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Winter detail finally done! Oh boy did I get to try alot of new products
After learning my lesson last year during my first harsh indiana winter, which was two coats of Pinnacle Souveran isn't going to cut it, I did alot of research to find the best products to provide enough protection to make it through the winter until I can put on my show products. After alot of reading, the general consensus was what I went with was the best to protect the car through the winter and were all new products for me to try. Also, my side detailing buisness has now taken off in my new city, so that meant I had to get some products that were much more affordable than my Pinnacle arsenal, which means even more new products to try! Below are the pictures followed by the process I used. The mini is a little dusty because I had to drive it last night, but it's not too bad.
Bonus shot of the new lights in the garage! These have enhanced my life so much.
Paintwork:
Wash: Optimum car wash. Ok, I lied. I used pinnacle body shampoo for this detail BUT I used Optimum on a customers car last weekend and loved it so much that as soon as my pinnacle car wash is gone I'll be buying Optimum by the drum. I liked it a lot better than Meg’s gold class as well. It gave a much better lather and left the paint glossy and slick. A very nice car wash which is a 1/3rd of the price by the gallon than pinnacle
Claybar: Didn't need it (thank god). Car was clayed with Pinnacle ultra-poly clay two months ago and it does a great job of cleaning the paint of any contaminants.
Polish: Pinnacle XMT series. I bought this two months ago and FINALLY got to try it out. Now, I've been a Pinnacle advocate since I started detailing, but with the detailing business going off I loaded up with poorboys polish for customer cars and I'm loving it. Loving it so much that I was probably going to switch to it for my cars, so the XMT series had to be good. Bottom line...
I. LOVED. IT. Performed very well and was easy to use, buffed off easily, and left the car looking great with fantastic depth.
I went with XMT #2 Fine Swirl remover on a Polish pad and followed with XMT #1 Ultra fine Swirl remover on a Polish pad. XMT2 did a good job of removing slight scratches and any swirling (which I really don't have on my cars), but if left a little bit of micro-marring. I was hoping to get away with just XMT2 . A follow up with XMT1 cleaned all the marring up and left the paintwork glowing. XMT1 dusted pretty heavily.
Some fine scratches remained after this, but I should have gone with a light cutting pad for XMT2 or even XMT3 intermediate polish on a polish pad, but this is about protection and not show winning so I didn't want to go all out on it since winter is coming. To be honest, I still would have felt comfortable entering it in a show because the paint looked that good. Plus I've been trying to find the culprit in my detailing process that is causing these fine scratches (which I think I've found). Overall VERY impressed with how the XMT series performed and will remain in the cabinet. The price is on par with poor boys, but I wish there was a one step polish in the XMT series since I don't have time for 2 polishes on customer cars (I was hoping XMT2 would do that). Poorboys SSR 2.5 works great as a one step polish and I will continue to use that for customers SUVs. XMT for my babies though.
Wheels/Tires:
Cleaned with Pinnacle Gel Wheel cleaner. It’s a good cleaner, but it’s pricy. I’ve got new products on the way to try out that will hopefully perform just as well.
Tires got a coat of Pinnacle Black Onyx tire gel which leaves a great satin finish! This time I forgot to buff so they are a little glossier than usual. A little goes a long way. I haven’t used it for a while because all the applicators I’ve tried break up after 3 uses, so I’ve been experimenting with spray tire shine while I searched for a applicator. Now that I have a good applicator, I’ll be buying Black Onyx in bulk and will use it for customer cars once all the other junk I’ve tried is gone.
Protection: wheels got two coats of poorboys Ex-p, with 12 hours to cure in between. I’ve used EX-P on the paint before and it really is a nice sealant that brightens the paint up, but it doesn’t last long enough to be used in the winter. I put it on the wheels to keep most of the dusting from my stoptech brakes off, but I’m not sure this will last through the winter. We’ll see. My wheels were pretty badly stained after last winter so I wanted to at least do something here.
Trimwork:
I've never been a blue tape guy since I'm pretty careful and rarely hit the trim, but I was intentionally sloppy with the polish to try my new process out. I normally wait to do this at the end, but doing it now was a good chance to see if my new long standing protection would be trim safe. A few months ago I tried something new to clean the trim up and was very impressed, but wanted to make sure it wasn't just covering like so many other things do and found that it doesn’t
Here's what I do: Clean the trim with pinnacle XMT pad cleaner. Yes, pad cleaner. I figured if it can clean a foam pad, it can clean a texture trim and it works! All the polish I got on the trim was removed and I followed up with 303 Aerospace protectant for a low gloss finish and keep them protected through winter.
Paint Protection:
Duragloss 601, Duragloss 105, and Collinite 845. From my research this should give me 5 months of protection and a great shine through the winter. Well lets try it out!
Prior to doing this I quick detail the car to removing any remaing polish and dusting. For this I used Meg’s Final inspection. I won this at a show drawing and I've used it several times now and I still don't like it. Too watery and too much buffing needed to remove it. It leaves and good gloss, though. I'll stick with Poorboys spray and wipe as my quick detailer.
