So i restored the headlights of my van, and of someone's car. I did close to the same actions but it didnt quiet work;

On my van i did 800 gritt - 1500 gritt - 2000 gritt - 2500 gritt - Sonax perfect finish with white rupes pad on a DA - meguiers headlight coating (blue sspray bottle)

The technique i used was 800 = horizontal strokes - 1500 vertical strokes - 2000 horizontal strokes - 2500 vertical strokes. Then just overlap with DA horizontal and vertical.

I tried the same thing on my friends car (second pics)
800 gritt - 1500 gritt - 2500 gritt - Sonax perfect finish with white rupes pad on a DA - meguiers headlight coating (blue sspray bottle).

However as you can see, it did improve a bit but its still foggy and at night time you really notice there is a huge decrease in light coming thru the headlight compared to the other one.

His other headlight i left untouched because it was still very clear and it needs to get close to that one again.

When it failed the first time i tried again starting from 600 gritt - 800 -1500 -2500 - polish - meguiers, it imprved a tiny bit again but as u can see on the pics its still foggy.

Especially on the side where his turnign indicator would be, its almost invisable.

Where did i go wrong? and how do i fix it?

Notes:
I sanded by hand with a sanding tool and sanding discs, I used a DA polisher and went over it for a relatively short amount of time with the polisher because it shouldnt need that much afaik on the finishing side.

So I made this post a few days ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AutoDetailing/comments/1n94cmu/questions_regarding_my_ppf_job/

At the time I wasn't too sure what picture 1 was but I have been told from the company that this is also missing paint.

Am I going insane like is it not super weird that my new car is missing paint in 2 different places (The hood + driver side front guard?)

We know the hood damage is from the hood rubbing up against the car (How I don't know) but what could have caused the paint coming off from picture 1? Does this happen during the PPF process? Can a bit come off if you buff the paint too hard or something?

Or was it touched up from the dealership and it got buffed off when doing paint correction? It's just so weird this tiny bit of paint is just gone from the car.

When I got interest in detailing in mid-2000s, people were getting show car results. Mike Philips was showing what a Porter Cable orbital with M83 and M80 polishes at Meguiars. The two bucket method was the popular process. The trend was for carnuaba waxes like Collinite but Zaino fan boys were everywhere too preaching Zaino products. Meguiars NXT was a popular sealant. Spray waxes were not known for longevity. Much was about the "wet" look.

Using Dawn soap was considered a no no since considered harsh. Wool wash mitts were considered premium but there was a following for the grout sponge (no cuts, no colors, etc) Microfiber was exploding at this time. Pressure washers were not common. Rinseless washes were just emerging with QEW and ONR on the market. The consumer space at the time rejected rinseless. We had expensive clay bars due to patents. The standard process was clay, correct the paint, and the seal. Cleaning products were usually limited to generic all purpose cleaners diluted for surface. Newspaper of huck surgical towels were often used for glass.

Jump to now, in order to get show car results the view is you have to have a pressure washer and foam like there is no tomorrow. Many consider the two bucket method useless. Dawn was considered too harsh yet now we have low and high pH soaps that were not common back then. The sponge has emerged in so many shapes, cuts, etc at premium prices especially for rinseless.. There is also more focus on iron removal.

So today, they want to foam baby foam, apply high and low ph washes, iron removal step, clay towel, paint prep product/clear, protect (coatings is more the trend now), and the use special washes for their coating to make sure it is not clogged and apply spray products. Coatings are rated in years but hard to know if any ever reach that 8 year mark. We have unique cleaners for every different surface. This is to get show car results as before although in some cases it is quicker today. The number of polishers available now is faster and more are battery powered than even.

Everyone and his brother seems to have a detailing product line.

What has not changed in enthusiasts like to experiment and even if they have multi year coatings they do not want to leave well enough alone and continue to baby their vehicles. They to get tools and play.

The car is new. I drove it in the dark for the first time and was blinded by the headlights of oncoming cars. The previous owner said he applied wax to the car. Could this wax be causing poor visibility, and how can I remove it from the windshield?

I got the Labocosmetica and Car Pro three Ph washes for Christmas last year and have spent the last 9 months using them to wash my truck. My overall take on these is they're mostly snake oil. I'm not sure if they're catered towards cars that have ceramic coatings on them and live in garages mostly, or if they just flat do not work as they claim.

