Its no "presidential detail" but this is my first detail. I plan on clay baring the entire car, doing a 2 or 3 step swirl remover with a rotary buffer and coating the car with a nice coat of wax. Since this if my first try I am not going to use any "high end" products either, not yet. Well lets get started.

The car I'm going to work on is a 2007 Super White Scion Tc. I have taken the car to be washed at the local car wash over 20 times since the car has been purchased. So there are plenty of swirls and debris in the clear. I always keep the car clean but this past week has been snowing/sleeting/raining/foggy so the car is pretty gross.

This is a picture that was taken a week before to show how it used to look.



This is how it looks like now.


















There is dirt like this built up everywhere on the car.







The interior
















Well I hope you get an idea of the condition of the car. This is my equipment.



The power washer was really only used on the wheel wells and when cleaning the inside of the wheels. The car itself was washed with a wool mitten with a 2 bucket meathod. No grit guard.







Just an assortment of nozzles.



A tent I was lucky to find in the garage since it was the middle of the day.



And some music. :beer:



My supplies. I found both bucket at Lowes for $4 each which pretty decent, since they are white its easy to spot debris.

I first started with cleaning the wheels inside and out along with some minor cleaning of the wheel wells. I used simple green (which I fell in love with) in a 1-10 part.



Before


After


Before


After


Before


After


By the time I got the this done I only had an hour left before I had to get ready for work, so I did a very quick exterior wash.

Before


After


Before


After


[b]Before[.b]


After


Before


After




I've always been very **** with water etching on my glass roof so I've always had wax, or rain x coated to prevent this, and it works beautifully. I did a watch, then rinse routine to prevent soap from drying and creating another step in drying. After I had everything washed I did a "flooding" method to help get most of the water off the car. What was left I used my "Absorber" towel on.

These are the final shots.









On this last picture you can really see the orange peel and can notice how the reflection isn't nearly as sharp as it should be. As a reminder I'm only about 20% done with the car. I'll wake up early tomorrow to go pick up some polishing, swirl remover and glaze compounds along with a good buffer (if I can find a good deal. So I'll update tomorrow night with the final results.

:beer:

 

its looking nice and clean! keep it up, you did a number on that exhaust

 

perty.. i wish i had weather like that.. Its nothing but ice and snow for a few more months hahaha..

 

I don't know why I just looked at 30 some pictures of a dirty car..

Also you should not use a pressure washer on a car. particularly a Scion with how cheap the paint is.

 

Whats up with that chilis pot handle holder?

 

I don't know why you did either, I guess you must of missed allot of the before and after pictures.

Lol me and my friends have always had them on our cars since we were in High School, Idk, it just stuck.

Anyways I just woke up and it raining outside, I'm still going to go out and try and buy some compounds and a buffer though. Bummer.

 

wow... removing the rims/license plate and cleaning behind it! awesome.

 

I use a power washer on my car all the time... IMO it's safter than using a hose and trying to get off all that caked on dirt, then whatever you miss is getting smeared around with a mitten.

I just hold the nozzle at a respectable distance from the car... you know where it's getting close and it makes you feel uneasy, lol. Then I get to it on the wheels and break off all the grime in the wheel wells with it up close.

Great job on your car though wob, thats a more thorough job than I do already and your only a quarter done, haha. I got to get me some simple green, that stuff looks like it works awesome.

 

niice! Looking good.

 

how big are your rim spacers?

 

nice detail, i need to do mine too.

 

25mm in the front and 15mm in the rear. How could you tell?

 

damn looks good

 

Ouch!

I see at least 4 things I would NEVER do!!!

1. No pressure washer...that's just too much.
2. Dish soap will eventually start to dull your paint, only use it if you're trying to strip off old wax.
3. Writing in dust like on your bumper can lead to swirl marks/micro scratches
4. Don't lay your rims face down on the concrete man, do that in the grass.

From the pics though, looks good overall.

 

cause they sit where i want my stocks to sit.

do you rub at all? do you know your total drop on your coils?

 

Don't use dish detergent on car. My neighbor was bragging he save money by using dish detergent. Her Corolla have no shin at all.

 

x2 here, but the car looks good, ive always had trouble with the glass roof and having water spots...Looks good oh ya SW FTW

 

Looks nice. Don't ever write on your dirt again! You made more work for yourself cause you probably added some nice swirl marks.

 

It rubbed plenty during the first week but most went away, I run -2.5 degrees of camber in the front and -1 in the rear. The rears actually rub the most, especially when I have passengers in the car. But I'm renting a local fender roller this week. I don't know the specific drop since I never measured it stock either.

I use Dawn soap because that is the advice I kept getting from professionals. This guy starts all of his detail washes with dawn soap, he does amazing work too.

2009 Civic Si

2004 White Tsx

These are a few more, but definitely check out the first two and how well he gets rid of all the swirls.

http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2448604
http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2455925

I try and only get rid of the dirt with the mitten or brush, I've tried using the power wash before and it always leaves a dirt coat. The trick I found to washing the car is to do it in sections and to always keep it wet. The "flooding" method I used to dry the car helped out tons, I only spent 5 minutes running my towel around the car. But thanks, I just went to a Sherman Williams Automotive store for some compounds and I was 10 minutes too late. They were already closed.

Thanks for the props, I've never polished the roof but I have been meaning to buy this glass polish they sell at autogeeks.net I just keep plenty of Rain X on it, its easy to apply and easy to maintain. Definitely worth it.

Haha I didn't even think about it, I was just doing it since I knew the pictures were going to go on the forums.

 

Dawn soap shows good results, but from what ive read in other threads on the long term affects i personally wouldnt use it on mine. Ill stick with Meguiars. car looks clean, pun intended!