How much is too much? 3 day detail for a daily driven Legacy (tips, tricks &discussio

Some of you might know by now that I am quite the detail freak and like to keep my cars in somewhat meticulous condition. This is usually a result of careful weekly washes and on going details. People can look at this as obsession, therapy, extreme OCD or waaay too much time on one’s hand. I would like to think of as therapy and quiet time. Since the forums detailing section is not too active but questions still do get asked around 6 Gens, I figured we could keep this thread as a discussion where we can share the products used and share some of methods.

 

I usually set aside 3 days for my concourse type of details and Subaru typically is not the one that would be on the receiving end. Normally, I have a weekend/ sunny day/show car type of a vehicle that gets all the attention. I am currently in between weekend drivers and needed some quiet time so Subaru let’s say got lucky! I wanted to make it look showroom fresh and reset the clock on 7K miles that is currently on the car.

I did not think of taking pictures until half way through day 2 so I don’t have before and after pictures. But overall condition of the car was not bad before. The worst part was the undercarriage.

 

If you have free time on your hands and have nothing better to read here is 3 days of detail.

I would be happy to answer any questions regarding products and equipment used, my tips, tricks & etc.

 

 

Day 1: Interior:

 

Interior of the car was already clean but I wanted to take advantage of the warm weather we have been having and decided to condition the leather. Here is what has been done:

 

-Vacuumed

-Floor mats cleaned and treated (weather-techs)

-Dash & Vents cleaned by using Griots Interior Cleaner

-Gauges, HVAC controls and Nav screen polished off with Zaino Z-6

-Windows, sunroof & mirrors cleaned and polished from inside

-Leather treated by Leatherique Leather Rejuvenator and left over night for curing

-All plastic trim treated by Einszett Plastic Deep Cleaner

 

 

Day 2 -Interior finish / Undercarriage/ Paint Correction:

 

-Leather whipped off with Leatherique Prestine Clean and a coat of Zaino Z-10 was applied (mainly for amazing smell) and buffed off

-Car on 4 Jacks and wheels came off

-Engine was cleaned using P21 Total Auto Wash (TAW) and various brushes

- Wheels were prepped with P21S Wheel Cleaner and cleaned up with various brushes

- Tires were spritzed down with P21S TAW and washed down

- Wheel wells were cleaned up by using swissvax and other various brushes

-All black trim was cleaned by P21S TAW

-Undercarriage and rockers detailed by using various brushes and P21S TAW

- Pre Washed (foam gun with Adam’s Car wash)

- Wash down and rinsed with Zaino car wash

- Door jambs were cleaned up / detailed

- Clayed by using nanoskin Auto scrub

-2 nd wash

- Dried

- Masked

- 1 Step Menzerna Super Finish with Green Pad

-50/50 Isopropyl wipe down

-3 rd wash

-Dried

- Inspection

- Last Step – Zaino Z5 w/ ZFX let it cure overnight

 

 

Day 3:

 

-Zaino Z-5 was buffed off and 2 additional coats where applied with 1hr in between coats for curing

-Wheel wells were touched up and dressed

- Rubber and Plastics Treated

- Exterior windows and mirrors cleaned and sealed

- Exhaust tips cleaned / polished

-Whole car was wiped down with Zaino -8 Grand Finale Spray

-BEER!

 

Now Some pictures of results.

 

Teaser after paint correction and 1st coat of polish

Paint after last coat of Zaino and post detail shots:

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_160158_zpsqtagimlf.jpg

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_160135_zpsq6v7bfnd.jpg

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_155601_zpsfrordzch.jpg

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_160229_zpsay20pkbv.jpg

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_160035_zps9m8csrcq.jpg

 

Interior (Yes, I still have some of the plastic from the factory):

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_161127_zpsv77obhsi.jpg

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_161110_zps6gifmizz.jpg

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_161213_zpsy9fluuk4.jpg

 

Some of the products used:

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_162213_zpsa8xiqxyq.jpg

 

Back in the garage for a bit of hibernation:

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_164620_zps9y5buha0.jpg

 

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/tgunal/Subaru%202015/20150606_165455_zpsow6m8ifr.jpg

Fun to look at, and maybe a little over the top, but why not? Let me know when you're selling

 

Time to tile the garage floor?

Hey...very nice job. I'd pay you $100 to do that to my car.

