Ok, guys... you all know that I have just purchased enough stuff to be dangerous... so I'm going to ask for your experience to limit my mistakes. *fingers crossed* 1. I have a brick of Riccardo blue clay. I understand that I should use it in a linear fashion (up/down or side to side), also knead it when contaminated but how much clay do I start with? and do you trash it after every car? 2. Is it recommended to do a IPA wipe down after claying and before correction? or just do the IPA wipe down before LSP? 3. I purchased some 70% IPA what ratio should I mix this in?
1) I usually pull apart enough to cover four finger widths, and because Riccardo blue is the "aggressive one" you will want to add plenty of lubrication, so you don't make more work for your self to correct after-wards. 2) You can do a IPA wipedown, I usually just do another rinse again after claying and do the IPA wipe down pre-correction panel by panel or section by section you you don't have any filler/oils deceiving you from correcting the bad paint. Also there are oils in polishes so do a IPA wipedown or two after correcting, so your desired LSP bonds better 3) As copied from dsms's thread http://www.detailingbliss.com/forum...7628-ipa-dilutions-paint-drying-some-tips.htm In the past few months I have began using different dilutions of IPA/Distilled water for my wipedowns when polishing. I have found on soft clear cars, mainly non metallics that too much alcohol in the mixture can attack the paint and cause it to haze over, giving it a dry and gray look. After looking at the paint under different lights, halogen, LED etc. you will find the clarity and depth you were expecting to see after polishing is not really there. Too much alcohol in the mixture can also cause light marring during a wipedown, your MF can get grabby and thus result in further marring the finish, after you just polished it of course! Using more distilled water as needed will help spread the mist evenly on paint and not get grabby as seen with straight or too much alcohol in some cases. My solution, have at least 2 or 3 different dilutions of IPA/Water mixtures to suit different finishes. I use 91% Isopropyl alcohol in all of the bottles mixed with distilled water My 3 bottles go as follows: Soft clear cars, primarily non metallic black - 40% Alc 60% water Medium clear cars, both metallic and non metallic - 70% alc 30% water Hard clear cars, ideally metallics - 80% alc 20% water I personally WANT to use as much alcohol in the mixture as the paint will allow to ensure im not filling and that real correction is taking place BUT certain finishes really react negatively to too much alcohol. This can cause the need for further correction steps to fix! If your using a lighter mixture of alc. and water do multiple wipe-downs to check for filling ... another solution would be to use heavy alcohol mixtures during the cutting phase of correction to ensure your not filling and lesser mixtures during the finish stages as to leave a clean, non hazed finish behind. I brought this up because tonight I got a call from Sean at Premier Detail who is in the process of correcting a non metallic black Infiniti G35. Sean and I have spoken before about all sorts of stuff and I really respect his work and his dedication to correction. I could tell he was really frustrated with G35, he called to bounce some ideas and everything he had done thus far is similar or the same as what I would have done for that car. He explained the car was in terrible shape, lots of correction needed etc. and as per usual with black infiniti paint it was non finishing down 100% as he wanted. We went over the steps used, pads etc. trying to find a solution. He said the car still had a hazy finish left even after Menzerna 85rd on a soft finishing pad, both with rotary and DA machines. I thought for a second and remembered when I had a similar problem with an older black Porsche. I asked him how much alcohol he was using in his mixture and he said straight! I told him to cut that at least 50% with distilled water as to not dry out the paint and re-finish a panel. He texted me later to tell me the altered mix of IPA and water helped solve his problem. Sometimes the tiniest variables account for the biggest difference. Im very glad he called as not too long ago I was in the very same position.
I gave up on IPA wipedowns a long time ago. I just use body shop paint prepping solutions. I usually strip the car os wax first, then clay with a qd.
Thanks for taking the time to put down all that info Hamza7! It's a good read and got me going in the right direction.