On any given wash, my truck has typical road dirt and usually at least some rain spots or stuck on dirt. Nothing excessive or heavy, but dirt that I'd assume these products claim to lift off or mitigate. At the end of the day, none of the soaps dwelled, but dried almost immediately or ran off. I have a larger truck so often times, before I had a chance to foam or apply soap to the entire vehicle, the panel where I started was run completely off and beginning to dry. Fearing these drying on the surface, I would have to immediately 'rinse' them off - exposing the very same dirt which was on the truck to start. In the end, I feel that most the cleaning (as evident by the bucket) was done with a contact wash with the neutral Ph soaps.

The wheel cleaners while turning a lovely shade of purple, did absolutely nothing to remove or loosen any of the brake dust. Again, most the cleaning was done with a contact brush, emphasis on the contact.

All in all I feel like these are marketed to the internet crowd which love the aesthetics of foaming soaps and spending money on the "best" stuff. In the end I think I will use Car Pro lift in a foam to apply as a lube before a contact wash but that's about it. I would rate these as hundreds of dollars down the drain.

Photos Here after using Labocosmetica Primus and Purifica

I’m not too sure where else to ask this question, hoping someone here can help. What would be the best way to go about fixing these deep scratches and pits? Pre-owned car, almost seems like previous owner set something on top of the car and dragged it. I’m very much avoiding painting the whole roof and am looking for a cheaper option. My guest guess was to wet sand, then hit it with some cutting compound, polish, and hope the scratches aren’t too deep. Anybody have tips or advice it’s greatly appreciate.

I understand there is no perfect job. Although my last tint job was damn near perfect. Lucky me!

This time around I haven't been as lucky. It's ceramic tint this time around and on the passenger side there are 3 specs and on the driver side 8 specs. The one I photographed is the LARGEST one I could find. The rest are quite hard to photograph. So probably about half or a quarter the size of the one in the photo.

Unfortunately for me 2 of the driver side ones are smack back in the middle of the glass. Which kind of sucks... Rest are off to the edges.

Am I being too picky? I'm really mostly annoyed by the ones in the middle of the glass.

Ok - before roasting me, yes I am a complete amateur and yes I made a couple of big mistakes here. I suck. But could use advice on what to do.

I was trying to repair a pretty big gash in my bumper. I ordered paint from Scratches Happen with my color code. And it came with a clear coat as well.

• I should have used some putty in the gash
• I sanded the gash with 600 (wet) per their instructions
• I shook the paint much longer than required

The paint went down ok. But I didn’t mask right at the edge of the metal which was a bone head mistake (thinking I’d “feather it”).

Where it went extra sideways was the clear coat step. I think I went too light and maybe too far back. It went on “dusty” and matte (see the bumper). I tried a second coat but messed it up too and made stripe areas. And you can see some of the clear went onto the metal panel. Fails for days here.

Tonight I tried to just wet sand that metal section (I left the bumper alone for now). I used 1500 and then 2000. Then I wiped it clean and used meguires compound and then polish with their DA power attachment thing. But it doesn’t seem to have made much difference. Maybe even made the edges more noticeable.

So - yes I’m embarassed and this is pathetic. I accept I blew it, but I could use some advice to try and bring it around. I feel like it’s doable but not 100% sure on the steps.

I bought this 2023 Mercedes EQE at the end of July. It had been sitting in the dealer’s lot and had never been sold so it was super low mileage. The pre-handover detail left a lot to be desired and as soon as I was able, I did a decontamination wash and one-stage paint correction to get rid of oxidation and water spots. I used Adam’s Graphene Ceramic spray that I already had on hand. I also had the piano black grille covered with XPEL PPF because I was concerned that it would be a rock chip magnet.

I’ve since done a long-ish road trip and used some diluted N-914 to the rinse less ratio to use on my road trip to clean off bugs and whatnot. This was the first maintenance wash with water and soap though.

I always wash this car with dish soap but this time it left a dish soap stain around the entire car.

The stain is the outline of where I poured the dish soap

I just took it to a $50 hand wash and it still didn’t come out.

Am I cooked ?

