using just softened water with a few drops of Dawn dish soap. Works great at removing any haze or film and never leaves a streak.

While I'm waiting for certain products to dry on the car (which vary a lot depending on temp and humidity) I usually clean the inside, do the windows or clean the engine bay. For the engine bay, 303 is my friend.

Crap, after typing all this $&*% out, now I feel like going and cleaning something on my car.... Interior steps are going to have to wait, I'm going out to the garage now dammit!

here are some shots of my car.. so you can see how the car is beading water perfectly


http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/v...c/CIMG2138.jpg
http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/v...c/CIMG2139.jpg
http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/v...c/CIMG2140.jpg
http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/v...c/CIMG2142.jpg


some night shots in my garage

http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/v...c/CIMG2121.jpg
http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/v...c/CIMG2118.jpg

Enjoy :D

To be honest, I don't know why Armor All got such a bad rap, but I have used their car wash detergent and find its some of the best I have ever used... I also bought the pack of 10 microfiber cleaning cloths at walmart for $5, they are really good cloths too, I couldn't believe it, better than some of the expensive ones I bought for $12 in a pack of 3...

Also, in order to get no swirl marks, I would suggest that one never cleans their car as if they are waxing. INSTEAD, go left to right or up and down depending on how your facing the car, this way there are no circle marks and only straight line marks which are very hard to notice, even in the sun.

Lastly, after your car is perfectly clean and you get that annoying dusting jsut after the first drive. I don't use a california duster, but rather a leaf blower! Works great! If your paranoid that you might propel things into your car then you can use a compressed air blower that most people have in a garage (but it takes too much effort).

Edit: For cleaning the windows I used to use windex, no longer do I. I use this thing in a metal spray can, looks almost like hairspray. Its called Sprayway, works AMAZING!

Guys!...

Chime in on this, we all wash our cars!... let's share at a massive level! ... we all need to know how to take proper care of our cars... and i need some advice since i wanna give it a great polish and then wax it properly :naughty:... with some of ur reccomendations ;)

I know Azn (Mike) will do the best write up and others ... but come on! ... :X... come OUT!

:( nobody ?

Was in bay area for a car show, just got back to socal. Car full of bugs so will probably be doing a detail soon and will see if I have time to photo document it. If not, I'll just do a full write up.

Very interested in what others do to keep their Merc clean! Keep up the post!

I've had excellent results with products from Griot's Garage
http://www.griotsgarage.com/

- Car wash
- Best of show wax
- Interior Cleaner
- Vinyl and Rubber dressing
- Blue detail sponges (One set for the inside, one for the wheels)
- Green Microfiber cloths.

Well there's been such a bad perception of Armor All since their "old school" greasy as ghetto look of their water-like white liquid :eek: days ??!!

I've used Poorboy's and Zaino and a lot of other non OTC products but lately I'm actually surprised myself since I've been using AA as of late. I luv their Extreme Tire Shine gel and if I wanna spray and go I use their Extreme Tire Shine aerosol spray ! Also I'm just trying for the past week or two their new product called AA Wheel Protectant which looks pretty good but I'm still up in the air about it !!

Ok, no time to do a photo documentation, but here's the run down of what I do. Schedule gets tweaked by shows and I'll tweak some LSP products depending on if the show is outdoor (natural lighting) or indoor (artificial lighting). Including acronyms you'll find out there on the web.

Equipment
CR Spotless Water Filtration System
Snap-On 1800 PSI Pressure Washer
Camspray Foam Cannon
Brinkmann Maxfire
Porter Cable 7424XP Random Orbital Buffer w/ counterweight
Lake Country 5.5" Backing Plate
Wolfgang 3.5" Backing Plate
Bissell Steam Shot
Husky Wet/Dry Vac
HD Bucket
Grit Guard
Gilmore Hoses, Shut-off Valves, and Quick Connects.

Towels, Pads, Sponges, and Brushes
Uber Microfiber Towels (for paint and interior surface)
Meguiar's Water Magnet WW Drying Towels
DI Glass Polishing Towels
Vroom Microfiber Towels (for wheels and exhaust)
Lake Country 6" and 4" pads.
DI Sheepskin Mitts
DI Microfiber Gloves
Uber Boar's Hair Brush
Meguair's Versa Wheel Brush
Swissvax Detailing Brush
EZ-Detail Brush (short version)
SM Arnold Barrel Brush
Pinnacle Foam Pads
Vroom Microfiber Pads
Lowes Grout Sponge
Interior Detailing Tapered Sticks
SM Arnold Upholstery Brush
DI Tire Dressing Foam Pads

Maintenance - Weekly
1. Spray Tire with P21S Total Auto Wash (TAW). Let dwell for a few minutes, then brush.
2. Spray Wheel and Calipers with P21S Wheel Gel. Let dwell for a few minutes, then agitate with brushes and microfiber gloves.
3. Rinse down.
4. Move to next wheel/tire.
5. After all 4 done, Bissell Steam Shot on hard/impossible to reach crevices and angles.
6. Foam Car down with Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II, let dwell for a minute.
7. 1 bucket method with clean water grit guard and wool mitt agitate, rinsing mit at least once per panel.
8. Pressure wash soap off, then sheet water for dry.
9. Spray Finish Kare 425 (FK425) on panel before blot drying with waffle weave towel.
10. (optional as needed) Pinnacle Maintenance clay if light, or DI Medium grade clay if heavy embedded contaminant with Optimum No Rinse (OPT ONR) Quick Detail (QD) dilution. Then rinse off again.
11. Duragloss Aquawax (DG AW) to boost existing last step process (LSP).
12. Optimum Opti-Clear sealant on wheels.
13. Optimum Opti-Bold tire dressing on tires.
14. Stoner's Invisible Glass on glass.

