MiniMayBee explained it very well. Ya gotta remember that detailing is all about common sense. People don't seem to understand the all important WHY when working on their cars.

For instance..I see this all the time. How often should we clay? Some people say 1 to 2 times a year. I say, clay as often as you need to. Only you will know when that is because how soon bonded contaminants accumulate on your finish is highly dependent on where and how you maintain your car.

Should you tape your car? Should you remove the tape before waxing? Or before polishing??

Taping is one of those things that you will find an enthusiast or a quality detailer doing. You won't find it from production detailers, body shops, car dealerships, etc..

Its entirely up to you if you want to tape or not. I tape most of the time, but sometimes I don't because some cars don't need it. The question about when to remove tape can be easily answered by looking at your process.

The most time consuming part of a quality detail is polishing. If you spend 6 or 7 hours polishing panels, and 20 minutes waxing, what stage do you think you have the most chances of getting residue into the panels? Obviously the stage you spend the most time. And it just so happens that most polishes stain the trim, so you want to keep it away from plastics.

My polishing steps are usually divided into multiple steps. A more aggressive stage and a finer stage to prepare for waxing. There might be many levels in between. Sometimes I remove the tape just before waxing because the amount of wax that I apply is very very thin, and chances of getting it into cracks is low. Especially if you start from the center with the bulk of the product on the pad and work out towards the edges. You can then work the tape line areas with this "residual" wax instead of a fully loaded pad.

Other times, I will remove the tape before the final polishing step, using the same above technique. It depends on the condition of the paint and your technique. But you will never leave any area unwaxed when you are done otherwise you are trading out one evil for another.

Richard

 

I knew you'd be able to explain it for us.

It's nice that you think we're all spending 6 to 7 hours polishing our cars to perfection, too. You bet we are - if not more.

 

If I am just waxing I don't tape but if polishing I tape. I have yet to hear of a good polish that doesn't leave mega residue

 

I never tape simply because I don't like to. It's alot of work, IMO.

I'd rather pre-treat my trim with a dressing THEN work on the paint... and just be careful. I don't think it's that hard to avoid the trim, less a wee tad from time to time.

Pre-treating trim with a dressing prevents both polish and wax from being able to adhere to the trim very well so it cleans up like a charm. Then you just go over the trim again with a cleaner-dressing (like OG's Black Wow or Wizards Black Renew) after you're done waxing to clean up any accidents.

As one can already tell from this thread, you really just have to try both to determine which technique you will prefer. I've found consistently that half the population insists on taping and the other half insists on not taping. I think it really depends on your preference and techniques. There's no right or wrong.

-Heather

 

Of course there is!

 

Well, yeah, but we don't have to always tell them that!

-Heather

 

I still hate tape, and now that Heather says it's okay to hate tape, I feel okay about it.

 

ok, if this continues I will sell my stock from 3M...

 

Yes, that's right. You are not alone in your hatred for taping. It's ok to hate taping!

-Heather

 

As much as I dislike taping, especially when working on Mini's I think its important.

Not only does it save so much time in the end cleaning out polish/wax from the little cervices/headlights, but on certain cars if there exist high points, I think its important to tape those off so you don't spend to much time on those high points with PC/Rotary/Machine.

Although I don't worry to much about taping my trim on my Mini, thanks to Black Wow , I do still tape the trim around the wheel wells and front bumper.

I also like to tape any decal edges even from the factory just so you don't get build up over time.

But as Richard said, it comes down to a lot of common sense. Sometimes, I don't feel like taping, but taping a customers embelm might take 5-10 minutes, but save me the time and headache of having to pull out a fine q-tip to take out wax reside afterwards.

 

Let's not forget that taping is more than just protecting trim. It prevents turning the edges of clear bra like this--which is a really pain to remove once it's there.



It also keeps the polish out of difficult to remove places like this rain gutter


Prevent getting polish in these hard to clean areas around the sunroof


Getting polish inside the emblems means cleaning with a Qtip is required, but you will never get it as clean as if you never got it in there in the first place.


Yeah taping may be a pain to do, but it provides positive benefits!

Richard

 

I think you raise a very good point, Calogero. Some cars do benefit more from taping than others. Some cars hardly have any "risk" areas to begin with, while others do have quite a bit. Good point!

-Heather

 

Heather, I myself, know many a detailer(s) out there that won't tape because its to tedious or its too time consuming or its to much of a hassle.

But that is where all common sense is lost. I mean, if you just stood back and thought about the amount of work and time you saved from taping say an embelm or a headlight or maybe air cowl, its quite shocking.

In the end though, personally, I think its that ability to distinguish when to tape and when not to that seperates the good detailers from those detailers whom the owner only needs to find another detailer to correct their work.

Do you know what I mean by that statement?

I've done countless cars where I've asked the customer if they've detailed the car or a detailer and it was always the latter. Upon inspection I pointed out all the wax spots etc...that they didn't see upon pickup.

This is just me.

Another key point is high points on certain cars. For example, say on a 1960 Austin Healey, there is no way I won't tape the high point on the hood if I were to use a rotary and even a PC for that matter. Especially with a single stage custom paint job. The size of the tape isn't that large so its not really going to make a huge difference, but it will make a huge difference in preventing a possible huge mistake and costly repair.

In the end, I say tape what you want, but be sure and ready for consquences for not taping right.

A great detail is all in the prep!!!

 

OG said, "Yeah taping may be a pain to do, but it provides positive benefits!"

I wasn't going to say it but yes I am: S&M !

 

yikes, OG, watch your behind while detailing. WACK!

 

Between the high humidity around here and the texture of the black trim pieces, I had problems getting the tape to hold the last time I detailed.

I'm going to break out the PC on the JB MCSC this weekend and I'm doing it sans tape. I think cleaning the wax off the trim where I make minor errors will be a LOT easier than taping.

I'll let you know next week.

 

Unless this is a typo, it's not the wax that's problematic on the trim, it's the POLISH.

As Heather said, pretreat the trim with a good dressing, and removing wax/polish shouldn't be too difficult.

As for S & M...HAHHAHAHA--I don't need to be whipped to tape a car, but a little Heather might provide more incentive (ooops did I say that??? I meant LEATHER, LEATHER!!!) .......

 

^^ OG, before rc gets to your butt, Nick-san is going to whip your *** so
hard you're going to need a PDR tech to fix that door your head went
through.

 

I will make sure to bring my PDR guy with me and a couple bags of ice to sit on.

 

LOL good plan.

 

I don't know, Richard, I seem to get some white coloring on the trim from BOTH the polish AND the wax. But I could be mistaken.

Do you have any particular suggestion for a good trim dressing ??

 

Now we know what the new Prima Leather cleaner and conditioner will be named

 

Good trim dressing? Hmm, I've heard BW is pretty good.

As for the wax--are we talking Epic here or are you using something else? As it's been said before, if you get wax on the trim, it should be pretty evident, and you can just wipe it off without any ill effects.

For my BW tests, I tried to replicate the "wax on trim" and it was pretty hard! Using discarded MINI arches, I applied Epic in thin coats and let it dry for hours, then days, then I put it on really thick and let it dry for a week, and most of it still wiped off.

 

BW is like a oops eraser for wax on trims.

when i removed all dressing from my arches before the BW app, i
still saw some remains of dealer installed wax on the arch from
almost 4yrs ago.

BW just erased it.

 

Richard, yes, I use the Prima products... including Epic.

Maybe it was the Swirl or Finish that caused the trim to go white last time. I was basing that comment on the fact that I was much more careful with the polish than the wax so i assumed it was the wax that got on the trim.

Anyway... treat the trim before polishing.... got it.