Budget vs Pro: Can Cheap Car Detailing Products Make Your Car Shine?

consumer grade detailing products versus professional grade detailing products do they provide the same user experience do they provide the same level of performance that they provide the same level of results so we're going to talk about that in this video so by consumer grade products we mean products that are available at your local auto part store or Big Box store so the Walmarts of this world the AutoZone and all that kind of stuff and there are Brands like Turtle Wax uh you can have atams polishes there's G's garage there's Maguire uh there's armorall there's a bunch of brands that are available at more accessible prices for those who are budget conscious of course we live in a time uh where it's difficult financially for many people in countries around the world so it is interesting to find good value for money and then you have professional grade products so there are counterparts uh like gon there's pns there's also carpro there's G Technic there's a bunch of brands that are are more either Pro suer or aimed at car detailing professionals now again do they offer the same level of experience the same performance the same results you're going to see all of that in a demo in this video and to do so I Enlisted the help of a good friend of mine he's Phil from Miranda detailing so he's a professional detailer in Virginia uh in the USA he has a business with his wife and he details Vehicles professionally so what I asked him to do is go to your local auto part store pick some products tools and equipment for like roughly under under 50 bucks and see if you can get the same results and performance and give us your thoughts so what a professional car detailer thinks of the uh consumer grade more inexpensive options out there uh by the way don't worry I'll leave all the links to the tools products and equipment in the description under the video for you guys to check them out so all you have to do is sit back relax and enjoy the show also go ahead and give Phil from Miranda detailing some love go check out his YouTube videos if you plan on becoming a professional detailer or if you're a pro detailer and you want more more tips and tricks he does some great stuff some great work he does great things for the detailing community and you guys know I love to share my platform to those out there who have perhaps smaller channels but I want to help them grow and gain new audiences so show him some love tell him Pan the organizer sends you check out his videos again I'll leave his channel Linked In the description under this video so without further Ado Phil take it away what's up pan thank you for having me on the show and I want to thank your viewers as well and I hope you enjoy this my name is Phil my wife and I own Miranda detail and we're professional detailers here in Richmond Virginia so today is going to be an interesting video I am going to be using some of the cheapest products that I could find at my local wmart and use them on a professional level and see what results we can get from them now I want to compare these products because on a daily basis we're using professional grade products and tools so will it make a difference if we use these cheaper products but in the same way that we wash a vehicle professionally let's find out to give you a rundown of some of the products that we bought these are very basic I didn't include any type of Decon or clay barring because what I'm really focusing on is a maintenance wash a simple wash and wax that's it so here's what we picked up and I spent less than $50 buying all this stuff that made differ depending on where you are and what products you find I was able to keep it around that $50 Mark with the exception of buying these brushes here these tools will last you much much longer than a product will because of course you're using up product we have a cheap wash and wax product from armorall we have the armorall extreme tire shine which you can use on tires and trim we have the Turtle Wax wax and dry so this will be our protection product which we can put on pretty much everything the glass the paint even exterior plastic now this product here is Spray n this is a deaser and cleaner we're going to use that for the wheels and the tires and then a very cheap basic glass cleaner now as far as tools I have a really cheap wash mitt this is around $5 we have a pretty cheap Little Wheel woolly brush here that we're going to use for the wheelbarrows we have another cheap brush that we're going to use for the face of the wheels and the tires we also picked up these really cheap microfibers they're soft but they're pretty thin and I think this was an eight pack for around $ 5ish dollar or so and then we have this little wash bucket which does come with its own little grit guard which is kind of cool and it actually stays in the bucket cuz it has these little plastic nodules here so it keeps it in the bucket that's actually a nice feature good job all right let's get to washing now like I said I am going to wash this like I usually do as a professional detailer which does mean using a pressure washer you could just use a hose but I want to see how the products work on a professional level now I am using a separate bucket for the wheels again you can just buy another bucket if you wanted to do that but this is not necessarily about the entire process from A to Z and all of the products and tools used this is just giving you a simple idea this is just giving you an idea of using some cheap products but in a professional setting so there's going to be some steps here and