working in direct sun

[wanabe detailer]

I know everyone says not to work in direct sunlight. Is this mostly because of the temperature of the panel, or panels, being worked or because of the position of the sun. In other words, as long the panel is cool, is it ok to work in sun. my concern is working with polish.

[Detail-Impressions]

Poorboys products come to mind to help you.

[wanabe detailer]

Poorboys products come to mind to help you.

ya, I am familiar with them. I prefer a different product and was looking for the reason not to work in sun. I was hoping it was because of temp. of surface.

[ihaveacamaro]

ya, I am familiar with them. I prefer a different product and was looking for the reason not to work in sun. I was hoping it was because of temp. of surface.

yes, it is because of temp of the surface.

[Pureshine]

No a good idea ever really.

[wanabe detailer]

No a good idea ever really.

Why? Pureshine

[Pureshine]

The sun dries the product out faster and a lot of products say do not use in direct sun light. To me its not worth taken a change of something going wrong or creating more work for my self to fix it. If its your personal car its up to you but with my customer cars I can't take any chances.
Hope this helps
Todd

[silvermesa]

I'm relatively new to detailing but will tell you my experience with detailing in 55 degree sunny weather 6 weeks ago. I was doing some final polishing with PO85rd and being out in the sun really helped me to see all defects and my progress even better than the shop lights that I had available to me inside. The sun gave a direct point of light to gauge my progress trying to do some really detailed polishing on my white vehicle. At the above temps I did not have any trouble with drying of the product. I can certainly see that at temps possibly in the 80's on up that difficulties could arise especially with darker colors that absorb heat. Good luck!

[wanabe detailer]

I have a White vehicle also and the sunlight is the best way for me to see swirls also. I am also working with Menzerna products. So I guess if product isn't drying, like Pureshine says, and I have enough time to work it. I should be ok?

[PiPUK]

For most products the reason not to use in direct sunlight is indeed because of the temperature of the panels. As we all know, the panels absorb the sunlight (particularly darker colours) and can end up being much much hotter than the ambient air. When you apply cleaning products, they basically boil on the surface. The biggest issue with this is that cleaning products are bunged full of non-volatile components and these will then be baked onto the surface. You thus end up with the component parts of the formulation on the surface and many of these are quite corrosive (when at the levels in the formulation, this danger does not exist). Further than that, many of these components, whilst water soluble, are going to be dehydrated to the point that rehydration is pretty tough - so they can be extremely hard to remove.

With polishes, this is perhaps not just as big a problem. Most polish products are designed to evaporate away and intentionally leave residues. In the real world you have to take a common sense approach. If the panel is a bit warm then you are probably fine, the polish may simple not 'go' as far. As panel temp rises, the work time will lessen so it may become unreasonably short and you will also get to the point that excessive levels of the film forming components are present and the finish would potentially be compromised as well.

Best to avoid if possible, if not - do small areas and have a water spray handy to keep your work area moist.