Next I applied the Duragloss 601. This is a bonding agent that will help your sealant adhere to the paint better and in the end last longer, which is what I need for winter. It went on easily and I'm pretty sure it was trim safe (I don't remember getting on the trim). As it dries it sort of disappears. DO NOT BUFF. You will apply your sealant directly over it after 30 to 45 minutes
Follow up with my selant, Duragloss 105 on top of the 601. I did this by hand, but probably should have used a PC with a finish pad or finesse pad. The 105 went on really easily and after drying to a haze (I think I waited an hour) it buffs off stupidly easy. And my god the car looked great. If you showed me this car and told me a product called duragloss was on it, I would have never believed you. The car was a black pool and rivaled Souveran in it's shine and depth. A great product that I will probably start using on customer cars! Trim safe as well! Cheap too!
Let cure for 12 hours.
The next day I applied my insulator wax: collinite 845. Shake this up really well and caution; it is combustible! This product was a nightmare! I applied with a PC and a finesse pad to get a even coat and touched up the edges by hand. IT IS NOT TRIM SAFE . After waiting 45 minutes I buffed it off, with great difficulty. I tried by hand at first then switched to a pc with a MF bonnet, but that would only cleared half a panel before the bonnet was caked in wax, so I went back to by hand. I ended up using 6 MF towels to buff and really should have used 8. It did enhance the gloss and looked great, but was too diffcult to use for me to want to swtich. I'll stick with Souveran and use this for winter This is just a little extra step to make it through the winter, and I’ve been told it will last 5 months alone (even saw a video of it beading after 4 months). This with the 105 should make the paint rock solid.
Interior:
The interior got the usual treatment and needed a full go over since I haven’t really done it in 6 months. It stayed in good shape for a while because of all the shows I attended where I would just vacuum, wipe the dash down, dust, and clean up any dirty spots. But show season ended almost 2 months ago so it was a mess.
Leatherette seats and all panels: cleaned with Pinnacle vinyl/leather cleaner and protected with Pinnacle Vinyl/Rubber protectant. I really like this combo. It does a great job cleaning and leaves a low gloss finish with a great smell. I’m trying to find something equivalent for customer cars, but just the 16oz bottles last a while so I may just get ‘em by the gallon.
Door seals: cleaned with Armorall wipes and protected with 303.
Door jams: cleaned with Poorboys spray and wipe and Duragloss Aquawax applied over it (more on this in a minute). The vinyl piece was protected with Pinnacle and the door sills cleaned with invisible glass.
Windows: all cleaned with stoner invisible glass. I had to do this about 3 times over the course of the detail. Same treatment for the gauges and mirrors.
Maintance:
All of this is great, but I need to keep it clean. I think I washed the car 3 times last winter and I nearly got frost bite twice. I picked up some Optimum No Rinse car wash to keep it clean. Just add a few ounces to your bucket and wash normally. It has extra lubricants to protect the finish and does a great job cleaning. Once you’re done with a panel, dry it off. I used this in the bed of a truck last weekend and was very impressed. I’m looking forward to washing in the winter now! Before hand I’ll go to a self service wash and use the power washer to blast most of the junk off the car.
After that I’ll follow up with Duragloss Aquawax. This is going to be bought by the container ship! I used this as a final step on a Navigator after Natty’s blue and you could see the difference from panel to panel. A great spray wax with a super high gloss and super slick finish that’s easy to use. Supposedly last for months alone but I haven’t proven that yet. Love it. Smells like glue, like all the other duragloss products.
Wow, that was long, but I hope all my testing will help some of you that were curious about these products. Now to do the girlfriends mini the same way . Might try banana gas on it.
Nice write very detailed!!! Regarding the Aquawax- give Prima Hydro a try and see what you like better. I know that on this forum it seems very "pro-prima" but seriously buy a bottle and compare the two. I find that Hydro is easier to work with and has very good durability when compared to to Aquawax.
__________________ 07 MC LB/W Bonnet Stripes, Comfort Access, Fog Lights, Cold Weather, Premium, HiFi, Rear Spoiler, Bel STI Driver RD, Dual Laser Interceptor LIDAR Jammer
I really liked the shine on your wheels. very sharp.
__________________ Babaganoosh:2007 MCS Lightning Blue|White roof w/ Union Jack |Cold Weather|Sport Pkg|17" Web spoked wheels|Performance Run Flats|LSD|PDC |Comfort Access|Xenons| Rear Fogs|Punch Carbon Leather|Dk gray color line
Ordered: 07/20 | Born 07/28 | Shipped 07/30| Delivered 09/01||JCW Tuning kit Aug 2009|
. A follow up with XMT1 cleaned all the marring up and left the paintwork glowing. XMT1 dusted pretty heavily.
. After waiting 45 minutes I buffed it off, with great difficulty. I tried by hand at first then switched to a pc with a MF bonnet, but that would only cleared half a panel before the bonnet was caked in wax, so I went back to by hand. I ended up using 6 MF towels to buff and really should have used 8. It did enhance the gloss and looked great, but was too diffcult to use for me to want to swtich. I'll stick with Souveran and use this for winter This is just a little extra step to make it through the winter, and I’ve been told it will last 5 months alone (even saw a video of it beading after 4 months). This with the 105 should make the paint rock solid.
07 MC LB/W Bonnet Stripes, Comfort Access, Fog Lights, Cold Weather, Premium, HiFi, Rear Spoiler, Bel STI Driver RD, Dual Laser Interceptor LIDAR Jammer
