paint cleaner question

[binhbinh]

Hi i just read up on the 5 step procedure for detailing a car. When I came up on paint cleaners it says that it will take some paint off. If you use paint cleaners alot will it damage your paint?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: paint cleaner question

Originally posted by binhbinh
Hi i just read up on the 5 step procedure for detailing a car. When I came up on paint cleaners it says that it will take some paint off. If you use paint cleaners alot will it damage your paint?

Boy... this question is sure coming up a lot lately?

The amount of paint you will remove is very little. You have to remember two things,

1. Car manufactures apply enough paint to allow you remove a little to fix problems like swirls and scratches.

2. The only way to remove defects is to remove a little paint.

Read this article,

What it Means to Remove a Scratch

Actually I'll copy and paste it here...

What it means to remove a scratch out of anything...


In order to remove a scratch out of anything, metal, plastic glass, paint, etc. You must remove material around the scratch until the surface is level or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or scratches.

The below diagram if for paint, the the same thing applies to just about an surface material or coating.



In essences, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove material around a scratch.

Then the big question is, is the material or coating workable, as in can you abrade small particles of it and leave behind an original looking surface. For example, some things you can abrade, (remove the scratch), but you can never completely remove all of your abrading marks, thus you can't really fix the problem, all you can do is exchange one set of scratches of a different set of scratches.

The next questions is, how thick is the surface material you're working on or the coating. You are limited to what you can do by the thickness of these to things, (surface coating or surface material), and whether or not this surface is workable.

Sometimes you don't know what you can so until you try. It's always a good idea to test your choice of products, applicator materials and application process, (By hand or by machine), to an inconspicuous area. If you cannot make a small area look good with your product, applicator and process, you will not be able to make the entire surface look good. It's always a good idea to test first and error on the side of caution, versus make a mistake you cannot undo.

[binhbinh]

Lets just say that i want to do the complete 5 step program like 2-3 times a year. Would it be a good idea to use paint cleaners even if there is no scratches? Since i read that paint cleaners are suppose to clean dirt.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by binhbinh
Lets just say that i want to do the complete 5 step program like 2-3 times a year. Would it be a good idea to use paint cleaners even if there is no scratches? Since i read that paint cleaners are suppose to clean dirt.

If your car is a daily driver and parked some of the time or all of the time outdoors, then it's a great idea to use a paint cleaner a few times a year. If you don't have to remove any swirls or scratches then stick with the Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner as this is a chemical only paint cleaner and very, very, gentle to the finish.