So I am sort of a detailing virgin, and don't *plan* to get into it REAL heavily but I am sorta OCD so we'll see what ends up happening.

Anyway, today I ordered some stuff from Griot's in anticipation of my new MC arriving with plans to practice on my current POS (and maybe add some value to it as I try to sell it).

Trying not to go overboard, I ordered:

Car Wash
Wheel Cleaner
Best of Show Wax
Paint Cleaning Clay
Speed Shine
Vinyl & Rubber Dressing
Some wax pads

I already have a slew of microfiber towels.

I notice some people talk about polish. Is this something different from wax? If so, what from Griot's line should I be using? Or is just the Speed Shine okay?

I felt like I had a handle on this, until I read about someone polishing, then waxing, and I was like

Thanks

 

The polish is used to remove small surface scratches after using the clay bar and before applying wax. There are different types of polishes depending on the condition of the paint. If your paint is good shape, then use the mildest polish available to remove things like swirl marks. You always want to use the least aggressive cleaners and polishes that will get the job done.

The speed shine is like a detailing spray you can use for touch up between waxes. I think Griot's suggests using it with their clay bar too.

Do you have a good wash mitt? A synthetic mitt can sometimes cause swirl marks on the paint. Also, never wash the car with the same water and mitt you use on the wheels. Residual dirt and brake pad particles can scratch the paint. I always wash the wheels first then change buckets and mitts and wash the car last.

You might want to take a look at Griot's wheel cleaning tools. They have one that is a sponge on a stick (it looks like a small sponge hot dog) that I used to clean around the lug nuts. They come ten to a pack. They have another that is larger that comes three to a pack that I use to clean between the spokes and will reach the brake side of the wheel. It really helps keep the wheels clean without having to take them off as often.

 

You may want to get the rubber cleaner and tire brush. It does a great job of getting old treatment, brake dust and the like off of the tires. I find they look better after that and new dressing. Their dressing vs. the milky stuff in a yellow jug? No contest. It looks better and lasts longer.

The interior cleaner seems to remove a lot of junk that a damp towel doesn't get. I think my dash (the most noticeable area) looks better after using it.

If you're getting leather seats, get the leather treatment. It smells great, and your seats look great after it soaks in. That can take a day or more depending on how much you apply and the temperature.

Their glass cleaner cloths are great too, also lint free.

Clay bar is almost a necessity on the back of the MINI, as it picks up a lot of dust that winds up sticking. spray Speed Shine on the area first and go to town. Don't use the clay without it. Speed shine is also great for getting back to a "just washed" state if not too dirty.

You can (I certainly have) spent a small fortune at Griot's, and with rare exception I find their products top-notch.

I hope you have better luck with the BIS wax than I have. I find it VERY difficult to remove from my MCS's paint. A friend has no trouble on his cars (not MINIs). The only other product of Griot's I don't care for is the wax remover, which would have been great since the vinyl is hard to miss when applying wax. I found it innefective. Others say the best product for this is - believe it or not - peanut butter.

 

I too have had difficulty removing the Best of Show wax from my cars. It ended up in the garbage. The wax remover didn't work for me either. I got it for $1 at one of their garage sales. I wondered why they had cases of them for sale.

I like their Speed Shine, Interior Cleaner, clay bar, Wheel Cleaner, and Rubber/Vinyl protection.

 

i use their boar's hair tire brush with the long handle. great stuff.

i also recommend their SprayOn wax. i use that after each wash
on the roof, hood (bonnet), and trunk lids (on my sedan and coupe).
great stuff. i mean, you can use it on the entire car, but i just do
the top surfaces most prone to UV and bird crap. on the MCS, i would
do the entire car but it never sees rain so don't wash it that often.

i also recommend their polish system, but since your car's new, you won't
need it for a while. Just use a nice wash bucket with grit guard. this
is a must. your wash mitt app and how you dry will determine how much
swirls you will be left with.

and a California Duster for your boot. I also have a boar's hair detailer's
paint brush (3 different sizes from Griots in a set) and use that after
each weekend drive to clean the dust in the boot hatch hinge area and
opening before using the cal duster on the car.

 

I have a metric butt-ton of the Griot's products as well. I would definitely add the interior cleaner to your list, and then the rubber cleaner. I would also add the dressing applicator (P/N 50557). The applicator is contoured to apply an even coat of dressing over the tire, and since the applicator doesn't absorb the dressing, it *really* makes a little go a long way. After buying the applicator and using it for the first time, I realized that the gallon of vinyl/rubber dressing I have just turned into a lifetime supply.

