[s-cars] silver paint

[Olek]

Wow, so many opinions, so many misconceptions .... Well that is what the s-car list is
for, right? ;)

First - about clay. Fact 1 - yes, clay do contain abrasives. Fact 2 - they are very fine
abrasives, not like a sandpaper, more like a very fine polish, like SMR ( 3m swirl mark
remover). Clay is removing contaminants from the paint (including overspray) not because
of its abrasiveness (it just help a little) but because of it stickiness. Said that I must
still agree that claying is slightly dangerous procedure and I would not reccomend it to
everybody. Dirt particles that are accumulating on clay ARE scratching your paint to some
extent. I never was able to be done with claying and have perfect finish - some light
polishing is always in order. Said that claying is the only way I know to remove that
nasty buildup of embedded contaminants that is going to appear on a daily driver no matter
what. Is that removal nessesarry? Who knows ....

Second -about paint cleaner. Basically, marketing had really screwed that term, they are
applying it now to almost anything that can be used on paint. But originally paint
cleaner was meant to be low in abrasives content, and high in solvents. That means that
it will not really polish your paint, but it will try to dissolve any contaminants that
are embedded into it. And it DOES - white foam bonnet that I used to clean my just washed
sandstone colored Volvo with white Mothers paint cleaner was completely BLACK when I was
finished. I was deeply impressed. And paint looks MUCH better now (well, I must attribute
that partially to Zaino, it looks so cool on metallic paints).

p21s is a slightly different type of a cleaner - that is why they named it "cleanser".
It is more of polishing and glaze filling variety, and that is why many people have
achieved good results using it after polish and before wax.

Third - 3M Imperial Hand/Machine Glaze is a very nice product. But it is a "cover-up" type
of product. It contains a lot of fillings that are filling your scratches so they are less
visible, and it will give your paint nicer gloss. Best used just before waxing, just like
p21s cleanser. But it does not have enough of abrasives to polish paint, and that means
that ones it is dried, you have your scratched/swirled paint back.

Forth - using power buffer on paint is dangerous, especially on high speed. Now, Orbital ?
Come on, you gotta be kidding. It does not generate enough of heat to burn through paint
and unless somebody is stupid enough to use it with coarse rubbing compound without care,
it will not cut instantly through your paint. Actually, most of orbital buffers on the market
are so weak, that they can't do any serious polishing, they can only assist in waxing (and
I prefer to do it by hand anyway).

Now, you will ask, how do I know all that? My other car is black( where is that crying icon ).
Those who ever owned a black car will undertand me.

http://olek.dhs.org/pics/car/set1/


regards,
   Olek