Alcohol Wipe Downs? Why?

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I`ve noticd a bunch of people talking about wiping their cars with alcohol to inspect their work and cleaning the surface for wax. Is it really necessary?

[stiffdogg06]

Search man... Hundreds of threads and info on this process.



People use 70-91% isopropyl alcohol to "dry off" the oils that are left behind by certain compounds/polishes. Like today, I used Mezerna Power Finish and PO85RD. After each panel I will spray 91% IPA on the panel and wipe it off with a MF towel to remove any of the oils that are put into the polish to make sure they aren`t filling any left behind scratches. This is to confirm that the scratches are being removed and not simply being filled.



No fun when you spend hours upon hours polishing a vehicle to find out the later down the road the scratches begin to appear once the oils are washed away...

[Alexshimshimhae]

stiff`s pretty much got it...



Now, for those instances especially where you aren`t striving for perfection, it may be beneficial to leave those oil fillers on and just lsp over it for obvious reasons. IF you`re looking for 90+ correction, you want to make sure you`re not being fooled, and that you REALLY did get out all those swirls

[Legacy]

stiff`s pretty much got it...



Now, for those instances especially where you aren`t striving for perfection, it may be beneficial to leave those oil fillers on and just lsp over it for obvious reasons. IF you`re looking for 90+ correction, you want to make sure you`re not being fooled, and that you REALLY did get out all those swirls

I agree to some degree. I feel that an IPA wipe down after polishing will not only show you the true finish, but also give you a clean finish for your LSP. Using a nuba might not make much of a difference, but using a sealant will. Most sealants needs a clean surface to bond to the paint.

[tssdetailing]

I only do it once on each panel-to do it for every pass i think is over kill. Test a panel-wipe it down, verify you`ve corrected and move on.

[Alexshimshimhae]

with the tenacity of some of the oils, I`m starting to lean away from IPA and towards just doing a TAW/Prep wash after I polish....

[stiffdogg06]

I just can`t deal with the smell of Prep Wash. LoL. It is horrid.

[Alexshimshimhae]

yea...I`ve heard that too--but I mean it`s cheap and it works like a charm--I personally haven`t tried it yet either, but I intend to buy a gallon....or 5 in the spring lol figure I`ll try to get a garden hose sprayer and assuming i don`t keep it near my face it should be ok? lol

[Accumulator]

I just can`t deal with the smell of Prep Wash. LoL. It is horrid.

You can`t imagine how much better than it is now, compared to how it smelled back when the same stuff (same part no. anyhow, same purpose, etc.) was called "Removes All". Now *THAT* was really horrible (still have almost a gallon of the stuff). Maybe it`s just a matter of comparing the PrepWash with the old stuff, but the former doesn`t bother me at all.

[Accumulator]

I`ve noticd a bunch of people talking about wiping their cars with alcohol to inspect their work and cleaning the surface for wax. Is it really necessary?

If you`re using wax it`s probably not all that necessary. Note that companies like Meguiar`s don`t say to "strip the oils off before waxing". But yeah, some sealants don`t bond to some polishing oils.



As for the concealing of residual marring, *IMO* this gets overstated/overemphasized here at Autopia, at least with regard to "normal people" working on normal, real-world cars. Noting that yours truly can rant about such stuff as vehemently as anybody (just get me going on the concealing that Menzerna 106FF can do!), most of the time the fillers will last about as long as the wax that`s on top of them, and most people instill marring of that severity (hey, nothing conceals nasty marring, only the fine stuff gets filled in) on a regular basis anyhow.



If somebody can go a year or more without needing to do *any* correction, then sure...IPA/PrepWash away and make sure things are truly perfect. Otherwise I`d apply the simple evaluation that Mike Phillilps has often mentioned: "does the car look good?" If so, then I wouldn`t always be in a hurry to go looking for something to worry about.

[Barry Theal]

Alcohol based window cleaners work like a charm as well!! Old school there. I wonder if anyone here still does that?:think:

[gigondaz]

I`ve noticd a bunch of people talking about wiping their cars with alcohol to inspect their work and cleaning the surface for wax. Is it really necessary?

Everyone here has given superb answers.

For me, I use IPA wipedown and also, washing entire car with DAWN dishwashing liquid...as advocated by Zaino. This must be followed by very thorough rinsing with water to remove every last trace of DAWN.

IMO, dish washing liquid, being a strong alkali, will remove most stuff from the paintwork.

[Accumulator]

Alcohol based window cleaners work like a charm as well!! Old school there. I wonder if anyone here still does that?:think:

Yeah, I used that to compromise my oh-so-slick LSP when I needed to get adhesive tape to stick (when doing field-expedient repairs).



And of course, you gotta be a little careful when cleaning the windows lest you mess up the LSP, but fortunately it`s not like a tiny bit of window cleaner will instantly mess things up, at least not with the LSPs I use.

[RaskyR1]

I only do it once on each panel-to do it for every pass i think is over kill. Test a panel-wipe it down, verify you`ve corrected and move on.

Agreed!



I`ll do a wipe-down on my test panels only. An exception would be a car where 95-100% correction is expected, and even then it would only be done on the initial correction step.