Scott

 

I bought that several weeks ago... and it works nice if the tires are
off the car. i had to apply, then roll the car back quite a bit
and then reapply. i do this on my other applicator as well, but imho,
the 50557 is too wide... i used it twice and it's been sitting in my
garage. maybe im using it incorrectly?

 

arrkkkk... my 2month old Griots wash bucket is cracked at the bottom.

I just noticed this while risining my bucket today after a wash. there are
verticle supports that hold the Griot's version gritguard-like grill to clean
your wash mitt prior to each soap app. Ive always been very gentle with
this bucket as it's not cheap to replace and imho appeared a little fragile.

I sent an email to customer service at Griots today and awaiting a
response tomorrow. I am asking them if they could please send me a
replacement and I will send mine back (with call-tag preferred) upon
receipt. I can still use the bucket despite its small leak... and I don't
want to go an entire week without a wash bucket while sending mine
back. Hope they can help me out. will keep you posted on their
response.

For those of you who recently purchased their bucket, I highly recommend
you support that grill from the side of the bucket with 2 screws on each
side of the wash bucket, or better yet, put a ledge under the grill to
support it. The verticle supports are not enough as the base of the bucket
is too thin and weak.

Here's a pict of the bottom of my 2month old Griot's wash bucket. you
can see the stress marks from the supports and also the small crack on
the left side.

 

I think griot's would help you out with that bucket?

I went with two wash buckets (custom colours!) and Grit Guards from us plastics.

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/default.asp

really nice people, good stuff.

www.showcargarage.com

Look at their information

I have Griot's wax remover liquid for cleaning off their pricey microfibres and various cloths. It was a bit of a stretch getting it, but I know how hard it is to get out of applicators and cloths after it dries, and how terrible it is to get your wax messed up from dried bits.

I didnt get rubber cleaner but i hear it is great.
Interior cleaner is nice and gentle yet works fast with no irritating odors.
Speedshine is AMAZING. best product they have I feel so far. Plexus (later I explain what it is) and Speedshine are the two best detailing products I have ever used. Speedine you use that between washes and after washes, use that when birds poop or when road gunk/tar sticks. It can't be used too much. It is also used when you want to clay bar the car. You can clay bar it gently with the speedshine to remove stubborn bird poop and road tar without killing the wax supposedly. I bought a gallon of it after I realized the 33 oz or whatever that is bottle will go faster than other things.

I have the hand wax carnauba paste. nice smelling stuff, smooth to work with. People really like best of show wax, I never heard an issue with it until this moment. I use carnauba as I am old school like that.

Their boars natural bristle brush is great. I got the short handled one for scrubbing tires and wheels and around the wells or undercarriage areas. It is definitely unlike any other brush I have used in terms of quality and ease of use.

They have a nice natural lambs wool wash mit. This is one that that I recommend getting. The only thing I dont have that I probably will need is the rubber cleaner. I am trying not to break the bank though. I bought a ton of stuff from them. The kits are nice and worth it. The spray nozzles are pricey at 3 dollars or so, but they are built well and seem like they will last a long time.

All in all, very satisfied with them. Iwould buy over the phone vs online. You get to ask them stuff and they are honest about what you need or might not need.

By the way, Octaneguy, our professional neato detailer guy who runs showcargarage.com, says that isopropyl alcohol works well with some rubbing to get off excess wax from non paint areas. I found 91% isopropyl alcohol in my Dwayne Reed pharmacy for 1.99.


Non griot's stuff I recomend is PLEXUS from autopia. I forget their website at the moment. It is the most amazing clear plastic cleaner/protector I have ever seen. My father who is a polymer chemist was impressed by it which is hard to do as he can make and develop many of these products we talk about. Plexus made any clear lens 4x clearer even if it wasnt dirty or old. It puts on some sort of strong coating onto it. feels rubbery sorta in an odd way. It takes out some hazing of old lenses and dash pieces as well. I thought this would be over the top, i mean, just clean off the lenses and I would be fine. But, testing it on old cars and brand new made me see how sick this stuff is. 15 dollars for an aerosol can is a bit hefty plus shipping, but, very little is needed for a decent size area.

I use NXT window cleaner. Griot's works fine, NXT does as well and is cheaper. They both are safe on tints so no ammonia which means its safer in general to use.

 

Plexus.
I don't use it for much more than the speedo/tach face but it does work amazingly!

