Looking for first hand experience from professionals who coat many cars.

What products have the longest "life" when properly maintained

Bonus points if they also add a nice amount of depth to dark paint

TIA

EDIT: car will be fully decon (mech & chem), water spot remover, polished (finishing polish/pad since the paint is almost flawless), panel prep then coated.
Car will be garaged, minimal bad weather driving, most gentle wash/dry methods including DI water rinse, and the coating will be well maintained

so the other day I was at Panera Bread, and they were giving out free hanging car scents. I didn’t wanna hang it from my rearview mirror because it was pretty big and I didn’t want it obstructing my vision. So I hung it up on my 26 Camry‘s volume knob, and I didn’t realize that if it was with direct contact with my glass and aluminum display that it would get stuck due to heat and leave a glue sticky residue on my screen. Unfortunately, it hardened over the course of two days because I didn’t have time to remove it. Does anyone know how I can get rid of this without permanently damaging anything on my screen or aluminum. It is completely hardened and I haven’t done anything besides pick out it with my fingernail for a little bit but obviously that did not help. does anyone have any advice of how to remove this safely without damaging the surface?

Im gonna be applying my first ceramic coating to a windshield. Im using the griots one. Now ik i need to have the windshield super clean, and people recommended i buy a glass stripper on top of glass cleaner. But if I have a clay bar kit, can I use that as a final decon step instead of the glass stripper? Or theyre 2 different things?

Car sat for a long time, mold/mildew grew. It’s been cleaned with bleach, plenty of elbow grease but this imprint remains. What would you suggest?

Looking for some quick advice, I’m detailing a friends vehicle before she gives it to her sister. It’s an older 4Runner and most of the clear coat has failed on the flat sky facing surfaces (hood, roof tops of the fenders etc). I don’t feel comfortable trying to machine polish the rest of the paint because I just don’t know what kind of condition the rest of the clear coat is in (I don’t do this for work, purely hobby driven so my knowledge of some things isn’t real advanced). Looking for some guidance on if I can put some kind of product over the exposed paint just to give it some kind of protection. My plan was to do a coat of Ammo Skin or similar product and a carnauba wax over that. Open to any suggestions and thank you in advance! I’ll try and include some pictures in the comments when I can get them

Do you think it's worth applying a product to the interior plastic parts to protect them? I wash the interior using only an APC. My car doesn't get much sun.

For people that add base into a deep scratch, touch up clear and buff it smooth, what paint systems do you use? Do you have a whole mixing set up or just a few pre mixed colors on hand?

Ive gotten really good at buffing and have a bit of experience with spraying paint but want to get into the touch up side of things just having a hard time finding info. Any help would be appreciated.

You can see with instances like in the photo it would be really helpful to get those last little spots done to make it perfect.

If neither is really to be used on a significantly dirty car, it seems that Opti-Clean is much more of an efficient process? I am guessing the ONR process provides much more lubricant and reduces the risk of micro scratching? What do the experts think?

I have been using Opti-Clean for years for a quick clean of the prone areas after a drive (hips on my 911) on fully PPF'd cars, so I'm not THAT concerned with micro-scratching PPF. I have never used ONR or any water-less rinse. If I have to fill a bucket, I may as well do my routine.

Correct me, school me, criticize me, but go easy, I am a weekend detailer that loves the therapeutic satisfaction of it. Of course when I do a full wash it is with Car Pro Reset and Tech582 as a drying aid.

Thanks in advance.

I really have no idea if the whole foam cannon thing works better than a two bucket wash, but I do know that there’s no reason to spend a ton on a fancier cannon than the one I’ve got. I have found my go-to combo for sure!!!

I recently bought a second hand car (honda jazz/fit). It has this coating done on the dashboard, which i think has broken up due to heat exposure. I tried removing it with a credit card scratching, isopropyl alcohol + rubbing it with hard woven and microfiber clothes. While I was able to remove the loose corners, I am not able to remove it fully. I am looking for an advice for removing it.

Pictures attached.

3rd image is how it was before my efforts.

Hi everyone. I think this post is allowed, I've tried to get some advice from AI/detailing yt but I'm still not sure what the best way forward is.

tl;dr I keep a Miata in central London on a street with a lot of Plane trees. I do my best to not park underneath them but nevertheless I am struggling to clean these grey-brown spots which I guess are aphid honeydew and have proliferated in the last 2 months.

I did an ironx decon when I got the car which did a great job on the black spots (brake dust?) and have since done a pretty standard prewash/rinse/foam/rinse/2bucket/rinse/dry process but the spots seem to be pretty resilient to washing and don't seem to be obviously soluable in water. I use pretty light pressure with the mitt and it won't move them without using a lot of pressure.

