Recomendations for detail kit inc DA, Snow foam etc

[Edmundo2]

Hi.

Appreciate there are lots of threads already but just wanted a recomendation that covers all my needs in one place if poss.

I have various Autoglym/Swissol products but with my previous cars I've just washed and polished by hand. My new Cayman is Lapis Blue, ( metallic dark blue with slight purple hue ), which shows swirls easily. I believe its had some paint in the past..

Therefore I plan to start with snow foam and DA polishing etc..I don't want to go nuts with hours of detailing as I'm more about the driving but equally I want to do a good job and keep up to it. On that basis am I right in thinking the following would be effective but not exhaustive process,

Snow foam
Wash
DA with one step polish

Not sure if I then need to add a final coat of something? Also I'm aware that I might periodically need to clay bar but not all the time. If the above is correct I'd be grateful if someone could advise a one stop shop list of stuff to buy,

Snow foam and lance - which foam and lance? I have a pressure washer.

DA polisher - DA6 - Is there a certain brand?

Pads - for one step compound and finishing?

One step compound - which one?

Cloths - which ones

Wax_Sealer- is this needed with one step , ( assume I can use wax that come in my swissol kit? )

Clay bar - will do it periodically

Hope this makes sense and ideally I'll buy a in one go from one store.

Cheers,

Ed

[Shanksy87]

I'm relatively new into detailing but spent a few months researching and found the follow that may be helpful for you.

Clay bar only if you intend to polish afterward, else use a chemical decontamination process of tar and iron removers. A clay mitt appears to be a more recent development worth looking into.

The DA seems to be a bottomless pit, budget will likely define your choice with more money buying you a bigger axis (faster coverage) and a higher quality machine. I went for the DAS6 Pro Plus, happy with my choice after doing 3 cars recently.

For snow foam a PA foamer is fairly common choice and I've seen good reviews of the MTM PF22 item. Yet to buy mine but will wait for the MTM PF22.2 to hit the UK.

For a lance MTM and Mosmatic do some quality items. Many many options depending on budget here though.

I'm certainly not best placed to advise on a good one step pad/compound solution. I did however read a blog that suggested the hexlogic orange and menzerna 400 was a good coverall. I found the firmer yellow pad was needed on harder paint. I found it got out most of the swirls and you would need to be pretty silly to do much damage with this combo. I've more recently read I should probably invest in a microfibre pad for the more serious scratches and that Lake Country get better reviews - a pad isn't for life and they're cheap enough to chop and change until you find what's good for you.

For cloths I found The Rag Company offer many choices with a good bio about which is good for what.

For sealing post polish you will likely be steered toward a ceramic coating these days, CQuartz UK 3.0 will get my money when I run out of wax. A post wash maintenance spray wax like Gyeon Wet Coat or similar seems to be handy and very time efficient.

HTH

[Edmundo2]

Hi. That's great thanks. I'll take a look at each product and get some ordered. Will use up wax before looking at ceramic etc.. thanks

[Belle427]

I’ve just used this on my own car and am very impressed with it, used with a das 6 pro and an orange hex logic pad.
https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/scholl-s20-black-1-...
For products you won’t go wrong with bilt hambers range, some very good products for sensible money.

[Downward]

Re pads.
See attached.
I’ve used the Hex logic green pad with Koch F06.
Paint is soft and it’s just got rid of most swirls.



I have also bought a black pad and would use this with a polish just for when it needs doing again.

[p4cks]

Personally I'd forget the snow foam. Whilst it looks cool, of all of the detailing products out there, this is probably the biggest snake oil of them all

[pidsy]

Thoughts on Gyeon products?

A friend is a detailed and swears by it. Reasonably priced too.

[Chubbyross]

p4cks said:

Personally I'd forget the snow foam. Whilst it looks cool, of all of the detailing products out there, this is probably the biggest snake oil of them all

I agree that most of the snow foams out there is rubbish and is there just for show. However, the Bilt Hamber stuff is excellent. It’s not designed to be overly foamy and runs off pretty quick but it does a fantastic job of loosening up the dirt before you go in with the contact wash.

[skinny]

I have been really impressed by Sonax EX 04-06 using a cheap DAS6. Picked it up from Slims.

Get a few different pads and you'll be capable of removing some heavy swirls but also a fantastic blemish free finish. I went lake county for pads but i doubt expect there's much in it with other decent quality pads.

Always finish with wax (or your choice of sealant), polish is not a finishing product, you need to protect your paint.

I use a clay mitt, maybe once every 12-18 months. Always machine polish after

Edited by skinny on Sunday 14th June 10:49

[_Hoppers]

Chubbyross said:

p4cks said:

Personally I'd forget the snow foam. Whilst it looks cool, of all of the detailing products out there, this is probably the biggest snake oil of them all

I agree that most of the snow foams out there is rubbish and is there just for show. However, the Bilt Hamber stuff is excellent. It’s not designed to be overly foamy and runs off pretty quick but it does a fantastic job of loosening up the dirt before you go in with the contact wash.

