Confused about the role of paint cleaners...

[sillystanger]

Can someone shed some light on the role of paint cleaners? If your going to wash-clay-polish-seal/wax do you need to use a paint cleaner? Isn`t the abrasive polishing going to effectively perform the paint cleaning by physically stripping away the same crud/old wax or sealant/oxidation that the paint cleaner would have? I`ve done a fair number of searches on the topic and I`m still not sure if it`s a necessity or not. I`m thinking that it`s mostly useful for the times when your looking to strip down to the paint but aren`t going to polish afterwards (i.e. going straight to a LSP)? Thanks...

[Don]

There are two main kinds of paint cleaners, chemical and abrasive. Personally, I prefer a chemical cleaner (Meg`s DC1) or a cleaner that is chemically biased with just a bit of abrasive (AIO).



The chemical/chemical-biased cleaners seem (to me) to reach `deeper` into the paint to remove contaminants and gunk with a minimum of risk to the finish...it removes crap, but not paint. IMO the use of a paint cleaner after a wash and clay, allows you to see the true condition of the paint as all contaminants, old waxes and sealants have been stripped away.



Sometimes many of us go so crazy with the LSPs (myself in particular), mixing and matching, that none of them are able to perform properly. In that case, the car needs to be stripped clean for a completely fresh start...why use a product that may be far more aggressive than you need? In my case, my finish is in excellent condition, so all I wanted to do was strip the finish to bare paint without inflicting swirls etc. I chose DC1 as it`s the mildest, non-abrasive product I can think of. It left my paint totally clean (so clean it squeeked!) and gave me the perfect starting point for NXT X2 / Collinite 845 X3. Here are the results:



http://www.meguiarsonline.com/gallery/data/500/14DC1_9_Collinite_005.jpg

[imported_memnuts]

Paint cleansers are very mild polishes. They are best used when repairing surface blemishes that occur between major polishing sessions from washing, Qd`ing, drying and normal vehicle usage (i.e acid rain exposure, oxidation, etc).



There are many types of "paint cleansers". Some will leave the surface nude of everything (Z-PC and Menzerna FP) , some will leave a glaze like oils (OCP, P21S GECP, WG ) and some even leave behind a protectant (AIO & VM). The choice on which type to use is dependent on your LSP of choice or post cleansing regimen (IPA wipedown or vehicle washing).



Hope this helps.

[sillystanger]

Thanks... interesting info... glad I asked as I was considering trying the P21S cleaner followed by Z5 (and then Z2)... guess that wouldn`t have been a great idea without re-washing or an IPA wipedown...



I recently tried Z-PC (more as final polish after using SFX-2 than for "paint cleaning"). Now, I didn`t care for Z-PC as it created 10x the dust as compared to SFX-1 and SFX-2 so I`m considering getting SFX-3 to serve as a final polish. Is SFX-3 considered a paint cleaner in the sense that it`s a very mild polish?

[sillystanger]

Is it true that MPPC would fall into the leaving the surface nude category? I.e. would I need to do any cleanup before applying Z5?