When people say “shiny tires,” they mean making the tire sidewalls look glossy and new. Detailers use a tire dressing to give that look and help protect the rubber a bit.
They’re saying detailing is a balancing act. If you make something easier or faster to use, it may not last as long or may not look as perfect. The best products try to hit a sweet spot.
This is the everyday gunk and residue that builds up on the paint. Even if the paint isn’t damaged, buildup can make it look dull until you clean it thoroughly.
Clay bar is a special pad you rub on your car’s paint to pick up tiny dirt and grime that washing can’t remove. After you use it, the paint feels smoother and looks shinier.
Super Soaper is a product used in detailing to help loosen dirt and also add slickness. That slickness helps you clean the paint with less risk of scratching.
“Heavily contaminated” means your car’s paint has a lot of stuck-on grime. When you clay it, that grime comes off and can look like brown residue, making the car seem dirtier.
After claying, you usually need to wash/rinse again because the clay pulls off grime that’s still sitting on the paint. Skipping that step can make the car look dirty even after decontamination.
Claying is a way to clean your car’s paint more deeply than regular washing. It removes tiny stuff stuck to the paint so the surface feels smooth instead of gritty.
Paint correction means fixing the clear coat so it looks smooth and shiny again. It removes things like swirl marks and light scratches using special products and pads.
A dual action machine is a power polisher that moves in a safer way than some other polishers. It helps you get better results with less chance of damaging the paint.
“Picture perfect polish” is the product the host recommends for making paint look clearer and shinier. They’re also saying it’s easier to use because it doesn’t create as much heat as some other polishes.
PPF is a clear protective film that helps keep your car’s paint from getting chipped or scratched. The speaker is saying this polish can be used on that film too.
Pads are the soft surfaces on the polishing machine that do the work. The type of pad you use changes how aggressive the polish is and how smooth the final shine looks.
Polishing is how you smooth out tiny imperfections in your car’s paint. It helps remove things like light scratches and swirl marks. After polishing, the paint reflects light better, so it looks much shinier.
Synthetic sealants are protective products that stick to your car’s paint. They’re usually more durable than natural wax, so the shine lasts longer. They can also help dirt wash off more easily.
Ceramic sprays are quick spray products that add a slick, protective layer to your paint. They help water bead up and can make your car look cleaner for longer.
Tuffa Shell is a specific spray-on product the host recommends for adding ceramic-style protection. They’re using it to show how simple the application can be.
Concept
protection longevity (months vs years)
They’re comparing how long different shine-protection products last. Some need redoing in weeks or months, while others are marketed to last much longer.
A one-step polish is a single polishing step that both removes imperfections and boosts shine. It’s a faster way to get a glossy finish compared to doing two separate steps.
This refers to using compatible chemicals so one product doesn’t strip or weaken another coating. For example, harsh detergents or incorrect cleaners can reduce ceramic coating performance, making the finish less hydrophobic and less glossy over time.
Layerable means you can put the product on more than once. That can help keep the shine and protection going longer.
LIVE
I don't know about you,
but I'm a sucker for shiny cars.
And I think a lot of us that are in this kind of car
detailing space, whether you're an enthusiast or a pro,
having a shiny car or getting a shiny car
is kind of what it's all about
because shiny looks beautiful.
That's why I like shiny tires.
I'm not a matte tire guy,
but that's not the reason for today's episode.
Today's episode is talking about
how I think you can get the shiniest car possible.
And it's really not about one specific product
that will do that, but rather a process that will do that.
So this episode is all about kind of achieving
that level of shine that you want
and then how to maintain it so that shine kind of
stays forever or you can quickly get back to that shine.
Because I think a lot of times people think
shine will come from, oh, this, you know,
high grade Carnubo wax or, oh, this great ceramic coating
or, oh, this sealant or whatever.
And they're relying and expecting one product
to kind of carry the weight of achieving all that shine.
And in fact, I think shine comes from actually
removing things, not necessarily adding things.
It is, in fact, adding things
after you first remove them though.
And so a lot of times I get asked, oh, what's,
you know, what product is gonna give me
that Carnubo light glow?
And the problem is, is that I've talked about
with a lot of products because I develop my own products
and have worked on teams for developing
a lot of other products.
