I am switching from a HARD, DURABLE carnauba (Griot's Paste wax in a can) to Epic and Hydro.

My goal is to remove everything so that the Epic can stick like a rock.

I guess that is what Amigo is meant for, the cleaner step. - I do not have it though and was told my visual goals of depth and metallic glow would not be met as well with it. (from DP) I am the anti-gloss king.

I only have like 1/8th of a bottle of Paint prep from griot's left. I could use it on the car, but I dont think I have enough.

I dont trust at all that the Dawn will get off all the old carnauba. Reason: no carnauba is ever just carnauba. Spray on wax from griot's is not just carnauba.

I was told to use 50/50 isopropyl to water mixture in a spray bottle to remove the last bits. Nick? at DP told me that

My plan is this:
Dawn wash. why not? might work?
Lightly Dry the car.
Clay bar with Speedshine - I dont have Slick.
50/50 isopropyl mixture. Applying this with a MF towel. I am assuming it dries off fairly easily as it is alcohol.
Epic 1x layer
- Does it need a 2nd layer for protection purposes?
Wait a day or two then regular car wash and Hydro
- I hear hydro will make metallic flake "pop" which is the goal of it all.
- How long should I wait before a wash and Hydro?
I live on Long Island, NY. It is humid hear and has been in the 80's besides past couple of days which have been oddly cool.
- Curing time?
- Suggestions for application? I bought the yellow pads from DP

Oh, I have old white Griot's MF towels, and I bought 2 Monster Fluffies from DP. I was told the Monster Fluff's arent meant to remove Epic, but it would work eventually. Is Epic really that hard to remove that a weaker MF towel would have problems? I dont want to spend anymore, and I would rather use new mf towels as mine, even though I clean them well, do have some carnauba residue in them to a degree. Griot's paste wax is powerful.

 

No polish between the claybar and the Epic ? Is your paint that pristine... free if swirls and surface scratches ?

And if you go with two layers of Epic, let the first one cure for at LEAST 24 hours first. Me, I wait about a week for my second layer.

No need to wait if you want to use hydro after Epic. Once the wax is dry and buffed off, you can Hydro right away, if you want.

I wouldn't use my wonderful Monster Fluffies to take off the wax. I have a couple of the HUGE microfiber towels from DP that I use for that purpose. But you sure can use them if you prefer. And no, it's not hard to remove Epic once it's dry. A thinner, but high quality mf towel will be fine.

Have fun !!

 

I would second the recommendation to use some kind of polish between the clay and the epic. If you're concerned about it interfering with your results, just use a pure polish that's described as "paintable" or "paint-shop safe". "Paint-shop safe" means that you can even use it to polish newly-applied paint in-between layers of clearcoat, so you *know* it's not going to leave anything behind, since that would mess up the clearcoat that you spray on afterward. Some examples are Meguiar's M80 or 3M's "Finesse-it".

 

Epic is not hard to remove - just use very very little and be sure to let it dry all the way.

I do use a second coat, but only because I'm very paranoid that I may have missed a tiny spot or something. So I let it cure the 24+ hours and then do a 2nd coat.

 

No matter what careers are hinged upon the idea of polishing every swirl to perfection, there is no doubt that this micro thin plastic layer will eventually break through.

most people do not really care if their car lasts them 20+ years. they just want it shiney now and enjoy buying new cars. I dislike new cars and this is the only new car I would ever want. I do not like the 2007 version of the car and I do not think that if this 2006 ever wrecked that I would replace it.

That being said, I am more concerned about longevity of the clearcoat and the life of the car in every way. Removing more clearcoat to grind it down to the level of a scratch doesnt seem like a happy process to do on a yearly basis. Those beautiful cars that OctaneGuy creates from old, severely swirled ugly things might not have been possible if, every year, you ground down the clear coat. Yes, those have just paint on them, well most do, that he revitalizes. Still, the same could be said for them. My car doesnt have a lot of swirls, no spider webbing of anything to be seen, but it isnt pristine. the "microthin" layer that is removed in a polish process is still a layer. Idont think that the clearcoat is very thick on mini's or other cars in general. they seem.. micro-thin.

thanks for input. I am sure that polishing would leave the most raw of all surfaces.

I have no love for a mf towel. I will rub the monster fluffy until it cries. *cackle* I think I have spent enough on this stuff.