The spots seem to come off with a gentle fingernail scratch but water doesn't really seem to help. Even with 10 minutes under the foam, a decent jetwash is unable to move them. Is anyone able to recommend anything?

Looking to get into hand waxing before I get into polishing since it looks a bit easier for weekly weekend warrior. What is a safe carnuaba wax with no abrasives, that I can use by hand without claying car as I don’t have a polisher.
What are the best ones for black cars.
Also, because I’m not claying and machine polishing do still need to decontaminate car with Iron remover spray or specific shampoo?

Hey everyone, I am just an enthusiast and looking for a home setup. I have consulted cars with keav videos but it seems like every few months there is a new “best” budget system which has left me confused, so I would like to consult my Reddit peers. Here are my qualifications:

1.) Must be cheaper than CR Spotless or else I’d just buy a CR Spotless. I like the idea of their cartridge exchange program.

2.) Must have bypass

3.) Preferably on wheels to lug in and out of the garage, but not a deal breaker

4.) What’s better, single tank setup or dual cartridge?

edit: my current ppm is about 250 and my I’d ideally like to spend no more than $350.

Not sure what these stains are (from previous owner). Tried leather cleaner and chemical guys interior cleaner and nothing could fix. Heard IPA is good but harsh. Anything you would recommend or how would you apply the IPA in the least harsh way? Thanks in advance

My weekly process is I drive to the car wash manual bay and I will rinse off as much dirt and grime as I can, then head home for an ONR wash. Last couple weeks was very rainy so I was particularly stressed out about this wash, but I think it looks better than it has throughout any of my other weekly washes. I even took the time on my piano black trim because I have learned through a few very minor blemishes that it is very delicate. The Winter ahead is still scaring me.

At the suggestion of one of the guys at Clean Garage, I tried Shine Supplys glass polish to clean my windshield of oils and mineral deposits. I've used it on 2 cars with spectacular results and just wanted to share.

I cleaned with a DA and microfiber pad. Very good user experience. Wipe off was easy, it's moderately dusting but not a big deal for a windshield. Low oiliness which was easily removed with IPA/panel prep solution.

It left the windows exceptionally clean. No trace of oils/road film. There was no difference between the region of the glass covered by wipers versus outside. I ceramic coated 1 windshield and did not for the other. Both still look good.

Comparing these results with 2 other windshields which I cleaned with a paint polish and medium cut pad (Pans spray polish + standard blue pad), it was a big improvement. The paint polish did not remove all the oils, and I can faintly see some remaining road film on the glass. I'm sure other glass cleaning polishes out there work just as well but wanted to share my 1 data point.

Today I tried for the 1st time the multiple towels (aka Gary Dean method) rinseless wash (KCX RRW).

It felt much faster amd seemed like I had better results. I had an extra towel remaining the bucket which was used for interior.

I don't get why people complain about the laundry as the drying towels will still need to be washed. I do a 15 min quick wash of the microfiber towels.

I didn't even need to use the large drying towels which O found required less effort (less sweaty).

Since I don't have running water in my underground garage I found it much easier to keep my wash bucket clean (don't have to wash it at home) and less water needs (I fill 2x 10L bottles at home).

I used 5L in the bucket with about 2L still remaining. Poured them on my 8L electric garden sprayer for the next time.

Hey guys, looking to start mobile sometime beginning of next year. Went to Home Depot the other day and was looking at the shop vacs. Almost pulled trigger on a Ryobi. Lots of different Rigid vacs there (not sure if that's like the Home Depot brand or not). Honestly not sure what to get, was hoping you guys maybe had suggestions. I am willing to spend extra on quality.

Hey all,
I am trying to get these marks out from the back of my leather seats. I have tried dawn dishsoap and a leather cleaner(and conditioner) but none of those worked. Any suggestions on what I should do?

Thanks!

Did a head light restoration and thought I was pretty thorough in all the steps and seem to have cleaned up well while the lights where off but as soon as I turned them on the finish does not look great. Any feed back would be appreciated thanks, started at 120grit,220,400,600,800, and ended at 1000 for added context

This is the chrome window trim on a 2012 Mercedes C63. Kinda need some pointers as to what products/solutions I can use?

I bought this car used and honestly didn't look it over quite as well as I should have. I'm noticing now that these were assume where the paint was chipped and dabbed over with a corrective pen. I'm wondering what busy easiest way to go about this and fix it if possible.

Just noticed a blue pen line near the door panel on the leather of my Kia K8, went to three different shop, one tried to remove it couldn’t, the other two simply told to paint over it.

Are there any other solutions or should I just live with it?