Rsurfer
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Car Pro's Essence Plus was designed for this purpose. It has no abrasives thus will not remove the coating, but has durable resins that will hide very light marring.
The case against multi-year ceramic paint coatings - Road Grime = Surface Staining Daily Drivers by Mike Phillips
- Thread starter Mike Phillips
- Start date
Car Pro's Essence Plus was designed for this purpose. It has no abrasives thus will not remove the coating, but has durable resins that will hide very light marring.
Mike Phillips
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When you use the word,
it's
Do you mean the road film that builds-up on your car's paint?
dlc95
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- May 18, 2013
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When you use the word,
it's
Do you mean the road film that builds-up on your car's paint?
Yessir.
Mike Phillips
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That's what I assumed but I hate to assume.
Then the answer is probably not. I like to put scenarios in EXTREMES. That would look like this,
Is a layer of road film impacted onto your cars paint helping the paint?
The answer is no. What's the opposite of the word helping?
I don't think a layer of road grime or oily road film bonded to the surface of your car's paint will harm it, by the time it gets to the paint it's been diluted in most cases. The pictures in my article here show where road film comes from, some of the liquids our cars drip are probably caustic or corrosive to some level but when mixed with rain and splashed over your car over time, there's probably no real damage taking place. Plus theoretically, in the case of a ceramic paint coating, the coating would be between the paint and the road film doing its job - protecting the paint.
I know some people are too busy to click the link and look at the pretty pictures to tie what I wrote together, so here's the article and the pictures. This is where road film comes from.
Road Film - If you drive your car in the rain your car has road film
Driving in the rain - For most of us it's unavoidable
Road Film
Road film is the oily film splattered all over your car when you drive in the rain.
Where does Road Film come from?
Oils and other fluids that drip out of cars, truck and suvs accumulate on roads and highways over time.
When it rains, these accumulated oils and other fluids mix with the rain and are then splattered all over your car in effect staining you're entire car from top to bottom. The highest concentration of road film accumulates on your wheels, tires and lower body panels.
Just look in the parking space of any parking lot...
Motor Oil, Transmission Fluid, Gear Oil and other fluids
These outlined areas show where fluids have dripped off engines and transmission, even radiators and accumulated to the point that the pavement has been permanently stained.
It's also on roads and highways...
The oil stain line that runs down the middle of the road...
The dark line down the middle of the road
It's the darker, line down the middle of roads and freeways where most of the oily fluids accumulate as car, truck and suvs drive down the road.
Now that you've read this article and looked at the above pictures, you'll remember this every time you look down the road you're driving on.
Remember, oil and water don't mix
When it rains, the cars in front of you spray the rain water mixed in with these accumulated oils onto not only your car's paint but the wheels, tires, glass, plastic, cloth tops and vinyl tops.
If it's on the outside of the car then it's getting coated with oily road film.
Road Film builds up over time..
Oily road film builds up over time and because this film is oily or sticky it attracts dirt. This can be the dirt in the air or also in rain water that's splattered onto your car from the cars driving in front of you.
Can't always be seen...
Because the dirt staining effect caused by road film build up slowly over time it's not always easy to see, especially on black and dark colored cars, but don't be fooled, if you drive in the rain your car is getting coated in road film.
The solution to the problem?
Washing your car will remove any topical road film. The problem is the dirty, oil film will tend to migrate into any voids, pits, pores or interstices in your car's paint at least to the point that normal car washing won't remove it.
It's pretty easy to remove road film, all you have to do is periodically use one of the below approaches,
Use a quality cleaner/wax or AIO. The cleaning agents and/or abrasives in the cleaner/wax will remove any road film that washing could not remove.
Use a dedicated polish by hand or machine. Any high quality polish will effectively remove any built-up road film. Just be sure to apply a wax, sealant or coating afterwards to seal the paint.
Road Film... if you drive your car in the rain it's on your car...
How about useing degreaser and traffic film remover TFR on a regualar basis? To get the most of the road film off that tend to bond to the paint at a minimum build up. And on especially coatings as they are very chemical resistant and to some sealants too.
2wookies
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I tried this on my car that had UK on it, used a white pad and removed quite a bit of the coating. The following wash after it was painfully obvious the coating was gone. Used zero pressure on the machine, not sure what happened...pretty bummed. Not sure if I'll re-apply or not yet.
The Guz
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- Jun 17, 2013
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If I recall correctly you used regular Essence and not Essence Plus.
Essence = Abrasive polish, hydrophilic
Essence Plus = Non-abrasive polish, hydrophobic
2wookies
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The Guz
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That is abrasive that is why it removed the coating.
This one is not abrasive. The only way it will remove the coating is if it used with a pad that has some sort of cutting ability.
This is what you should have used
CarPro Essence PLUS 250 ml
Desertnate
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That's the one with abrasives. From the product page.
