Product recommendations for decon/wash prior to full correction

[oneheadlite]

Realizing it's been '19 and '20 since my cars have gotten anything more than a wash/topping, so gearing up to give them both some love this summer.

Typically I would just do an iron removal, wash, clay (or clay mitt), and move onto the correction.

This round I was thinking about picking up some CarPro Descale to try as it seems some members here have had good luck with it. It makes sense to me to go for a chemical water spot removal just like doing a chemical iron removal before moving to physical measures. Is this overkill? Any other products to look at? I do have a small bottle of Optimum MDR, but not sure if I have enough left to do 2 cars.

I've also got Griot's Foaming Surface Prep, but I'm not sure yet if I'll use that as well.

For shampoo, I was also thinking about finally picking up a bottle of Reset since I've been hearing praise for it forever but have managed to not buy a bottle yet.

Probably going to go traditional clay this time around just to see what the cars have picked up.


Once it gets to the big show of correction/protection, I've got plans for each of the cars already.

[noorth]

Personally, if your not in a rush i really enjoyed washing and chemical decon/claying my car last year for a day or two and then a few days later i started polishing after a N914 wipe down. It made the whole experience more enjoyable. It would be a very long day for me if i would of done it all in one day, it would fast become work.

[Desertnate]

My thought is this: If I'm going to mechanically polish a vehicle, that process will do far more to improve the surface due to the mechanical abrasion than any soap/cleaning product will. Things like mild water spots and any other matter on the surface the soap and clay didn't remove, the polisher certainly will.

If I was simply going to layer an LSP after an extended time, or apply an LSP with no other prep work, then I would consider one of the specialty soaps to do a little extra cleaning.

EDIT: Guess I didn't answer the question. If I'm going to be polishing I'll use my normal soap.

[BudgetPlan1]

I figure Iron Remover & clay have been working for years after a wash and prior to polishing; if it ain't broke, don't fix it [emoji1]

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[noorth]

My thought is this: If I'm going to mechanically polish a vehicle, that process will do far more to improve the surface due to the mechanical abrasion than any soap/cleaning product will. Things like mild water spots and any other matter on the surface the soap and clay didn't remove, the polisher certainly will.

If I was simply going to layer an LSP after an extended time, or apply an LSP with no other prep work, then I would consider one of the specialty soaps to do a little extra cleaning.

EDIT: Guess I didn't answer the question. If I'm going to be polishing I'll use my normal soap.

i never answered the question either :D

I would use something like descale for maintenance not prep work for polishing.

[Calendyr]

For decon:
CarPro Iron-X and Meguiars wheel and paint decon are the best products I have used. Optimum Ferrex the worst by a long margin.
I suggest you also do a tar decon, there is almost always some of it on the lower part of the vehicule. All the tar removers I have tried worked well so chose what you want ;)

I would not clay bar without polishing afterwards, you will put micro scratches for sure in the paint so if you are not interested in polishing, skip that step IMO.

Final wash with something like McKee's 37 N-914 won't leave anything behind so that is my go-to.

Have fun!

[Coatingsarecrack]

Yeah for polishing I just use a

Alkaline soap,
wash,
Iron remover, I like BF because it likes a wet car.
Rinse
Dry then clay
Polish.


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[SWETM]

I would say it depends on what kind of contaminates you have on the paint. Remember that Carpro DeScale is a maintance wash. So if you have a problem with water spots and would soften and remove them some before the polishing. I would get Carpro Spotless 2.0. It's much more stronger now the new formula. But water spots are hard to remove if they have been on the car for a long time. But it would work to soften them up with DeScale and followed with Spotless. Is it worth it? The polishing will remove so it depends on the amount of water spots that you have. Personally I like to get the paint as clean as possible before polishing. And any chemical that will help is a benefit for the polishing pad in the end. You can see the difference on the pads how well your decon worked out in how much dirt it gets in the pad.

My process and I always check on some spots if it's needed with tar and iron removal.
Alkaline prewash BH Auto-Foam/BH Surfex HD 50/50 in the foamcannon. And clean with the PW. I also have a pumpsprayer with Bilt Hamber Surfex HD 1:10 and apply on bugs splatter and heavy road film before I foam the car.