When you're chasing shine, you lose something else.
And what you usually lose when you're looking
for shine out of it, one singular product,
you usually use ease of use.
So there's this constant give and take,
this constant balance, at least for me,
I'll speak from my experience,
when you're developing products
or looking at products to release,
how do I make sure I make this easy to use,
but also the result that I'm looking for
and that balance that kind of like last 10%
is where I love to play when developing products.
But again, we're talking about how do we create shine
and then how do we keep that shine?
Because that's another problem that you run into
when you're actually developing these products is,
hey, I can develop a product very simply,
that is high shine and washes off after one car wash
and is very streaky to apply.
That's very easy to accomplish that, right?
But getting a product that is high shine,
easy to use and doesn't wash off with a car wash
is incredibly difficult, right?
And so I found plenty of products
in my years of torture testing
and all those videos that are still up on my YouTube channel.
A lot of products that will create shine
and wash off within a couple car washes,
but really making that shine last is kind of where it's at.
So, because when we think about shine,
it is just simply light reflecting off a surface.
And so what I talked about before of like
removing things from the surface actually increases shine
because you're removing what is actually blocking
the shine from really or the light
from really reflecting off the surface.
So this could be embedded contaminants,
it could be swirls and scratches,
it could just be dirt and film buildup.
Sometimes it will be from lack of maintenance, right?
And I always used to tell my customers
in my detailing business like we can't reverse wear, right?
So whether that is a driver's side seat
that you've been sliding in on for years and years and years
and you've kind of removed the pigment
or the dye from the leather seat, that is wear.
I cannot remove that.
Wear on the outside of the car could be swirls and scratches
which can be fixed or enhanced, I guess.
But if you have peeling pain or crack pain
or really sunburn pain and it's really dull and faded,
the chances of that coming back to a high luster
or highly desirable shine can be difficult
because that is just wear, that's sun damage.
And so sometimes we can't remove that
or you can't remove that.
Sometimes you can through like a polish
and I think I have the best polish,
but sometimes your paint is dull
and you can't bring it back.
Sometimes it just has contaminants in the paint,
roughness in the paint.
If your paint is rough after you wash it,
that is what we call embedded contaminants,
contaminants in the paint.
And the more of that you have,
the less light is able to reflect off the surface
because it's getting cloudy, right?
On a cloudy day, you can't see great,
but on a sunny day, you can see better, right?
So the first step into actually getting a high shine
is to remove what's blocking the shine.
And this is kind of like your foundation.
So, and this really gets into kind of my product line of,
or my, not even necessarily my product line,
but my method for detailing.
So I'm starting with like a pre-soak.
I'm foaming the car, I'm trying to make it safe,
I'm trying to make it easy.
I'm not using a super high pH.
I'm not even necessarily using a low pH.
I'm not gonna use an acid here though.
That's why I have the decon bundle
because using an acid will help remove
those embedded contaminants.
In fact, in iron removers,
the thing that is actually removing the contaminants
in the paint is an acid.
Now, an iron remover is generally pH neutral,
and this is kind of getting into the weeds a little bit,
but the ingredient in iron removers
that's actually removing the contamination is an acid.
And so, but again, I'm using a pre-soak
with a good high quality car wash soap,
and I'm pre-soaking, I'm rinsing, I'm foaming again,
and then I'm doing my contact wash.
Again, less scrubbing, less damage.
You're trying to get more shine,
not create more damage,
so you don't want a really aggressive wash.
You're just trying to get the dirt and grime
and build up off kind of that first layer,
and then we're gonna go in and decontaminate the car.
So we're looking to kind of loosen everything up
as much as possible.
Decontamination could be an iron remover first
if you wanna do that.
It can be just going to clean,
but again, if your paint is rough,
usually on the flat surfaces will be the roughest,
the hood, the hood of the car.
The side panels will normally have some contamination,
but it'll be considerably less.
This is where you can clay bar.
So a traditional clay bar, a clay towel, a clay mitt,
a clay sponge, a clay disc.
There's a whole host of clay material.
My favorite is usually the clay disc
because I can palm it in my hand.
In fact, I have an entire video on different clay bars
and my preferences for that.
