Is Traffic Film a reason to not top off Sealant after a wash?

[Desertnate]

If your lsp is any good at protecting and shedding dirt aka making the paint easier to wash, then there shouldn’t be any traffic film on the paint after your wash.

Traffic film is great at sticking to paint that’s not protected.

I think the grime still builds up, but at a much slower rate. Sealants might not last long enough for the difference to be obvious because many will lightly polish the surface every six months or so when re-applying. Coatings, from my experience, don't really start to show the effencts of built up road grime/film until around the 18 month point. I recently polished up both my car and my wifes after wearing a coating for 18~20(ish) months. While both looked good before I started, the difference was quite noticeable after polishing.

[DetailZeus]

Is this coming from the purple degreaser guy? Constant use of a caustic degreaser is overkill for someone who doesn't neglect their vehicle. If you own some ONR I'm sure you maintain your vehicle just fine. I have no issue with using an appropriate APC or prewash to help break up grime during a long winter (I do so myself). But it's not like you need to douse your car in degreaser just because you drove through some rain.

I recommend Mike's article it does a good job of explaining road film Road Film - If you drive your car in the rain your car has road film

Short answer: apply optiseal after your ONR wash whenever you want and don't think twice about it.

[hooked]

I’m not naming any names.

If I were to take the advice seriously, I would start with a full detail involving wash, iron removal, strip previous protection, clay, polish and apply sealant. After that, for maintenance washes, I would not apply anything else until the next big detail.

Just wanted to get other perspectives.

[DetailZeus]

I’m not naming any names.

If I were to take the advice seriously, I would start with a full detail involving wash, iron removal, strip previous protection, clay, polish and apply sealant. After that, for maintenance washes, I would not apply anything else until the next big detail.

Just wanted to get other perspectives.

Good topic. Just for the sake of discussion, lets say you're using a great WOWO sealant like Powerlock that should last 4-6 months. At the start of the year you do the full detail above and apply the sealant. After 5 months you want to add more Powerlock, what do you do?

[UncleDavy]

Here is a link to the thread started by Mike Phillips about road film.

Road Film - If you drive your car in the rain your car has road film

[Eldorado2k]

I think the grime still builds up, but at a much slower rate. Sealants might not last long enough for the difference to be obvious because many will lightly polish the surface every six months or so when re-applying. Coatings, from my experience, don't really start to show the effencts of built up road grime/film until around the 18 month point. I recently polished up both my car and my wifes after wearing a coating for 18~20(ish) months. While both looked good before I started, the difference was quite noticeable after polishing.

Contaminants and road film are pretty much all in the same for the most part right? So that being the case, and I believe it is, I went outside and did a quik test just now.

Here’s the Kia, it’s been properly maintained by me personally since the day we brought it home brand new in 2014. Its a daily driver and lives outside 24/7.



You can see it’s pretty dirty, and those spots aren’t looking too good from a visual standpoint.



A quik waterless wipedown of the entire door.



After the waterless wipedown. The sealant [which at this point is about 3 months since applied] has allowed for an effortless smooth wipedown and it looks completely clean.





Lets clay the panel to see if we can pull any contaminants from the paint...



Entire door was thoroughly clayed. As expected, no contaminants. I haven’t pulled contaminants off this paint in 4yrs now. It stays protected with simple re applications of sealant after a wash about every 3-4 months. It basically never needs claying and has remained clean and smooth for 4 straight years now.



It doesn’t need polishing either, I’ve done a couple of test spots and they make no difference.

[DBAILEY]

Good topic. Just for the sake of discussion, lets say you're using a great WOWO sealant like Powerlock that should last 4-6 months. At the start of the year you do the full detail above and apply the sealant. After 5 months you want to add more Powerlock, what do you do?

If the swirling was not bad enough to bother me I would use a paint cleaner and then reapply the Powerlock. I only apply long duration LSP's after polishing or paint cleanser. I will use spray waxes/sealants in between after washes, but only like once a month, not twice a week like some of do. I try to let the LSP run its course then start over.

[acuRAS82]

Good topic. Just for the sake of discussion, lets say you're using a great WOWO sealant like Powerlock that should last 4-6 months. At the start of the year you do the full detail above and apply the sealant. After 5 months you want to add more Powerlock, what do you do?

I’m OK just re-applying Powerlock after a normal wash at this point... assuming I’m happy enough with the current paint condition/swirls, I wouldn’t bother doing a full detail for another 5-6 months.

That doesn’t mean that’s what I do after an LSP dies down, but it’s an option. I may at least reach for the Iron Remover and/or Coating Prep wash, but not particularly go for the effort of claying and polishing every 6 months.

[RippyD]

Film vs. embedded contaminants. Not sure what we're talking about. It seems like road grime would be removed at least partially with regular washing. The embedded stuff, especially when driving in the rain isn't really helped by anything. In my experience sealants don't help and coatings may collect embedded contaminants faster. Do a panel with coating or sealant and another without and see which has more grime after 6 months. I doubt there will be much difference.

What to do? Use a paint cleaner or light polish as needed. I typically do 1x per year, but really could do it 2x. Just not worth it in the winter for me.

[Desertnate]

Contaminants and road film are pretty much all in the same for the most part right? So that being the case, and I believe it is, I went outside and did a quik test just now.

Here’s the Kia, it’s been properly maintained by me personally since the day we brought it home brand new in 2014. Its a daily driver and lives outside 24/7.

A quik waterless wipedown of the entire door.



Entire door was thoroughly clayed. As expected, no contaminants. I haven’t pulled contaminants off this paint in 4yrs now. It stays protected with simple re applications of sealant after a wash about every 3-4 months. It basically never needs claying and has remained clean and smooth for 4 straight years now.

It doesn’t need polishing either, I’ve done a couple of test spots and they make no difference.

Some of the differences we see could come down to environment. I'd be willing to bet you and I aren't that different in our wash regimens when the weather cooperates for me. The difference for me however, is I have six months of winter to deal with and one of my vehicles not only faces winter but also wet fall/spring weather on rural roads which covers the car in a fine, gritty spray of dirt. In the winter you add salt, sand, and other ice melt chemicals to the swill of normal road grime.

Each year when I clay, most of the pannels come out like your example. However the lower doors/quarter pannels and the rear hatch always come out with noticeable contaminates in the clay. Likewise, those areas become slightly rough to the touch as well even without using a baggie. I attribute this to huge ammounts of pretty nasty road grime sitting on the vehicle for long periods of time during the cold months of the year. Touchless washes don't get the car totally clean and over time that gunk starts to embed itself in the LSP. Road salt is nasty stuff.

After 18+ months of coatings on a vehicle, I saw very similar results to the results Mike Phillips photographed on the white car recently, or the yellow hot rod from several years ago. I could run a tape like and notice a change in color, and my vehicles are maroon and black metallic! The color looked deeper and the reflections were more crisp. The swirls were minimal to non-existant, the difference was the removal of the grime either embeded in the LSP or the paint.

I've read both of Mikes threads on the topic and after looking at the pictures decided I would never see results like he documented because I felt I probably took better care of my vehicles than the owners of those other vehicles. However, after really paying attention to my work this last year I noticed similar, though probably less obvious, results.