What are your favorite detailing products? I've been out of the game for a while and there seems to be so much new stuff on the market.

Also, favorite detailing forums or youtube channel?

 

 

I've stocked up on some Griot's products as I used their products about 25 years ago for my VW GTI VR6.

 

ChrisFix on YouTube.

I use the ‘Chemical guys Mr. Pink’ (ph neutral wash) and the ‘Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax’. The spray on wax is super easy to apply, spray spread and rinse, it repels water and shine good enough for me.

Armor all tire foam for the tires.

I also bought the ‘303 Aerospace protectant spray’ for the plastics, but have not used it yet.

I also have one of those spray foam guns, Mr. Pink works well for this purpose, it is fun to use, but it does not work as a touch less option. I use it as second round of wash, if the car was too dirty.

 

Usually I stick with Meguiar's Gold Class car wash shampoo. As for paint protection, I go for Collinite 845. Ridiculously easy to apply and very durable. All the other stuff I dabble with different brands.

 

Ammo.....https://www.ammonyc.com/ Lot of great videos and PDFs. Not cheap but the end result is worth it. I bought the Ammo reflex pro enamel coat, but have yet to apply it. There is a $10 charge for shipping, so I stock up when I buy

 

Aerospace 303 is great on tires as well. Gives a nice dark satin finish. I use a foam canon as a pre-wash.

 

In my garage I got tons of stuff: Wolfgang DG 3,0, Collinite 476s, Meguires Ultimate Wax, Meguires Certamic Wax, Chemical Guys Liquid Seal.
For best bang for the buck Collinite 476s

For washing, Chemical guys Mr. Pink snow foam is the best even since I started doing snow foam on my cars.

 

I have nothing against the Ammo guy and I actually liked watching some of his detailing videos and there's no denying he's into detailing. But I would probably never use any Ammo products personally (all I'm saying is personally, I'm not saying other people shouldn't use them or trying to convince you not to). The reason is because I think his line of products is just really over-priced and marketed really well. Like everything is sold in fairly small quantities and exclusively and there are five solutions you need to buy for every step of the detailing process. I think if someone is really into detailing, great, but for the average consumer it's really not worth it. (Side note, I sort of question how a guy with an economics degree somehow turned into a chemist to make his own line of detailing products. In other words, I think he's clearly a GREAT detailer and, again, he's clearly enthusiastic about detailing, but I tend to think he's the "face" of the product.)

 

That's what I use, too.

 

I just know they work very well, and easy to apply!

 

How spendy do you want to get? Off the shelf some of the newer Turtle Wax products are surprisingly good particularly their ceramic spray wax while it's hard to go wrong with the Meguiars line for most needs. If you're ordering online then the CarPro line is comprehensive and there's not a bad product in their lineup. Gyeon also makes some really great stuff especially if your car is ceramic coated. A few items I really like in my current toolkit: CarPro PERL (the Frank's Red Hot Sauce of protectants), GTechniq G-Wash (smells great), Nevr Dull (for the exhaust tips), CarPro Iron-X Lemon Scent (still smells terrible though), and Gyeon Tire Cleaner.

If you've been out of the game for a while I highly recommend taking a look at ceramic spray waxes - they've really taken a huge leap in the past couple years in terms of the durability and ease of use. I was a Collinite 845 user in the past but these ceramic waxes are just great and it's hard to make the case for regular waxes/sealants unless you're all about shine/depth. For the weekend warrior the ceramic spray waxes are a game changer.

 

Lots of good suggestions here. I would add to buy some quality microfiber towels and wash pad. Not talking the yellow ones from Costco, those are good for interior only. Make sure anything that touches paint won’t scratch it. I buy microfiber from Ammo NYC or the Rag Company, microfiber wash pads from the Rag Co.

All cleaning/washing products pretty subjective, have a closet full of Mothers, Meguires, Griots. They are all good stuff, just depends how much you want to spend and how deep you want to go. Have personally come to the conclusion that I like driving more than washing In spring and fall I decontaminate, wash and ceramic wax. Maintenance washes in between.

 

Try collinite 476s, its more durable than 845. Some say it lasts as long as paint sealants if not longer. I was really impressed

 

Anyone doing snow-foam washing with power washer? Its amazing

 

If I decide to get a pressure washer for other reasons, I may give snow foaming a try. But it's not a "touchless" wash like some people make it out to be. I see some videos where people say you can just snow foam and rinse and I don't see that working at all.

 

you can keep it touchless for most part when using snow foam. Need to get good snow foam, not all the same. Mr. pink will lift 90-95% of dirt without you touching it. You can then easily get the remaining dirt by hand using two bucket method.
its definitely will minimize touching car paint. I then use leaf blower to get most water out, after that its easy wipe.

 

Also, if you own pressure washer and live in snow/salt mess, highly recommend one of these for under carriage washing in winter

 

I don't think snow foaming works for grime. Like if you drive your car -- this happens in either summer or winter, but I think people will understand it better if I say winter -- in the winter and then the side panel has this thin layer of grime on it, that doesn't come off with just pressure washing, with or without soap. I don't have a home pressure washer and I have to drive through some dusty rural areas (think farming) and so it's like your car gets dusty every day. Well, I didn't feel like washing it every day, so I tried going to a local self car wash and blasting it off with a pressure washer. After the water dried off, the same dust was just sitting there. I think adding snow foam would help a little, but you really need to actually mechanically wipe it off.

That looks cool and I'd definitely get that. Where can I buy one? Also, do you think it would just work with a regular hose?

 

On amazon, search for "car under carriage cleaner", there are number of them for about $30. i think most of them have attachments for power-washer, you might need an adapter to connect it to garden hose. With garden hose it might also work, just not sure if you will have enough pressure.