One shortcut or one hack that I've done,
and I do personally, I literally just did it yesterday
on a very unsexy used Silver Honda core
that was not very shiny at all.
But when I looked at it today
because it's had in my shop overnight,
I was like, wow, this car's actually got some shine to it.
Like I just needed to be cleaned up a little bit,
need to be clayed.
And this is where this idea of like,
wow, by actually removing things,
I enhanced the shine, right?
And so what I did on that Silver Honda
was I pre-soaked it with the Super Soaper,
foamed the whole entire car.
I let it dwell for about five minutes.
I rinsed all that soap away.
By that point, the car is about 90 to 95% clean.
I deem that surface safe enough to touch now.
So then I foamed it again, right?
And then while the foam was on the car
because the Super Soaper has so many lubricants in it,
I actually used a clay towel.
My clay towel was newer.
I used a clay towel and I clay it
with the Super Soaper on the car, all the suds on the car,
I clayed the whole entire car
and then I rinsed all that off.
Because what happens a lot of times when you have a car
that's like heavily contaminated and you're claying it,
all those contaminates are brown.
They come out as brown and so the car looks really dirty.
So if you just wash the car traditionally,
then you bring the car in and you spray like a clay lube
and then you clay.
After you do that on a heavily contaminated car,
the chances are that you're gonna wanna re-wash that car.
And so essentially what I've aimed to do
is kind of cut out that step
or incorporate that step into my cleaning.
And so again, on the second foam of the car
and you can foam with either a foam cannon,
a pump sprayer, whatever,
I'm claying the car on that second foam
because I know that the surface of the car is very clean.
So I'm not doing any additional damage.
So I'm short cutting and kind of being more efficient
with my time by claying on that second foam.
And you know you're done claying, you'll know.
If you've never clayed before, you'll know
because when you start claying, it's super rough
and you actually feel like you're fighting it a little bit
and then it gets smoothed pretty quickly,
especially with like a clay disc or a clay towel.
It's gonna be significantly faster than a natural clay bar.
But if it's not smooth, it's not fully clean, right?
So you need to make sure that you're getting
as much of these contaminants out as you possibly can.
Where an iron remover would help,
is it kind of softens and loosens
and begins to remove a lot of that embedded contaminants.
And so I usually still will follow up with clay
because an iron remover doesn't always get all of it.
But that's also why I created the Decon package
and I'll link it below.
It's where you use the super-soaper
and you mix it with pure magic cleaner in the foam cannon
because pure magic cleaner is an acid
and it starts to loosen those contaminants.
It won't remove all of them,
especially on a heavily contaminated car,
but it will begin to loosen them.
So when you get to that second foam, clay towel,
clay bar, clay disc, whatever,
you are, it's making your life a lot easier.
So not only are you shortcutting the step,
but it's easier to remove those as well.
So, but lubrication is key
and I would encourage you to go watch that clay bar video.
I'll try to remember to link it below.
The clay bar video, I talk about claying
and talk about lubrication with claying
and I go over all the different options of clay.
So I'd highly suggest kind of checking that out.
After you've clayed, there's a big argument
over if you need to do any paint correction.
This kind of depends on your skill set,
how much time and energy and effort
you're looking to put into getting
as most shine as possible, right?
So if you wanted to do paint correction,
this would be the place.
I could spend a, and I have spent episodes
and episodes and episodes going over paint correction.
I have developed a picture perfect polish.
I documented the whole entire process here on YouTube.
I have what I think is the best liquid on the market
and it's the best because it can remove
the most amount of defects and finish out perfectly.
It's designed totally for beginners and pros.
I developed it with a longtime body shop guy
in Tom Horvath who has 30 plus years experience
with polishes and compounds and all that kind of stuff.
I did a deep dive into abrasives and oils and solvents
and all that stuff and I've talked about that before.
But after you've clayed, the paint correction process
would be where it's at.
I will say this, I got a lot of people reaching out
asking if they could use the picture perfect polish by hand.
The answer is unequivocally yes, you definitely can.
You're gonna get results.
However, and I just emailed this to someone the other day,
I would highly, highly recommend picking up
even a cheap Harbor Freight or Amazon dual action machine
because it's easy to use, you're not gonna mess anything up
with the DA and it's gonna give you a significantly
better result than by hand.