Looks clean. We all have our priorities;)

 

I would clean off those door jamb airbag stickers. It really cleans up the jambs. That was the first thing I did was go around and peel every warning sticker off the car. This car wasn't too bad but some car makers plaster those warning stickers everywhere. I even covered up the visors with silver carbon fiber vinyl wrap. Matches the silver dash nicely.

 

 

Hey...very nice job. I'd pay you $100 to do that to my car.

 

$100 gets you the basic clean, nothing even remotely close to this.

Like I said...I'll pay $100 to have this done to my car.

Like I said...I'll pay $100 to have this done to my car.

 

haha. I got ya.

It's a shame that you live up north and "winter is coming".

Winter is not bad where he is at, looks great TTG. I have the same problem you do, not a problem really, it is very therapuetic to spend the day with your car. I would say someone who spend too much time in the bar has problems. I spent about 4 hours on rotors and new brake pads on my Q7, saved probably $500, was that a waste of time? At least when you do it yourself, you can clean up threads/lubricate prior to putting back, spray silicon lube in all the moving parts to save your suspension maybe. I wont specifically start cleaning underneath, but in the process of doing something i will. I like the griots line, just more expensive, they are starting to get reasonable and the local autozone carries some of there stuff. I cant say too much about Liquid Glass which is way expensive unless theres a package deal on amazon. I think the absolute most crucial part of detailing is using clean quality microfiber towels. cars are a big investment and deserve to be taken care of. PS everytime i try to trade a car in, one of my neighbors offers to buy it, happened three times.

Fun to look at, and maybe a little over the top, but why not? Let me know when you're selling

 

Time to tile the garage floor?

 

It is totally over the top especially for a Subaru. And yes, tile is on list of things to do.

 

Looks clean. We all have our priorities;)

 

I would clean off those door jamb airbag stickers. It really cleans up the jambs. That was the first thing I did was go around and peel every warning sticker off the car. This car wasn't too bad but some car makers plaster those warning stickers everywhere. I even covered up the visors with silver carbon fiber vinyl wrap. Matches the silver dash nicely.

 

 

Thank You

 

I am not a fan of moving the factory installed warnings, heck I did not even know removing them was a possibility.

 

Would love to see a pic of the visors.

 

It's a shame that you live up north and "winter is coming".

 

Our winters just involve rain.... nothing bad, plus I will have a reason to do it all over again next year

 

Winter is not bad where he is at, looks great TTG. I have the same problem you do, not a problem really, it is very therapuetic to spend the day with your car. I would say someone who spend too much time in the bar has problems. I spent about 4 hours on rotors and new brake pads on my Q7, saved probably $500, was that a waste of time? At least when you do it yourself, you can clean up threads/lubricate prior to putting back, spray silicon lube in all the moving parts to save your suspension maybe. I wont specifically start cleaning underneath, but in the process of doing something i will. I like the griots line, just more expensive, they are starting to get reasonable and the local autozone carries some of there stuff. I cant say too much about Liquid Glass which is way expensive unless theres a package deal on amazon. I think the absolute most crucial part of detailing is using clean quality microfiber towels. cars are a big investment and deserve to be taken care of. PS everytime i try to trade a car in, one of my neighbors offers to buy it, happened three times.

 

Heh heh, we sound the same. It takes me longer to clean around the components and such than to replace the actual brakes.

 

There usually is a list of people wanting to buy my cars as well. I was actually very surprised when the dealer who sold me my 2012 Legacy wanted to buy my car back. They paid top dollar for it.

Thank You

 

I am not a fan of moving the factory installed warnings, heck I did not even know removing them was a possibility.

 

Would love to see a pic of the visors.

 

...

 

Nobody even pays attention to them other than they see bright yellow/orange.

 

Here's a quick shot of pass side. I'm gonna re-do because I cut the corner a touch to shy and you can see the black ring

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc86/rfoker/th_20150611_182105_zpsqozilsfb.jpg

I used 3M this time around and it stuck great. The black vinyl before was no-namer and didn't stick good. a 12"x12" cut cost $10 shipped.

