Polishing when no shelter is available...

[houndlover]

Do any of you guys regularly polish with PC or rotary out in the open? Occasionally family members (without garages) ask me to polish their cars, and I don't have a tent to tote along. Any of you guys do this regularly?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Polishing when no shelter is available...

Sure...

Shrink the size of your work area down. Borrow the shade from a nearby building. The hardest parts to work on in the open will be the horizontal surfaces as dust and contaminants in the air tend to settle on these ares and not the sides, so just do your complete process, (whatever that is), to the hood all at once, i.e. clay, the clean, the polish and wax, as soon as the wax is dried wipe the excess off and move to another horizontal panel and repeat.

You can usually do the sides more leisurely because dust isn't trying to land on these surfaces and usually the sun isn't beating down on them. You can also move the car around to position the panel you're working on isn't in direct sun.

Takes longer, but that's the way it goes...

If you're working by machine, get some extension cords so if you do find some shade you can move the car to the shade and still be able to reach it with power.

[houndlover]

Re: Polishing when no shelter is available...

Thanks Mike. This may be a stupid question, but do any of the Meguiar's polishes do better then others in these working conditions?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Polishing when no shelter is available...

Thanks Mike. This may be a stupid question, but do any of the Meguiar's polishes do better then others in these working conditions?

Are we talking cold temps or warm temps?

Regardless, if the temps are normal, say a range of 70 degrees or within 10 degrees either way it will be like working inside, if the temps are real cold or real hot, the most product will start to become more difficult to work with usually in the wipe off but sometimes in the application. So remember this, anytime you're working in extremes, simply shrink the size of your work area down. Makes things slower, but maintains ease of application and removal. It's the trade-off for working in extremes.

[Hemin8r]

Re: Polishing when no shelter is available...

You can probably pick up a decent size tent at Pep Boys for about $80. That's what I did. It actually came out to be $72.00 because it was on sale.

[houndlover]

Re: Polishing when no shelter is available...

Looking at temperatures 60-85. Yeah, I will probably eventually buy a tent.

[houndlover]

Re: Polishing when no shelter is available...

By the way - Mike, it does make perfect sense regarding what you mentioned about working a smaller area.

[Jossy92]

Re: Polishing when no shelter is available...

Shrink the size of your work area down. ... just do your complete process, (whatever that is), to the hood all at once, i.e. clay, the clean, the polish and wax....

I will definitely do this in the summer time. However, as a newbie I am going to practice this way too. To spend hours on a car and then go back and find you made a major mistake....

Today I am going going to wash the whole car and then concentrate on just one wheel, tire and wheel well: rewash, clean, polish, wax just that one area. Maybe spray a detailer inside the wheel well.

Then I won't have any excuses this summer.

(Think I am going to use Gold Class for the wash, NXT for the LSP, not sure yet about what goes in between. Going to do everything by hand, to get the feel of the products.)

[WrightDetail]

Re: Polishing when no shelter is available...

Found a 10'x10' for $ 99 at Home Depot last fall....bit challenging alone to put up, but practiced couple times and made it work for me.

Granted not big enough to cover 100% of some vehicles, but as Mike P said, just shrink your work area.

[SL1CK]

Re: Polishing when no shelter is available...

I would hate to do this in Texas. =(

[TXShine]

Re: Polishing when no shelter is available...

I would hate to do this in Texas. =(

Me too.....

NXT 2.0 = $14.95

Food and Lodging = $275.00

Gas = $450.00
Detailing in ideal weather in another part of the country = PRICELESS