DIY detailing or professional?

Hello OP. I recently tried detailing my Black Raven CTS-V by myself. I tried using Turtle Wax Black Box I found at the store. It had a "prewax", polish, wax. All black colored to help fill in the tiny scratches. Over all it worked, but after a few days I can see I didn't buff it off very well.

Any tips for buffing and getting all the wax off? What kind of towels to use?

Anyway, here is before.

And after

Paint looked fantastic afterwards.

>What do YOU use to dry your car off before claying?
I used to use standard yellow chamois' but found they scratch paint. I bought a large microfiber cloth that I guess could be called a towel and use that. Good absorbancy, soft fabrics. The one I have been using is about seven years old, I should get a new one at this point.

>Should I seriously just invest in about 30 towels? Last year I felt like I was short with 10.
I don't feel like making alot of laundry, and my cars are old. I flip things into squares and get a useable 4 squares on each microfiber cloth, 8 in total. You may want to invest in a few more and not follow my example if your car is worth it.

I found that simple machine washing won't get out all the old wax and dirt. Wax pads and buffing cloths should be soaked in warm to hot water with a good soap and hand washed first, then toss them in the machine. Eventually they become too discolored or lose their fabrics, and you gotta get new ones.

As I stated I'm no expert.

I've only done it once but was met with above average results. I used Meguiars Ultimate Car wash, followed by clay bar, then Meguiars Ultimate compound Polish. To remove the polish, I used a black Microfiber towel purchased at Advanced Auto Parts. It helped me see the polish residue on the towel. I only used one towel and got lucky but should have used more as stated by user above. Followed by the polish, I used Meguiars Ultimate Wax (I think this is the name) Especially made for dark clear coats. The car turned out sleek and superb. Although back then I didn't have much swirls so I may possibly be met with different results this spring but I'm certain my process listed in this post is good despite a few tweaks.

I actually used Turtle on my other Caddy DeVille beater and I noticed swirls did not remove. It was a decent product, but I wouldn't recommend for clear coats made by Cadillac.

05 V owner here, 70k miles and all stock.

Is yours stock? Mods planned?

If you haven't yet, try taking the exhuast off cat-back. It comes off clean with a few bolts and hangers. Makes it almost too loud, kinda exotic sounding because of high compression LS6 and restrictive stock exhuast manifolds.

The first thing I noticed were the dirty wheels.

Mines a '07 with 68k miles. It already has a X pipe cat back, LS7 clutch conversion, had a K&N intake but stock on at the moment. Just did cradle bushings a few weeks ago.

Yeah I didn't really pay attention to the wheels from all angles. Those Brembos dirty them fast. I need black wheels.

Can you claybar alloy wheels? What about polish and waxing?

I am a professional, so I do it myself.

You can clay anything. But wheel cleaners would be more efficient

God, that looks terrible. Need to use an orbital to fix that.

Cradle bushings worth it? Benefits?

Just use a wheel cleaner and scrub them by hand, then if you really wanted to wax them I'd just use a spray wax and dry them.

Protip: buy silver cars, never deal with swirls again. Most detailers I know own silver cars because they can't be bothered to buff their own cars.

For a real deep clean:

-Take wheel off car.
-Get one of those green 3M scour pads, rough it up to break it in a bit, and use that with wheel cleaner. Scrub, rinse after.
-Wash with dish soap, maybe some extra degreaser.
-Clay the inside and outside
-You can both hand apply polish and a wax to them, but these are high heat areas, special wheels waxes can be bought.
-I even spot fixed with a close in color touch up stick after I was done, a few chips, before they get worse.

and use STICKY WEIGHTS damnit anything else causes rim corrosion. moreover in salty areas.

You are paying your whores way too much for anal.

Does yours wheel hop badly? I did it to try and reduce it. Helped a little but didn't eliminate it.

