Caring for Your Pony’s Paint and Other Detailing Tricks

Written by Don Stewart | 31 March 2007

[ Thanks to Johnnie Garner for providing the underlying information about paint care. _ds ]

Those of us in the Mustang hobby take great pleasure in showing off a bright and shiny Mustang. That pretty much goes without saying. But do you know how much your Mustang’s paint appreciates the TLC you lavish on it, especially when you consider that the paint’s primary purpose is not to make the car look pretty? Its primary purpose is to protect the body panels from rusting (oxidizing). Making the car look good is only a side benefit, albeit a very desirable one and one that manufacturers take very seriously. The great thing is: the better you care for the paint, the better the car will look. So the objective should be to take excellent care of the paint and get the shine of your life.

Let’s delve into this paint-care topic to see what’s behind the shine. Take a brand-new car, one that’s never been driven. On top of  that, it’s never been wet, either; it wasn’t even checked for leaks coming off the assembly line. Ship the car to a humid location where it will be exposed to dramatic changes of season. Park it outside in an off road location; how about an apple orchard in Washington State?

Now make another assumption; let’s say the car was never painted. Leave it parked for a year and then go back and look at it. You can imagine that unprotected body panels (the ones without a galvanize coating) would have severe red-rust associated with the oxidation of iron in the steel panels. Even the galvanized panels would have areas of white rust, the type of oxidation that indicates the degradation of zinc. The car certainly wouldn’t be very pretty to look at and it would be on the way to destruction as mother nature did her level best to return the body panels to their oxidized equilibrium state.

But, of course, the car is painted and it looks great coming off the assembly line with its clearcoat finish. Surely, parked in the same orchard the new generation of paints would protect it because there would be little exposure to pollutants or exhaust fumes, no shocks to the structure from hitting potholes, no parking lot damage, no chips from airborne debris, no scrapes, no scratches, none of the real-life hazards associated with day-to-day driving. Well, yes, the paint would protect it  -  for a while. But at best, it would only slow the surface degradation because uncared-for, the paint itself would eventually start to oxidize and decompose.

Ok, that brings us full circle. Even with the car in a relatively safe environment and with a bright painted surface, it would gradually deteriorate. Now take a companion car and put it into daily service where conditions are much more severe. It would deteriorate at a much faster rate. Our job is to slow the process down and minimize its effect. So lets get down to caring for that finish and keeping that shine.

Your basic rule of thumb should be to remove all oxidation and surface contaminants on a regular basis. And having done that, the body panels need to have a protective coating of wax. How often you do this for your paint depends on how the car is used. Do it more often on a daily driver, less often on a weekend driver but on a regular basis, nonetheless.

Surface contaminants that should concern you are many and varied. Some of them are:

• Dirt, tar, oil, grease, fuel, mud, and grime from the roads.
• Salt or brine residue from geographical areas where the roads are treated during the winter season.
• Rail dust (small iron particles) from railroads, construction sites, and industry.
• Paint spots from highway striping, bridge painting, industrial overspray, etc.
• Water spots and acid rain.
• Tree sap.
• Bugs.
• Bird droppings.
• Eggs.
• Soft drinks.
• Sticky transfer from the fingers of candy-eating children (or adults, for that matter). Also greasy transfer from the same population eating fast food.
• Transfer from sweaty hands.
• And on and on and on.

Your first line of defense against these nasty contaminants is routine washing with a water solution of clearcoat-safe and wax-safe automotive soap coupled with specialized cleaners for bugs and tar, when necessary. Follow the wash with a generous clear-water rinse and careful drying with soft (no fabric softener) all-cotton towels or a chamois. The sooner you remove the contaminants, the less the paint will be damaged or stained

Bugs, tar, eggs, bird dropping, and tree sap (especially eggs, bird droppings, and large bug smears) should be removed when discovered followed as soon as possible by a wash. Road salt or brine should also be washed off as soon as possible and flushed away with lots of water.

If it’s time to wax the car, substitute dishwashing liquid for the car soap; Liquid Dawn is a good choice. Dawn won’t damage the paint but it will remove old wax along with contaminants.

About once a year after washing, rinsing, drying ,and just before waxing, the paint should be prepared with a clay bar. The bar is gently abrasive and preferred for removing light oxidation,  stubborn surface stains, and embedded dirt particles without damaging the paint. The soft nature of the clay bar provides a hiding place for solid particles after they’re removed from the car’s surface. That particular characteristic prevents the particles from scratching the paint as you continue to use the bar.