some things here that I don't do on a professional level or maybe you don't do on a consumer level the point is the product so focus on that now with the shampoo here I am going to put this in our foam Cannon put these away for now we're going to focus on the wheel cleaning now for the foam Cannon I'm going to put just a few ounces of the shampoo I'm not being too exact here I can kind of eyeball 2 to 3 oz now I don't necessarily need to foam the bucket because this is my foam on the vehicle so I am not needing to do a traditional two bucket method this is just my method it's my way if you want to check out our Channel I explain why I wash this way and how it's actually very safe and very effective and the pre-wash part is the most important and I am going to show you that in just a moment so let's get the vehicle ready to wash so before I go into my contact wash what I'm going to do is our traditional APC rinse now I'm using Spray n which is very very strong so I am going to dilute it about 1 to 4 in this little bottle and I'm going to use this to pre-wash now our vehicle has not been washed in a couple of weeks it is actually kind of gross I just had my tires changed out so I do need to scrub these down really well we definitely have some bugs both in the bumper and the windshield in the mirrors now because I'm not in direct sunlight and it's not really hot today what I'm going to do is spray down the vehicle dry not pre-rinsing again this is diluted it is safe to do this if you are unsure then simply wet the vehicle down first now you can instantly see this stuff working it starts to pull this grime off really really quick I'm also going to spray the wheels and tires down basically this is a touchless pre-washing I'm not going to scrub anything just yet you can really see it pulling the junk off the paint I have to say this stuff is very good and I actually do use it on a professional level this does have antibacterial and virus killing properties so it eats away the bugs and it is very cheap for how good of a chemical it really is because you can use it on the interior as well it does a great job of cleaning carpets and upholstery now we're focusing on all the bottom portions because those are the dirtiest again some of the dirtiest areas on the back of the vehicle now a word of caution when you using a Degreaser like that you are weakening your protection not necessarily stripping it 100% so for basic maintenance wash and waxes go gently with this step only do it if the vehicle is really dirty if you don't need to pre-wash don't simply rinse it foam it and contact wash it but that is up to your discretion and how bad the vehicle really is can you see that clear line right there yeah that's with no scrubbing at all you're getting the majority of that junk right off the paint safely before you contact wash [Music] so before we even contact wash the vehicle is very very clean our protection is still holding strong I actually have a synthetic sealant on here that's still holding on really well after a couple of months even the wheels and tires yeah they look pretty decent without even scrubbing them but we are going to scrub them further so let's use our foam cannon with the shampoo and we're going to foam everything up that actually produces some pretty nice foam not bad at all now I'm also going to foam up the wheel bucket this just adds extra lubrication and cleaning power now this is optional but you can foam up your wash bucket if you want I'm using this more as a rinse bucket but again for added lubrication totally optional so let's see how this wash mitt does already I'm not a fan of the wash mitt only because it's it's really really floppy I want a little bit more structure but that's personal choice as far as slickness goes even though it's foamy it's not the slickest shampoo now again I'm only using one mitt here usually I use two mitts one for the top one for the bottom but in this case I'm going very very cheap here and trying to use minimal products and tools but as far as cleaning power the bugs have been softened up and removing with relative ease not not too bad at all I'm I'm actually pretty happy with its cleaning ability now I'm going to clean all the top surfaces and then go back and hit all the bottom surfaces I'm not going all the way to the bottom just yet only because again it's the dirtiest part of the vehicle [Music] so for the wheels and tires again I'm just using Spray Nine but I'm going to be using it straight this time because I want some more cleaning power I have always been impressed by this product because it is so cheap it works incredibly well as a disinfectant and a heavy duty Degreaser and it can be used inside or out and you can find this in 1 Gall or even 5 gallon form on Amazon these little like wheel woolly type style brushes are pretty nice but they're a little thick and sometimes they get stuck but they do clean pretty well and they are nice and soft just not a fan of how they get stuck like that in the there we go now you can get a separate Tire brush and a separate wheel brush because sometimes you can cross-contaminate it's totally up to you in this video I'm doing this just because I'm keeping things cheap but professionally I'd rather have different brushes a dedicated tie brush a dedicated wheel brush and even a dedicated wheel well brush and brushes to get into these little areas too but again when you do that you are making things a little bit more expensive as well and those tools are going to be more the professional grade type of [Music] tool so does this clean well yes it does you can get away with just using that