My process and what products I use
First I wash my car twice with one of my mitts, I use Griots mitt, but sometimes a friend comes to help and I give him my Meguair one. I use Meguiar gold class soap, pick anything that doesn't bundle wax.
Rinse, sorta try to cover the car in suds to soften everything, light wash, rinse, one more light wash.
My mitt only goes along the body, never in circular motions, and I don't try to scrub off any paint contaminants, leaving them for the next step.
Mitt is rinsed my the hose to get the big stuff off, then scrubbed against the grit guard in the rinse bucket before going back into the soap bucket.
Wash wheels. Do not use your mitt for the wheels. Always do wheels last because brake dust will destroy your paint
Apply tire shine if you want
Dry paint with a chamois (random target brand), Next, I apply a wax stripper, i use griots paint prep, rinse, then I get to work claying each panel (bought Meguiar Clay Kit)
Spray working area with whatever detailing spray you have, then spray a little on the clay, and move it a cross the surface, again, no circular motions.
You're done when you don't hear/feel a light scratchy noise, and whatever contaminant is gone. Some spots need a lot of elbow grease, but don't use fingertips so you don't accidentally wear through the clay and scratch at your paint. Assuming you don't need to treat any scratches, swirls, chips, etc, next apply a paint sealant. These are far superior to waxes in terms of protection and longevity, and if you want the warm and wet shine of caranauba, it can be layered over the sealant. Apply with a foam applicator, working each panel, in long straight lines, (it may be done with a rotary or dual action or w/e you have, I do it by hand), then after it has had a little time to set, wipe off with a microfiber towel. I generally do 1 or two panels, then go back to wipe, then 3rd or 4th, wipe 2nd, etc.

>Do you guys do it yourself or have you ever had it done at a detailing shop?

You can hide the swirls and very shallow scratches yourself by using wax. If you have a detailer do it, they will "correct" your paint by cutting it. That means they polish the clear coat thinner and thinner until the thickness is down to the level of the bottom of the swirl marks.

You have a 2008, so there is no telling if it has had corrections done in the past. You don't want to stack too many corrections because at some point, the clear coat will be too thin to have proper ultraviolet protection to the delicate paint it is protecting.

I suggest you use a non-tedious wax product to hide the swirl marks and protect the clear coat and paint of course. The carnauba wax products are harder to take off because if you miss spots, they can turn into white powder. So try the newer synthetic wax products such as turtle wax ICE or meguiar's ultimate. Both are good products and do not polish (i.e. cut) your clear coat. I use turtle wax ICE on my new car and it hides all the swirl marks the dealer detailing prep put into it.

If you have a large garage, park you caddy in there and do the final re-wipe with microfiber to get rid of atmospheric dust and grit right before you apply the synthetic wax.

Sounds good... So you advise AGAINST polishing altogether? I have a hottle of Meguiars Ultimate Polish Compound.

>So you advise AGAINST polishing altogether?

No, if polishing away the clear coat (aka correction) is required, then do it. But polishing is usually not necessary to hide swirl marks.

The problem with the word "polish" is that it is misused due to carelessness. Because of that, even car care product sellers like Meguiar's end up misusing that word on their labeling and advertising when they tell customers to polish their cars. There's no doubt customers got confused and ended up buying polishes when their cars only needed waxing.

I am not a fan of "correction" when it is not required. There is a difference between "want", "need", and "required". Correction is one of those things that my practical viewpoint says should be required. Other people like detailers in past threads say mere "need" is enough, but of course detailers have the attitude that more cars should get correction. But who defends the car against damage? Correction is deliberate massive damage to the clear coat for the sake of aesthetics. Is it valid to polish away all that clear coat?

If washing and re-wasing the car is easy and fast, then much fewer people would avoid correcting the paint. The people who like correction are those who simply wash the cars without re-waxing. Since the wash removes enough wax to reveal swirl marks, they want a correction so that they don't have to bother with waxing but once a year.

If you use a wax product that is easy to put on and take off, then waxing isn't a time consuming task. The full synthetic waxes are like that. They are easier to use than the old school carnauba waxes.

Avoid washing or using detailing sprays by using a static dust brush to remove pollen and dust from dark coloured cars. Go to walmart.com and search for blue static dust brush. It's close to what I use. To remove dust collected by the brush, twirl the handle in between your two palms. That spins the brush and the dust flies off.

This whole winter I've been washing on average once per week and have not waxed since last June.

Once summer hits, I was thinking of washing twice, clay barring, compound, polish, then wax.

You say polish is only necessary if correction is needed... What exactly qualifies as needed?

My clearcoat is absolutely stunning. An average person would be happy. However I am anal. I've noticed that in the sunlight, the veryical part of the trunk is hazy and has a lot of swirls. I notice this however I am not sure if others do.

I'd like it to be wet and glossy looking, as this part of the car, aka the butt, is my favorite part.

I'm not sure what to do.