Lol, quite normal. Welcome to the world of enthusiast home detailing.

Consider the machine and pads to be longer term investment, as they dont wear as quickly, just the liquids are consumables. Generally home use liquids do last quite long though, cuz we only polish our cars max 1-2 times a year. Unless your house got many cars and u are tasked to maintain them, hehe...

Mmm, I think have to be realistic that our weather conditions will always make car dirty especially during rain and shine and rain seasons. To maintain some shine it is always good to wash the car on weekly or 2 weeks basis.

Polishing is not necessary or recommended to be done weekly because it will thin your paint. People only polish when necessary to remove defects and restore shine (usually 6 months to 1-2 years once).

Waxing usually is done monthly to few months once depending on wax durability, severity of weather and your washing consistency. Waxing helps to maintain shine and reduce contaminants bonding with paint. U can always use spray wax after wash as quick fix to maintain car shine.

Even if u got coating applied from any shop, washing regularly is still recommended to maintain shine.

Yes, unfortunately water marks surprisingly tend to bake in quicker to coating than wax or bare paint. Even on wax also it is easier to manage because can re-wax and it should be fine. Unfortunately for coating I havent found anything that can be done other than just using more aggressive soap to wash it off and hope for the best.

I have not heard of any acid solution, but even if true also I probably wont do it as risk acid eating through the coating into the paint and other areas. From my knowledge, the common acid used to clean water marks from bathroom shower glass is vinegar, I had tried on my shower glass before but very limited effect.

Yes, all solid colours and strong like red, blue, black, quite easy to see water marks, but dirt harder to see. In contrast, light colours like silver, white, light grey, champange, all harder to see water marks and defects, but light dirt becomes very obvious.

Erm, why just front half? RM50 is paid for the product or for shop to apply for u?

I think they pack it as it is, only they put stuffing in the box to prevent from shaking around. Sometimes bottles pop open when flying over because of air compression issue in flight.

Recently I ordered Carpro Perl and Reload with their 4th July discount and luckily had no issues.

From my experience claying isnt so much about force, but more of repeat rubbing movements. The true test of claying is u wear a plastic bag on your hand and feel the paint surface before and after claying.

There is a possibility ur soapy water too slick, end up your claybar is just gliding on the soap, not rubbing the paint. Try either soapy water that is less soapy, quick detailer, or even just plain water instead.

Not everything can be removed with claybar. Visible contaminants like tar, bird poo, some water marks, tree sap, bug splatter, can be removed by claybar if it is fairly fresh, otherwise if it is there for too long then u may need either other chemical cleaners or polish to remove them.

For stone chips, there isnt much u can do as chances are the chip already crack off paint from the surface. U can try use touchup paint to reduce its visibility if ur car paint is factory original and the touchup paint manufacturer makes your colour. U can go to AEON or AEON Big as they got sell touchup paint. Otherwise, to reduce further stone chips, one very important tip is to avoid driving behind lorries or any cars that their tyres "throw" stones on your car.

For interior, if u are a weekly car washer, then use a damp cloth to wipe dashboard and leather keeps it good for a long time. For protection, use an interior protectant for dashboard and other plastic interiors, and use a leather conditioner and protectant for leather seats and parts.

Hope this helps.

I am currently using Cartec Wheel Cleaner, alkaline based cleaner. Works pretty much like how the Youtube video shows, but I also follow up with 2nd round regular wash soap and brushes to agitate the remaining dirt and rinse before moving on to washing car body.

If u regularly wash your car, then using normal car soap should be just fine, just need to have good brushes to make your life easier.

Results looks very good, keep it up!

If u do plan to respray, just remember that changing car colour would require informing JPJ if not mistaken. Other than that perhaps u should consider a hard clearcoat if respraying.

Depending the type of paint that got stuck on the car, it could be possible to try claying or even just use fingernail to try scrape off the excess paint. This is assuming the splatter didnt eat and fuse into the car's paint.

If it has fused into the car paint, then sanding is not a bad option, but not necessary to sand and repaint. Depending on how much clearcoat is left, potentially just sand and polish should be able to do it. If u can get your hands on some 2000 or 3000 grit sandpaper and some compound cream (like Meguiars Ultimate Compound), u can try wet-sanding a few small spots to test, if it goes away then can hand-compound.

WARNING: My suggestion of wet-sanding assumes there is still enough clearcoat left on the car. If u wetsand and the water residue turns color into the car color instead of just white-milky color, means no clearcoat is left. Proceed with caution.

Mmm, from the sound of it I believe the paint on the car porch should be standard water based, so it isnt as hard to remove. To speed up the removal process, u could try claying, though there is a possibility that it will have limited effect and will definitely trash your claybar by the end of the process.

