Rep Power: 0

Hi all,
here is a post I made over at www.autopia.org
but it's about my civic, so I thought I'd post it here for your enjoyment.
so....Enjoy!
______________________________
Hi Everybody,
I'm glad I found this website, and I have been lurking and trying to learn whatever I can from the masters.
I'm on a super low budget so after reading thousands of posts, I came up with this routine. I'm not fluent in all of the abbreviations yet, so please forgive me:

1) Wash car with Meguiars Deep Crystal Wash.
2) Clay car with Meguiars Detailers Clay.
3) Wash again to remove clay residue.
4) Polish car with Meguiars ColorX.
5) Wax car with Meguiars NXT high tech wax.

I'm not new to car waxing, as I've done it many times before.
but this is my first time claying and trying to minimize swirls.

I was not going for "Ultimate Show Car Finish" (please don't stone me for saying that ) b/c this is my daily driver, and I just don't have the time or resources to maintain such a high level of finish.

Rather, I was aiming for a "Looks pretty darn impressive" type of finish, which I think I achieved.

Thanks to all of you for the advice I gleaned from this site, and thanks to David W. Bynon for his fabulous ebook on detailing.

Please let me know what you think.

Without further ado, here is my '03 Civic LX in Eternal Blue Pearl:

Before:




And another Before shot:





And after lots of work by hand only:



I love this shot!









Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

 
Rep Power: 299

WOW now I really wanna detail my EBP civic! Great job

 
Rep Power: 288

Did you get those swirls out. SHoulda got a direct sunlight after shot. But good reflections

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks for the compliments.

No, the swirls are not completely gone, but my time and patience are.

They are greatly reduced. Enough that I'm happy. The fact that it's a daily driver, plus I don't have a garage, makes me stop before being completely obsessed about it. I want my car to always look good and I want to maintain it well, but I just don't have the time and resources to to make it perfect.

I'm probably going to do another coat or two of NXT after this coat has had time to cure.

I'm a mountain biker, and after another two coats of NXT, I will be putting on my roof rack and hauling dirty, dusty and muddy bikes to many different trails in my area. The trails are almost all located off of dirt roads with dusty parking lots.

So a perfect finish wouldn't last more than two days.
This is a picture of what my car looks like for much of the spring, summer, and fall:



I will maintain the car with frequent washings and quick detailing, but sadly, I can't get this thing to show car condition, even though I would love to deep in my heart.
Thanks for the feedback though. I really appreciate it.

 
Rep Power: 288

heres a shot of mine from other day. Just clay and a coat of s100



I had no tree shot like urs.. but u get the point.


Still nice work tho.

 
Rep Power: 383

the swirls are what kills me how long did that take? but yea now that i live in an apartment i need to find a place that i trust to wash my car

 
Rep Power: 0

Hey Balistek, your car looks great!

My car still has light swirls and it's killing me.
I spent about 5.5 hours doing all of those steps by hand, and I'm very charlie horsed from it. I will definitely NOT be doing this often.
I just don't have the time, money, and energy to keep up a top level shine.
I will keep the best condition I can without going overboard.
I imagine doing this whole process once a year with frequent washings, quick detailing, and probably just a nice coat of wax 3 times a year or so.
and BTW, thanks for the compliments.