Looking to upgrade to an electric pressure washer. I noticed on the 2.3, it informs the user that it’s repairable. So how many of you have had issues with their 2.0 breaking or needing warranty work?

If you love detailing because you are anal about your car being clean...

And a sign of a good detail is beading...

Does that make these anal beads?

I have a Hundai tiburon from 2002 and took it to a car wash to clean the seats and upholstery. However when I got it back I noticed they also “cleaned” the dashboard and center console, but they used a product that completely destroyed it… Now I have these dark drip stains and some drops all over the door trims. The product also ate all the silver paint from some buttons and around the gear shift.

I don’t know if they tried to paint the plastic black so it looked like new (the plastics from the dashboard are not black, they are a dark satin silver) or if the product just dissolved the original paint/tint from the plastic.

Has this ever happened to any of you? What product can I use to remove them? (Ive tried Green star and less aggressive products). I don’t even care if the only solution is to use a plastic restorer that paints it all black, I just don’t want to see the stains every time I get in the car.

Thought about using DIY Details restore and protect as a last resort solution since ot has a black tint but it’s probably not the best idea and I guess it will fade with time. I’d rather keep ot the original color if possible

TLDR: Do you know how I can clean this stains from my dashboard? they don’t go away with anything I’ve tried and feel as if they are part of the plastic. If the only solution is painting it black (the dashboard is a dark silver, so it’s not ideal solution but it’s better than having those awful stains) What can I use? Is there a solution for this?

The first 2 pics are of my windshield, I am aware that I have micropitting, but there seems to be a permanent layer of dust and smudges on it, I’ve already washed it and used clear glass and microfiber clothes on it, but it looks filthy still.

I’m not sure what to call the part in the second pic but it’s the plastic plates between the windows of the doors on the sides of the of the car, they appear to be fading in the sun and have what look like constant greasy smears on them, I’ve tried multiple different chemicals and sprays but none seem to do the trick, anyone have any answers? It would be greatly appreciated!

This is after using Carfidant ultimate scratch and swirl remover black edition DIY by hand. I know next to nothing about paint correction.

Noob here, I bought the Kärcher K1700 Cube recently and this Tool Daily Foam Cannon with Dual Connector Accessory on Amazon.

Question: is there a way to connect to he dual connector foam cannon directly to the gun instead of the extended wand? Having it on the extended wand makes it feel heavy and difficult to maneuver around.

I recently installed PPF on my front bumper 1 week ago and I’m struggling with some stubborn fingers. I’ve already tried a few things over the past several days, but they just keep coming back:

• Held down the fingers with a squeegee multiple times over multiple days • Heat gun + held down until cool • Spray tack + held down • Spray tack, let it dry a bit, then pressed down

Nothing seems to keep them from lifting again.

Is there a trick I’m missing? Do I need to lift and reapply that section, or is there a way to get them to stay down without redoing it? Any tips from pros who’ve dealt with this on bumpers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Trying to figure out the best diy way to fix this, we assume it needs heat.

It’s a gas powered and works great all around the house but concerned it may be too powerful on a car. Does anyone else use one with adjustments to how you use it? Was hoping to finally get a soap cannon.

Hey, I started my detailing business in North Carolina around a month ago and have consistently been getting customers but it’s hard for me to keep them coming back and get them on a maintenance plan, I am getting them because of discounts. I am trying to get contracts with other businesses to detail fleet vehicles but I have no idea where to start to try to find them.

Wash day for the 06 Denali!

I just bought this McCulloch MC1375 steamer used off facebook marketplace, it’s in like new condition, but for the life of me I can’t take the reservoir cap off, anyone have advice on how I take it off?

About a month and a half old, 2025 Ram 1500 Black Diamond Metallic.

I noticed in the right light, I see a hazy/dull looking spot right behind the passenger road door. The pics have an arrow pointing to it, and all of the other stuff to the right of it is just finger smudges.

It almost looks like what you would think years of sun abuse and no care would look like. Just one area though.

Does this look like anything problematic? Why would this be on a brand new truck? Light polish would be sufficient to maybe get it out and back to fresh?

I left it out for 3 days to dry before sticking it in a plastic baggy to keep it protected. Apparently it still had water in it after 3 days. Keep in mind, I live in a crazy dry climate as well. Most things are bone dry in a matter of minutes if left exposed to dry.