The DP Guy gave me a good idea.... if one layer is fine enough for protection, and it is fast work with, it will give me the energy to do it more often vs timing 2 waxes and 2 24 hour cures. hm! hydro will do the rest I guess.

 

I think you're confusing today's polishes with yesteryear's. I can remember polishing my 1980 Nissan 300ZX and when I was done, the pad was red, the color of the paint.

If you use the right buffer, the right pad, and the right polish, you're not endangering your paint even a little bit.

But hey, it's your car. If you don't want to polish, that's your choice, of course. I'm sure your car will look GREAT... from about 15 feet away.

 

Actually, that's more from the difference in today's factory paint than the differences in modern polishes. In 1980, many cars still had single-stage paint (no clearcoat), so when you removed dead, oxidized paint, it ended up colouring your pad.

Also, your paint might have been damaged by traveling through the rift in the time-space continuum, because in 1980, Nissan was still Datsun and the 300ZX was still four years from being released..

 

Okay, Scott... shoot me, my memory isn't so great !

So it was like 1984 or 1986... or something like that.

 

Oh, and here's a link to a write-up that shows exactly how much paint a detailer removed while fixing a particularly nasty black hood, measuring after each step with a digital paint gauge.

Of particular interest is the fact that the only steps that removed *any* measurable paint thickness at all were when he sanded the finish with 2000-grit and 4000-grit sandpaper on a polisher, and when he used a fairly aggressive polish with a wool pad and a rotary buffer. When he was using foam pads and/or a dual-action polisher, there was no measureable reduction in the clearcoat thickness.

 

YOU are on a ROLL tonight, Scott ! You're like a walking and talking encyclopedia. I'm surprised your head doesn't explode from all that data stored in there. (well, some of it came off the internet, but still... )

 

the machine measures to the 0.1 mils thickness.

technically, and feasibly, 2 polishes could remove 0.04 mils of thickness. If it did, the machine would not read out any differently. do that 20 times,s that 0.8. The machine cannot detect numbers below 0.1. A test of one thing isnt that grand. If he kept doing it to a sample part and measured every time for the course of 30 full polishes and nothing changed in the 0.1 category, that would be clear proof.

also, should be noted something key: if the car was polished every year and then the bigger errors corrected, would the clearcoat have enough depth to take it? Logic says no. anything that cuts, cuts. cut enough times, nothing left to cut.

Polishing cannot add life to a car. it can possibly decrease it though. all of the other steps of detailing add life to the car or its parts. when it gets bad, then do it. otherwise you are rolling the dice or you dont care how long the car will last.

 

Yeah, I'm everyone's "phone-a-friend". I can't tell you where my wallet is right now, but I can tell you the difference between a Mespotamian and a Sumerian cubit!

If you like trivia, here are two online trivia contest I play in. The questions and rankings are updated every day. They're timed, so no looking stuff up!

http://my.funtrivia.com/private/main.cfm?tid=45515
http://my.funtrivia.com/tournament/H...nts-74531.html

 

Jefe,
Obviously, do what you like - it's your car. But you did ask for opinions. My opinion is that polishing a car once a year with a mild polish, a foam pad, and a dual-action polisher is going to remove so little paint that over the course of the next few decades, you're going to be more likely to have to re-paint the car as a result of accident damage or long-term UV damage to the paint than as a result of going beneath the minimum safe thickness of the clearcoat.

As for the "waiting until it's bad and then fixing it" approach, I have two problems with that. First, how many years do I drive a car that, to me, looks like *** before I can't stand it any more, and second, if I wait until it gets really bad, I'm a lot more likely to break out the heavy guns to fix it (wool pads, my rotary buffer, harsher polishes, etcetera), and at that point, it gets a lot easier to remove more clearcoat than is necessary.

But if you're not as bothered by fine scratches and swirl marks as I am, then of course you're right - there's no compelling need to polish them all away.

 

that is true. probably be good to every 2 years to give it a light buff. that would negate the need to use a harsher pad that will be less gentle overall.

I buy that. good point. At this point the car has no spider webbing but isnt perfect. It is immensely better though than just about any car out, even detailed ones. After you see what Octane guy can do, you notice that anything but perfection is a failure in doing the polishing job. One day properly, I am going to fly that bugger out to NY and detail my sutff yup, that I will.