#7 | Porsche Turbo

#6 | Hyundai Genesis Coupe

#5 | Dodge Challenger

#4 | Scion FRS / Subaru BRZ

#3 | Jeep Wrangler

#2 | Ford Mustang

#1 | Nissan GT-R

Agree? Disagree? Let us know what we got right/wrong in the comments below!

Detailing is detailing

You may think hypercars are special, but when it comes down to it, all cars need love. The same love. You must protect hypercars, just like you must protect that old minivan your grandmother bought you in high school. You have got to clean the rims, condition the tires, and condition soft surfaces. There are no exceptions for the process used when it comes to the type of vehicle you’re detailing and that’s that.

You should use better detailing products

Simple: don’t use poorly manufactured products to clean an expensive car. Now, I don’t like cheap products for a number of reasons and I wouldn’t use any on that minivan I mentioned before, but a lot of people do. Problem is, most wildly inexpensive car care products don’t last long, they’re overly caustic, and they’re just terrible to use. You buy quality, you get quality—that’s just the way it works. Take it from someone who has tested countless detailing products, give your car the best and it will look its best.

Consider clear bra and protect it

With cars this expensive, every rockchip is excruciatingly expensive. Some special paints can’t be buffed or polished, so preventative care is a major priority. Since these cars are often found on the highway or the track (and not going 30 MPH), one way to fight this that most street cars don’t need to rely on is clear bra. You can cover highly problematic areas such as behind wheel arches, bumpers and front spoilers to keep road debris off of your finish. Now you still have to clean and protect your car’s clear bra to keep it clear and cloud-free.

Really that’s it. There’s not much more precaution you need to take with a hypercar, especially if you consider the fact that all cars should be cared for properly. Wash regularly, protect often, and take care of messes before they become a burden. Keep good products handy and you’ll be set and your car will be looking great.

What would be your favorite hypercar to detail? Let us know in the comments?

Photo from Topgear.com

Go For Glaze

When automotive paint starts to look dull and dingy, the logical plan of attack is to wash, polish, and protect your car. If you’re like me, however, you’re proactive enough to not let your paint get too beaten up—the key here is protecting regularly. In such a scenario you really shouldn’t need to bust out a polish. I suggest a glaze instead, just before you’re about to wax or seal your car’s finish. Glazes are far less abrasive than polishes and are designed to fill in imperfections just barely visible to the human eye. Glaze the car, seal it up, and you’ll be turning heads in no time.

Polish Your Metal Accents

The majority of cars I see on the road are covered in filth to begin with, but typically it’s cars with murky metal accents that look the worst. A simple chrome/metal polish will brighten up rims, trim and the like with little effort. Trust me, it makes a difference when your metal accents are gleaming as you cruise down the street. If you’re in a hot rod or custom chopper you know exactly what I’m talking about, and even if you aren’t, chances are it still hits home. There’s nothing like sparkling chrome to compliment a clean car—don’t let yours bring you down.

De-fade The Trim

Faded grey trim is but one thing: disgusting. As sickening as it is to witness, poorly treated trim is the most common ailment of daily drivers. Truth is, most car owners don’t figure to condition things like weather stripping, wiper reservoirs, or plastic trim, but when they do, you notice it. When you buy your car these surfaces are deep, rich, and dark—there’s no reason not to keep it that way. Buy a conditioning plastic sealant, take 15 minutes out of your day, and get it done. Your car will love you and so will those of us who notice the extra effort you put in.

Tires, Tires, Tires

Much like your car’s plastic or rubber trim, its tires get pretty beaten up while on the road. We harp on this a lot, but conditioning your tires regularly has a number of benefits. Your car looks newer, the walls of your tires last longer, and you avoid premature cracking due to weather and the many environmental contaminants your tires come into contact with. Do this and you’ll cap off that new car look and be the envy of every Jerry and Jane on the block.

If you’re looking for a little extra attention on your Sunday cruise or just want to keep your investment looking its best, look no further. These four simple tips will pay huge dividends both in the long run and the very minute you complete them, so what are you waiting for? Pay your car the attention it deserves and you’ll turn more heads than a Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

Got your own tips? Share them in the comments below!

Blurred Contrast

When light reflects off of a glossy car, we see an almost-perfect reflection of the world around us because that light is reflecting specularly (like a mirror). Matte finishes scatter the light, blurring the reflection to the point of invisible. All contrast is lost as reflected colors blend together to create amorphous shapes on the surface.

Because we can’t focus on a reflection, what we see is the raw sparkle (or sheen) of the matte paint itself—if you’ve ever looked at a glossy car’s reflection on a nice day, it’s hard to focus on the paint and not the reflection in it. This makes matte paint extremely unique and is a big reason many car owners are switching to matte paint or vinyl wraps that produce the same visual effect.

