What is best to protect paint?

[MikeBur]

I went from 3 buckets (2 rinse buckets for dual stage rinse) back to 0 rinse buckets. Sounds crazy right? Well not if you never re-use the microfiber mitt in the first place. How do you do that? I have a single 5 gal bucket with 14 chemical guys microfiber mitts in about 2 gallons of soapy water. I use each microfiber mitt once. One side gets one part of a panel. Then I turn it over and do another part of a panel, and then I toss it in the dirty pile bucket. I'd say rinse and repeat but there's no rinsing

Of course prior to a mitt even touching the paint, I've pressure washed the car once, then I use the low pressure nozzle and chemical injector to coat the car in a layer of car wash. I then let that sit for 10 minutes...never in the sun. Next I pressure wash that off. By the time a mitt even touches the paint, there's nothing visible left.

You'd think it uses a lot of water but the entire wash uses only about 7 gallons of water. The key is low volume high pressure that is NOT directed. i.e. I use a spinning rotary nozzle.

Same here, only DI water, Karcher (low) pressure and a Tornador foam gun using distilled water premixed with wash. I find the foam gun better than using the pressure gun and siphoned mixture. Too diluted and doesn't cling as well. 90 PSI compressed air driving the foam gun I found ideal.

Many microfiber mitts as well.

No shade though. Used to erect a giant tarp over the driveway. Got old, quick. Haven't done that in almost 10 years

I bow to your superior OCD cleaning techniques ;-)

Mine is pressure washer, foam cannon, 2 buckets and low pressure, rinse through no-spot water filter. Plus wheels / wheel arches. Griot's and chemical guys sourced for most

It has annoyed me a lot how wet it's been around here recently though. It's clean for less than a day usually :-(

 

[Joe F]

It has annoyed me a lot how wet it's been around here recently though. It's clean for less than a day usually :-(

The car wants what the car wants!

Yeah, maybe a little OCD, but it's so worth it. Just hard to find the time, and I agree with bad weather.

 

[sorka]

It's amazing how many people are so loudly against liquid glass, haha. Its almost as if some people need to find any avenue to justify their expensive aftermarket upgrade

i was simply presenting an alternative option that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to keep your car's shine. No it won't protect against paint chips, but personally i wouldn't spend extra money for a wrap unless i lived in a place where rocks were flying everywhere (and i don't). If the OP can afford a wrap, then by all means go full on XPEL.

It's not an alternative and nobody is speaking against it. Chemical paint sealants are great for things like bird dung etching, water spots, paint splatter, and other chemical hazards. But it won't do anything to protect against mechanical damage.

Two different product categories with two different purposes. The PPF will protect against all of it. The sealant won't.

I use a sealant myself, Opticoat, on all the rest of the car not likely to experience mechanical damage.

Expensive alternative you say?
My $1200 full front Xpel install on my $124K car has already saved me at least $7K in damage. Seems like a no brainer to me

 

[EV-lutioin]

It's amazing how many people are so loudly against liquid glass, haha. Its almost as if some people need to find any avenue to justify their expensive aftermarket upgrade

i was simply presenting an alternative option that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to keep your car's shine. No it won't protect against paint chips, but personally i wouldn't spend extra money for a wrap unless i lived in a place where rocks were flying everywhere (and i don't). If the OP can afford a wrap, then by all means go full on XPEL.

Not saying it will happen to you, but I live in an area with no snow, no sand and fairly clean highways and my doors have been completely hammered with thousands of chips in under a year. I was a wrap skeptic too, but with the extremely fragile Tesla paint I am going to get the chips repaired and wrap every square millimeter of my car.

 

[one5n1neSDoo]

+1 on not driving. I love "applying" that technique several times a week.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

My right rear window shattered a few months ago and destroyed the paint on the right rear door and right rear quarter panel. Death by a thousand cuts. Very very tiny nicks but many of them just barely went through the clear to the base. A good quality PPF would have completely saved it and I wouldn't have spent $1000 on my deductible to have it repainted. The paint alone was $2600 and I for sure can expect my rates to go up a little. Still not sure it's worth it to do the entire car but if I have something like this happen again, I may regret not having done the entire car.

So it was $2,600 to just have the door and rear quarter panel painted, or did they do the whole car?

 

[sorka]

So it was $2,600 to just have the door and rear quarter panel painted, or did they do the whole car?

It was just the rear right door and rear right quarter panel. It was the least expensive quote and it happened to be from Brooks Motor Cars in Fremont next to the factory. The is the shop that Tesla uses for all of their rework and the one they recommend. Brooks works only on Teslas. The paint nothing else.

Their paint matching is so perfect that they did not need to blend into the front right door.

The other two quotes I got from AAA network shops were nearly double that because they included blending into the front right door and they had a higher hourly labor rate to begin with.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

It's amazing how many people are so loudly against liquid glass, haha. Its almost as if some people need to find any avenue to justify their expensive aftermarket upgrade

i was simply presenting an alternative option that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to keep your car's shine. No it won't protect against paint chips, but personally i wouldn't spend extra money for a wrap unless i lived in a place where rocks were flying everywhere (and i don't). If the OP can afford a wrap, then by all means go full on XPEL.

I would think the liquid glass would work well on top of the PPF. Does anyone use it for that?

 

[sorka]

I would think the liquid glass would work well on top of the PPF. Does anyone use it for that?

Lots of folks seem to swear by using CQuartz over their PPF.