Help building my arsenal!

[Norw-Stang]

Hi!
I have been detailing with Meguiar's consumer line for a couple of years now. It started with the nxt car wash, and it has grown to be a rather great stack of Meguiar's supplies by now. Last summer I eventually started doing detailing a bit more serious. I have been using the deep crystal three step, but switching the carnuba wax with both tech wax and gold class wax. I have mainly been detailing and doing small paint corrections on my own cars, but now I have lots of requests from friends, colleges, friends-of-friends and so on to detail their cars.

As I said I have mainly been detailing with the consumer line, but since I am planning on doing detailing for money, I thought I should start using Mirror Glaze products. The reasons are both that there are many more products for cleaning and paint corrections, but also because of the durability my "customers" expect from the sealant, etc.

So to my questions:
Which products are a necessary to have in my arsenal?
I was thinking #21 as a sealant, and on some cars #26 on top of that.
But how do I choose the cleaners and polishes?
Do I need the complete line from #80 to #85? And from #01 to #09?
And how about #105, #205 or the #95?

What do you guys think?

Best regards, Kristoffer

[Dubbin1]

Re: Help building my arsenal!

M105 and M205 can pretty much do it all.

[Shawn T.]

Re: Help building my arsenal!

My first question is, are you working by machine? If you plan on detailing even part time, I highly recommend the G110V2. It is incredible!!

Necessary Products: Ultimate Compound, Swirlx, Soft Buff 2.0 Buffing Pads (W8207 and W9207 pads) and W68DA backing plate, Gold Class wax or NXT 2.0

I recommend 4 W8207 polishing pads and 2 W9207 pads to begin with. There is an awesome kit at ADS http://www.autodetailingsolutions.ne...-pack-kit.html for an unbeatable price. I actually bought it a few weeks ago and it gives the essential pads for a full detail.

#21 is a great prodcut and it is soemtiesm referred to as the professional version of NXT 2.0 as the main difference is that #21 can be used via rotary. I am starting a part time detialing business in the summer and am buying the 64 oz. M21 through ADS. #26 is as much of a pure wax as you are going to get. It has zero cleaning ability and provides great protection and shine.

Polishes and paint cleaners are some of the hardest choices to make. I would say that Ultimate Compound, Swirlx and M205 should cover most of your needs. M105 can also come in handy but for the most part, you will do fine with Ultimate Compound as it matches the cutting power of almost Mirror Glaze paint cleaner when used on a DA. The 80s Mirror Glaze Line workes great with single stage paints and if you feel that you will be working with single stage finihses, these can really come in handy. I am ordering some M80 and M83 in my major ADS order that will be going out in about a month. M84 and M85 are the older compounds and I would say to stick with M105 if using a DA. #1-#9 are also older products designed for single stage finishes. I have right now, M01 and and M07 (which can be used on any paint as it is a pure polish) but I really only use the M07. I bought the M01 to try it out and it was not nearly as good as Ultimate Compund. Do not use M95 by DA as it is a rotary only product. Let me make a list....

Meguiars G110V2
4-6 W8207 polishing pads
2-4 W9207 finishing pads
Ultimate Compound
Swirlx
M21
M26 (optional)
M07
M105 (optional)
M205
4" Spot buffing pads (for headlights and such) and backing plate http://www.autodetailingsolutions.ne...k-special.html

http://www.autodetailingsolutions.net/325.html

Pick your favorite dressings and go with them!

All right, that will cover most of what you will need. Throw in some All Purpose Cleaner of some kind for tires, engines, wheel arches and such. If you have any questions, feel free to ask here or PM me.

[Norw-Stang]

Re: Help building my arsenal!

Thanks for the tips!
I forgot to mention, I use a Cyclo polisher. I've got all the different foam pads for that machine, but a DA is on my wishlist though. I like to use the #80s series, cause I have a single stage paint myself, and lot of the cars I will be detailing will be old musclecars with either single stage paints or with basecoat/clearcoat paint.

I also have SwirlX and UC. I like these products, but I just wondered if I needed anything more. I have a few more questions though:

When you are using #03 or #07 glazers, are you putting them on before or after the wax/sealant? #03 seems like a polish to use like the 2nd step in the consumer lines deep crystal system, is that correct?

[Shawn T.]

Re: Help building my arsenal!

M03, M07, M05 and Deep Crystal Polish are all used after the initial cleaning step and before waxing. It is an optional step on clear coats but I would highly recommend it for single stage paints as you most likley know.

[Murr1525]

Re: Help building my arsenal!

#80 will still be great for you as well then, #7 also.

You would do:

1. Wash
2. Clay
3. Clean - SwirLX, #80, etc
4. Polish - Optional - Pure polish like DC2, #7
5. Wax
6. Wax

[Norw-Stang]

Re: Help building my arsenal!

Thanks Coopers, Murr and Dubb! Great answers!

[Daniel Kinder]

Re: Help building my arsenal!

All great recommendations, but don't know how or where you can get your products from but do try to add the detailers-line as well, as you can ,some of the d-line that are must haves. D120 glass cleaner-D140 wheel brightener-D155 last touch-D103 all purpose cleaner plus-D170 hyper dressing and really don't know about how it will work on a single stage paint YET! but I just used some D151 paint reconditioning cream and this stuff was great!! An all in one product with the s.m.a.t

I understand you cant jump right in and get all or most of these supplies at once that's been recommended but they are must haves if your going to start alittle side business, and with the d-line you will save money and all these products smell fantastic and are great!