Review: Griot's Garage Fast Surface Prep Mitt

[Mike Phillips]

Review: Griot's Garage Fast Surface Prep Mitt



Griot's Garage has just introduced two new replacements for traditional detailing clay. These clay replacements are designed to be used during the washing step or with a clay lubricating like Griot's Speed Shine. Unlike detailing clay, if you accidentally drop one of these mitts on the ground instead of throwing it away you can simply wash it off and continue using it.

The new Griot's Surface Prep Mitts are available in two different grades for mechanically decontaminates paint, glass and chrome of various levels of neglect.

Griot's Garage Fine Surface Prep Mitt

• Removes light to moderate bonded contaminants, impurities and overspray.
• For use with Speed Shine or wafter wash with car wash solution and thorough rinse.
• Unique diamond patterned polymer rubber surface outlasts clay 10 to 1.
• Effective on paint, glass, chrome and more...

Griot's Garage Fast Surface Prep Mitt

• Removes moderate to severe bonded contaminants, impurities and overspray.
• For use with Speed Shine or wafter wash with car wash solution and thorough rinse.
• Unique diamond patterned polymer rubber surface outlasts clay 10 to 1.
• Effective on paint, glass, chrome and more...

These two new Griot's products arrived just in time for my current project, Wayne Carini's 1949 Buick Roadmaster aka the Rainman car. It's called the Rainman car because it is the car driven by Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in the movie by the same name, The Rainman.

Wayne had the Rainman on display at the 11th Annual Detail Fest show. To restore and maintain a show car finish worthy of a movie car I chose to machine jewel the paint using McKee's 37 Jeweling Wax. Before machine jeweling the paint however I preformed 2 basic steps,

Step 1: Wash car using a waterless wash.

Step 2: Inspect paint using the Baggie Test for above surface bonded contaminants.

It was Step 2 where the paint failed the Baggie Test. Before I could machine jewel the paint I would first have to mechanically decontaminate the paint to remove the offending contaminants.


Enter Nick Rutter
Right about this time, Nick came out to the garage, just in the nick of time. He asked me what I was going to do the the Rainman car and after sharing my plans he said,


Wait right here, I'll be right back!


Upon returning he handed me the new Griot's Garage Surface Prep Mitts. Told me the yellow was the fine grade mitt and the read was the medium grade mitt. Asked me if I would test one of them out on Wayne's 1949 Buick. I said,

Sure!


Back to the Baggie Test
Upon inspecting the paint with the baggie test I was shocked at what I felt. The paint felt like it had sand glued to the top surface! This car was recently on display at a number of shows including the Amelia Island Concours D'Elegance. When cars, any car), is parked outside it is exposed to all the airborne contaminants and pollution floating around in the air so it's possible that while it was on display outside this is where the contamination came from. It's also possible it could be overspray paint. Car guys, and Wayne's a car guy, live in a world where cars are being painted as well as disassembled cars are being painted if they own a restoration show, (Wayne owns a restoration shop), so it's completely possible that this car could have any number of types of contaminants and my job was to remove them to restore a smooth, shiny finish.

Because of the level of contamination and also the size of the car, I chose the Fast Surface Prep Mitt to effectively remove 100% of whatever was on the paint and to do it quickly. As a practice I only perform mechanical decontamination if I ALREADY plan on doing at least one machine polishing step, which can include using a one-step cleaner/wax or in this case, an ultra fine cut jeweling wax.



The Baggie Test
If you've never inspected paint using the baggie test for most people it's a real EYE OPENER!





How to do the baggie test

1: First - get the paint clean. Either wash and dry the car or like I do with classics, use a waterless wash. (I never use a traditional wash to wash a classic as it introduces water into places where it can form rust).

2: Next - feel the paint with your clean hand. This is key because this shows shows you what you CAN'T feel with just your sense of touch.

3: Now place a clean sandwich baggie over your hand and feel the paint a second time. This is here the eyes of most people LIGHT UP! The thin layer of plastic dramatically increases your sensitively so that you can now FEEL what you couldn't not sense before. In most cases, if the paint is contaminated instead of feeling smooth like it did to your bare hand - instead, through the sandwich baggie the paint is going to feel coarse and rough. As though there is something on it. Surprise! Your paint is contaminated and you need to remove this contamination and the removal process is called - mechanical decontamination.





Frequently Asked Questions

What if my paint feels smooth?
If your paint feels completely smooth then it's passed the baggie test and you can proceed to whatever paint care step you're were planning on doing.

What if my paint feels rough?
If after doing the baggie test you find the paint feels rough then you need to remove the contamination. If you don't remove the contamination then your car's paint will NEVER be as shiny as it can be and because the contaminants will block a coat of wax or paint sealant from getting to the paint itself applying a coat of wax or a sealant will never provide the full benefits you expect.



How to use the Griot's Garage Surface Prep Mitts

Tip: The first time you use a Griot's Garage Surface Prep Mitt break-in the rubber surface first by rubbing it against a more resilient surface first like glass using plenty of lube. Be sure the glass is clean.