I am a car detailing enthusiast and kind of want to make a career out of it if I can. So I figured I'd ask sort of newbie questions. Whenever I drive, even short distances I always end up finding more and more scratches on my car and it drives me insane because I try to preserve it's current state of beauty. Maybe I'm using the wrong type of wax. Even a couple months ago I was using old wax that was over 10 years old. (Who knew car wax goes bad over time, not I) but everyone thought I was an idiot because I realized the wax left white streaks all over be place. But my question is does all this work really preserve the car, is there a car wax that can actually protect the paint from rock chips? And I am from NY, one of the only few states to use salt on our roads, so cars start to deteriorate within the first 5 years. So is there a wax or something I can put over bubbling/rusting pAint to stop it from spreading?

Also what would you suggest I use to clean urethane mudflaps? I bought some used and you can really tell they became faded overtime. So I would love to restore them back to the super shiny look of new urethane mudflaps. Me being the newbie I am I put goof off on them. You probably know that goof off warps anything plastic but it didn't mess up my mudflaps any worse than they were before

I am a car detailing enthusiast and kind of want to make a career out of it if I can. So I figured I'd ask sort of newbie questions. Whenever I drive, even short distances I always end up finding more and more scratches on my car and it drives me insane because I try to preserve it's current state of beauty. Maybe I'm using the wrong type of wax. Even a couple months ago I was using old wax that was over 10 years old. (Who knew car wax goes bad over time, not I) but everyone thought I was an idiot because I realized the wax left white streaks all over be place. But my question is does all this work really preserve the car, is there a car wax that can actually protect the paint from rock chips? And I am from NY, one of the only few states to use salt on our roads, so cars start to deteriorate within the first 5 years. So is there a wax or something I can put over bubbling/rusting pAint to stop it from spreading?

 

I suggest you visit a detailing section or forum.

 

You need to use a Synthetic Sealant.

You need to use brand new applicator pads.

You must use clean towels. I fold them and rotate the folds so your not wiping potential contamination on your car which can scratch. The scratches are probably from you wiping. I air dry my car since it beads so nicely. This saves many swirls and scratches.

I prefer liquid wax over paste.

 

Also what would you suggest I use to clean urethane mudflaps? I bought some used and you can really tell they became faded overtime. So I would love to restore them back to the super shiny look of new urethane mudflaps. Me being the newbie I am I put goof off on them. You probably know that goof off warps anything plastic but it didn't mess up my mudflaps any worse than they were before

 

Try Mothers back-to-Black

or

Meguiars Ultimate Black Plastic Restorer

 

I HIGHLY suggest NOT using it anywhere it can run down your paint!!! This stuff has oils that will streak and stain your paint requiring a ton of elbow grease to remove. Ask me how I know:rolleyes:

If your serious about detailing, there are tons of good websites and forums. Once you got rust bubbling up ur paint ur in trouble, it's cancer to cars. Heavy undercarriage treatments are available, Google search it. we don't have salt or ocean breezes here so I don't worry about it.

^^^no salt or sea breezes...you are living in the wrong place my friend.

Back to Black is really a good product, I would recommend it.

^^^I agree...I have it in my garage and both protects and shines.

If your serious about detailing, there are tons of good websites and forums. Once you got rust bubbling up ur paint ur in trouble, it's cancer to cars. Heavy undercarriage treatments are available, Google search it. we don't have salt or ocean breezes here so I don't worry about it.

 

Stop. He can just spread some of that Fat cream from 'As Seen on TV' and it will magically wither away the rust underneath the paint.

 

In all seriousness. bubbling = expensive repair.

You guys know nothing of OCDetails. [emoji6]

Also what would you suggest I use to clean urethane mudflaps? I bought some used and you can really tell they became faded overtime. So I would love to restore them back to the super shiny look of new urethane mudflaps. Me being the newbie I am I put goof off on them. You probably know that goof off warps anything plastic but it didn't mess up my mudflaps any worse than they were before

 

P21S Total Auto Wash with a soft brush will clean them well and then Back to Black (or anything similar to that) will bring them back.

 

We used to use black shoe polish on some of the old Volvo's and that also did wonders.

Thanks everyone. Yeah me reusing supposively clean microfiber got the best of me, Sorry to hog the post

what percent is your tint ttg? did you do front only or all windows?

I am always impressed by clean cars.

 

I like to keep mine dirty. The first layer of dirt protects my car from the other dirt. Think of it like clear coat, only made from dirt.

 

Seriously, I make no real effort to clean mine until I the day before I sell it. I take it through a car wash once a year or so and clean the dog hair, toys, food, baseball stuff, etc. out then.

Yuck!