- We're going a little fancy, I see, very good, very good.
What's going on, Chemical Guys Family?
Today, we're gonna be covering the topic of the
detailing flow chart.
Now, why this is so important is because a lot of people
get confused on what products to use, or when to use them,
so today, we're gonna break down the entire process to help
us all flow through the entire detailing experience
as easily and as smoothly as possible.
(futuristic music)
Now, the most important process is gonna be the wash,
and this is your first step.
This is going to remove the layer of dirt,
abrasive particles of grime, bird droppings,
or anything that could land on the surface of the vehicle.
And it's important to remove this as gently as possible
so that we're not inducing any scratches or swirls.
Now, whenever you're using your favorite soap,
you can use it in a traditional two bucket wash method,
you can use it in a foam gun or a foam cannon.
Using a foam gun or a foam cannon is gonna give you that
thicker layer of suds which help to lubricate the surface,
and thus further reduces the chances of having any
additional scratches or swirls.
And also, this is gonna be a great time to inspect the paint
and determine what's gonna be the next step in the process,
because now that you've removed that dirt that's been
hiding scratches, it's been hiding contamination,
now you're gonna get down to the real steps of detailing
where we'll move her on to clay bar,
which removes the embedded contaminants, rail dust,
brake dust, any kind of foreign contaminants
that have embedded the pores of the paint.
And we have four different grades here of our clay bar.
We have our light for a new vehicle or
routinely detailed vehicle;
the OG for a car that, let's say, between
six months and year was its last clay bar;
a medium, which is for most vehicles where it hasn't
been clay barred in a couple of years;
or heavy, which is more for cars that have been completely
neglected and something that you need to really
dig deep to get the foreign contaminants and all that
grime that gives your paint that rough feel
and that rough look to get it off the surface
and restore that flawless finish.
Now, to properly lubricate your clay bar,
you wanna use a dedicated lubricant, such as Clay Luber.
Now, what this does is it helps to glide your clay bar,
your clay mitt, or your clay block against the surface
so that you're not causing any kind of marring,
but it's also clinging at the same time.
So, as you clay, you're gonna see the embedded contaminants
come up, and it's gonna start turning brown and milky,
but you wanna make sure that
that safely carries off the surface.
So, Clay Luber has a lot of encapsulators that help to
gently carry anything that's abrasive off of the surface
so that, again, it's not scratching, and then we can
move on to our next step which is going to be really
digging deep, and also inspecting your paint work,
because now that the surface is nice and clean,
you can see all the kinds of imperfections
that were hidden before.
And that's why you want to inspect it with a light,
or you can see it outside in direct sunlight
where you see those spiderwebs or swirls,
and that brings us to our polishing step.
Now, here we have our V Line set up, and this is
something that we've broken down in a few videos.
So, if you want more in depth about that,
check it out on the channel, but for today,
we're gonna go over the process of determining
which one to use, and how to use it.
Whenever you're using a polish or a compound,
you can use it with your favorite rotary or
dual-action polisher.
If you're new to polishing, or new to detailing in general,
I recommend using a dual-action or a random orbital,
and the reason for this is because one, it's a lot
easier to use and two, it's much more forgiving than
a rotary would be, and that's because it's going to
remove less paint, it creates less heat than a rotary
would do because it's going to spread out the heat
and diminish the polish in a very different way
than a rotary would.
Now, if you have some experience with rotaries,
or detailing in general, it's a very quick way to
polish or restore the shine of your vehicle
using rotor polisher, and it's also a great way to
get a professional result.
Start out with the V32, this is for your really deep
scratches and swirls that go through your clear coat
down to your base coat, or just some
really heavy oxidation.
This is something that you'd use with either a
yellow Hex-Logic pad, or possibly an orange Hex-Logic pad.
So, what this is gonna use is an aggressive abrasive
which helps to diminish the clear coat and refine
that flawless finish, but typically you can't finish
with a compound, so you need to step it down to
something like V34.
And again, this is something that you can use on a vehicle
that has moderate scratches and swirls or if you're
going to refine your V32 scratches, this uses a less
aggressive abrasive which helps to refine that
clear coat even further.
And then working your way down, you have V36.
Now, typically on a car that has light scratches and swirls,
this is where we recommend to start,
because it's going to remove the least amount of
clear coat because, I've said it before in other videos,
but I'll say again: you clear coat doesn't regrow,
doesn't regenerate, so the more you take off
by using an aggressive compound first,
or, you know, multiple polishing steps,
it's never gonna come back.
So, you wanna start with the least aggressive approach,
this way you have as much clear coat for the life of the
vehicle without having to repaint it.
And then lastly, we have our V38,
which is just a jeweling polish to help
bring out the luster of your vehicle.
So, let's say you just went through all these steps,
this is the final step that clears up any kind of hazing,
or marring, or tiger striping, depending on how your
polishing technique was done.
And then lastly, you wanna use Wipe Out.
Now, this is an optional step, but I recommend
using it because this is going to remove any kind of
oils or residue that could have been left on the surface.
And you wanna make sure that before you put any kind of
coatings on that the car is completely flawless now.
Now that you put in all that time to polish it,
you wanna make sure that there's nothing left on there
that's going to hide a scratch, or make it harder
for your coatings to bond to.
So, Wipe Out thoroughly cleans the surface to ensure
that the car is exactly it's supposed to be
and it's gonna give you that best finish overall.
And then moving down the line here,
we have our ceramic coatings.
Now, these are our newer products, you have your
Hydro-Charge and your Hydro-Slick,
and if you're gonna use these two in tandem,
you wanna start with your Hydro-Charge,
which adds a film of ceramic spray,
and this is going to help give your car
that overall deeper gloss.
