What are everyone's go to products for exterior and wheel detailing?

My father-in-law-to-be keeps swearing by Liquid Glass, anyone have any experience with this? I'll also need a clay bar and some microfiber towels. Any recommendations are welcome.

Take a look a these. The first three are detailing products sites with forums and review's. The last one is the Microfiber source that can't be beat.
I have been using a lot of Poorboys products with great results.


http://www.autopia-carcare.com/

http://www.autogeek.net/

http://www.detailedimage.com/

https://www.theragcompany.com/

Exterior:

Most of the high-end sealants are very good. I personally prefer Wolfgang Deep Gloss or 4 Star Ultimate Paint Protection. Some people really like Sonax Polymer Net Shield. I've found that it results in excellent water beading but it is much more difficult to apply than other sealants and does not necessarily last as long or look as good.

If you want to go the ceramic coating route, I'd direct you to CQuartz/CQuartz UK. You can apply it yourself and should get 18-24 months out of an application. I've had Optimum's ceramic coating professionally applied and was extremely disappointed. The gloss isn't that good, it is susceptible to water marks, and (in my experience) it did absolutely nothing to protect against swirl marks as claimed. It's also become staggeringly expensive.

Before any of the above, you need to clean and correct the paint. Polishes and cleaners are basically interchangeable, so just follow those links above and find the product with the amount of aggressiveness that you need.

Wheels:

Sonax's wheel cleaner is the segment leader. It does a very good job at chemically dissolving brake dust. But it's also expensive, smelly, and can stain your driveway. I typically use it only when my wheels are very dirty. A diluted automotive all purpose cleaner, or just plain old car wash soap and a brush, works fine otherwise.

The DIY ceramic coatings are a good option for sealing wheels.

If you want to refresh technique, I always encourage people watch Larry Kosilla's AMMO NYC videos on YouTube. Very detailed, while also showing you can get a long way with just the basics.

I've hopped around with brands, but always had good luck with Adam's Polishes and Chemical Guys products. I'll second Sonax for a wheel cleaner - makes life so easy! I'll be taking the ceramic plunge this year and applying either CQuartz or Adam's Polishes Ceramic Paint Coating kit. I'll also finally get myself a foam cannon for the pressure washer...can't wait to make it snow!

Adam's is another solid brand. Their car wash is great!

Cquartz Finest is amazing.

I've been using Zaino products on my Porsches with great success, their Z-10 Leather in a Bottle is the best leather conditioner I've found....

But I am keen to try other suggestions from happy detailers!

adams polishes and meguiars for cutting

Try Poorboys Leather Stuff. Ive used Zaino before but the results with poorboys is just another level and the smell is great.

Z-10 is awesome. Zaino's sealants were cutting edge about 15 years ago. But there are so many sealants now that give the same/better results without the silly Zaino ecosystem that requires particular bottom coats, curing additives, etc. If you love the products, rock on--but there are way easier sealants out there now.

What kind of clay bars are people here using?

Cool, thanks for the tip!

Zaino products work well but agree.. it's also a PITA! That's why I'm open to suggestions!!
Thanks!

As far as the actual clay, I've used Meguiars, Mothers, Adam's Polishes, and Simoniz. Both to the touch and actual performance, I couldn't tell you the difference if blindfolded. All performed equally so I don't think you can go wrong so long as you're not digging up clay from your back yard.

When it comes to lubrication, I used to use Adam's Polishes Detail Spray, but last year I switched to using my foam cannon post wash. I go through the detail spray fast enough already and wanted to cut out another opportunity to use it up. I go through my normal two-bucket wash regimen, but instead of drying, I respray/refoam as I move panel to panel with the clay, then rinse and dry.

If my Brilliant Blue C43 comes to me with the amount of orange peel I saw on a C300 Br. Blue in the showroom, I won't do a damn thing.


I have never seen orange peel that bad on any car, except the ones from Maaco, or some high school body shop class. I told the sales manager that if my car looks like that...I won't accept it.


How are your paint jobs, notably cars picked up in the last 6 months or so? I have researched that this is more common now due to changes in paint regulations?

Global change in paint standards has everything moving to water-based paints. Blessing and a curse according to my buddy in the autobody industry. Water based is much more fragile than the old days, more susceptible to road rash and is a bit less forgiving when it comes to things like orange peel in mass production. The opposite of that is it's less expensive, easier on the environment, and leads to a lot of repeat repair work.

Lemme get this out of the way first: RichardCranium lol, I see what you did there

Now then, my question is: How would I best manage highway rock chip repair (short of re-spray) prior to a polishing? Is there a recommended paint chip brand for MB?

Also, I've heard somewhere before that non-stick materials can be used to smudge-down the applications, so they're not all snotted up in the 'paint pothole' as it were. Any thoughts on that?

TIA

And I'm with Rob in the post above in forum naming!

Mercedes sells a paint correction system for their cars - you can typically pick it up at your dealership, or they can order it for you. That's your best bet.

Dot in a very thin amount of paint. Let it dry. Repeat until your paint chip is just a touch below the level of surrounding paint. finish off with the clear coat that comes in the paint repair kit. Usually 1 or 2 rounds of clear coat is enough to make it level an protect the paint repair. Once that has dried (I usually give it a day or two to fully settle - probably not necessary), you can polish as much as you want.

If you want an accurate paint match on a car that is relatively new (paint hasn't faded or taken too much a beating) - always go the manufacturer route because it's frankly pretty cheap as well. Short of having a full respray done, it's better than you or someone else trying to guess the perfect shade in an effort to save 20 bucks.

I have used Liquid glass in the past. A guy who installs clear bra recommended it to my Dad. I've used it several times and I like it, but I'm not sure I think its better than any of its competitors.

I bought microfibers from theragcompany, and I'm very happy with them.