Never clay bared an auto before. When you do, do you put painters tape on the black trim around fenders etc, to keep the lub off the trim? I've seen OC use the tape but don't know if it is just for wax/ buffer.

It may depend on the clay used, but I have never had any trouble with my clay gunking up or leaving marks on the black trim. Wax and polish are of coruse another story. I use the Griot's clay bar with Speed Shine.

Yeah, don't sweat the clay on the trim - it won't hurt anything, and the lube is basically detail spray or dilute car wash solution, neither of which leaves residue on the trim.

The only reson you'd need to tape is in the polish/wax stage. By hand it's optional - I usually do not tape when polishing or applying wax by hand as I have sufficient control (and I can wipe any wax off before it cures if I go over onto the trim). If you use a Porter Cable though, taping is a MUST (wax WILL get on the trim if you don't tape it, and trying to polish the trim will result in "less than satisfactory" results).

If you saw a taped car in the clay stage, it was likely because the person was going to use a Porter Cable after claying to buff out swirls and/or to wax, and they started with the tape.

Excellent reply ImagoX

Painters tape serves a couple of purposes:

1. Avoid turning your black trim white from the polish
2. Avoid getting polish residue into the cracks and crevices
3. During polishing, prevent the buffer from buffing on thinner paint--high points--not something you need to worry about on the mostly flat or smooth curves of the MINI

My prep stage usually involves washing or Quick Detailing so that the paint is clean to work on. Then I clay the paint. However sometimes, I find that using a paint cleaner/polish like M80 Speed Glaze is more effective to remove the above bonded surface contaminants. Such that I need to tape, then polish, then clay.

Doing it in this order means there is less contaminants to bond to the clay and thus keeps the clay from loading up too soon. This isn't always necessary though--mostly only on severely oxidized paint.

In most cases though, you would wash, clay, then tape, then polish/paint clean, then wax.

Btw, I prefer to remove the tape before waxing so that I don't have tape lines.

Richard

So do you wax by hand then, Richard, or is your control of the PC unearthly good?

I've always waxed by hand in the past, mainly because up till recently I didn't have an extra PC pad that I could dedicate exclusively to wax, but I think I would have ended up using less product if I'd used the PC for that step.

I wax very carefully with the PC on speed 3 and the W9006 polishing pad most of the time. I also make sure not to use too much wax that might get into any cracks. So I put Epic on the pad, spread it around in the middle of the panel, then spread what remains outwards if I'm close to any trim or cracks.

Epic doesn't turn trim white like M80 does--I mean, if you glob enough on your trim, it will, but I haven't found it to be a problem when applied in thin amounts on the PC.

I actually did those tests during my BW testing. It was a lot harder trying to intentionally turn trim white than it is when doing it by accident! I put globs of Epic, NXT Tech Wax, and M21 on the trim--and let it dry for hours, then wiped off the excess and found that it wasn't white. Had to repeat several times.

Richard

Great info as always, Richard - thanks!

You're welcome! I should clarify that the advice is the same using the Prima Black pad for applying wax. Either that pad or the W9006 pad will do fine.

Richard

Last time I applied Epic I did it by hand with a paradise skinny. I was thinking next time I'd use the black pad, but do the last couple of inches up the trim (as well as the A-pillars, cabrio header, etc.) by hand - kinda hybrid application approach...

That's what used the last time too, Paul, but when I did it by hand I ended up using about 50% more product than Heather recommended. I'm assuming that if I use the PC I'll get a thinner, more even application. That's not a bad idea though to use a hand pad in the nooks and crannies...

Thanks all for your guidance / education.