Wow this turned to squabbling quite quickly.

To clarify, I have already had my first door ding and properly applied touch-up paint to the small chip that resulted. In my mind however, there's a big difference between accepting the things you cant control, like door dings caused by other people, and purposely abusing your own belongings.

If you don't care, that's totally cool. I hope you can find someone to buy your car who also doesn't care about the way it looks. Or if you're willing to accept the loss in value from having "worn" condition paint vs "good" or "excellent" quality paint as a type of luxury for not having to take care of it, that's cool too. But criticizing people for wanting to take good care of their cars, on a car forum, strikes me as an oxymoron.

 

Im just messing with you man. As a car enthusiast who's obsessed with detailing, I'm just speaking from experience. I agree, nothing is better than fresh factory paint.

I used to be the kind of guy who would constantly do 2 bucket washes, clay, wax etc. When the car was clean, it was a beautiful thing. But it only lasted a couple days because, you know, you eventually have to DRIVE your car. I started to get neurotic. I would freak out if anyone saw my car when it was dirty. I found myself washing my car WAY too often. I think my wife was seriously worried about my mental state. Overall, my obsession with detailing started out as a good thing but it eventually turned into something ridiculous.

Today, I'm more about finding a compromise. About twice a year, I strip the paint with Dawn dish soap, do a good clay job, use my random orbital buffer and a light compound to get rid of light swirls, and apply a high quality sealant. For the rest of the year, I use a local drive-thru car wash. I usually use some wax as you dry spray to dry the car. Sure, the car wash brushes might scratch the paint up a bit (I've never noticed any swirls or scratches from my car wash personally), but it's nothing I cant easily buff out. Using this method is easy, and my car still looks ridiculously clean all the time.

Anyway, I'm just giving my point of view on detailing since we both seem to really enjoy it. People like to make black and white claims like it has to be "drive it till the wheel falls off and shove McDonalds fries in every orifice possible" or "2 bucket system 4 lyfe, claybar erry day". It doesn't have to be that way! You can have your cake and eat it too, just take a step back and analyze the big picture.

I commend you for taking care of your car. Most people just treat their cars like a disposable toys.

 

This legitimately cracked me up for some reason. Agree that there has to be a middle ground. I don't mind my car getting dirty, that's a thing that happens (file under: things I can't control) so I'd rather drive a dirty car but be conscientious when I actually do wash it every few weeks. Things would be different if I had kids.

 

Good post!

I like washing my cars for a couple hours each Saturday morning; great way to relieve stress. That and it allows me to give the cars a nice once over on a regular basis.

 

Factory-fresh paint untouched by the greasy not-detailers they typically employ at dealerships is truly beautiful. I was finally able to dedicate some time to mine yesterday after telling the dealer not to touch the exterior before handing it over. I picked it up and was very pleased at how filthy it was.

However, I have the dreaded resin/adhesive drippings all over my rear hatch, and I don't have the time to deal with that, so back to the dealer it goes. I just hope they don't shred the clear coat like I'm worried they will. I already stated I'd like to take it to a professional and have them billed for it, but they absolutely won't agree to that. Shame.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong.

 

Mike I see you're in Wisconsin... I drive there now and then, want to add another car to your Saturday routine? You can be extra de-stressed! ;-P

I looked at reviews for car wash places out here and all had mixed reviews. I know a great detailer in Seattle, but that won't help here! hehehe, so I'll just have to deal with a less pretty paint job. Someday, when I own my own house and have a place to wash the car at home, I may get into detailing like you cool kids :-)

 

I dunno if its some kind of weird camera focus thing but that looks like orange peel. My buddy just bought a new Toyota Sienna and it also has orange peel. I'd have the dealer pay to wetsand the clear before I would take delivery of that car.

I'd say, buy a polisher because swirls or not, your not gonna get much clarity from that paint unless you compound it a little.

 

That blue is so attractive

 

It does have a slight orange peel like pretty much every new car painted with the eco-paint crap. I'm okay with the light OP, it doesn't bug me that much. I'll save the wet-sanding and compounding for when it has 100K on the clock. For the record looks pretty damn fine unless you stand within a foot of the paint.

 

What do you mean, ecopaint? Just because the paint is water based doesn't mean you will have orange peel. Have you tried buffing it? It might at least improve the clarity. In your pic, the outline of your head is all blurry; I cant even tell if you are wearing a beret or not. Perhaps some ultimate compound and a polisher would improve it?

My GD doesn't have orange peel like that. I'd be pissed because the orange peel will for sure hinder the gloss. If you are so interested in having perfect, swirl free paint, I'd invest in a porter cable xp7424 or a flex polisher.

 

The outline of my head is blurry because the camera is focused on the metallic flake in the paint and not my reflection which is twice as far away (as far as the camera is concerned). Note picture was taken to reflect lack of swirls/scratching and not paint clarity. I don't care that much about having perfect paint, but swirling and love marks are something I'm more concerned about.

Here's a picture of the same car, but this time shot to show paint clarity. Note that some of the trees nearer the camera are still out of focus due to depth of field, but look at the middle of the tree line.


The orange peel is very very subtle and within acceptable tolerances for me. A 7424xp is on my list of things to buy when I can find one on sale, but I still have no desire to buff brand new paint. I'll save that for 50k or 100k which will be here before we know it.

-Blake

 

George, Please DO NOT USE LIQUID DISH SOAP!! It removes wax from your paint. There are many reputable brands of car wash soap that are designed for car paint. I kid you not on this. Bill#22335

 

...unless removing waxes and any other (non-clear coat) protectants is your intention. Then knock yourself out.

 

Nice! I was sure that it was some illusion, i couldnt believe that the paint would be that bad. I'd still get the Porter cable. You could polish the paint occasionally. I mean, you will get brake dust, tar, industrial fallout on your car, it's inevitable unless you never take it outside! You'll need to claybar and that will mar the paint slightly so some polishing will be necessary.

Now that I have a PC, my car looks amazing, even after 5 years and 60k miles. If you can get to 50k without any swirls or dings, you should be in the Guinness world records book! It's not that expensive but spending hundred of hours working by hand is in my mind. Time is money!

 

Any word on trying to find them on sale? I hate paying full price for tools but the damn things never seem to get reduced in price.

 

I got mine on sale at Napa for 100$. Check their catalogue. I had to special order it and it took like 8 weeks to get it because of the ridiculousness Canadians have to deal with.

I'd give a long hard look to the package deals that sites like Autogeek.com offer, they end up being a pretty sweet deal. They sell the PC with a backing plate and a selection of pads so you can get a nice array of cutting, polishing and finishing pads to get you started. I also strongly recommend getting a big 5" and a smal 3 1/2 inch backing plate.

Just buffed my headlights the other day before waxing my car. Took me at least 5 minutes to get both headlights crystal clear i also think that machine buffing is even safer than using your hand since the pressure is applied evenly. However, you must maintain clean pads so claying is important.

 

I haven't hand washed a car for I guess 25-30 years, ever since you-do-it high pressure spray washes became common. 15 min. and 3-4 bucks. They do a great job for me. An occasional drive thru satisfies me when time/cold makes it handy. They're gone now but my wife's '98 Accord and my '01 CRV still looked good when we traded them. Paint is vastly better than a generation ago.

 

This is great information