I have been doing this for a good long while now and have put a good bit of money into the supplies. This was partially before I was fully mustacian but even now I would purchase whatever car care supplies that I run out of again in order to maintain the cars owned by my family and I. It is not necessarily the most mustacian thing to do but it does allow car enthusiasts to maintain some form of mustacism while still owning something that is not from the standard mustacian car catalog.
My main motivation is to care for all my possessions in order to maintain the monetary as well as the enjoyment value they possessed as a new product. I have done thousands of dollars worth of work on all kinds of cars ranging from brand new to 28 years old and ranging from $2,000-80,000 and regardless of the car the results are always nothing short of spectacular. No matter the car, I would still very much enjoy stepping into a clean, gleaming beauty rather than a car that was peeling clearcoat/paint and a had cracked faded interior.
Car enthusiasts gain a lot of their joy out of having a beautiful car, and if they could keep a car looking better than it did in the dealership showroom for decades then they would never be tempted to replace it. Also, if they could buy an old car, restore it, and keep that for many years then they could save even more money.
Does anyone know a website that sets out the steps for this? Thsnks
http://www.autogeek.net/This is my favorite website... It has a very useful forum, a store with competitive prices, and a ton of guides written by experts available for free.
Sounds like you have a shiny, good looking vehicle all the time:)
Here is what I have trouble with
1. What do you do when the paint is just about gone in places?
2. What is the best stuff to clean your headlights when they look filmy?
1) Unfortunately once the paint starts to bubble up or peel there is not a whole lot you can do besides a new paint job. Hoewever, anything you do from now on will at least prevent it from getting worse. Besides making a car look nice, the other major goal of detailing is the prevention of damage by protecting the paint from the elements.
2) Those rub on products you see on TV are not going to do the job well or permanently. The headlights look faded or filmy because of oxidation of the surface of the plastic. You need to get rid of this upper layer of plastic material. There are kits that include sanding discs, polishing pads, and compounds that you can use with a drill to take off the oxidation then progressively bring it back to the brand new polished surface. It takes a good bit of work and I would plan for about 1hr to do this job the first time on both headlights. Make sure to thoroughly tape around the edges of the headlights so you don't accidentally harm the paint around them. I would also recommend a corded drill because your batteries will run out.
$250 every 6-12 months! Holy shit! I had no idea that people spend this much money on this...
It has a high startup cost... but it absolutely does not cost anywhere near $250 to do a DIY detail.
I can do a full 8hr detail on a car that would cost $500-$1000 and only incur at most maybe $25-50 in non-labor costs
Yeah my head's exploding. We wash our cars maybe once a year if we think of it. We use dish soap and rags. But nothing bad has ever happened to our cars. They're old but still look great. They're not rusted or scratched, or...I don't get it. What's the $300 advantage?
If you don't care about your car's looks then it is not an advantage. However, DIY detailing is a huge order of magnitude cheaper than paying to get a proper detail job done for people who would normally pay for it. It is the type of job where you can purchase all the materials you will ever need for the cost of getting it done one time.
If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me. I consider myself very experienced in this field.