Sheen vs. Reflection

Aesthetically speaking, “matte” is a blanket term used to describe all types of finishes between flat and satin. Each finish is unofficially classified based on the amount of sheen it has. Now, one could argue that busting out a gloss-o-meter would end the discussion on what’s flat and what’s satin, but we’ll get into that at another time. The sheen is entirely dependent on how deep the valleys are in the matte surface and how extreme the scattering is.

To better clarify, think about a glossy car… the perfectly smooth surface is ideal for light to bounce symmetrically off the surface, thus the reflection. On the other hand, BMW’s Frozen finish (notoriously more satin) has gentle hills and valleys that make the surface appear a more muffled-matte look where you can very easily make out shapes in the surfaces reflection. To take it to another extreme, aftermarket single-stage flat finishes are so rough that you can’t see a thing—no sheen, no glow, no nothing.

When it comes down to it, every matte finish is like a fingerprint—they are all unique to some extent. Sure, Mercedes has perfected their Designo Magno finishes to the point where almost every one that comes off the lot looks identical, but even between shades, they yield a unique level of sheen that makes them appear truly one of a kind. Fortunately you don’t have to search too far to find the right matte paint care products for every level of sheen.

Got a favorite matte finish? Share it with us on Facebook or in the comments below!

1. Rinse and Wash
The first step we took may seem like the most obvious, but it’s important nonetheless. In order to get any surface prepared for a protectant or conditioner it needs to be cleaned. In this case it was easy. We simply rinsed the tire, sprayed it with a good wheel cleaner, and brushed it with a tire scrub brush. Once we rinsed off any extra soap we had ourselves a clean tire. But that was just the first step.

2. Dry and Condition
After cleaning the tire and removing all of the blotchiness and dirt, we dried it and were able to see exactly what sort of condition it was in. We immediately noticed that the tire was sort of faded and grey looking and needed some love, so we brought out our Tire Conditioner. A dollop of Tire Conditioner on an applicator was all it took to get the rubber looking like new again. After applying the conditioner to the entire surface all the dryness, fading, and unevenness were gone. This is exactly the type of result you look for in a good tire protectant.

3. Wipe
I’ve found that many people don’t think about this, but skipping this step can lead to a lot of frustration as soon as the side of your car is covered in tire goo. It’s always best to use a tire conditioner (not a tire dressing) which is formulated to prevent tire sling. But even then, if you leave excess product on the surface it can get flung onto your paintwork. Once you wipe down the tire you can eliminate any excess product, while adjusting how much of a sheen you’d like on your tires.

And just like that you’ve got healthy tires that look like new. Let us know if you have any questions down below. Or just tell us about your most recent foray into the world of tire care!

Motorcycles are smaller and require more detail.

Other than maybe a smart car. motorcycles have far less surface area to clean than cars do. Where they take the cake is with intricate accents, tight crevices, a lot more metal, and not a lot of room for a machine buffer. Because of this, most detailing work on a motorcycle is done by hand with tools designed to fit in tight spaces. Additionally, with exposed frames and pipes being more common on motorcycles, these areas need unique attention whereas detailing a car is fairly straight forward once you understand the ideas of clean, prep, and protect.

Cars gather more filth.

More surface area = more dirty. Cars have big “faces” where as a motorcycle cuts through the air with a much more aerodynamic design. Bikes still get dirty, but a lot of it comes from the road itself rather than from airborne contaminants. Cars get pelted from all sides, all day. There’s a roof, a back side, quarter panels, doors, a hood, and bumpers to deal with. On a bike there’s typically just a gas tank, a fender or two, and maybe some fairings—all totaling less surface area than your car’s hood and roof combined. Cars get dirty really easy, and cleaning them typically means cleaning the whole car.

Cars are driven more than bikes.

Cars require additional protection from UV rays and daily encounters because they are on the road more often than motorcycles. Leather seats get cracked because we’re constantly climbing in and out of the car. Door handles get scratched, well, for the exact same reason. Most motorcycles have vinyl or plastic seats that, though still requiring attention, are less problematic. Bottom line is that there’s more incidental damage that will occur on a car that requires a wider array of detailing products.

When all is said and done, detailing is still detailing. You just need to wrap your mind around the fact that detailing a motorcycle is different and more “exacting” than car care is. Cars, though more straightforward, are a larger canvas to clean. The key is to examine the problems and address them with the proper detailing prescription (that’s where we come in).

Have any tips to share about detailing a motorcycle or car? Let us know in the comments!

Dust and paint don’t mix

You see, dust may not seem problematic at first. Just a blemish on the surface of your car, but consider that dust, if the surface isn’t protected, can dig into your clear coat much like sandpaper would. If, say, your car was covered in dust and a purse or your leg brushed up against the quarter panel, you can almost be certain there will be some slight surface marring. While this isn’t always visible, it’s almost always fixable with a simple hand polishing procedure.