 

Ever try it on headlamp lenses and breaklights and all that? Has a strange effect liek suddenly you blink and its clear and looks completely different. It almost polarizes the surface which is impossible. Maybe it changes the indices of refraction somewhat??

 

Just an update on my wash bucket... GriotsGarage will send me a new
one this week and I will return mine as soon as the new one comes in.

Im a happy camper.

will post picts on the 'mod' as soon as i get mine so that those of
you that have the same bucket will not have to deal with a cracked
bottom.

 

Yep - Plexus is great stuff. I originally got it for a polycarbonate motorcycle windscreen, but I keep finding other surfaces that it works great on. Gauge faces, iPods, brakelights, pretty much anything hard and plastic.

Part of its magic is that fills shallow pits, pores, and scratches, and it has a refraction coefficient that matches most plastics pretty closely, so it almost "repairs" microscopic scratches and hazing. The end result is that the plastic looks smoother, shiner, and more 'vibrant', if that makes any sense.

Scott

 

good news on bucket. I was positive that they would help you out. They do overcharge just a slight amount on things but customer service is as if you are calling a family member, and their products are all perfect with no complaints.

Yeah, plexus pimps. I noticed that vibrant look to lenses. It's like your eyes can focus easier on the plastic after it is applied. strange effect.

 

All my front lenses are pretected by clear bra. It is part polish, part wax so it reduces scratches, then fills them in so you get a nice clear surface.

 

yeh, they are definitely nice people over there at Griots and
very quick to respond to my orders which I greatly appreciate.


btw, i yanked off the wash tag stub that was sewed into my
MF towel (the thick 16" one) and i was able to completely
remove it. i have 2 of these so i was very happy to
be able to remove them as they can swirl the paint.

im not sure if I can do the same on their buffing MF towels though..
the MF itself is not as strong.

Their 100% lint free cotton towel sewing is such a pos...
it has no wash tags so I use it as my detailing towel, but the
red outline sewing gets undone very easily. It looks like im
cleaning my car with rags. my wife asked if i was using
old socks to clean my hobby cars... im
definitely not getting these again (although i still have another
unopened package). im going to start using MF towels-only for
detailing. as far as buffing towels, DetailersParadise monster
fluffy is awesome.

 

I havent had issues with the cotton yet, apparently though they may break down. Could be the difficulty in finding a good manufacturer that uses safe lint free cotton

 

my washbucket came in today. gonna ship mine back tomorrow.

 

on my new Griot's washbucket I added 2 screws, one on each side.
this helps support the grill inside the bucket and relieves most of
the stress from the 2 verticle support posts under the grill when you
take your wash mitt back and forth to get the grit out. My first bucket
started to crack on the bottom of the bucket under the support posts
from normal use.

Here's where i placed the screw. i put a flash light behind the bucket
so that you can see where i drilled. I pulled the grill slightly upward
so that the screw would hold most of the wash mitt's weight.



Top view... if you do it right (like my pict) you can hide your screw threads
under one of the grids.




Here's the finished bucket with the mod. The grill is now very solid. You
can't even see the mod if look at it from this angle. And no, water does
not leak from the 2 screwed areas.

 

ok, so the one thing i hated about the Griot's MF towels was the
wash tag. even if you tear it off at the preforation, it still had a
stub about 8mm in length remaining on the towel which swirls paint.

so the other day, i took my MF towels and one by one, yanked the
living crap out of those stubs and pulled them all off completely
without tearing up the towel or the stitching. this was
for my white and yellow MF towels for buffing.

it feels like you're going to tear up the towel, but you don't. now,
i am finally satisified with their towels.

 

Is it weird that I have Griot's RO on my Christmas list?

 

Nope, It was on my list a few years ago too. It never came

Oh well, I bought it myself..and now..well...all I have to say is I think I need a Griots support network...Ken you up to lead?

 

um...sure, why not (?).

I still need to try out Griot's leather treatment to see how it is on
real leather. probably tomorrow evening on my G35C... things have been
just real busy with biz trips for work and PDR (for fun) this week.


btw, that mod I did on their wash bucket.... it turned out well during
my last couple of washes. it's a very simple mod, but looks
to be very effective.

 

next spring, I need to buy a gallon of their car wash. $39.99 was it?
smells great too. I have their small 16oz bottle good for wat, 3 washes?
(actually only 2 more washes left on mine...)

 

How much of there wash do you use? A bottle last me about 8 washes....If you fallow the dosing.

BTW, because you mod your griots stuff, do you have any pictures of your cart mods?