As far as snow foam, definitely if car has heavy grime around wheels it will not take it all off. What I usually do, is I first snow foam, let is soak for couple minutes, then spray it off. I then do 2 bucket wash method after. it goes a lot easier because most dirt is already out.

If you only need power washer for car washing, electric one will work fine, they not that expensive.

 

Looks like I'm gonna have to check out Collinite 476. I heard it was "harder" to apply, but looking at videos, seems like a standard wax application. 845 is ridiculously easy though ... go over the whole car in one go and then start buffing. Takes less than an hour to do a whole car and buffs off with ease.

 

yes, 476 is more difficult to apply than 845, but nothing crazy. You need to do one section at a time, like hood, and then wipe it off. Couple min dry time max. If you keep it on for too long,very difficult to get it off.
you can use it as your base wax, and then just keep topping off with 845 every time you wash car.

 

This. I use Mr. Pink with power washer and snow foam gun. Only requires a quick sponge off and not a lot of work. I absolutely hate washing cars, but this system is pretty darn good. Two bucket method is great.
There are a ton of YouTube videos on what to use/how to.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE0...jfP2982jVH6WkQ

I like this series of videos and recommendations. Works for me.

 

Yea but it's a good option for people who lives in apartments and don't have access to a garage, don't like automatic carwash and likes to detail. BTW, your answer here applies to pretty much most of the "ceramic coating" products that's out there. They are all OEM'ed from few master blender companies.

My personal favorite item right now is this:

Amazing shine, ease of use and great durability. TW came out with a graphene one call Flex Wax that supposedly is even better but I have no personal experience with it.

 

That's what I use for waxing. I unfortunately tried using a carnuba paste wax from Turtle Wax for my first car wax and I probably applied it too heavily, so now I have a dull haze on some areas of my car. (I'm sure the solution is to go over it with a polishing pad, but I don't have any equipment, so I just accept it.) After that, I found the Seal N Shine and that's been pretty good. Again, I made the mistake of putting on too much the first time, lol. But it really made water bead off my car and it's inexpensive. I would recommend it to people.

 

The new GG Ceramic Wash and Coat is available. I ordered it and will hopefully try it next week
https://www.griotsgarage.com/product...ortby=ourPicks

 

I like this guy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE0...jfP2982jVH6WkQ pan the organizer

And I really love the turtlewax hybrid solutions ceramic wax spray. Very easy to put on and lasts a long time. https://www.turtlewax.com/products/h...ating-16-fl-oz

 

Pan is OK, but he seems to be the kind of guy who will plug any product that pays him to plug them. No offense to any big fans of his.

 

I use the same stuff on my RDX that I use on my classics and exotics. I had a few friends who are the gurus in the detailing industry...the Menzerna factory, I hear, is extraordinary and high tech. Between Menzerna and Blackfire, I think they have just about every product you can imagine and the results will speak for themselves. This place is a great resource for learning, comparing, and buying products. https://www.autogeek.net/

 

Any one you think that has unbiased reviews?

I also like Jimbo, he is pretty straight up.

 

DriverOne - you're probably already aware of this and if you still have that dull haze and if you're feeling bold - you can use Dawn once to get every layer of wax off. Then you can start fresh and start applying wax and sealants to your heart's content.

When I had my beloved S2000, this was the go-to trick before I applied Zaino.

 

I don't usually watch detailing channels, so not really. It's a problem I have with YouTube videos and "influencers." All of these big channels are either sponsored or paid to promote, which is totally understandable but then you don't know what you're actually getting. That's just my opinion. It's not that any of these products are bad, either -- Chemical Guys, Ammo, whatever Pan uses, that Adam guy, it's not like any of their products don't work. But that's sort of the point. They all work fine, as do many more budget products, and it's just them trying to get you to develop brand loyalty to either their channel or their products, or both.

I use the Meguiar's car wash because it's cheap and also I figure Meguiar's is a well-established company, so it's not like they can't figure out how to make car soap. If you told me that a product that costs much more does a better job, then I'd have to hear how that works, but I'm open to hearing it. I started using the Turtle Wax Seal 'N' Shine because I saw a video where they did a direct comparison between it and several other products, including one that was extremely expensive. It's also cheap and it does the job pretty well. Is it the best product ever? Probably not. The first time I used it, it lasted for a long time, several months. Ever since then, it's sort of "worn off" within a few weeks. But I'm not so into my car that I care. I guess if I was the kind of person who was clay bar-ing my car and de-ironing it, then I probably would be using a solid wax and not a spray wax.

 

I didn't know that, but I don't think I'm that bold, lol. A lot of the haze is on my hood and since I may eventually need that repainted anyways, I think I'm just going to let it go for now.

 

Understood. You could also try a clay bar and try wiping some of the haze off any other parts of the vehicle. Anyway, just my 2 cents...

 

The "real" way to do it is to use a polisher, right? If I used that Dawn method, do I just pour Dawn directly (undiluted) onto the hood? Do you have to "scrub" it afterwards and then rinse it off?

 

Why need to use dawn? They have products for this like chemical guys clean slate that will strip off car wax. Its always a good idea to clay/polish which will further remove anything that is left

 

Because Dawn is cheaper and does the same thing. It's a recurring theme.

 

Diluted and wash as normal.

Now, I'm prolly gonna get a thousand "NO WAY" responses of using Dawn soap, but it's just one option. It will strip your protection down to zero though - so proceed with care LOL

 

I know soap will remove the protection, but I thought it also damaged the paint. I wasn't sure, though. (Not planning on using it, though, lol.) Lots of products remove all the wax. Like bug and tar remover products will remove all the wax.

 

$9 for 16oz, and you only need 1-2oz to strip wax to be used few times a year, I can afford it...