Basic Detail - Monthly (as modified from maintenance)

6. (replace) Foam Car down with Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Clear (CG CW&C), let dwell for a minute.
10-1. Poorboy's White Diamond Glaze (Recommend Black Hole for dark color cars, or just CG EZ-Creme Glaze for all colors, but I've found PB shade specific glazes to work better)
10-2. Menzerna Full Molecular Jacket (FMJ) Sealant, but switching to Menzerna Power Lock as soon as I finish my current FMJ supply. Blackfire Wet Diamond Sealant for shows.
10-3. Dodo Juice Light Fantastic carnauba wax. Dodo Juice Supernatural carnauba wax for shows.
11. DG AW as topper. Pinnacle Liquid Souveran Spray wax for shows.
15. P21S Polishing Soap for Exhaust.
16. Bissell Steam Shot Engine and harder to reach door jamb parts.
17. Dress plastics in Chemical Guys Fade2Black.

Full Detail - Half Year (as modified from Basic Detail)
10-0-1. 3M Blue tape all trim and edges.
10-0-2. Depending on level of paint defect, polish with Menzerna Super Intense Polish (SIP) or Menzerna Power Finish (PF) and jewel with Menzerna 85RD.
10-0-3. Meguiar's Ultimate Compound for door handle cup.
10-0-4. Iso-Propyl Alcohol (IPA) wipe down.
18. Treat rubber with 1Z Einszett Gummi Pflege.
19. (Optional) For rainy half of year, treat windows with PPG Aquapel.

Interior - As Needed (note: I have MB-Tex)
1. Clean MB-Tex with 303 Fabric/Vinyl Cleaner.
2. Clean Plastics with 1Z Einszett Cockpit Premium.
3. Protect MB-Tex and Plastics with 303 Aerospace Protectant.
4. Vacuum Carpet with wet/dry vac.
4. Treat carpets with Folex spray and agitate.
5. Spray near boiling water on carpet.
6. Extract with wet/dry vac.
7. Protect with 303 High Tech Fabric Guard.

Headlight - Not needed yet, but thought I'd toss this in here as this is what I use for restoration
1. Clay headlights with aggressive clay.
2. 3M Blue tape off edges.
3. Diamondite Clear Plastic Enhancer on 4" foam cutting pad on machine.
4. Diamondite Clear Plastic Restorer on 4" foam light cutting pad on machine.
5. Diamondite Clear Plastic Liquid Armor on microfiber applicator pad.

AZN_C300, wow! I've always wondered this. Is your C300 your daily driver?

Yes, DD.

AZN, nice write up... looks like we have a lot of the same tastes in detailing products. I also use:

1 bucket method (works fine as long as you're careful with your wash media and constantly rinse and rub on grit guard)
SIP
PO85rd
EZ creme Glaze
BFWD
Folex (this stuff is magic)
303 for interior and Cockpit for the electronics/nav screen
etc

Couple of questions: The Bissel Steam shot sounds interesting.....how do you like it? What particular areas is it good for besides the engine?

Also, I notice you're using a PC. Have you considered a Flex? I moved from a PC to the Flex about a year ago and have never looked back......I absolutely love it. Still use the PC to jewel and to apply my LSP though.

With a foam cannon/pressure washer, I can safely cut down from two to one bucket, but if anyone doesn't have that setup, then highly recommend two buckets.

The Bissell Steam shot is a decent product for what it is. It's no where near as good as an industrial steamer, but you're not paying the price for it. I find it does a good enough job cleaning hard to reach spots and crevices. Engines, wheels, door jams (forgot to put that in my write up, will append :p), etc.

Honestly, haven't needed to go rotary yet. I maintain my vehicles well enough that the PC can tackle all paint correction issues and defects.

cool, I'll have to check out the steam shot.

The Flex isn't a true rotary per se- it's an "in between" tool, one that has the power of a rotary and won't stop no matter how hard you push down (great for correcting scratches) but still is an orbital in that the head orbits as well as rotates, protecting the paint.

FWIW, the Mercedes black seems to be much more robust than the Jet Black on my BMW. It's been a nightmare maintaining the Bimmer for the past year as if you so much as look at the paint it micromarrs.....the loaner Black Merc that I drove had over 3500 miles on it and I'm sure numerous dealer washes and there were surprisingly few swirls in the paint. I take far better care of the paint than the dealer does so I'm optimistic that I'll be able to keep it swirl free.

Well, depends on which Flex model you're talking about...
I was thinking the L3403VRG which would be the next step up from my PC if I was going to go Flex upgrade, which is a rotary polisher. XC3401VGR and LK603VVB aren't rotary though I agree.

True, I should've been more specific. I have the XC3401, and love it.