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

[Tempest45]

I like to use oil based drying aids specifically for this reason. The solvents will help clean oil based residue from the paint. Using the optiseal will help. I've started to use and prefer 10min. Sealant

[Eldorado2k]

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.

It’s funny you say this, because immediately after claying the door of the Kia this morning, I decided to clay the trunklid of my Cadillac, however I couldn’t find a good reason to somehow tie it into my post so I didn’t mention it..

I’d be more than willing to run that experiment with a sealant 50/50 on my trunklid, because in the past I’ve been able to keep my Cadillac contaminant free for up to a year by following my maintenance schedule of 3-4 months. How will it fare over 6 months with just the 1 initial application and nothing else? While I won’t make any bold predictions of complete protection, I’m more than confident the difference will be night/day.


Allow me to show how the claying of my cars trunklid went this morning.

Important note: The paint on my Cadillac has been completely bare for the past 6 weeks since the day I clayed and stripped the Sonax Spray & Wash...Here’s a photo w/time stamp showing when I clayed and removed any protection from the panel.



I’ve been lazy as far as maintaining my Cadillac clean aka up to Autogeek standards during these past 6 weeks... This was the condition of the paint this morning.



Closer look. I don’t think this qualifies as actual beading, but it’s sort of interesting how the condensation lays on the bare paint.



The true condition of the paint is visible once I sprayed it down with Megs D114. Check out all that grit.



The lack of protection on the paint made a huge difference here.. After a good wipedown there was still a whole bunch of grit that didn’t even begin to wipe off.





Zoomed in view of the tough grit stuck on the bare paint. It almost felt like sand.



I saturated the panel with D114 and used the PFM like a wash mitt, scrubbing harder than anyone ever would on their paint in order to remove nearly all of the embedded grit off the panel... It’s now clean enough/prepped for the claybar.



I put the Poly Clay away and brought out the Megs clay because I already knew this was about to get grimy...



Lets clay.



Holy moly it was rough! Lol. Not among the worst ever, but it was definitely rough and full of contaminants. Here’s what 6 weeks of bare paint in smoggy Southern California looks like.



@Rippy. I’ll begin that 6 month 50/50 test soon and post a thread for it.

[RippyD]

Eldo, very interesting. And look forward to the results. Some of you may recall that I live with rain for 7-8 months out of the year. Commuting on the freeway with rain... I could probably clay every 2 months in the rainy season and get significant debris. I'll try to compare a section as well and see how it goes.