How to use Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads to mechanically decontaminate your car's paint

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

How to use Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads to mechanically decontaminate your car's paint



Daily drivers need decontamination
If you car is a daily driver, then chances are very good there are contaminants built-up on the surface of the paint. Common contaminants include,

• Overspray paint
• Tree sap mist
• Industrial pollution
• Airborne dirt and exhaust pollution

Won't wash off
These contaminants form a strong bond so strong that they will not simply wash off. The only way to remove them through a mechanical process.


The Baggie Test
A simple and fast way to determine if you need to decontaminate your car's paint is through the baggie test. Simply place your hand in a clean sandwich baggie and feel the horizontal surfaces of your car's paint. Be sure to wash and dry your car first, or wipe the are to be inspected using a spray detailer or waterless wash so you don't rub loose dirt over the paint.


Let the machine do the work
Nanoskin Autoscrub pads are a substitute for detailing clay except you use them by machine with any dual action polisher including,

• Porter Cable 7424XP
• Meguiar's G110v2
• Griot's Garage Random Orbital Polisher both 3" and 6"
• Cyclo Polishers
• Flex 3401

Step by step how to use the Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads

Step 1: Wash and dry car.

Step 2: Move car into a shaded area, work on surface that is cool to the touch.

Step 3: Inspect paint using the baggie test.


Step 4: Spray plenty of clay lubricant onto a section of paint.

Step 5: Attach and center the Nanosking Autoscrub to the backing plate.


Step 6: Using a medium speed setting, just fast enough to maintain pad rotation, move the Nanoskin Autoscrub Pad over the paint in slow, overlapping passes. Use a crosshatch pattern for larger sections and a back and forth motion for thin panels.
​

After 4-5 section passes, turn polisher off, wipe residue off paint and re-inspect using the baggie test. If paint is smooth and free of contaminants, move onto new territory. If little bumps are felt then repeat.


Here's a local streetrod and 1/4 mile drag car that we worked on recently as a Thursday night project car. We inspected the paint using the baggie test and the test revealed the paint had a heavy accumulation of some type of contaminants.

So before doing any correction or polishing work the first order of business was to decontaminate the paint and get it smooth to the touch.




Mechanical Decontamination

After wiping Thom's car clean using Detailer's Waterless Auto Wash the next thing to do was inspect the paint. To do this we used the Baggie Test.

Results

The paint failed the baggie test horribly. The paint on this car el like sandpaper. So the first point of order would be to remove whatever contaminants were bonded to the paint and for this we chose

Detailer's Universal Clay Lube + Nanosking Autoscrub pads and towels. A few of the guys had never seen these products before so this was a great learning experience.



Den is on the passenger side, Frank is opposite on the driver's side and Annti is working with a Nanoskin Towel on the front of the hood.

This is Sherman, this was his first time to Autogeek's Thursday night Extreme Makeover. Sherman was here doing a Will Call for some products when he saw Thom drive up and into the garage. I greeted Sherman and invited him to stick around and have some fun working on a cool car and so he did.

The owner Thom and his uncle John are in the background testing out the Nanoskin towels. This was the first time they had used this type of product instead of detailing clay.

This is Giacomello, he's a member of our forum but this is his first time to be a part of the AG Extreme Makeover Team.

On Autogeek.net

Nanoskin Autoscrub Pad - 6" Medium Grade (Yellow)

Nanoskin Autoscrub Pad - 4" Medium Grade (Yellow)

Nanoskin Autoscrub Pad - 6" Fine Grade (Blue)

Nanoskin Autoscrub Pad - 4" Fine Grade (Blue)

Detailer's Universal Clay Lube - 32 ounce

Detailer's Universal Clay Lube - 1 gallon



Show car results like these start with a clean, smooth surface. Remember,


Gloss STARTS with a smooth surface - Mike Phillips

See the complete write-up here...


Pictures: 1966 Orange Chevy Nova Super Sport Extreme Makeover


:xyxthumbs:

 

[asalesagent912]

It is a great product and has been talked about often. But can anyone tell how to do a black car without getting any marring from the pad?

 

[Kengo123]

Mike, does this work more quickly than by hand? It's already easy enough with the nanoskin towel. What are the advantages of using a machine?

 

[hernandez.art13]

Mike, does this work more quickly than by hand? It's already easy enough with the nanoskin towel. What are the advantages of using a machine?

I say it significantly reduces your actual work time. Especially on a large flat panels like say the hood.

And You can work in very large areas with very minimal effort and most of the elbow grease is done by the machine your just guiding it.