Wash with Carpro Reset or a domestic ph 10 car soap. Dry and start with the tar remover. Tar spots is not unusual to cling on iron particals so that's why I start with a tar remover. Rinse off and dry again. Iron remover and why I dry before is that chemicals work best when applied on dry paint.
With Carpro Reset and you want to get a little more umph to it. You can ad Carpro Lift or Carpro MultiX to get a higher cleaning ability and some reduced on the LSP. If you have a strong LSP. BH Surfex HD or Carpro MultiX in a pumpsprayer in 1:10. Spray on and let dwell panel by panel. And agitate with the Reset wash. This knocks down many stronger LSP great. It's to get a better start and a more effective polish/compound experience and you can use the pads longer before they gums up with paint and dirt and protection and all it's taking off. I have actually moved away from using a lot of polishing pads. Only needs to be useing 2-3 pads for each stage. With no sign of getting saturated with in the pad. This need to have an air compressor to clean the pads on the go. Rupes Claw Pad Tool is great to have on hand as well.

Since the paint is as clean as I can get it now. Clay bar to see how it picks up on the parts where it where much of tar and iron particals. If the clay don't pick up much I move on to a clay mitt and car soap. Here I think I will be starting to use DeScale as the soap for the clay mitt.

Going over board? Ohh yes LOL. But not working for money I'm able to be doing this.

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[vaca22]

Personally, if your not in a rush i really enjoyed washing and chemical decon/claying my car last year for a day or two and then a few days later i started polishing after a N914 wipe down. It made the whole experience more enjoyable. It would be a very long day for me if i would of done it all in one day, it would fast become work.

Man, ain't that the truth! It look me close to 9 hours last time I attempted this. My neighbor wants me to do his car. I had the brilliant idea of doing all the washing/decon one day, and then tackling the polishing and coating the next (after a quick wash, of course). And that seems WAY more appealing to me then busting my hump in one day.

[Desertnate]

Man, ain't that the truth! It look me close to 9 hours last time I attempted this. My neighbor wants me to do his car. I had the brilliant idea of doing all the washing/decon one day, and then tackling the polishing and coating the next (after a quick wash, of course). And that seems WAY more appealing to me then busting my hump in one day.

I do exactly this or a variation of it. The main point is breaking it up across about 1.5 days. If I'm doing a coating I won't even try to do it all in one day unless the timing forces the situation.

[oneheadlite]

Thanks all for the input.

Just to clarify on my original post, all of this is preparation for paint correction, not just applying an LSP. I'm in the camp where I wouldn't clay unless I'm polishing, even if I managed to do my best-darn-mark-proof-claying ever. :)

On a similar note: to be honest my cars have been running around FAR dirtier than I would like to admit due to the fact that I just don't like blitzing through the wash process as fast as possible, which unfortunately has been all that time has been allowing lately. Like you guys have mentioned, this is supposed to BE therapy, not make you NEED therapy. Thus I end up letting them ride until proper care can be taken to get them back up to snuff.

Thanks for the clarification on Descale being more a maintenance wash product vs a heavy lifting water spot remover.

Tony (SWETM) nailed my whole curiosity for focusing more on the chemical pre-steps this go around - the idea is to have the paint as clean and bare as possible so the pads are only working on correction, not cleaning.

On the topic of deep cleaning, one of the thoughts I had after doing the clay step was a wipe down either with a stiff mix of N-914 as mentioned, or I was thinking about picking up some Feynlab Pure Rinseless as it seems like it could be good to have around. Anyone have much experience with that product? I know that's a better question for the sister site, but thought I'd check.

[The Guz]

Just clay with N914 and avoid adding another step.

[oneheadlite]

Just clay with N914 and avoid adding another step.

Does it show it's been a while since I've had a chance to put pad to paint? :laughing: :doh: :laughing:

[Prange]

Valugard A/B/C works like a champ.

[Coatingsarecrack]

Just clay with N914 and avoid adding another step.

So I’ve been thinking to try this by Decon washing, then taping 1st day.

Do a clay the next day with N914 then polish then coating next morning after an eraser wipe down. Hopefully it works.

Thoughts?


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