hankthecowdog Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 I am newer than new at detailing and have just brought home a new GMC Canyon PU, Quicksilver Metallic with cloth seats and leather steering wheel a month ago. What would be the best plan/products to provide best protection and keep the new vehicle shine inside and out? I will take a gander and say that Optimum has a product equal to or better than Scotch Guard to protect the seats. It seems as the more I read the more overlap of products and the more............. LOL. I will certainly appreciate any and all advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowejackson Posted August 2, 2016 Share Posted August 2, 2016 Welcome to the forum. Cannot comment on fabric sealants as not tried any. In terms of interior cleaning, there are several options. Firstly ONR and Opticlean can be used. I have used ONR on fabric and carpet, very useful on light dirt. The APC of Power Clean is a nice product and just as important as the cleaning power is the easy removal of the cleaner. There is also the OPT carpet cleaner although I have not tried it. There are lots of good interior dressings but as this is the OPT forum it would be remiss of me not to point out the interior protectant. Also have a listen to one of the recent OPT podcasts on interior cleaning, lots of useful tips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron@Optimum Posted August 3, 2016 Share Posted August 3, 2016 As Lowejackson points out, there are several OPT products for interiors - ONR is a good general cleaner, Power Clean for more serious stains, and Protectant Plus for leather/vinyl cleaning and protection. Optimum Carpet and Fabric Cleaner & Protectant (say that 5 times fast) is excellent on carpet and fabric, cleaning and leaving stain & moisture resistant protection. For paint protection we recommend No Rinse (or No Rinse with Wax) topped by Spray Wax, Opti-Seal, or both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hankthecowdog Posted August 3, 2016 Author Share Posted August 3, 2016 Thanks Lowejackson and Ron for your input! I think this will set me up pretty well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowejackson Posted August 3, 2016 Share Posted August 3, 2016 Hankthecowdog, forget to talk about the exterior. This is a bit more tricky. I guess it all depends on how good your paint is. If it is perfect then just add a wax, sealant or coating of your choice. Essentially you want the paint to be a clean and smooth as possible. Cleaning is quite easy, shampoo, clay and maybe a paint cleaner, things get a little more complicated if the paint is not very smooth. Swirls are tiny grooves in the paint and you can choose to hide or remove them. Many choose to remove but there is nothing wrong with hiding the swirls. Removal is normally done by using a polisher to lower the hight of the swirls so they are no longer visible. There must be hundreds of threads and videos out there on doing this although I like the Mike Phillips videos from Autogeek. One of the big problems is there are so many ways to get a car nice and clean it can all be a bit confusing. Many will say use brand X and then Y followed by Z and there is without doubt a lot of wisdom in this approach. An alternative method and not always so popular on forums is to stick to one brands, the OPT products are all designed to work together will minimal fuss and a lot of synergy so you can do crazy things like remove the polishing oils with the spray wax and so miss the IPA/panel wipe step which has become the mantra from many (including me when talking about some products). The APC Power Clean is also a very useful product for the exterior eg tyres, wheels, trim etc. It is not the cheapest product for sale but it is generally a nice and safe product which is very easy to remove. Couple of very quick tips: You can never have enough MF cloths, even the cheap ones have their place If machine polishing, try to have two or more of each type of pad eg polishing and finishing It is meant to be fun. Some get over excited about detailing and silly arguments erupt. Ignore these, this is meant to be a hobby and really is meant to be fun. Unless you want to own a show car, don't aim for perfection. A car with 80% of the swirls removed will still look better than most cars in a dealership. Did I mention it is meant to be fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hankthecowdog Posted August 4, 2016 Author Share Posted August 4, 2016 Again, thanks all. My goal is to use all Optimum products but being new and I am older the technology certainly passed me by. Probably making it a little more difficult than I need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron@Optimum Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 That's the beauty of new (and Optimum) technology, while the terms can be confusing the application has been simplified. We want to make the job easier and last longer so you can drive that Canyon, not spend all your time in cleaning. I'm old school as well, but today's products are so easy to use and have great durability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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