I use the AutoScrub pad on my Rupes 21 and I use the towel for nooks and crannies that the Rupes w/AutoScrub can't get get into.

So I would say using both the towel and the pad increases productivity then just using solely one or the other.

 

[Kengo123]

I say it significantly reduces your actual work time. Especially on a large flat panels like say the hood.

And You can work in very large areas with very minimal effort and most of the elbow grease is done by the machine your just guiding it.

I use the AutoScrub pad on my Rupes 21 and I use the towel for nooks and crannies that the Rupes w/AutoScrub can't get get into.

So I would say using both the towel and the pad increases productivity then just using solely one or the other.

I dig it.. Thanks art!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

It is a great product and has been talked about often.

But can anyone tell how to do a black car without getting any marring from the pad?

It's my opinion and experience that you cannot use a Nanoskin Autoscrub Pad by machine and not get inflict some level of marring. That's why I practice, recommend and teach others this rule.

If you're going to use ANY form of mechanical decontamination, then you should already be planning on doing at least one machine polishing step to ensure a defect free finish.


I know some don't like to hear this but thats reality. And here's the bigger picture, if you see marring happening on a clearcoated black car it's happening on any color of car it's just on lighter colors your eyes cannot detect the marring.

Each person can choose their level of perfection. Some people are happy just to have shiny paint and I've met a lot people in my life that want absolute perfection for each square inch and of course a lot of people fall in-between these two extremes.

So if you have a silver metallic Camry and after using any method to mechanically decontaminate the paint, if the paint still looks great to your eyes then sealer her up and move on down the road.

If you have a black Viper and after using a Nanoskin Autoscrub Towel, Mitt or Pad, or if you use detailing clay, if afterwards you see marring, then break out the polisher and a light cutting polish and polish the paint back to perfection having already known this would be the case.

I do think a person can use an ultra fine detailing clay and a soft touch with lots of lube to do maintenance decontamination but paint hardness or softness will also be an uncontrollable factor as it relates to marring or no marring.

Exceptions to the rule

I have personal experience using the Nanoskin Autoscrub Towels by machine on dark and black colored paints and leaving zero visible marring. Here's a recent car I detailed where I used the Nanoskin Autoscrub Pad and neither the owner or myself could detect any signs of marring. I find Ceramiclears to be very resistant to this type of marring as well as car washing and drying scratches. Probably my favorite paint to own and work on.


How long to wait before waxing a brand new car?


Process

Jim washed his car beforehand so I wiped the car down using Pinnacle Liquid Crystal Waterless Wash with Carnauba.

Step 1 - Decontaminated using the Nanoskin Autoscrub Medium Foam Pad – 6 inch. <--

Step 2 - Machine Polish using Rupes Duetto Orbital Polisher with Rupes Yellow Foam Polishing Pad and Rupes Keramik Gloss Fine Gel Polish

Step 3 - Re-Cleaned paint to remove polishing oils using Pinnacle Black Label Surface Cleansing Polish

Step 4 - Applied Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Paint Coating

Step 5 - Sealed tires with TUF Shine Tire Clearcoat


Here's the final results....

A good rule of thumb for ANY paint polishing procedure is to test first, that is do a TEST SPOT. Take the clean surface of the hood or trunk lid and rub whatever it is you're thinking about using over the entire car onto just a section of paint and then inspect. This will give you an idea as to what could potentially happen.


And of course, always use common sense...


Good question asalesagent912


:xyxthumbs:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Mike, does this work more quickly than by hand?

Not if you're can move your hand really fast while also doing a really good job.

It's already easy enough with the nanoskin towel.

What are the advantages of using a machine?

Let me use wetsanding paint as a way of sharing the advantages.

When you hand sand, even if you're really good at HAND sanding you still have un-even pressure points on the face of the sand paper and also, controlling downward pressure, that is keeping the downward pressure the same over the paint requires more skill and concentration.

It's easy to push down on a sanding backing pad when your arm and hand is right below your body but the further away you extend your arm and hand from your body the more you have to concentrate on the pressure you're applying during what should be a very fast hand stroke to keep it equal with the pressure you applied with your hand next to your body.

I cover this in one of my wetsanding articles somewhere and also show this in my detailing classes.

Now by machine, that all goes out the window because you're letting the weight of the machine apply the majority of the downward force. You of course must apply some downward pressure for good cutting and also to keep the face of the sanding pad oscillating smoothly over the surface but nothing like hand sanding.

Or more simply, machine sanding is easier and faster than hand sanding. (there are other benefits too).

