Taping before polishing...

Kris R

Kris R

360Detail.com
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In regards to taping seams and highpoints, lets say you are using .5 inch green tape on a black car. The paint is in really bad shape. You tape off the high lines in the hood and the gap between the hood and front quarter panels. The paint looks good and now you pull the tape off. Theres .25-.50 inches of dull swirled paint. Now what?
 
joshs07redss said:
Don't tape off high points to begin with.
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That doesnt really help anyone. Some VERY respected detailers that use rotarys suggest taping high points due to the thin paint in that area. I need to know what to do after before I start using a rotary. thanks
 
360_detail said:
In regards to taping seams and highpoints, lets say you are using .5 inch green tape on a black car. The paint is in really bad shape. You tape off the high lines in the hood and the gap between the hood and front quarter panels. The paint looks good and now you pull the tape off. Theres .25-.50 inches of dull swirled paint. Now what?
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Take care of them by hand with some M105. :props: Detailing is not all about using just a buffer. There are times when working by hand is necessary. Like the small areas and dams in the front bumper and underneath door handles. I do what I can by machine and work the rest by hand.
 
Most of your higher end detailers that know how to use a rotary will not tape off high points because they know how to work around them without causing damage. I'm not trying to be smart or anything, I'm just saying. Regardless of if you're doing this to your own car or others, you should really get a feel for the rotary on some scrap metal first.
 
Lasthope05 said:
Take care of them by hand with some M105. :props: Detailing is not all about using just a buffer. There are times when working by hand is necessary. Like the small areas and dams in the front bumper and underneath door handles. I do what I can by machine and work the rest by hand.
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Underneath door handles is not fun lol.
 
360_detail said:
That doesnt really help anyone. Some VERY respected detailers that use rotarys suggest taping high points due to the thin paint in that area. I need to know what to do after before I start using a rotary. thanks
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Most respected detailers don't tape high points. They know how much pressure to apply to these areas by tipping the rotary. Taping trim is another story. If you are new to rotary polishing then tape the high points, seams and trim. After removing the tape you can do that area by hand or you can do these areas with a 4" pad on a DA.
 
360_detail said:
In regards to taping seams and highpoints, lets say you are using .5 inch green tape on a black car. The paint is in really bad shape. You tape off the high lines in the hood and the gap between the hood and front quarter panels. The paint looks good and now you pull the tape off. Theres .25-.50 inches of dull swirled paint. Now what?
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I don't tape off high points, or I do not know why you would tape off an edge you are working on. You would tape off the opposite edge. This way you would not have that small area not polished.
 
Mike Phillips tapes off high points. But I guess he's not a respected detailer.

Colin
 
cnfowler said:
Mike Phillips tapes off high points. But I guess he's not a respected detailer.

Colin
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Bet he's doing older single stage paint. Mike sets an example as a trainer and it's better to be safe than sorry...especially for newbies. You remark was not well taken.
 
joshs07redss said:
Underneath door handles is not fun lol.
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I dont think they're that bad. Its actually quite easy for me since its such a small area its easier to concentrate the polishing action vs a larger work area.

Rsurfer said:
Most respected detailers don't tape high points. They know how much pressure to apply to these areas by tipping the rotary. Taping trim is another story. If you are new to rotary polishing then tape the high points, seams and trim. After removing the tape you can do that area by hand or you can do these areas with a 4" pad on a DA.
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Thats exactly what I do if and when I do tape edges. I mostly only do the door handles, emblems and some side moldings. When you run up to an edge on a rotary all you have to do is tip the buffer so only one side of the pad moving towards the edge and not against it.
 
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Like a few others have said, badges, moldings, trim, and door handles would be your main concern. Some even tape the top of the plastic bumper if it sticks out from the trunk. The side of a foam pad will do damage quickly.
 
Ah ok. well that all makes sense....Now I got to post a new thread about what size pads 7.5 or 8.5 and should I go wool or foam? So confused. Why is DA polishing so easy and this is so hard to figure out??
 
360_detail said:
Ah ok. well that all makes sense....Now I got to post a new thread about what size pads 7.5 or 8.5 and should I go wool or foam? So confused. Why is DA polishing so easy and this is so hard to figure out??
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Stick with 5.5 foam pads on your da, wool really doesn't work well with your da, unless you step up to the surbuff wool pads.

If you are going the rotary route I use the 3M Superbuff III wool pads, kompressor pads and some lc pads. The wool is 9 inch I believe and the foam pads are 6.5 and 5.5.

If you need anything more than an orange pad use wool, it is easier to use, cuts/levels the paint better and in the ebd the finish will look better if you cut with a foam pad to start with.
 
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360_detail said:
Ah ok. well that all makes sense....Now I got to post a new thread about what size pads 7.5 or 8.5 and should I go wool or foam? So confused. Why is DA polishing so easy and this is so hard to figure out??
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I have on hand 3M doubled side wool for real heavy work.But most of time i use the Kompressor pads which work great IMO.I also have foam pads in all sizes from 3" up to the 6" and the Hydro pads.Remember to start out with the least aggresive pad and polish combo.It doesn't matter what machine you own you still need the same amount of pads .Just with a rotary it gets the job done faster but with a higher risk.
 
360_detail said:
In regards to taping seams and high points, lets say you are using .5 inch green tape on a black car. The paint is in really bad shape. You tape off the high lines in the hood and the gap between the hood and front quarter panels. The paint looks good and now you pull the tape off. Theres .25-.50 inches of dull swirled paint. Now what?
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If you go to a PBE store, you can find very thin tape, down to 1/8" and maybe thinner, I'll look sometime this week. Look in the lower right hand corner of the below picture, I think that's 1/8" masking tape.

Photos courtesy of MeguiarsOnline.com
2Tapecollection.jpg





This Corvette had a basecoat/clearcoat finish so I didn't tape off any of the raised body lines, had it had a single stage finish I probably would have. The following weekend this car took first place in its class at the San Diego Plastic Fantastic Corvette Show. The owner was at the time the President of the San Diego Corvette Club. I've probably taught 3-4 classes for their club over the years.


During the process
21963CorvetteafterDACP1.jpg


Afterwards on display
2Sandys1963Corvetteatevent.jpg






There's nothing wrong with taping off edges if you want to be careful.

Whether other detailers do it or not is personal preference, as I've learned since coming to AG there's no right or wrong way to do something.

I tape off whatever I want to protect and want to take the pre-caution of making sure a portion of paint is not machine buffed.

I approach each car I buff out with the mindset that it's my car so I buff it out just like I would if it were my car. You can read about that here,

The Mindset of a Professional Detailer


As for the area not polished because it was covered by tape, if you use thinner tape it won't be a problem. Any residue line can usually be removed when you apply and remove your LSP, just remove the tape before applying and working the LSP.
 
Sorry if this is slightly off topic but...

Mike,

Don't believe I've seen wheels covered like they are in that one pic. I get the idea of the chrome and glass being covered but what's the purpose behind the rubber of the tires being covered?

I'm pretty new to detailing so I'm sure this will be obvious for some here.

Thanks.
 
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