Those abrasives polished off the coating.
You should have used this one: Essence PLUS
I think more that it is the use of PH. neutral shampoo that explains this phenomenon. PH. neutral shampoo does not clean away traffic film quite well, it is therefore built on a layer of an almost transparent layer of traffic film. which after a couple of years turns into a layer of dirt.I see this on cars with or without coatings, so it's not coating itself that makes the cars look like this.
Mike Phillips
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I completely agree and just to note - I never said that dirt staining on paint was only on coated cars. In fact I have at least 3-4 articles documenting dirt staining on waxed cars on this forum.
I think I'm the ONLY guy that any articles on this topic as well as hundreds of other topics....
:laughing:
Seriously - who else writes articles?
:dunno:
Aaryn NZ
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Actually Mike, that statement has drawn a big fat BLANK in terms of an answer for me but thank you! Thank you for writing the articles you do.
rops:Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:
Mike Phillips
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Actually Mike, that statement has drawn a big fat BLANK in terms of an answer for me but thank you! Thank you for writing the articles you do.
Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:
Ha ha...
Thanks Aaryn....
Everyone seems to have an opinion.... but with all the experts you find on Facebook, seems like none of them can put together an real how-to article that helps others figure this detailing thing out while also standing the test of time.
Not sure why that is?
Can't type?
No time?
Scared?
:dunno:
Aaryn NZ
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:hijacked: Not the place to discuss this I know . . .
Yeah Mike, maybe a bit of all of the above but sadly I think much of that comes down to people either being ‘givers’ or not. I think there are a lot of people out there who want you to believe they ‘know’ but also don’t want you to know what they know. You & I are friends already so I have no need to blow smoke here & I don’t think you’d be friends with that type of person anyhow but I don’t know of any other person that gives even half as much back into an industry, a hobby, a sport an interest, an anything as what you give to detailing.
Sure I know it is effectively your ‘job’ to teach classes, to write articles, so on & so forth but anyone who has met you in person will understand me when I say - you don’t do it for the money.
Anyone who has ever read a Mike Phillips article, watched a Mike Phillips ‘how to’ video, purchased a Mike Phillips book are richer for doing so.
Anyhow, great thread Mike. Coated cars or not, I am always fascinated with this - no matter how thorough the wash/deacon process it’s always an eye opener when the paintwork is cleaned/abraided. Capturing it on camera can prove to be difficult though. The picture of the yellow roadster (I think that’s what it was) you took are perfect. :xyxthumbs:
Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:
machz
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So for the first time I used a ceramic coating this year and to be totally honest I don't think I would do it again. The coating went on without any problems and it looks good but having a black car no matter how careful I am with a daily driver I have picked up a few light scratches I have had to polish out. Then I had to re coat the spots as I had removed the coating.
I normally polish in the spring and in the fall to clean up any scratches and road debris. with the coating this doesn't make sense given the cost and difficulty to apply. The biggest factor for me is I hate having to worry about polishing a small scratch then having to re-coat. And honestly I don't enjoy applying the coating vs applying a sealant or a wax. So I think I will be polishing the car this fall and applying a wax or sealant again as I have in the past mainly because I enjoy the process more than I do with a coating.
I normally polish in the spring and in the fall to clean up any scratches and road debris. with the coating this doesn't make sense given the cost and difficulty to apply. The biggest factor for me is I hate having to worry about polishing a small scratch then having to re-coat. And honestly I don't enjoy applying the coating vs applying a sealant or a wax. So I think I will be polishing the car this fall and applying a wax or sealant again as I have in the past mainly because I enjoy the process more than I do with a coating.
Desertnate
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How often are you getting scratches in your paint? Where are they coming from?
I too daily drive a black car and I rarely...if ever get any marring serious enough I have to spot polish between my major detail sessions. Over a long period of time, I might get a very light swirl mark or marr either from washing/drying or something rubbing on the side of the car, but that's life of a daily driver. I don't even try to polish out each one as they appear. You can't treat a daily driver like a trophy winning show car or you'll go nuts.
I used to do a twice a year routine like you, but now I use coatings I've gone as long as 18~24 months. If I'm honest with myself, somewhere between the 12~18 month point is where I really should polish it out again to remove the swirls and remove the grime as Mike spells out in this thread.
I too daily drive a black car and I rarely...if ever get any marring serious enough I have to spot polish between my major detail sessions. Over a long period of time, I might get a very light swirl mark or marr either from washing/drying or something rubbing on the side of the car, but that's life of a daily driver. I don't even try to polish out each one as they appear. You can't treat a daily driver like a trophy winning show car or you'll go nuts.
I used to do a twice a year routine like you, but now I use coatings I've gone as long as 18~24 months. If I'm honest with myself, somewhere between the 12~18 month point is where I really should polish it out again to remove the swirls and remove the grime as Mike spells out in this thread.