Car show detailing tips?

[Predator Bird]

i'm going to be in the SLP car show in orlando on sat and i was wondering what some good things i could do to make my car look nice. i'm obviously going to wash it before. i waxed it a week ago w/ meguiars gold class, going to use some meguiars scratch x to remove some minor scratches and swirls, bought some automotive glass cleaner w/ no amonia to clean the inside of my windows, going to vaccum, and clean out my engine the best i can. what should i use to clean out the engine? should i use armor all on anything in my engine or on my tires? i hate the stuff so i never use it, but i will if it will look better at the show. thats all i can think of that i'm going to do. i also polished my wheels last week too. anything else i'm forgetting? should i print up something showing a list of mods done to the car? thanks for any info you guys suggest.

[Sean37]

First of all make sure you have some good quality towels. I use royal velvet bath towels then cut them up into smaller pieces. Terry towels are not any good because they have polyester in them and are not 100% cotton despite what the package might say. Then this is what I'd do:

1: wash it with dish soap
2: clay it (mothers or clay magic is good)
3: wash it again to remove claybar residue
4: polish with meguiars #7 show car polish
5: wax with meguiars #26 high tech yellow wax
6: tire dressing (meguiars purple stuff - wont sling off onto the car)

I've heard newspaper works well on the glass also. And for the engine bay you may want to try Simple Green. It might be a good idea to bring a bottle of quick detailer, towels, and glass cleaner with you to the car show as well.

[hawgs]

wash with dish soap?! trying to remove ALL the wax?

[ March 28, 2003: Message edited by: hawgs ]</p>

[sac2165]

I use ivory soap (really bubbly stuff) when I want to really clean the body well, clay bar, polish, polish, polish, & then some carnuba wax.

For the wheels, I use that eagle 1 metal polish, followed by carnuba wax.

Engine bay, spray the engine down with water for a good 5 minutes til everything is cool. I hit the cast metal parts with simple green & tooth brush, and the painted metal (sides & hood) with car wash, or ivory soap. I finish the painted parts with spray detailer.

Newspaper works the best for the outside of the windows, stick with paper towel for the inside [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Pewter2k Formula]

Oh my....dont wash it with dishsoap....very alkaline and like the hawgs said....removes the wax!! Dont use wax but since you're cutting this close and only have today I guess you'll have to.

I've entered lots of shows and gotten 1st lace a few times so here's some tips.

Make sure you clean very well under the car body edges..bottom of doors, near tailpipes etc.

Clean the inside of the wheels with a long brush then dry and apply chrome polish.

Clean the engine bay very well and inside of hood

Clean rear hatch itself on the inside and the body part it sits into.

Clean the door jambs along with the inside of course.

Good luck! Wish I was there :(

Also this is what you need...I make these so if you want one let me know. They are 11x14 size or can make any size you want



[ March 28, 2003: Message edited by: Pewter2k Formula ]</p>

[Predator Bird]

thanks for the tips. last week i washed it w/ dish soap and then waxed it so i'm not going to re-wax it today. i had planned on spending most of today cleaning up my car so i waxed it beforehand to save some time. what should i use to clean the rubber stuff under the hood like the intake elbow? that things has tons of grooves and is a PITA to clean.

pewter2k, that pic is pretty cool. if you don't mind making one that would be pretty cool. i have photoshop myself, but i'm not very good at it yet. i think the first pic on pg 1 is the best and all of the mods info is at the bottom of the page. if you don't have the time or just don't feel like doing it, don't worry about it.

i'm bringing my roommates digicam w/ me so i'll put pics of the event on my cardomain site. i'll even try to borrow my friends digi video cam so i can record some drag racing and different exhausts reving, but i doubt he'll lend that to me.

[Sean37]

I said to wash with dish soap because there's probably some old wax on there and he was going to polish and wax it again anyway. After that, use car wash soap only.

[Pewter2k Formula]

Its suppose to rain tomorrow so I'll work on it ;D

[Ted]

An important lesson I learned after a while is not to listen to what everyone says most people are wrong and aren't helping you out. First off when your cleaning the engine bay I wouldn't use simple green this product is known to corrode, we use to use it a while back when I was detailing aircrafts and the boss found out that it started corroding metal and making paint wear. I would use spray nine would be safter and much better, it won't corrode, or just get some foamy engine bright under there. I wouldn't spray anything on the under the hood just wipe it down with some shop towels. Something else no one mentioned was under the wheel wells. When I always went to hooters I'd spray black magik under them, i think cars look horrible if they have dirt all under the wheel wells. Either that or blacken it out with black undercoat. Also did you get some touchup yet on that nose and those chips? If your not getting it fixed for a while at least goto autozone and touch it up. It's better to have a red scratch or crack rather then a white one that sticks out. Anyway good luck man

[ March 29, 2003: Message edited by: Ted ]</p>

[Domestic Violence]

clean the engine bay then dry it. when it's dry, spray the whole bay down with something like black magic tire wet. spray everything. now hose that off and wipe away the excess water. by saying hose it off, i mean use very light water and spray it in a cone shape.

you can also get black magic 'tire tint' that is red. it will match your car.

be real generous with black magic tire shine. anything that's black, put it on there.

you can buy a microfiber towel pretty cheap. those are awesome for cleaning windows. they don't leave any streaks or lint.

i would also take the wheels off and clean inside the rims and up under the wheel well. be liberal with tire shine on those plastic parts too.

[Christian]

Once again, I may be neive but if it's black, put baby oil on it, the time frame that it takes to evaporate is quicker than black majic or armor all, but for this situation its perfect! I gurantee if you do half with baby oil and the other half with anyhting on the planet, you will always use baby oil! Nothing can shine better, it may not protect from harsh elements or junk like that, but if shine and look is what you are shooting for (like in a car show) you need this in your detailing bag, fo' real. Just try it and see if my word is not my bond...plus at the price you pay for it, its pretty mych expendible so you can be as generous as you want to be....smells good too pimpin'!