The way you use both mitts is the same so after choosing the level of contamination removal you think best fits the contamination level of your car's paint follow these four easy steps to mechanically decontaminate your car's paint using a clay lubricant like Griot's Speed Shine.

Step 1: Remove the Surface Prep Mitt from the packaging and place your hand inside.

Step 2: Spay down an ample amount of Griot's Speed Shine to fully lubricate the panel to be decontaminated.

Step 3: Using light pressure, gently rub the Surface Prep Mitt over the paint. When you start out you should feel the mitt dragging over the paint as it rubs against the contaminants which at the surface level are sitting or bonded to the top of the paint. As the rubberized surface abrades these contaminants off you will then feel the mitt to begin to glide effortlessly over the finish. This is a sign that the paint in this area is effectively decontaminated and you can wipe off the residue using a clean, microfiber towel and move on to new territory.

Step 4: Continue this pattern until all contaminated panels are decontaminated and the residue had been wiped off to reveal clean, dry smooth paint.


After the paint on the car has been decontaminated you can repeat this procedure to any other hard surfaces like glass, chrome, stainless steel, etc.


Mechanically decontaminating the paint on the Rainman car using Griot's Garage Fast Surface Prep Mitt and Speed Shine























On Autogeek.com


Griot's Garage Fine Surface Prep Mitt

Griot's Garage Fast Surface Prep Mitt

Griot's Speed Shine

[Mike Phillips]

Next steps...

When you are finished decontaminating the paint you are now ready to move on to the next step. For this 1949 Buick Roadmaster Convertible I chose to tape-off and cover-up the canvas convertible top boot to protect the weave of the canvas from any accidental splatter from the machine jeweling process. You can see how I did this step here,

Cheap Insurance - Time Saver - Reputation Saver - Autogeek Detailing Cover-Up Towel

[briarpatch]

Great write-up and explanation....very helpful for us that are new to this....got some questions....

how did you know to use the more aggressive of the two mitts?

how long did it take you to clean the paint?

did you need to clean the mitt periodically? if so...how did you know when to do that (since it is black)?

[Mike Phillips]

Great write-up and explanation....very helpful for us that are new to this....got some questions....

how did you know to use the more aggressive of the two mitts?

Two factors.

1. Experience - This is how you would know which to use.

2. Personal preference


I'd say the best option for cars like this and for most people would be to choose and use the fine grade mitt.

It was my personal preference to choose the medium grade mitt because there was something on the paint and it was everywhere. I didn't have a lot of time for this project so I was also looking for both speed and efficiency.

When I did use it I used LOTS of lube to reduce the chance for any marring to the paint. And then of course I had already planned on doing at least one machine polishing step, that is using the McKee's 37 Jeweling Wax not with a foam jeweling pad or even a foam finishing pad but a foam polishing pad.

how long did it take you to clean the paint?

Just for clarification for every forum member and every lurker that will read this into the future, when you say

clean the paint


To everyone reading this, briarpatch means,

rub the Fast Surface Prep Mitt over the paint


Then to answer your question,

I'd say it took me 20 minutes to run the mitt over the paint and wipe off the residue.

did you need to clean the mitt periodically? if so...how did you know when to do that (since it is black)?

I have a bucket of rinseless wash in the garage and half way around the car I dipped the mitt into the bucket and rubbed the face of the rubber surface with a nylon detail brush.

When I've removed very heavy paint overspray I've had good luck using Blackfire Clay Cleaner & Extender with a nylon brush to scrub and clean overspray paint off of rubberized surfaces like on the Griot's Fast Surface Prep Mitt.


For what it's worth... my own personal rule-of-thumb when it comes to doing ANY mechanical decontamination process to car paint is to already plan on doing at least one machine polishing step.

Technically, if you use the fine grade mitt carefully and with lots of lube you're not supposed to have to do any polishing afterwards and you can go straight to your LSP of choice.

My rule-of-thumb is for me and the type of cars I tend to work on and everyone is free to find a method that works best for them.


Good question. I'd also say that for most people the Griot's Fine Surface Prep Mitt would be the best option as it is a less aggressive option. (the yellow mitt).

[brad911]

Any indication the mitt is better at reduced marring vs. the nanoskin mitts/towels when they first came out Mike?

[Mike Phillips]

Any indication the mitt is better at reduced marring vs. the nanoskin mitts/towels when they first came out Mike?

Ha ha....

Great question but - not after once use.

And the true test to compare would be on BLACK paint, not a cream colored car like Wayne's 1949 Buick Roadmaster.

[briarpatch]

thank you

[Mike Phillips]

thank you

Hope my answers helped....

[Klasse Act]

So Mike, the fine grade one could be used once a month as a maintainence product???

[hdez]

Mike, I really want to avoid the Nanoskin scrubs situation.

Looking at your review and then at the product page, I found the same issue that happened with the Nanoskin products.

This is the image shown in your review and in the Griot's Garage video:


Looks like a very HQ mitt indeed, but then, looking at other pictures I found what seems to be a low quality versions of the same product:





I really want to take an alternative to a clay bar but I'm concerned of not getting the demonstrated product, as it happened with the Nanoskin scrub.