Question about taping your car.

[mcpp66]

I plan on using my PC to wax my car with and I was going to tape all of the cracks and the other obvious areas. But, with tape covering part of the paint, that means there are going to be some small areas which don't receive any wax/sealant. How do you guys deal with that? Do you just ignore the taped portion of the paint or do you, very carefully, apply wax/sealant by hand and take care not to get any in the cracks? Perhaps you just apply a spray wax to that area afterwards? Maybe I'm over thinking this and thus this is a silly question, I don't know. Thanks.

 

[DLB]

If I polish a vehicle before waxing it, then I will pull the tape that is on the paint (corners, high areas, etc.), and leave what is on the trim, etc.

Then just wax all of the paint. I have never had an issue of getting paint into a crack. You spread it so thin, there shouldn't be any to get in the cracks. JMO.

DLB

 

[mcpp66]

Then just wax all of the paint. I have never had an issue of getting paint into a crack. You spread it so thin, there shouldn't be any to get in the cracks. JMO.

DLB

Maybe I apply too thick of a coat of wax.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I plan on using my PC to wax my car with and I was going to tape all of the cracks and the other obvious areas. But, with tape covering part of the paint, that means there are going to be some small areas which don't receive any wax/sealant.

Tape-off things you don't want to detail.

If we define the word detail to mean getting the wax out of the cracks or off plastic trim, then tape off things like plastic and rubber trim that you don't want to use a toothbrush to get off wax residue.

If you apply a thin coat, any wax residue you get between panels you can wipe off with a little creativity or by doing things like opening doors, hoods or trunk lids.

Pre-wet the face of our pad with just a little wax or paint sealant before starting to make sure the entire face of the pad is lubricated. I show this in a new video going up tonight or tomorrow on the Polishing Pal but you can do this with any pad with any product.

 

[mcpp66]

Tape-off things you don't want to detail.

If we define the word detail to mean getting the wax out of the cracks or off plastic trim, then tape off things like plastic and rubber trim that you don't want to use a toothbrush to get off wax residue.

Yeah, I learned this the hard way.

 

[jmdlat]

I also wondered this. So the places with tape like high spots or edges of a panel that have tape, they don't get paint correction? Just at the end when tape is removed they get waxed?

 

[BobbyG]

I also wondered this. So the places with tape like high spots or edges of a panel that have tape, they don't get paint correction? Just at the end when tape is removed they get waxed?

Tape protects whatever you don't want the product to come in contact with whether it's polish or wax. I've never taped lets say the opening between the hood and fender to stop a little product from getting in there. When I'm finished with the paint correction I open everything up and throughly clean those areas.

I apply my sealants and waxes with my Porter Cable 7424 polisher and a red pad. This allows me to lay down a thin even coat on the entire surface without getter residue in the openings.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I also wondered this. So the places with tape like high spots or edges of a panel that have tape, they don't get paint correction? Just at the end when tape is removed they get waxed?

I covered this in detail just about a year ago in this thread,

Step-by-Step How-To Article using Pinnacle Products with the new PC 7424XP


Read the excerpt below and especially the last paragraph...

Taping off trim isn't an excuse to be sloppy or work faster than you should, it's a form of cheap insurance to save you time cleaning up after the detail job. We used 3M Scotch 233+ Premium Automotive Masking Tape and lucky for us there wasn't too much rubber or plastic trim to have to cover up.

Often times the plastic surrounding the windshield wipers is black pebble textured plastic and this type of plastic is very difficult to remove splatter off of not that I plan on throwing any splatter but an ounce of prevention is worth a couple hours of painstaking clean-up work.

I usually use a beach towel because they're fairly long and work well to cover the plastic between the lower part of the windshield that leads to the engine compartment. Since I didn't have a beach towel handy we used two Cobra Guzzler Waffle Weave Microfiber Drying towels.

These are the same 16 x 24 size we used to dry the car, (not the same towels though), and two were long enough to completely cover the plastic surrounding the windshield wipers. It's important to make sure that whatever you use to cover the plastic, as well as the windshield wipers, doesn't bind anywhere around the hood hinge or with the hood so you can safely close the hood without doing and damage.

The Lexus IS 250 has a rubber gasket that runs all the way around the hood and is exposed, so if you don't tape this off be careful not to run your polisher over it. We're going to tape it off.

The gasket is taped-off and the hood is now closed.

This is why I tape-off everything I detail, it's cheap insurance to prevent dried polish and wax residue from getting into cracks and crevices like you see in the two pictures below. This residue was left by the detailer who detailed this car before we got it. We'll do our best to remove this so the owner doesn't blame us.

Anytime you're detailing cars for customers and you find dried residue like this, it's a good idea to take a picture of it to document you didn't do it and also show the owner. Doesn't even hurt to have them see you documenting it as it shows them you're paying close attention to their car and you take your job seriously.

Ugh... someone else's wax in the cracks...

This rear view mirror housing also has a very sharp edge between the seams where the dried wax is stuck and if you run a buffer over this edge you'll burn right through it and expose whatever's under the black paint, (probably black plastic but you never know).

Here we've taped-off the rubber gasket between the glass and the window frame and I'm pointing to show that there's about an 1/8th of an inch of paint that's not going to get buffed with either of the two polishing steps. After the correction steps we'll remove the tape and carefully wax these areas for a uniform look that will match the polished areas next to the tape line. While not perfectionist detailing in some eyes, remember this is a daily driver, not a show car. You can invest more time and just run the tape down the rubber and get it close to the edge of the panel if you want or just overhang a little like I did here. It's your choice based upon what you're trying to accomplish and how much time you want to invest.

 

[StoneRaizer]

The dreaded TOGW. This is where $1 drugstore toothbrushes come in very handy.

 

[jmdlat]

Thanks Mike, and BobbyG for the great info.