[cintocrunch]

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!

 

[cintocrunch]

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!

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.

 

[cintocrunch]

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.

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.

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Can save a few bucks washing the Pilot in the rain lol. With some good helpers too.
🤣

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.

 

[cintocrunch]

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.

Get yourself some of the new high-tech sealants. The ease of application and longevity are pretty amazing.

I have used a grit guard for years but I just transferred to the two bucket w/ grit guards to take it a step further.

I haven't liked the experience with any sort of bulk water removal other than my Ryobi battery leaf blower that is dedicated to detailing work. It does a great job then a little touch up with a plush microfiber is perfect.

I haven't applied wax or sealant via a machine in years... to me the machines are supposed to aid in correction so it only gets used with polish. Unless you are using cleaner waxes or something that has some polishing component to it.

Gonna reiterate - you need to get yourself some of the new sealants. Turtle Wax Ice Seal and Shine or Hybrid Solutions or Hybrid Solutions Graphene are all great products. Opti Seal, Blackfire Crystal Seal, there are just too many to list here. For something you essentially spray one, spread around and buff the high spots (low effort buff, not like removing old school thick polishes that dried on the paint) and you'll get months of protection. Throw on another layer the next morning, I can usually make it from Thanksgiving through April or May when I detail again with both cars still beading.

I let the rain wash my car. I drive it cant see if it is dirty from the drivers seat.

The Sonata is relegated to such treatment. If I have the pressure washer out for any reason I'll give it a hose down that way.

 

[cintocrunch]

This is the Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Ceramic on 2 of my cars. The Kia is 12 years old and has 168k on it, lots of dings and other imperfections but from a short distance . Accord is 5 years old and 83k. I did not do any paint correction on these just a good wash and clay mitt followed by the wax applied with PC7424. Both cars are nice and slick. Accord just came back from a 3 day, 400 mile round trip 5 minutes before the picture. Works for me. Pilot will get done the same way hopefully soon. I opted to do reverse lights the other day and today go to range with my son for some "group therapy" or "grouping therapy" .It was quite busy there.
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Elantra limited wheels on the Accord. What looks like Accord wheels on the Forte. Ridgeline wheels on the Pilot. You are really quizzing my useless knowledge right now!

Also, our Sonata has yellow fogs in the same bumper opening location. Headlights were not great, the yellow fogs really help a lot (they are the Rigid DOT approved fogs aimed properly).

 

[cintocrunch]

Transplants from the Sonata. I always liked them with the 7 spoke and flat face first time I saw them on an Elantra. Local guy was selling cheap ($150 for all 4 with tires even though a bit too small) as he upgraded from 17" to 20". Sonata had 16" steel with hubcaps that became the winter rims. I found some Tiburon rims for $100 for all 4 that became my 3 season. Sold those a couple years later with tires for like $300. Replaced with the Elantra rims. First winter the Accord even got the Hyundai steel with hubcaps since the snows still had a lot of tread left. Accord now gets the factory 16" for winter.
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Pics of the 16" Tiburon rims in here (and my crappy photoshop for the Elantra's)


16" Kia Forte alloy wheels from a higher trim level. They are very similar to the 15" with hubcaps, 1/2" wider and different offset but factory. Honda wheels won't fit without adaptors Honda is 64.1" center bore, Hyundai is 67.1" (Nissan has 66.1"). The factory 15" with hubcaps are now winter with VikingContact 7. These are the 15" caps.
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Not useless, passion for what you like, many worse habits out there. Could not pass up the price deal to get factory alloys, $400 for all 4 with the factory sensors. The factory EX-L ones already had snows mounted on them from like 2 weeks old and 500 miles on that I did not want to remove knowing I would be getting spare rims anyway.


You, who recommended good LED's to me and I put in my daughters CRV, and you suffer with poor lighting yourself ???? My Sonata had the HID plug and play kit for most of it's life. They were awesome. I'm sure the new LED's would be great for you and huge improvement. I also had Hella DE with H3 HID's in the factory spots. I had to make some odd brackets but they were awesome. Best fogs I ever had. They might still make their way into the Accord though I like many of the new LED's. The Diode Dynamics options work very well, They also show the comparison between them, Rigid, Baja Designs, Morimoto. Forte has the DD SS3, CRV has the Morimoto, the DD definitely puts out more light. The Rigid are good also, the DD go a bit wider. They have a new "elite" that looks like factory lights that is supposed to be better still.

Rims- Sequoia had 17" limited double spoke wheels, $200 got me 16" Tundra swept star for winter (and 14 years until traded in). CRV has same size/style 17" factory rims for summer and winter, local sale from forum for $150 for all 4 in perfect shape. The only one that didn't really change was my old Corolla. It had 4 spare steel for winter so used the same hubcaps. Even they got changed after it got wrecked. Paramedic at firehouse had Corolla with bald tires on the silver painted. I swapped with him as mine was getting junked anyway. Tires still had 7/32" at the time. Old Explorer had spare rims for winter from a different year Explorer. It's $200+ per season to swap tires on rims or buy the rims once and change in my driveway while checking brakes etc. Definitely pays in long run for me.

Haha I've played the same game, and have the same affinity for OEM wheels... My '97 and '01 Pathfinders both got wheels from an Xterra Supercharged model... and go figure, 7 years later when I sold the wheels on Craigslist the guy I bought them from bought them from me! He was back in the minitruck game. The Accord got RL A-Spec wheels first (18", bent two of them in Baltimore) and later got TL-S waffle weaves. Favorite wheel of all time. I've always liked the NF Sonata SE V6 wheels so they have stayed on it. The Pilot I'm casually starting to look at wheels since it's ready for tires and the Traverse I'm looking for Colorado/Canyon wheels. Same 6-lug pattern but offset pushing them out a bit more looks really good.

Hella DEs are absolute bosses. Had them on my old ML320 when they sold a plug and play kit because wiring was already there. I wanted to do them but went the LED cube route instead. TBH, the Sonata was supposed to be short lived when we got it back (that was over 5 years ago) and I got a $750 trade value on it 4 years ago when we got the Traverse, so I try not to put any money into something worth so little. I have the '61 Impala to dump money into. The cubes were intended to go on my Silverado but it and the Rogue got traded on the Pilot before install. I did put the Nineo LED bulbs in my MIL's '11 Sonata, the performance is outstanding.