Okay....so after buying my F150, I made the hasty mistake of looking for a forum and stumbled onto this this little land-mine. Now my personal finances and spare time are being seriously threatened by a sudden compulsion to detail my truck. Thanks a pantload.

Here's a list of the items I bought. I spent a week or 2 reading every website and every book at Barnes and Noble before making a menta list of supplies. Please give any product recommendation or application advice...I am a newb!

• "Cherry Power"-Purple Powers version of car wash detergent. < $4/gal
• "Meguiar's" Clay bar with 16oz detail spray and cleaner wax. $16.00
• Turtle Wax paste polishing compound. $2.00
• "Meguiar's Gold Class" clear coat paste car wax <$10
• Orange Blast All Wheel Cleaner $3.50
• Black Magic Tire Wet Foam $2.40
• Turtle Wax chrome polish <$2.00
• 2 MicroFiber 70/30 towels $3.60
• 3 Baby Diaper Towels $4.80
• Spotless Dryer MF towel $3.00
• California squeegie (silicone) $20.00 ouch

I actually did my wife's car tonight, but I got out of work almost 2 hours late and was pushing the clock to get it done. Even with a hurried, amateur job....we both were amazed at the difference. The clay definitely helped....By God, I thought I should toss the clay after the hood was done!

My best purchase so far was the squeegie...its friggin great...gets rid of excess water like a dream and I can then dry to perfection with 1 dryer towel!

I could have spent more on a good polish, but figured that with the clay, and a the high quality wax, I should be fine. I can always suprise myself later with a better polish, but the grocery list was getting expensive!

I also found the wheel cleaner to be excellent. We first washed without it and couldnt get all the brake dust off. Definitely worth the $$$!

My main area of doubt is the towels. I could NOT find any MF towels with better than 75/25...WalMart generally had the crappy Korean MF towels that technically WERE MF, but hadnt been split to that really fine grade! The baby diapers are nice....they dont have the deep nap, but have so many fibers that they did a great job removing the cleaner wax I used on wife's car. Got it all with 1 towel! I may buy one of the 80/20 waffle weave towels online.

Anyway...the wife's car was the guinea pig before i do mhy truck this weekend. I'll see if I can get some before/after pics when I do it. I'd really appreciate some advice before then. (Saturday) Thanks!

 

If you have a PepBoy's or someplace that is carring the new Meguiar's line of accessories, you want to look for their new Supreme Shine MF towels. Now, these are not the best towels I have (I have "many" ), but they are a very good towel... and at a price of 3 for $10, they are an excellent buy.

 

Don't know where you're from, but for what it's worth O'Reilly's down here in Texas is carrying the Meguiar's MF towels...

 

Hey Boss,

What are the best MF's you have?

SL

 

I bet he says DFT... *waits*

I'm interested too Boss...

RP

 

Hey Boss,

What are the best MF's you have?

SL

 

Aint no RockPick...but wow!!
Im amazed how much better it looks!

 

Looks GREAT mg!! Arizona beige is a difficult color sometimes but, you did a GrEaT job with it there!

Tell us a little bit about your process and the products (some, I'm sure, were mentioned earlier in this thread) that you utilized to achieve this result.

RP

 

Actually, its "Champaigne"

Anyway, Thanks for the compliments!....I just did a lot of reading....people like yourself on this forum provided a great deal of info...also found some other great technical resources online which I absorbed in the first few days after getting my truck. (Course, now Im one of the masses cursed with the detailing obsession...I've conceded 1-2 hours a week of my already precious time)
I used all the products I listed on the initial post...I did my research and went shopping! the truck was in pretty good condition for a 98, but did have some swirl marks and a couple scratches.

After the initial wash, I did a clay bar with detailing spray as my lubricant. DEFINITELY something I would recommend doing annually. I was able to do my wife's car also and the clay pretty much got tore up. If I can find some RainX locally, Im going to clay the windows with it before trashing it and seal em up!

I then did another wash and I polished it....was afraid the cleaner compounds may be too harsh and honestly, I'm too damn ignorant to know if I have clear coat or not....so I didnt want to risk it. The polishing compound at least smoothed out the swirls/scratches so they aren't so apparent.
Then another wash and dry before waxing. I used a quality wax, but I think next time around, I'll look for a synthetic wax for a longer lasting undercoat and then use the natural for a final gloss coat.

Finally, I used a foaming tire cleaner and a "tire wet" product. The foaming cleaner was nice, but it does leave some 'sling' and a little residue. I prefer the tire wet product and also used it on plastic and rubber trim...bumpers, liner, etc....looks great!

All in all, I think I chose good products, but I learned a lot about the towels.
The baby diapers are great...super soft, but they dont have the surface area (raised loops) necessary to lift and hold wax when buffing. I think I'll save them for final wipe after buffing, minor detail, and for glass...no lint, streak free!

The MF towels are great and very versatile. I think they are the best for buffing....1-2 towels should do the job instead of using 4 diapers!! When they get too cruddy, I'll rotate them down to tire rim towels.
(What's the best way to wash these towels to get the wax out....Im guessing hot water and air dry....any suggestions?)

I really didnt need towels for drying...It seems like drying after washing is when you're most likely to induce some accidental scratcher. I found a silicone squeegie at WalMart and its fantastic! I can squeeqie the truck in 1-2 minutes and then go over with a single chammie to finish it. Seems like the best method for drying....if anyone tries it be sure to buy a SILICONE squeegie, not the cheap rubber ones...the 'blade' is a T-shape that holds and moves the water away...the rubber ones dont keep nearly as good a seal.


Overall, Im pretty happy with the truck. My next chore will be detailing the engine and maybe the underbody. I'll also have to read up on the best way to deal with those couple big scratches!