Like machine sanding, using a dual action polisher to run a Nanosking Autoscrub Pad over the paint surface is easier and for most people faster. Depends on how fast a person can move their hand and still be doing high quality work.


I like what Art said though and that is you really need the towel because there are some panels or areas that you cannot use a Nanosking Autoscrub Pad, not even the 4" version.


Here's the really big pictures.... this is just my personal take on polishing paint in general.... if I'm going to polish out a car I've already made two decisions,

1. I like the owner.

2. I like the project.
​

Remember, in my detailing boot camp classes the first thing I teach is,


Evaluate the customer first!


Here's a screenshot of the slide from my Power Point Presentation.

So once those two decisions have been made one of the primary goals is to maximize gloss and gloss comes from a smooth surface. This is why the paint on the above Nova looks so glossy, it starts with getting the paint completely smooth.

If I want to make sure I have the paint surface as smooth as possible then I'm going to opt to machine decontaminate the paint because my hands-on experience shows me that the Nanoskin products outperform detailing clay.

It's an easy test to prove to yourself. All you have to do is clay a section of contaminated paint and then feel the paint with the baggie test. In as many instances as I can remember, I can always feel some residual bumps left on the paint.

When I do the same with the Nanosking Autoscrub Pads, Towels or Mitts I rarely feel anything. At least not enough to be of a concern.

My goal is to get the paint as flat as possible before I start machine polishing and Nanoskin does this consistently.


I can't count how many times in my life someone has asked me,


"Won't machine polishing remove contaminants?"



The answer is yes and no.

It's YES if you're using a compound with a wool pad on a rotary buffer because this combination is going to remove a LOT of paint quickly and while removing the paint it's going to remove any contaminants bonded to the top of the paint.


It's NO if you're using ANY type of FOAM PAD on any tool because the foam is soft and gentle, at least compared to the individual fibers that make up a wool cutting pad and the uniform foam surface with it's ability to contour and compress is going to glide over contaminants, not shear them off.

Sure it will remove some contaminants but the most effective way to remove above surface bonded contaminants, that is contaminants with a bond strong enough to the paint that they won't remove via washing the car, is to use a dedicated mechanical decontamination step to remove them and thus create a flat paint surface perfect for the next step of machine polishing.


At least that's my take....

 

[2old2change]

I can't count how many times in my life someone has asked me,


"Won't machine polishing remove contaminants?"


The answer is yes and no.

It's YES if you're using a compound with a wool pad on a rotary buffer because this combination is going to remove a LOT of paint quickly and while removing the paint it's going to remove any contaminants bonded to the top of the paint.


It's NO if you're using ANY type of FOAM PAD on any tool because the foam is soft and gentle, at least compared to the individual fibers that make up a wool cutting pad and the uniform foam surface with it's ability to contour and compress is going to glide over contaminants, not shear them off.

Sure it will remove some contaminants but the most effective way to remove above surface bonded contaminants, that is contaminants with a bond strong enough to the paint that they won't remove via washing the car, is to use a dedicated mechanical decontamination step to remove them and thus create a flat paint surface perfect for the next step of machine polishing.

I see this comment often on forums and on group pages. Thanks for addressing this topic Mike.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I see this comment often on forums and on group pages.

Thanks for addressing this topic Mike.

No problemo... it's a common point of confusion.

I'm pretty sure I cover this in my ibook on claying....

How to use Detailing Clay on the Apple iBookstore


:xyxthumbs:

 

[elund126]

I wanted to try Nanoskin products out, so I decided to use the sponges first to see if I like it. I've used them on 2 cars now, and it is way faster than clay and it produces great results. I had some marring on cars where I had some serious contamination, but it came out very easy with polishing.

I am able to do cars pretty fast with just the sponge. I'm guessing the pad on the DA would be even faster!!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I am able to do cars pretty fast with just the sponge.

I'm guessing the pad on the DA would be even faster!!

If you're good at machine polishing, that is you have a good feel for holding the polisher and working through a process, paying attention to the curves, thin panels, raised body lines etc, then you'll find machine decontaminating fast and efficient. (that's two things).


Just be careful as you can mar the paint and that's why the only way I like to use the Nanoskin pads by machine is if I'm already planning on doing at least one machine polishing step afterwards to remove any marring.

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Nice article Mike!

Do you prefer the standard free floating spindle DA's such as the PC or Meguiar's, or do you prefer the forced roation of the 3401 for this step?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Nice article Mike!