Another method I can think of is instead of using fingernail, try to go hardware store and find a flat plastic scraper. This could help assuming dont put too much pressure to avoid scratching the paint.

There is one more method I seen before, sometimes used to reduce or remove paint transfer from car accidents. WD-40 apparently contains 50% mineral spirits, so may help soften the paint splatter so that easier to remove. However, this method also requires working in small sections and removing the WD-40 residue quickly.

Mix dish washing liquid with some water, spray on and scrub with old toothbrush.

Alternatively, use pencil eraser and rub it off.

I understand your experience because my previous and current car are both silver colour. I can share with u 3 options:

1) Street light: free, just park under those yellow street lights at night and u should be able to see all your defects
2) Go to fasttech.com and but any flashlight that provides between 100 to 500 lumens. The ones 300-500 lumens should have 3-5 light modes and be using 18650 battery, also commonly used by ecigarettes, so not hard to find batteries and charger here. Price between RM30-80 depending on model.
3) Go to facebook and search for SGCB Malaysia, they sell clone of rupes pen light and also scangrip lights for cheaper price. Price of rupes clone pen flashlight is RM100 if not mistaken.

Just remember, white/light coloured cars it is best to use warm white (yellowish) light to see defects. For black/dark colour cars, better to use cool white (pure white) lights.

Hope this helps.

Welcome to home detailing!

Mmm, my personal recommendation is:

1) Get some basic wash and drying items so that u can wash ur car regularly
a) wash bucket, wash mitt
b) microfiber towels (4-5 towels to wipe dry different areas)
c) wheel brushes
d) wash soap, tyre wax

2) For waxing maybe I wouldnt recommend fusso first, try other waxes that are easier to apply and buff off, like Meguiars Ultimate Paste Wax. Fusso will be very frustrating to buff off if u apply too thick, and may turn off your interest in waxing.

3) Antibacterial wet wipes are good if ur car kena bird poo bomb, just rinse off the wet wipes residue after wiping off poo. Usually the wet wipes can keep in car glove compartment and wont become dry.

As time passes and if u feel motivated to try more advanced car detailing, feel free to ask here and check out youtube also.

Lol, I thought about that route initially, then decided against it because I dont have an existing cordless drill to whack and didnt want to buy a new one just to whack it. I purchased my torchlights from fasttech in advance before I started detailing.

But please do share your build for us, never know other enthusiast may want to do the same.

Mmm, based on my personal tub of paste wax that I used for 5-6 years, shrink and crack yes, but harden and dry not really. Even at the last bits of it left, when I whip it up to apply on car, there are still oils and it still dries to a haze like normal before buff off.

Liquid wax on the other hand, what u say is true, over time some liquid wax somehow separate from their oils and doesnt mix back no matter how hard u shake. I was even tempted to pour all into a blender to blend, but decided against it cuz it probably spoil my blender.

Mmm, I think that is a matter of perspective. Wax is usually the last step, means the previous steps of washing, decontamination, claying, etc. all comes before that. If there is dirt that get stuck on pad and transferred back to paste tub then its not paste fault, its user didnt clean well enough. So I think its more important to remember either to either wax areas that are clean and good, and avoid areas that user didnt clean as good, especially below doors and bumpers area.

Hmm, actually looking at some of the builds that referenced with the solux bulb, I'd imagine we could find a similar bulb locally in places like CIMA lighting, no?

Maybe Asia region use less of such lights, think most Asian countries I seen still use typical flourescent tube or standard screw bulb for general lighting. Also possible that there are other brands carry same light spec here. I seen Ikea carry such lights in general and also Cima Lighting, just dont know if exact specs or not.

Just a side note when buying electrical items from overseas: Make sure to check and confirm that they use 230v electrical input. Even better if use UK socket, but any other socket so long as using 230v input isnt a problem cuz just needs small adapter to convert the socket. Just my 2 sen.

From my personal experience, u should respray instead of wrap since u mentioned that got rust on the car. This is because rust have started building from underneath the paint, and will only get worse, so the workshop need to remove the paint and file off the rust before respraying to avoid rust coming back again.

Cost of spraying varies greatly depending on color and quality of paint. It could be as cheap as RM1000-1500 to RM2000-3000. Maybe u wanna ask around shops and compare prices around your area. If u share which area u live in some of the guys here might be able to recommend shops.

No worries, knowledge is meant for sharing here.

Anyone from Kuching or nearby area can shed some light on car respray shops, please feel free to share.

Also, perhaps u could also ask family/friends/colleagues if they know any good car respray shops that they could recommend. The price I quoted earlier is what I know generally of KL prices, so it may vary there.