To wash or not in between polishing stages?

[Striker]

Finished doing the car with M105 and 205 is about to go on tonight.

Car sits in the garage, has the usual debris and dust on it. It was of course freshly washed w dawn and wiped w iso before 105.

Do I re wash again before 205? Car is single stage paint.

[TuxedoTaurus]

At minimum wipe down with your preferred QD. You don`t want to chance inducing any scratches or swirls from foreign debris.

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[Striker]

Should have bought some when I had a chance. I only got some uqw. Does dawn in a spray bottle constitute as an alternative?

[TuxedoTaurus]

The UQW will work. You will polish of the "wax" left behind with the 205. I wouldn`t use dish soap due to the residue that can be left with it. Not sure how it would react as in possibly gum up the pad during the polish cycle.

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[Stokdgs]

Unless you are working outside on a gravel driveway with the wind blowing gravel dust on your vehicle, I dont know if I would worry about anything getting on the paintwork that I didnt put on there myself..
I always polish right after any correction if I needed to, and know that my polish is going to do its job and it will be fine..
Have never gotten anything on any vehicle that just flew down from the sky and wrecked my work..
Certainly, a QD that is not any of those nasty wax things, will get any dust off as long as you use clean, microfiber towels and watch carefully to insure you dont have something on them that would alter your work..
Dan F

[Trouble]

Finished doing the car with M105 and 205 is about to go on tonight.

Car sits in the garage, has the usual debris and dust on it. It was of course freshly washed w dawn and wiped w iso before 105.

Do I re wash again before 205? Car is single stage paint.

I wash between to remove 105 oils and dust. You really don`t have to though

I would for sure wash before lsp

[Striker]

I`ve been polishing it for thr past few days on and off with work and life in between. so it`s just dust from sitting.

[Trouble]

ur good to go

[MiVor]

A quick detail wouldn`t hurt. This is where an ONR spray (or equivalent) comes in real handy (as it does for bird bombs and such). But I wouldn`t use diluted dish soap....however, considering what you`re doing, one could argue that a very diluted APC would work fine...
Then again, one might argue that a dust particle so fine as to be air born probably is nothing compared to the abrasives in polish - still, always better to err on the side of being too thorough.

[Accumulator]

Striker- You`re already dealing with (micro)marring in the form of holograms; I wouldn`t want to risk introducing *more* (micro)marring from polishing without removing whatever might be on there. My shop is *VERY* clean but I use at least a QD if the vehicle sits there overnight.

FWIW I use M34 as it leaves very little behind but does the whole "lubricity/ecapsulation/cleaning"-QD thing prett well. I also use it when buffing off compound/polish residues when micormarring is a concern (as with nondimishing abrasive compounds like the M105).

If you use something that needs rinsing (Dawn, which I wouldn`t use for this, or shampoo or APC) then rinse ;)

[4u2nvinmtl]

As someone that did their car one panel at a time, I can say with confidence that you don`t need to wash it between compounding and polishing as long as you didn`t drive it and it didn`t sit in a train yard. All you need is a wipe down with a quick detail spray or waterless wash.

At first I was washing my car every day just to get to the next panel even though it never left the garage. One day I ended up getting lazy and found out it was unnecessary to wash every time I compounded a panel. The compounding dust was getting to me but nothing my quick detailer/waterless wash couldn`t handle wiping away.

The way I look at it now is:


Washing is to remove; soil, dirt, dust, grime, road film, salt and prep the surface for decontamination
Waterless wash is used maintain a washed car by encapsulating and removing; light dirt, dust, polish, compound, and bird poo
Quick detailer is used to maintain corrected paint`s finish by assisting with the encapsulation and removal of; remove dust, polish, compound, oil hand marks, and bird poo



So if the car is already decontaminated and is already compounded a Quick Detailer is the ideal choice for a quick pre-polish wipe down, IMHO.

One of the local detailers I know skips the wash and decontamination steps altogether when correcting paint. He starts by powerwash the car and doing one or two very quick compound passes. This removes or shears off the contamination much like clay does, but this ruins the pad (he has dedicated pads for this step), then he switches pads and start correcting (using Rupes 21 for a 2.5 step correction, if you will). He cut`s out about 2-3 hours not having to wash and decontaminate and the cars come out looking just as good (to my eye`s).

^ Would I do my next correction his way? NO WAY because I have the time and I don`t do this for money.