How to tape-off a car before machine polishing

Mike Phillips · 05-23-2014, 06:51 AM

How to tape-off a car before machine polishing

Inspect the paint first
Before buffing out a car first inspect the paint for issues that are already present. Things like burn-through on edges and corners. This is especially important on muscle cars, streetrods and classics and basically anything built before the mid-1970's. The reason why is because cars built back then don't have the luxury of being designed and assembled like modern cars and where body panels come together they won't be perfectly aligned. This means the edge of the hood may sit higher than the edge of the fender and it's this high side you want to inspect to see if anyone that has buffed the car out BEFORE you wasn't careful and burned through the paint on the sharp edges.

Take note of pre-existing damage
If you find any places where the paint has pre-existing damage, be sure to point it out to the owner of the car and if you're using an inspection form like my VIF then mark it down on the form.

Tape-off after performing the normal 7 steps
After you do the 7 normal steps before buffing out a car, nows the time to tape off any raised body lines, edges, trim, emblems and especially and plastic surfaces that could be stained by compound or polish. It's also a good idea to tape-off and cover any fresh air intakes in front of the windshield as well as wiper arms to avoid spatter dots while machine buffing.

This Nova has single stage urethane paint which will tend to be softer than a urethane clearcoat. This Nova also has a LOT of raised body lines creating the design of the body panels hard edges forming the shape of the body panels.

Soft paint and raised body lines mean we have to be carefully when machine compounding or we could burn through. To avoid any mistakes, we taped-off all the raised body lines and edges of body panels using 3M Blue Vinyle Tape.

Technique Tip
When taping off a car, start by anchoring the end of the tape to the area you want to protect and then pull out 2-3 feet of tape in your other hand.

Use the hand that's holding the roll of tape to steer the tape as you use your other hand to press the tape firmly against the paint. This is how steer tape follow curves and also straight areas.

Classic cars like this 1966 Nova have what are called fresh air grills right in front of the windshield. You CANNOT get into these to remove splatter from compound or polish so carefully tape these ares off before buffing. It's also a good idea to cover up wiper-arms so you don't have to come back and use a toothbrush to remove splatter dots of these components.

Here' you an see the edges of the body and the trunk lid are all protected using 1/4" 3M Blue Vinyl Tape.

De-Taping
After compounding we de-taped the car. Here's why....

1. Machine polishing is less aggressive than compounding so there's less risk of burning through the paint.

2. By removing the tape and then polishing we will remove the tape-line plus polish the paint under the tape to even out the gloss and clarity of the paint that was not compounded.

De-taping the Nova...

Mark, (from Canada) and Frank carefully removing 3M Blue Vinyl Tape....

Sherman removing tape...

Craig removing tape off the hood....

Mike Phillips · 05-23-2014, 06:51 AM

3M Blue Vinyl Tape

Worth it's weight in gold...

3M Vinyl Tape 1/4 Inch - 06405

3M Vinyl Tape 1/8 Inch - 06404

**Lints** · 05-23-2014, 08:28 AM

It's hard to tell on my phone, but are you taping over the joints in the body panels, or just on either side of the joint, overlapping onto the top side of the panel just a bit?

Is this to prevent burning through the paint on the edges of panels, or to keep product from getting into those joints?

**57BORNTORUN** · 05-23-2014, 09:16 AM

Thanks Mike and Max for giving us the opportunity to work on some of the coolest cars and learn from the best and using cutting edge products.
One of my boniness is I get my ugly mug on the inter-web to show my kids.(Oh, then there`s the pizza YUM.)

**57BORNTORUN** · 05-23-2014, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by Lints

It's hard to tell on my phone, but are you taping over the joints in the body panels, or just on either side of the joint, overlapping onto the top side of the panel just a bit?

Is this to prevent burning through the paint on the edges of panels, or to keep product from getting into those joints?

Both yet more so to not burn the edge on the compounding phase.We remove it for the polishing as it`s the least aggressive product.On this Nova I chose to keep the green tape on the gas filler tube and Mike on on the cowl breather between the hood and windshield.I still cleaned the inside lip of the hood for spend product as well as the trunk lid.

**Mike@DedicatedPerfection** · 05-23-2014, 09:37 AM

Outstanding artice on taping off trim and mis-aligned panels Mike.