Do you prefer the standard free floating spindle DA's such as the PC or Meguiar's, or do you prefer the forced rotation of the 3401 for this step?

Great question.


If you REALLY want to get in there and remove all the contaminants bonded to the paint then the Flex 3401 is the power boss to do the job.

IF you want to take the more careful approach, then the free floating spindle bearing design tools are the way to go.


I used a Porter Cable this last weekend on a black 2014 BMW because I wanted to take the careful approach to avoid marring the paint on this brand new car.

It's all about matching the right tool for the project.

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Great question.


If you REALLY want to get in there and remove all the contaminants bonded to the paint then the Flex 3401 is the power boss to do the job.

IF you want to take the more careful approach, then the free floating spindle bearing design tools are the way to go.


I used a Porter Cable this last weekend on a black 2014 BMW because I wanted to take the careful approach to avoid marring the paint on this brand new car.

It's all about matching the right tool for the project.

Excellent advice Mike. Thanks for the follow up.

 

[addysdaddy]

Very practical advice Mike. I have both the nanoskin mit and the 6" disk and like you said, the mit is good for a light decon but if I'm going for perfect, it's the DA and the 6" disk all the way.

 

[fiveoh]

Man! I just discovered the clay bar and have impressed my friends and relatives whose cars I have decontaminated/polished/waxed in recent months.

Today, while washing my dad's 2010 Ranger, I can hear the squeegee go "sshhhhhhh" as it glid across the glass and I saw what appeared to be dirt or droplets of some sort on the windows.... Overspray is my best guess. There is some painting does where he works, and while he parks far away, the wind can carry it. Also, left his car at a body shop for a few days for a minor repair....it could have happened then, too. I figure if it's all over the glass, it's probably all over the paint, too.

Anyway, that led me to this thread and this amazing Nanoskin pad. I guess I have one more thing to order from AG.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Very practical advice Mike. I have both the nanoskin mit and the 6" disk and like you said, the mit is good for a light decon but if I'm going for perfect, it's the DA and the 6" disk all the way.

:dblthumb2:

Actually if you rub enough you can really a do a great job when working by hand I just find working by machine is very consisten in the kind of smooth results you get.

I figure if it's all over the glass, it's probably all over the paint, too.

Yep... that's how it works.

Anyway, that led me to this thread and this amazing Nanoskin pad.

The power of Google!

I guess I have one more thing to order from AG.

Don't blame me....


:bolt:

 

[fiveoh]

Well, I picked up the Nanoskin 6" Medium pad and a bottle of Nano Glide and went to work on my dad's charcoal gray 2010 Ford Ranger (see my other post in this thread).

I washed the truck with my handy dandy boar's hair brush and you could really hear the SWISH-SWISH-SWISH with every pass of the brush all over the overspray all over the roof, hood, glass, and even sides of the truck. The only places w/o any overspray were along the very bottom sides of the truck. It was awful. I carefully dried the truck and went to work with the Nanoskin pad on my Griot's 6" DA Polisher.

O-M-G, it was so easy....I took too long on the roof since that was my first-ever use of the pad and I kept going back and forth, but I sped up a lot after that. I diluted the NanoGlide 7:1 per the instructions and used a lot of it whenever I was scrubbing. It may be my eyes, but I don't think I introduced any marring....or it could be my generous use of NanoGlide.

Anyway, I got 98% of the overspray off very easily with the pad. It was awesome. The remaining 2% is in little body creases and areas where I just couldn't get the pad.

I washed the truck a 2nd time and the boar's hair brush was totally silent! :dblthumb2:

I was kind of tired after washing and drying the truck again, so I didn't do a 2 step polish and wax/seal. I did, however, break open my Pinnacle XMT360 (that I bought for another car) and decided to try it. It went on nice and easy. I probably used too much as I had a little haze left after working the polish for a few minutes. It wiped off very easily, though, so thank goodness for that.

Thanks,

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Well, I picked up the Nanoskin 6" Medium pad and a bottle of Nano Glide and went to work on my dad's charcoal gray 2010 Ford Ranger (see my other post in this thread).

Thanks for the follow-up post to your success.

• So often people join our forum.
• Ask questions.
• Get answers, sometimes long, in-depth answers with lots of pictures and/or links to more information on this form
• And then we never see or hear from them again.

So thank you for the follow-up reply, I know I for one really apreciate it.


:dblthumb2: :dblthumb2: :dblthumb2:

 

[99monguse]

I used the Autoscrub pad with my GG6 and I wasn't impressed, it did an ok job but I found myself going back to clay bar!