“The best offense is good defense”

While this saying is all too common in sports, it rings just as true in the world of car care. In detailing terms, the best way to keep your car looking great is to prevent it from things that make it look bad. Protecting your finish from the dangers of dust is the most important way to deal with this kind of environmental damage to your vehicle. Sealing the paint will prevent the dust from being embedded into the finish and potentially causing swirls or scratches.

Likewise, washing regularly will also help keep dust from altering the resilience of your protection layer. Dust on a waxed surface has the same effect on the wax as it does to a bare surface—after all, that’s why we protect in the first place.

So if you live in a dusty area, know that your car needs special attention if you want it looking great all year round. Take the necessary action and stay on top of your detailing duties and you’ll have nothing to worry about. As always, let us know in the comments if you have tips of your own that you want to share, or drop us a question and we’ll get back to you ASAP!

1. Seal your car and add a layer of wax.

By seal I, of course, mean use a paint sealant to shield your car from the affects of poor weather. Then, once you’ve allowed the sealant to cure (unless you use an instant bonding paint sealant), layer up with carnauba to increase shine, resilience, and the ability to repel precipitation. Not only will your paint be protected against UVs and damage from environmental fallout, but you’ll have rain beading up and running off your car like it was greased in oil.

The slick surface won’t allow water to sit still and, therefore, it will not be able to dry and cause spotting. In addition to this, you can quickly wick water from flat surfaces with a microfiber towel and have no problem at all.

2. Utilize a detail spray on a regular basis.

While it might be tempting bust out the bucket and grit guard and do a full wash when you get waterspots, it may not be necessary. If you’ve let the blemishes sit on the paint surface for quite some time then you may need to wash the car (or maybe even use a paint cleaner). But if they’re relatively fresh there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to wipe them up with some touch up spray and a microfiber towel.

There’s no fighting spring showers, but you can certainly avoid the unsightly remnants left behind from a quick-drying rain. Protect your finish and stay prepared with a detail spray and you’ll be set regardless of adverse conditions.

1. Examine your car

To make sure you have a grasp on what detailing your car really needs, always give your car a thorough wash and then examine your finish, trim, wheels, and interior. Look for swirls, fading, cloudiness, scuffs, and anything else that’s keeping your car from perfection. I recommend documenting this somewhere even if it’s your iPhone’s note app. Doing so will give you a better idea of what your car needs come spring and will help make your plan of attack more efficient.

2. Get the right car care products

Before you notice your car looking filthy, make sure you pick up some car wash soap, interior cleaning products, and all the necessary accessories that you’ll need to keep your car looking great. Opting for properly formulated car care products can extend the aesthetic benefits of your car wash (for example) and make all the difference in how many heads your car turns as you cruise down the street.

3. Schedule time for car care

Car care is a very methodical process that requires attention and dedication. The pay off is huge, of course, but one of the biggest problems I see enthusiasts face is having enough time to stay on top of proper car care. Now this can, in part, be cured by using longer lasting products, but it can also help to block out time in your schedule for maintaining the appearance of your ride. Your car will thank you, and it will feel good to see the fruits of your labor revealed before your eyes.

4. Beef up your Detailing IQ

If you’re an enthusiast, check out some articles or books on proper car care. You’re already on Behind the Detail, so that’s a great start. If you’re a professional and looking to get a leg up, you should research communities such as the IDA (International Detailing Association) or industry masters like Renny Doyle who can help you get the most out of your efforts.

In addition to the above four suggestions, we’re always here to help with questions. Drop us a line in the comments or send an email to myteam@drbeasleys.com and you might get your question answered in a post on Behind the Detail (plus a personal response, of course). Happy detailing!

Benefits of Powder Coating

Compared to traditional paint finishes, powder coating is often referred to as “lusterless” in the detail world. At the same time, the finish does have a number of explicit benefits that make it worth considering:

• Thicker layers without sagging or runs
• Zero VOC emissions (or close to it)
• Less inconsistencies in the finish
• Tougher than traditional coatings

While that all sounds great, there are two major deterrents to powder coating: cost and metal. It can be very expensive to coat wheels, a bike, exhaust pipes, or even an entire car with a powder coating. At the same time, powder coating can only be applied to metal surfaces (and some new fiberboard technology)—a lot of cars today have plastic bumpers and trim. The implication, then, is that it would be much harder to match the smoothness and color of the coating on the metal with a different coating on the non-metal surfaces. I wouldn’t let that stop you from exploring the option of powder coating.

Caring for Powder Coated finishes

Care for powder coated finishes is essentially the exact same as a normal finish—you want to protect the surface and keep it clean. In many cases powder coated surfaces are stronger and more resistent to scratches, staining, and blemishes than traditional paint finishes, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t maintain and protect the surface on a regular basis.

Does your car sport a powder coated surface? Have you noticed any advantages or disadvantages that you’d like to share? Share your experience with us in the comments!