Question about surfaces

[Daveyboy 445]

Many cars today are made with plastic (at least non-metallic) bumpers and body kit panels. When i detail a car what are my products enriching....the paint, the surface under the paint or both? Secondly, would the Meguiar's products that I'm applying to my metallic car panels have the same effect on my plastic bumpers which are painted the same colour ?

[Murr1525]

Re: Question about surfaces

The products are designed to work on paint. If the paint is over metal, plastic, carbon fiber, fiberglass, etc, you are still working on the paint. So ye, the products will work fine on painted bumpers.

Rotary users may experience different heat build-up with different substrates (metal, plastic, etc), but that is due to the machine/pads/technique being used, not the paint or products.

[Daveyboy 445]

Re: Question about surfaces

thanks........was always a bit curious about this

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Question about surfaces

Mat has, as always, nailed this pretty well.

Regardless of what you're trying to do, it's always the top surface that you're working on that really counts. Some cars have a mix of steel and aluminum body panels, plus the urethane bumper covers (think Mazda MX5 Miata), but they're all covered in paint so you need products for paint. We get quite a few requests from Corvette owners asking what we have for fiberglass but again, the car is painted so what's under the paint really isn't all that important (except, as Mat points out, if you're generating a lot of heat during rotary buffing because different substrates can dissipate heat at different rates).

We also get questions on what metal polish to use on polished wheels that have a clear coat on them. Again, the wheel is coated with what is essentially a clear paint, so a metal polish is not appropriate to use them. They are painted with clear paint, so you need to select a product designed for paint, not a metal polish.