Does anyone else take two days to detail their Pilot
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Every spring I do a major cleaning on my cars. This is my first spring with the Pilot so here's my schedule. I live in Ottawa and we only have one car, we use it for skiing, canoe camping, everything.
Day One - 10:00 am start, 3:30 pm finish
1. Vacuum car and clean out garbage at car wash.
2. Re vacuum at home with various brushes and attachments.
3. Wipe down interior with hot water and mild soap.
4. Mothers Back to Black on interior trim.
5. Invisible Glass windows
6. Steam clean carpets
Day Two - 7:30 am start, 2:30 finish
1. Wash car at car wash.
2. Wash car at home.
3. Clay bar exterior.
4. Wash car.
5. Polish car -first year with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound - really impressed, took out 90% of swirls
6. Polish car again with Meguiar's Polish
7. Wax car with Meguiar's wax
8. Mother's Back to Black on trim
9. Invisible Glass
10. Clean rims
11. Clean/polish sidewalls
I'm not too particular on which wax/polish I use. I've run the gamut from Turtle Wax to Zano. I used a random orbital and elbow grease depending on how tired I was. Step 4 on each day was when I would start drinking beer.
One thing, you really notice the difference in your car each year. The Pilot was basically mint when I bought it used(no kids) 40000 miles after 4 years. Little dents and marks all over it now.
Day One - 10:00 am start, 3:30 pm finish
1. Vacuum car and clean out garbage at car wash.
2. Re vacuum at home with various brushes and attachments.
3. Wipe down interior with hot water and mild soap.
4. Mothers Back to Black on interior trim.
5. Invisible Glass windows
6. Steam clean carpets
Day Two - 7:30 am start, 2:30 finish
1. Wash car at car wash.
2. Wash car at home.
3. Clay bar exterior.
4. Wash car.
5. Polish car -first year with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound - really impressed, took out 90% of swirls
6. Polish car again with Meguiar's Polish
7. Wax car with Meguiar's wax
8. Mother's Back to Black on trim
9. Invisible Glass
10. Clean rims
11. Clean/polish sidewalls
I'm not too particular on which wax/polish I use. I've run the gamut from Turtle Wax to Zano. I used a random orbital and elbow grease depending on how tired I was. Step 4 on each day was when I would start drinking beer.
One thing, you really notice the difference in your car each year. The Pilot was basically mint when I bought it used(no kids) 40000 miles after 4 years. Little dents and marks all over it now.
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That looks awesome! To cut down on the clay bar time look into the Nanoskin Autoscrub, cut my clay bar time in more than half. Also look into an all-in-one polish like Meguiar's D151 paint reconditioning cream or something like it. I took a whole day to do my exterior and that was without doing the black trim or wheel detail. My black 06 Pilot had allot of swirls and scratches that had to be addressed.
Scott
Scott
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I don't shampoo the carpets so it fits in one day if I don't do 2 polishing steps. M205 did much of what was needed.
It's really tough on the body when you only do it once a year/every other year.... !
It's really tough on the body when you only do it once a year/every other year.... !
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that older pilot looks amazing
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627 Posts
I wish I had time for all that mine really needs It. lucky If i can get a nice hand wash done IN a day. 3 kids don't let me get to It haha. Someday I have the supplies ready to go!
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I usually spend a day on the interior (4-6 hours, depending on if I need to steam clean or not) and two days on the exterior (~10 hours, 7+ the first day and a top coat of wax the second day).
It is a waste to spend so much time and "not care" about what wax you use, get yourself a quality (and long lasting) wax so you can really appreciate your hard work for much longer!
It is a waste to spend so much time and "not care" about what wax you use, get yourself a quality (and long lasting) wax so you can really appreciate your hard work for much longer!
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84 Posts
The kids help me wash our cars. We use Turtle Wax wash, a Dyson vacuum cleaner, Turtle Wax bug remover, and Black Magic tire wet. 2-3 hours and we're done. Blasian Babies Brother And Sister Wash The Honda Pilot Elite And Nissan Altima S With DaDa!
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So my quick "wash and wax" sessions take maybe 2 hours per car, the all day is a full clay bar, polish, base coat, top coat while doing all of the trim and what not.
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538 Posts
Be careful with the yearly compound and polish. You might start to run out of clear coat. Next time look into a ceramic coating after the compound and polish. Seems expensive at first but it'll save you from having to compound/polish again. Looks nice tho.
Can save a few bucks washing the Pilot in the rain lol. With some good helpers too.
🤣
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My next vehicle I'm going to pay the initial and have a PPF or ceramic/graphene coating done right away. In an ideal world I polish yearly but if I'm honest the Traverse hasn't been polished in the 4 years I've owned it and the Pilot got polished maybe twice in 5 years since it's black. I was used Megs Ultimate Compound now I'm using the a similar Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions product. Dual action with the light cut pads. So my process is relatively light on the paint and not really designed to remove much more than light swirl marks. But I am finding with the high quality sealants I've been using the finish just seems to hold up better for longer and the swirls aren't returning as fast.
When I was a kid and we had drought conditions in the area my dad would make me help him wash cars in the rain.
I must admit that I’ve done it too. Not if there’s thunder and lightning though. 😬
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I use a similar system with good results.
I don't have any experience with high-tech sealants, but I've got an older car with a non-clearcoat black enamel, so I've been forced to learn to keep swirls out rather than try to fix them every time.
With that paint, at least, the trick is hygiene in the wash stage: two buckets, lots of water, one with soap, one clear. I use an open foam sheet. Soap in the foam, wash a small section, when the foam is mostly drained it goes into the clear bucket to rinse. Basically lather / rinse / repeat.
I've found that if my soap bucket gets dark and cloudy, I'll get swirls.
The other unexpected innovation I swear by now is one of those synthetic chamois cloths to remove the bulk water. Works great, and prevents water spotting.
My Pilot, on the other hand, has the crow's feet of clear coat checking on the hood. I don't polish it much, so it's a pretty easy wash / wax cycle. Applying wax with a dual-action buffer is almost a pleasure - I don't think the wax step ever takes me more than 30 minutes.
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