Purdy brushes as detailing brushes

[emaxxman]

Has anyone ever considered or tried out the high end Purdy paint brushes from Home Depot/Lowes? They have some extremely soft natural hair brushes meant for applying clear finishes.



Just wondering how they compare to the specialized detailing brushes sold on various sites.



If they Purdy`s are soft enough, they come in alot of widths and thicknesses. Would be good for door jambs, hinged areas, and engine compartments.

[Flashtime]

I use the cheapie nylon brushes just for that (1", 2", 3"). Engine bay, wheels, all

jambs and interiors too. They don`t last very long but still good for a few bucks...

[BobD]

I use the cheapo wooden handle ones to dust out the interior vents and stuff.

[bogi094]

If they Purdy`s are soft enough, they come in alot of widths and thicknesses. Would be good for door jambs, hinged areas, and engine compartments.

I have seen some cheap detailing brushes but Purdys are SUPER soft. I think I would use one to get wax out of the cracks, door jambs, but in the engine bay a good brush like this is a waste.

[b2matt]

I use the heck out of them.....they work great!

[Flashtime]

Something like...







I`m sure you can find more on Ebay.

[Accumulator]

I don`t like synthetic-bristle brushes for use on paint as every one I`ve ever tried (with the exception of the little ones TOL sold for a brief time in the early `90s) has failed the CD test (at least under magnification). But it`s not like I"ve tested every synthetic-bristle brush in the world, and I don`t mean to over-generalize; just be careful and CD-test before using it.



Natural-bristle brushes can also mar, even the very soft ones (check under good light, such as from a 3M SunGun, with maginification and you`ll see what I mean), but they often/usually soften up quite nicely once they`re wet.



I wouldn`t hesitate to use good natural-bristle brushes in the engine compartment. Once things have had the initial cleanup, a soft brush should be plenty aggressive enough for keeping things nice, and one of the great things about natural bristles is the way they come clean no matter what nasty stuff you get on them. I use small BHBs for jambs/wheels/wells/etc. and other natural-bristle brushes can work just as well.



I don`t like using brushes for wax/polish residue. If the brush is aggressive enough to get that stuff off it`s always aggressive enough to cause marring IME. I`ve sometimes been able to do it with a brush soaked in #34, but MF is safer IME.



Note that as bristles (any type) wear, they`ll become less gentle, so I not only test before the first use, but I also retest now and then. I was happy with some synthetic-bristle brushes that were nice and soft, zero problems at all...right up until the flagging wore off and *one* use marred up some BBS wheels so badly that I had to have them refinished.



(Yeah, I know...save the flamjobs Some people use all kinds of brushes without any apparent marring, it just doesn`t work out that way for me. Hence all the "IME" qualifiers in the above.)

[Lonnie]

Accumulator:

Where did you get your Boar-Hair Burshes (BHBs) from?

I know you buy some of your supplies fron Gariots Garage.

I can see why your tag is Practical Perfectionist:

(check under good light, such as from a 3M SunGun, with maginification and you`ll see what I mean)

[imported_WhyteWizard]

I use the Purdy nylon/polyester diagonal cut brush to get the dust out of cracks and gaps in the dash board. I have another one I use for wheels, it`s bigger, but still nylon/polyester. They`ve been around probably longer than most the people reading this board have been detailing.



Granted, I don`t do engine degreasing anymore, but when I did, I found the Purdy brushes would do the job then clean up and go again and again. The cheaper brushes were a mess after one or two uses.



If, when you put on wax, you start in the middle of the panel, then once the wax is thinned out go over the edges and emblems there shouldn`t be any wax left in the cracks. If you`re working behind some amateur who`s left wax there, get rid of it during the wash. Compounds should be used the same way, and a rag should reach everything, but on the rare occasion they won`t a microfiber on a detailing stick or a brush can take care of it.



Accumulator, it`s so hard for me to even imagine you with a nylon/polyester Purdy brush marring BBS wheels, I`d like to suggest an alternative explanation. The scratches were there before you started, covered with some sort of wax that went away when you cleaned the wheels. You found marring, I doubt you did it.



Robert