Ideally in a perfect world you would want to also tape off all creases and edges in the panels. Especially if any sanding were involved. This would include the raised creases on top of say the hood or fenders.

Mike Phillips · 05-23-2014, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by Lints

It's hard to tell on my phone, but are you taping over the joints in the body panels, or just on either side of the joint, overlapping onto the top side of the panel just a bit?

Is this to prevent burning through the paint on the edges of panels, or to keep product from getting into those joints?

Like Tim said, both as we opened the hood and the trunk lid for doing some intricate compounding.

One thing I always keep in mind and share with others is when buffing out a car you never know who's buffed it out before you. The people that potentially sanded and buffed this car after it was painted and the people that have buffed this car since then or ANY car you're working might not be as careful as you and I will be.

It's completely possible some other detailer didn't tape off edges, maybe they used a really aggressive compound on a wool pad? It's possible they got away with it but now somewhere on this car the paint is what I call,

Whisper Thin

So while an edge or corner or even the flat open area of a panel looks perfectly fine, you or I come along and make a single pass even with a fine cut polish by hand and burn through the whisper thin top coat to expose the primer underneath.

The other guy caused the problem but guess who gets the blame?

Each person can decide if they want to tape off the care they are detailing or not. When it's a car I'm responsible for and it,

A show car.
Has single stage paint.
Has been sanded and buffed previously.

For the above three factors, I'm going to carefully tape off any raised body lines, edges and corners.

Just to note, this car had a burn through either around the good or the trunk lid before we started and I pointed it out to the owner Thom so he knew it was a pre-existing issue.

I've worked on a lot of classics, muscle cars and streetrods in my life as it's my preference so I know about mis-aligned body panels and the risks they bring to the project.

New cars have a lot of black plastic trim that also needs to be protected or you'll end up staining.

Then there are some cars that just are prone to burn-through like the Porsche 911. In this write-up, before compounding the paint I not only taped off the raised body line but took pictures of the raised body lines I taped off to help others avoid a real common mistake with these cars and that's burn-through.

Whenever I buff out one of these cars the FIRST thing I do is inspect for burn-through because it's so common with these cars because other detailers are NOT careful.

Lady in Red - 1986 Porsche - 4-Step Process

See the two raised body lines?

and from my write-up.....

A tip for buffing out Porsche 911 models
Every time I buff out one of these cars the first thing I do is look to see if the other detailers before me have already burned through the 2 distinct raised body lines on the hood. Right here where I'm pointing with my finger or anywhere down the hood.

1//4" Blue Vinyl Tape by 3M
Mike is luck in that so far no one has burned through the paint anywhere and I'm not going to be the first. The remedy is to use some 3M Blue Vinyl Tape and run it down the top of the raised body line like this...

A few precautionary strips of blue vinyl tape prevents embarrassing and possibly costly burn-through....

I have a 2014 BMW 535i to buff out tomorrow. From what I can see there's not too much to tape-off but anything that looks like a potential issue will get taped-off.

To me it's faster to spend a little time up front taping and covering risky areas and components to protect them and to also have to spend time afterwards trying to clean up compound, polish and wax residue off them...

**Mike@DedicatedPerfection** · 05-23-2014, 10:49 AM

Originally Posted by Mike.Phillips@Autogeek

I have a 2014 BMW 535i to buff out tomorrow. From what I can see there's not too much to tape-off but anything that looks like a potential issue will get taped-off.

Mmmm. Hopefully we get to see some pictures.

Is it a dark color?

**antti@561detailing** · 05-23-2014, 03:25 PM

Thanks for the lesson...

I was at this clinic and taping is so annoying... but you showed us some tricks and I tried and it worked...

thanks again

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

Mike Phillips · 05-23-2014, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by antti@561detailing

Thanks for the lesson...

I was at this clinic and taping is so annoying... but you showed us some tricks and I tried and it worked...

thanks again

Sometimes the little things are the big things!

Also, if you watch enough Overhaulin with Chip Foose you'll see him use the same technique when taping something off.

Using one hand, anchor one end of the tape to your starting location. Then using your other hand, reel out about 2-3 feet of tape and steer the tape to lay it down where you want to place it.

After taping-off a few hundred cars you get a lot faster at it....