Not only is it gonna give you a significantly better result,
it is gonna be a total time saver and this is horrible.
To wax on, wax off is really bad.
You're gonna have sore arms.
It's gonna take you forever.
So though you can do it by hand,
I would definitely suggest picking up
even a cheap dual action machine
because it's gonna save you so much time
and give you such a better result.
So if you plan on doing any paint correction,
the picture perfect polish is your best bet.
I have a bundle for that as well
and you're not gonna generate a lot of heat by design
with that liquid as you would with other ones.
You could use it on PPF.
I would just highly suggest picking up a machine to do it.
One step polish is more than enough
for the vast majority of people
and the beauty of the picture perfect polish
and the pads that I have up on my site
is that you can use that exact setup
for perfect paint correction in one or two steps
if you choose or for most people, the DIYer,
you're gonna be amazed with the results that you can achieve
even if you've never polished a car ever before.
So I think polishing can be really that
pivotal step in getting maximum shine
because let's think about what we've done.
We have cleaned the surface really well.
Now, car paint is porous
and so that all those contaminants that I talked about
are sitting in the pores of the paint.
So then we've removed those, right?
Now, paint polishing is removing
kind of the surface level defects,
the scratching, the spider webbing, the swirl marks,
things like that.
So we've gone from cleaning the surface
to clearing out the surface
and now we have nothing and then polishing,
we've got very little blocking that sun shine
from reflecting and creating a high shine.
The last step is to add some type of surface protection.
Now, the argument could be made for
this is where people put like a Carnubo wax,
wax on, wax off, takes a lot of time or movement,
doesn't last a long time.
Natural wax is burn off in the sun, right?
And so that's where synthetic sealants came in.
Think Kohlenei 845, I think it is, which was a big one
and there's a whole host of liquid sealants.
Then there's ceramic sprays.
Ceramic sprays, something like mine,
I'll just use mine for an example,
Tuffa Shell, super easy to apply.
One to two sprays per panel, one microfiber towel.
You could buzz around the whole car in two minutes, right?
Works on all surfaces as well.
Then you have wipe on ceramics,
something like the gloss boss.
That's gonna be literally years of protection.
So everything from like a wax,
everything is kind of tiered.
So a wax is gonna give you maybe a month or two
worth of protection.
A sealant is gonna give you two to three months,
four months worth of protection.
A ceramic spray, a good quality one,
maybe three to six months.
And then a wipe on ceramic is like in the years.
One, two, three, four, 10,
depending upon the brand and what they're claiming, right?
For my products, I claim three to five years
with my wipe on ceramic coating.
The verdict's out on other brands, right?
The beauty, again, I talked about earlier
with kind of skipping steps with efficiency.
The beauty with my product line and my product range
is if you decide to do paint correction,
which would be an optional, additional step,
you do not need to wipe any oils or residue
off the surface before you go to your protection step.
So that is good for a whole host of reasons.
If you have soft paint, an IPA or a panel prep,
I've noticed is very aggressive.
And so you can actually induce some scratches
and swirls in this step.
And so I opted when I was developing a polish
to not overload it with oils
so that there would be nothing left on the surface.
That was a big sticking point for me in that.
And so you can go straight to your protection step,
whether you do paint correction or not.
So if you clay bar the surface using the iron mover,
you can go straight to your protection step.
If you choose to add in that paint correction,
which if you're going for as much gloss as possible,
I would definitely suggest even doing a one-step polish.
And then if you want the most protection possible
and the highest gloss possible,
I would go with a wipe-on ceramic coating
and then I would layer that or stack that
with a ceramic spray.
That is going to be the way
that you absolutely max out your shine.
I would, you know, shine is very subjective.
And so, but I would argue that a wipe-on ceramic stacked
with a spray ceramic is gonna give you way more gloss
than a Carnubo wax ever will.
I'm sure I'll get beat to death in the comments for that.
But I would argue that with the right products, you will.
And then beyond that, it's like, okay,
how do we keep this shine?
Because you just invested a ton of time,
money in products and effort.
How do we make maintenance easy, right?
You don't want to, this is kind of the part
that I always got hung up on is like,
you invest all this time, energy, effort and money
and then it's difficult to keep that.