It also has leveling agents to give your car a
smoother finish, and it's also gonna
enhance the gloss of your vehicle while giving you
a durable layer of protection.
Now, if you bond it with your Hydro-Slick,
what this is going to do it is,
this brand new hyper-wax adds a very long-lasting
durable shine, which helps to also repel water spots.
The hydrophobe properties in there will help to make it
difficult for anything to land on the surface and adhere,
so this keeps your car looking cleaner for longer,
while also giving you a deeper shine.
Now, when you're applying your favorite ceramic coatings,
unfortunately, these are going to be hand application only,
but this ensures that you're covering the surface evenly,
and you're not getting any on the trim
or areas that it shouldn't be.
Now, if you choose to to skip over the ceramic steps,
or if you wanna enhance your ceramic,
you can also apply your favorite glazes.
Now, what these do, is they mask any minor scratches
and swirls, so if you have a brand new car,
or a car that has very fine scratches and swirls,
and you've skipped over the polishing step,
but you still wanna give your car a very smooth finish
and also a deeper gloss, you reach for a glaze.
And what this does is, again, it fills in those
tiny scratches and swirls to give you an overall
smoother finish while also adding a deeper shine.
But, a glaze doesn't provide very much protection,
so you wanna add something like a sealant, a wax,
or a combination of the two.
And one of our most popular products is Jet Seal,
because this gives you a long-lasting layer of protection,
up to twelve months with proper application,
and this is going to give you protection on top of
your glaze, your ceramic, but it's also gonna make it
harder for things to stick such rail dust, bird droppings,
dirt, and also your water spots.
And then if you want more of a natural shine,
you apply a wax.
Now, you can use a cream wax, such as Butter Wet Wax,
a paste wax, or a spray wax, and what this is doing
is it's gonna add just a little bit more protection,
but this is where you're really gonna get your gloss.
So, those of you guys looking to enhance the shine
of your vehicle, give it that warmer glow, adding a wax
at the natural carnauba, and this is going to give you
that better all finish.
These can be applied by hand or machine.
If you choose to apply it by machine,
you wanna use a soft finishing pad,
such as the black, blue, or red Hex-Logic pad,
using the lowest speed setting.
And then you wanna cover about 50% of your last pass,
this way you're ensuring an even coat,
and then you wanna wait about 15-20 minutes
for each coating bond to the surface before buffing it off.
And then lastly, we have our quick detail spray,
and this is a commonly overlooked step,
because now that you've gone through all this,
you're tired, you're fatigued, and you wanna move on
to just enjoying your car, but the last step,
which I would recommend using, is a quick detail spray.
And this removes any kind of missed product,
so just for example, lets say you put on a glaze,
and you hastily wiped it off but you missed a spot,
if you leave it on there you're gonna drive away
and all your friends are gonna laugh at you when they see
that tiny little square that you missed,
so using a quick detail spray is just a professional way
to remove anything that could have been left on the surface.
It also removes any kind of fingerprints,
and it also removes any kind of dust.
So, this helps to give your car that detailed and
professional look at the very end of the detail.
And also, you can use this in between your wash,
so if you wash your car weekly with Mr. Pink,
you can use this any day during the week to remove
any kind of light dust or water spots or bird droppings.
So again, keeping your car looking its best
for as long as possible.
Now, I know this was a pretty quick overview of the
detailing flow chart, but we're gonna
go over it one last time.
So, starting off with the wash, this where we want to
remove anything that's on the surface,
your dirt, your grime, and then you move on to the clay bar.
For a newer car, or a routinely detailed car,
you use your light.
For a car that gets, you know, driven daily, but it's
not clay barred every six months or so,
you'd use an OG.
For something that hasn't been clay barred in a
couple of years, or has more contamination in the pores
of the paint, you'd use your medium.
And then, just a neglected paint job where it's completely
thrashed, or it's very rough, you'd use your heavy.
And you wanna use a dedicated lubricant,
so just Clay Luber.
Now, a lot of people ask if you can use soapy water,
and in a pinch, I supposed you could,
but it's really not doing you any favors with your clay bar
and also the soap doesn't add very much lubrication
when it comes to claying, because you have
microns of an inch or microns of a space between
the surface of the clay bar and the vehicle,
so you want something that dedicated lubricant
so that it actually drags it off the surface,
not just pushes it along where it could cause
scratches and marring, so again, dedicated lubricant
is the way to go.
Then you have you V Line of polishes,
and this is where you're really going to bring out the
luster of your vehicle, whether you have oxidation,
scratches and swirls, staining in the paint,
this is the way that you wanna break it down.
Depending on what your car needs, you have your compound
all the way to your final polish.
Then a Wipe Out, again, this is going to remove any kind of
last residues or anything that could block
the pores of the paint.
And then you have your ceramic coatings,
which is our newer products.
Hydro-Charge and Hydro-Slick, this is going to give you
that long-lasting durable layer of protection
with that insane water beading action.
Then your optional step of glaze,
which helps to mask any minor scratches and swirls
while also adding depth.
And then a sealant, which is man-made wax
to give your car more longevity, more shine,
and also more of that water beading effect.
And then we have wax, which gives your car that
natural warm glow, and it's more protection.
And lastly, you have your quick detail spray,
which removes any of the final products
that you may have missed, any fingerprints,
any light dust, or anything that could have
landed on the surface as you were detailing.
So guys, you can check out these products on our website,
chemicalguys.com, or at your local detail garage.
If you want more in depth videos showing you
any of the process check it out on our channel.
Drop your comments down below for future videos.
We'll see you guys next time.
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