product and those two tools is it the safest way no not really not really recommended I would definitely invest in proper tools but again you are making things a little bit more expensive so keep that in mind so the vehicle is clean the paint is clean the tires look excellent the wheels are are really cleaned well and the paint is still beating from the protection that we put on it a while ago and this is a wash and wax so it does have a little bit of polymer protection whatever they put in here so maybe that's also adding to the beading but overall it looks really really good now let's use these microfibers they are very very thin I mean they're soft feeling but they're super thin so already I'm not quite a fan of that and I got these microfibers instead of a big drying microfiber because I wanted to be versatile I wanted to use these towels for drying but also be able to use them for interiors or pretty much anything else that's why I went with these again keeping things in a low budget now the Turtle Wax wax and dry I've used a product like this before from Turtle Wax they have a couple of different variations and I've actually been very happy with these products so I'm going to spray this onto the paint and dry with the towels at the same time oh I don't like these so thin I mean they dry well cuz they're brand new but they're just so thin in fact maybe what I'll do is double these up there that's a little better so they do dry well but they're just so thin and flimsy feeling and they are soft so I'm not worried about scratching necessarily just the quality of the thickness the plushness of the towel is just not there but they are very very soft so maybe a couple of uses you can get out of these and that's pretty much it and then probably downgraded to Interior towels but the drying capability of the towels and this product together work really well if I had a a better high quality drying towel it would be better but the product does a really good job of breaking up the water tension helping the towel to absorb as well leaving the paint very very slick and dry you can also spray this on the glass and it's going to add protection onto your glass and I know this seems kind of counterproductive because we're going to be using the glass cleaner on the glass but if this does well enough then you don't need to use the glass cleaner and already these towels are just saturated so I have to ring them out now every panel or so not a fan of the towels for drying I would definitely recommend a professional drying towel it will last longer and it's better for the paint as well because it is softer and plusher plusher is that a word plush more plush most plushest the plushiest now you could use a blower for this a leaf blower or you know a professional blower that would make the job go much faster but you are adding a couple hundred doar to this whole process so again keeping it on a budget now I do like this wax and dry it's actually a pretty good product it's very very affordable I really like products from Turtle Wax they're new line of products are actually pretty good ah these towels suck so these towels me I would not recommend them they're soft maybe use them for interior only but for the exterior they're just they're so thin they absorbed water well enough at first and they quickly get saturated so for drying towels nah not a good recommendation interior I definitely use them for interior so as far as wash mitts go it does the job but it's very floppy it's not as plush as I would want there a lot of room here for more fibers to go into I would have liked to see a little bit more dense compared to a professional wash mitt like this which actually has some good backbone to it so it's not just floppy like this and it's very very very plush the dirt particles will go in they're not just going to go on the surface and scratch against your paint so a plush wash mitt like this is definitely a plush this meh it did the job but I wouldn't recommend it for a professional now for glass cleaning this stuff I've actually read about and I've never used it myself glass cleaners well they're kind of a diamond dozen if they're an alcohol-based glass cleaner they are usually pretty good so I'm going to use the same towels same type of towels not the same drying towels of course they're they're new and dry and I have two of them so I like to spray onto the towel itself and not onto the glass just because of overspray purposes ooh I like the trigger on this working the cleaner with one towel if you want it a little bit more saturated you can sometimes you need a little bit more cleaner and actually it's doing it's doing okay it's actually cleaning up pretty well what I'm looking for is streaking and any residue left behind so it's really hard to focus up in the glass here so I'm going to keep this towel here but we have a little bit of bugs still on the windshield and that cleaned it off with ease so the glass cleaner yeah that's a win it works really well on a professional level it would work the one thing I don't like about this is the smell it's very perfumy and I I don't like that a lot of the professional glass cleaners do have some scense to it uh but this one I'm just not a fan of the scent it does work really well it is ammonia-free so it can work on titin windows with no problem for the interior of course these towels on glass again me not my best choice for glass now for tires and wheels I'm going to use the wax and dry on the wheels themselves and I'm going to grab the drying towels that I use for the paint cuz I am not going to use these on the paint again anyway and I am going to just