I used Auto Glym's snow foam first, I found it to be pretty useless. I heard good things about Bilt Hamber's product so gave that a go. Applied according to their instructions and calculating the flow rate of my pressure washer there was a marked difference between the two products. When using during the Winter months I didn't bother following it with a contact wash as it did such a good job, bearing in mind the car would get dirty on its next outing. I think in hindsight I should have used more product than Auto Glym suggested in their instructions for my pressure washer?

Before and after shots using Bilt Hamber alone

Edited by _Hoppers on Monday 15th June 09:15

Edited by _Hoppers on Monday 15th June 09:15

[WarnieV6GT]

Sorry to hijack the thread but..

Can anyone recommend a D A polishing starter kit for around £100?

I flip cars part time and would like to take the prep to a new level as I'm always disappointed with the way dealers present thier cars.

A few hours with a machine polisher will hopefully make them stand out more, if not add a bit of value as well.

[Gad-Westy]

WarnieV6GT said:

Sorry to hijack the thread but..

Can anyone recommend a D A polishing starter kit for around £100?

I flip cars part time and would like to take the prep to a new level as I'm always disappointed with the way dealers present thier cars.

A few hours with a machine polisher will hopefully make them stand out more, if not add a bit of value as well.

I use a DAS-6 and have no complaints. Bear in mind though that you will need backing pads, polishing pads and polish. Maybe some paint cleaner and pad cleaning stuff too. It adds up.

I suppose the other thing worth mentioning (maybe others will chime in and tell me I'm taking too long) but I reckon a normal car would take me at least a day to get to a state that I'm happy with. So that would be proper wash and clay. Clean any old waxes etc off. Correction, polishing, wax or seal. It's pretty time consuming and physically hard work as well. I can definitely see the value in doing it but you ought to consider your time and consumable overheads vs extra profit before you jump in on this if you haven't already of course.

[Dermot O'Logical]

pidsy said:

Thoughts on Gyeon products?

A friend is a detailed and swears by it. Reasonably priced too.

Gyeon stuff is excellent. I use Gyeon Bathe+ shampoo, and their Quick Detailer and water just beads up and rolls off. The QD needs to be used sparingly, and given a few minutes to "haze" before buffing, or it can leave smears.

I'm also using their tire(sic) treatment, and although this works well, and gives a good finish, as with the QD, it should be used sparingly.

[xjay1337]

@Warnie

If you're looking to start out and use it for cars "semi professionally" then this is fine : https://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/product/poorboys-wo...

You get a nice long 5M cable which is a big help (trust me )

As for pads I do like the Hexlogic ones

I'd go for (all available on the website)
Orange
Green
White
Black


and as for polishes I'd go for

https://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/product/sonax-profi... (this is pretty much a perfect 1 step polish on 90% of cars).

https://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/product/scholl-conc... (this is for heavier marks or harder paints)


https://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/product/scholl-conc... (this as a refinement for the s3).

As some may I know i worked as a detailer for several years and I'd say 80% of cars I did i used s3 / s40 combo on and it worked really well.

of course you need some masking tape and clay bars, autosmart tardis or valet pro tar remover would be great and some sort of iron remover (IronX is good but gyeon one is decent too)


You might be able to get a machine and 1 pad / polish bottle combo for like £130 if you shop around but those will be for 600w machines with really short 2m cables and if you're doing it regularly to get cars ready for sale then I'd certainly invest a little extra.

if you only wanted to keep costs down to a bare minimum then I'd go for a green pad and the Sonax 4/6 polish.

be aware with a DA you'll chew through pads and you're lucky to get 2 oe 3 large cars from one pad (in my personal experience) - with rotary they can last for a really long time

Edited by xjay1337 on Tuesday 23 June 10:00

[monty999]

p4cks said:

Personally I'd forget the snow foam. Whilst it looks cool, of all of the detailing products out there, this is probably the biggest snake oil of them all

Unfortunately, after buying into the snow foam thing I too found this to be money well wasted. A decent softening and rinse with the power wash does more to remove the heavy dirt prior to hand wash.

The Das 6 pro I bought has been a great bit of kit for the money though and really happy with the results that can be achieved with most products and a bit of time/patience.

[Belle427]

WarnieV6GT said:

Sorry to hijack the thread but..

Can anyone recommend a D A polishing starter kit for around £100?

I flip cars part time and would like to take the prep to a new level as I'm always disappointed with the way dealers present thier cars.

A few hours with a machine polisher will hopefully make them stand out more, if not add a bit of value as well.

I’d spend a little more and get the das 6 pro, it’s a great machine.
Your problem is the spending on the pads etc which should only be used for a certain amount of time, I do use mine again after a good wash out.
It took me about 4 hours last week to do my car with the scholl concepts s20 black And an orange hex logic pad and it left a very impressive finish.