So my thing is and my kind of motto is,
how do I make it easy to do this?
So this includes, you know, my double foam, dry foam,
car wash method that I've done a video on,
having good products that aren't degrading your products.
They're not degrading the materials on your car either.
So, you know, that's why I recommend the Super Soapr.
Pre-soak every time, dry foam or foam a dry car,
do the dry foam method, do a gentle contact wash
on that second foam if you need to,
drying the car properly with like a blower,
a big massive drying towel and then, you know,
making sure that you are, you can wash often
without degrading your protection.
And then this is why I go into Tuftfish Shell
being easy to use, super durable.
I just had someone leave a review
that they're getting like a year out of it.
I don't claim a year out of Tuftfish Shell.
I claim three to six months, but it's so easy
and it's layerable, so I use it very often.
I'm using it almost every car wash, one spray per panel,
because I think it adds a tremendous amount of gloss.
And so, you know, dry foam to a gentle contact wash
if you need to,
maintaining with a high shine, easy to use product
like Tuftfish Shell Ceramic Spray,
which is why I'm so proud of that product
because that balance that I talked about earlier
of something that's high shine, easy to use and durable
is a very, very difficult balance to find.
And I think we were able to do that.
But I think the easier the process is for you,
the more consistent you'll be with it.
I totally learned this lesson recently.
I was with protein powder, not to get into protein,
but I was using a protein powder
and it actually tasted good, which is hard to achieve
with protein powder, right?
And I really liked the brand,
but what I found was that it wasn't the most efficient
calorie to protein ratio out there, right?
So I tried a different brand of protein
that was a little bit more efficient, right?
The problem that I found was that I didn't like
the more efficient protein, it tasted gross.
So I was actually having less smoothies.
I was just incorporating it into a smoothie, right?
And so, but what I found was the more efficient protein
actually tasted different, so I used it less, right?
So I was actually getting, I didn't like the process,
so I was doing it less, right?
And so I switched back to the protein in my smoothie
that I like more and I have a smoothie every day, right?
And so products that you like and that will use
more and more that are easier to use, you know,
more consistent, they make your life easier,
you enjoy them more, you will use more often.
And so for my product brand,
because I have the option to do that,
I chose to make products like that.
They're easier to use, they're more efficient,
and they, I was gonna say they taste good,
but please don't drink them, they don't taste good,
but they're just easy to use and they're more efficient.
How about that?
I'm gonna leave that one there.
And so with that, that is my process,
that is how I achieve the most gloss possible.
I still stand back and look back at my car
after I use my products and I'm like,
wow, that thing looks very shiny.
Even that junky Honda Accord that I detailed yesterday,
after I did this exact process
that I just laid out in this video,
I even surprised myself at how shiny the car was
even a day later, right?
And it will not wash off, it doesn't, that shine will stay.
So if you're looking for the shiniest car possible,
I will make sure to link the products below.
Yes, they are my products.
It directly supports this podcast, this YouTube channel.
It helps me create new products
and helps fund all this that I'm doing here.
So I appreciate your guys support.
You will not be disappointed.
In fact, I offer a 100% lifetime guarantee
on all my products because I do not want you to have products
that you are not satisfied with.
So a lifetime 100% guarantee.
It is a questions asked guarantee, I do ask questions,
but I think it's, a lot of brands offer 100% money back
guarantee within 30 days, 110% money back guarantee
within 30 days, mine is lifetime.
I never want you to be unhappy with my products,
so ever, ever, ever, so offer that.
But with that, I'll catch you guys on the next one.
Thanks for watching.
Thanks for commenting.
Thanks for supporting the channel and the product line.
I really appreciate it.
I'll catch you guys on the next one.
See ya.
About this episode
Chasing “insanely shiny” paint isn’t about one magic wax or ceramic—it's a process built around removing what blocks reflection, then protecting it so the gloss lasts. The host breaks down a workflow: gentle double-foam contact wash, decontamination (iron remover/acid-based cleaners), and claying with smart lubrication shortcuts. After claying, optional paint correction is discussed, including using a dual-action machine for better results. Finish with protection tiering (wax vs sealant vs ceramic spray vs wipe-on ceramic) and maintenance habits that keep shine consistent.
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