dry down these wheels with the other towel so the tire is looking really clean still a little bit wet but that's okay to really get these dry properly you want to blow dry them but we're going to use the armorall extreme tire shine let's see how this stuff works now on the bottle itself it actually says how to apply this and I'm going to do it onto one tire because I don't like the way that it tells me to apply this and I'm not going to follow the directions I know from experience that these directions are counterintuitive for one it says to spray 4 to 6 in away from the tire and basically just drench the tire in it not using an applicator you're going to get a lot of overspray because of that and I don't like that so you're going to have to wipe down the paint and maybe even the glass and usually Tire dressing is done at the end of the detail so there's potential for that messiness this also says to do two passes around the tire that's a lot of product and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes don't wipe it and any drips they say will disappear leaving a brilliant shine not a lot of information on this product about if it's water-based or solvent based silicone based whatever the case is so I really don't know what's in this product I'm assuming it is a silicone based maybe even a solvent based type of dressing so we'll see in about 15 minutes my preferred method is using a brush like this spray it onto the brush so you're controlling the overspray and then apply it onto the tire I don't want to saturate it so that we have drips cuz drips can actually lead to making the tire just look really really bad so if it's too wet which this stuff is very very runny I'm not a fan of that I like a thicker dressing for tires so that it clings a little bit better to the tire this is very watery you can use this on trim also because it is a dressing but I don't want to put it on my trim right now I'm just focusing on the tires now this is pretty wet so I don't want drips here I'm going to mop up around the tread cuz it's just dripping around it again I prefer a thicker product for tires so this is initial application about two times round it's pretty shiny it's pretty wet and that's not my usual go-to so its recommended application is a no no for me I'm going to apply it with a brush the way that I usually do it as a professional so the vehicle is now clean and protected and looking pretty decent how did these products stack up to professional grade products well there are some here that I would actually use on a professional level one being the spray n this stuff is incredible as a disinfectant interior cleaner it's amazing the wax and dry worked pretty well also you don't want to be buying bottles like this all the time so get your products in gallon form or larger but this product did work really well as far as the wash and wax I was actually surprised at its foaming capability it Foams up really well it doesn't have the slickness that I would want but its cleaning power and a little bit of the protection that it left behind was relatively decent and again at least you can buy this in a larger form now if you're starting out detailing you know you could use this but you are going to want to graduate to better products that have more slickness more lubrication but cleaning power and foaming this actually did okay now this stuff I am just not a fan of at all I don't like its application it's very very watery as far as durability I guess time will tell we'll see I would like to actually drive this for a couple of days and see if it slings but I don't like the application of this stuff at all the little bucket here is actually pretty decent and the git Gard in there is a nice addition as well buckets and things like that on a professional grade level that really doesn't make that much of a difference at all what makes the difference are some products but especially techniques so if you want to learn about proper techniques for detailing on a professional level then check out our YouTube channel pen will have it linked down below so I got to get all this stuff packed up and the car pulled in the garage cuz we have a full day tomorrow again thank you pan thank you viewers we'll see you next time so guys I think that was an awesome video thank you Phil so check out his YouTube channel Phil from Miranda detailing I'll leave the channel Linked In the description Go and show him some love again I'll leave the links to the tools products and equipment in the description under the video If you guys enjoyed this by the way smash the Thumbs Up Button share this video with family and friends or anybody who might benefit from this information and uh if you want me to do a future video on this kind of topic let me know what next do you want us to compare uh in the consumer versus PR grade something that you might find interesting drop a comment in the comment section in the meantime guys don't forget keep it tight keep it clean and I'll see you on the next one

Channel: Pan The Organizer

Views: 210,073

Keywords: budget vs pro can cheap car detailing products make your car shine, pan the organizer, detailing, car detailing, auto detailing, cheap vs expensive, consumer grade vs professional grade auto detailing products, detailing supplies, best car detailing products, turtle wax, meguiar', armor all, gyeon, carpro, gtechniq, p&s detailing, automotive, can store bought products be as good as professional detailing products, turtle wax vs carpro, turtle wax vs gyeon, armor all vs carpro

Id: lrEgHItO7w8

Length: 22min 55sec (1375 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2023