I just purchased some Lake Country pads to use with my PC. My questions is, how long should it take through each step of the detailing process with the PC? I was amazaed when the rep told me it should only take 20 minutes to wax my truck. Can someone give me a typical time estimate, knowing that I have an 04 and 05 truck, paint already in very good condition?

Time for each step:

1- clay entire truck
2- paint cleaner process
3- paint polish process
4- wax process (20 min.)?

Thanks.

 

Claying is easy - wash a section with some good car wash soap, go over the same slippery section with the clay bar, go over section with soap again, rinse. Doesn't take much longer than it does to normally wash your truck.

Cleaning - Usually it's "work the product until almost dry" in small sections (like 1/3 of the hood). It takes a little while to get all the product back off without it being streaky or splotchy. I use a couple of MF towels for this. One for the initial wipe and the second to get it all the way off. It usually takes me over an hour to do the whole truck this way (probably closer to 2)

Polishing - Same process as cleaning but not quite as hard to remove - still takes at least another hour (+)

Waxing - With the PC you can wax the whole thing in about 5 - 7 minutes. It's great. Then however long you want to let it dry.

It's a LOT of work - but once you get the paint "right" you really only need to clay or clean once a year (and maybe not even then). And if you keep the wax up (which is super easy to do now with the PC) you'll probably only polish 2 or 3 times during the year and that's only because you feel like it.

 

Thanks, chknbone. Great feedback.