Photos of taped off areas?

[premier.mobile1]

Does anyone have any close up photos of areas that should be taped off, i.e. trim, emblems and seams? My understanding is that you tape off to minimize cleaning in the gaps and cravases of those areas, but to do so effectively the tape would have to be applied to the paint near the gap, right? Wouldn't that leave those areas of paint that are covered uneffected by the correction process? Do you go back and do that by hand? Or am I just missing something here?

Thanx in advance!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Photos of taped off areas?

This question comes up from time to time and everyone has their own way of doing this...

For myself, I usually run the tape onto the paint about 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch because it's fast to do it this way and because no one is ever going to get down that close to the paint and say...

"Hey... hey hey hey! The paint right here close to the trim isn't as polished as the rest of the paint out here in the middle of the hood!


Think big picture, the majority of the swirls are gone and the overall paint looks good. If you want to apply the tape to trim with the level of precision a surgeon uses when doing heart surgery that's your option but for the most part running the tape just a little past the trim and onto the paint won't affect the overall results and will prevent splatter from getting on the trim and thus prevent you from having to invest your time cleaning the trim after the detail job when you're all tuckered out.

Make sense?

Just to note... some trim does make it easy to only place tape on the trim and not the paint and when you can do this "quickly and easily" then go for it.

From Advanced Class #2

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24044

Some times it' helps to tape off things like windshield squirters so you don't harm the squirter or load up the water opening with compound by accident.




If you look to the right of the tape you cans see the straight-line scratches in the paint caused by the car wash used by the rental company to wash the cars.




More information...

How to tape-off a car

A few pictures from the above thread...


You can get as AR as you want or feel you need to get...

Tape off small trim areas



Sometimes I cut pieces with scissors to make for a neater taping





Window gaskets and trim around side mirror taped-off



Windshield wash water squirter taped-off







Here's a picture of the felt surrounding the sun roof to prevent it from product splatter. It's very difficult to clean this type of material so it's always better to tape it off.





Here you can see we have taped-off the gasket and trim around the window and also a sticker in the lower right hand corner to protect it from splatter that would later need to be removed. (Just an extra safety precaution)






Hope this helps...

[premier.mobile1]

Re: Photos of taped off areas?

Thanx for the info, Mike. I suppose I sometimes go the rout of "if it were my car" to an extreme, because I'd more than likely notice. And when you are trying to beautify someone elses car, and being paid to do it none the less, it practically sticks out like a sore thumb. But I do get the concept you are getting at. I'm just gonna have to find a happy medium between being perfect and being profitable. (I'm no where near perfect, by the way.)

Thanx again!