Use the clay with ample liquid lubrication to prevent rubbing on a dry surface. Liquid detailer works very well. Just spray and rub, working in straight lines parallel to the length of the car. The clay will stop “dragging” when the area you’re working on is clean. Move on to the next area and repeat the process until the entire car is prepped. You’ll probably find that horizontal panels require significantly more claying than vertical ones but do the entire car anyway. When the claying is complete, wash the car again with dishwashing liquid; rinse it, dry it, and put it in a protected place to let it dry completely. Before using it again but after it’s thoroughly dry, apply the wax of your choice. You’ll love the outcome. And if your paint could express emotion, you’d definitely get a thank you, probably a hug, maybe even a kiss. That’s the excellent care that it wanted and in return, it will give you the clean shiny surface you were looking for.

If the paint has heavy oxidation or water spots that won’t come off with the clay bar, try hand rubbing with rubbing compound specifically formulated for clearcoat. Again don’t rub on a dry surface. Use water to keep the compound applicator wet as you work. Remember to rub in straight lines parallel to the length of the car.

If you’re using rubbing compound or waxing with a product that leaves a white residue when it dries, you can protect textured plastic trim by masking it off with masking tape, or you can temporarily remove the trim from the car. If you use masking tape, remove it as soon as possible or you may have trouble getting it off cleanly.

Speaking of plastic trim, you can make it look better and protect it against ultraviolet attack by treating it with a liquid cleaner/wax/protectant designed specifically for that purpose. Do it after completing the wax job. If you apply the protectant before waxing, masking tape will not stick to the trim, if you want to use tape. To make the treatment long lasting, apply it with a soft paint brush, work it into the surface of the trim, and rub it dry with a terry cloth towel. After an additional day or two of air drying, go over the entire car with spray detailer. You’ll accomplish two things. First, the detailer will remove any smears left over from the plastic treatment, smears that might be on the paint next to the trim. Second, the paint will look even better than it did right after you waxed it because the detailer will enhance the optical properties of the surface. With the paint and trim shining like new, we can be confident that we’ve extended their life and we can enjoy the fruits of our labor because the car looks so good.

OK, what’s next? Well, that would be the tires, wheels, and fender wells. We can’t leave them dirty, can we? Anything that’s dirty needs to be cleaned to extend its life, not to mention that clean tires, wheels, and fender wells will make us even more proud of the pony’s appearance.

Start this part of the project by cleaning the fender wells with spray-on tire foam. If you take your time, you’ll be able to figure out how to work around the tires and spray the foam into the wells without getting it on the paint around the edges of the wheel opening. Evenly coat the entire inside of the well and let the foam “work” for two or three minutes. Take a hard-texture cloth and thoroughly wipe the foam over all hard surfaces, both metal and plastic, to dislodge as much dirt as possible. Don’t wipe the surface of any sprayed-on undercoat or sound deadener. Let the foam clean those locations all by itself.

When you finish wiping all of the hard surfaces, take a terry cloth towel and go over them again, only this time wipe them dry. With most of the road dirt gone, the fender well looks good doesn’t it? Do the same thing to the other three fender wells. Clean wells provide the perfect backdrop for clean wheels and tires. It’s a detail that’s sometimes overlooked. Other similar areas to consider and handle in the same way are front air dams and plastic gas tank shrouds.

As a footnote, you may find it beneficial to pressure wash the fender wells before using the tire foam. Pressure washing is especially helpful if you have a lot of mud, worms, etc. in the wells. If you use a pressure washer or even a high pressure spray from your garden hose, drive your car far enough to completely dry the surfaces before using the foam.

When all four wells are clean, spray tire foam on the tires. Do one tire at a time. Use the same procedure you used in the fender wells. Let the foam “work” for a while but before it dries, wipe it around and thoroughly work it into the sidewall of the tire. Next dry the sidewall with a towel. The result will be a clean tire that looks new without an artificially glossy shine.

For the wheels, buy a spray cleaner that dislodges brake dust, something like Black Magic. Get a small paint brush with soft bristles; a 1½ inch brush works well. Put on safety goggles and spray wheel cleaner on the brush. Then spray the wheel. If the wheel is open so that you can easily see through the spokes, also spray the area behind the spokes including the brake caliper. Take the paint brush and quickly clean all parts of the wheel from the spokes outward. Be sure to brush all of the hard to clean nooks and crannies on the face of the wheel. But as I said, do it quickly, no more than 30 seconds per wheel because wheel cleaner is quite aggressive. The goggles will protect your eyes from rogue spatters while you’re working rapidly.

Now rinse the wheel with water to wash away the cleaner. After rinsing, use a water solution of liquid dishwasher soap and a sponge to completely wash the wheel including all areas you can reach between and behind the spokes. Flush again with water and move on to the next wheel.

When you’ve cleaned all four wheels, a good way to dry them is to use a leaf blower to blow away the excess water. Finish the job by drying with a chamois or a towel. Also dry the adjacent fender panels to remove water overspray.

It’s been a lot of work but the car looks great. And the exposed surfaces have been protected and preserved. Now go to a show and shine and bring home a trophy.

We didn’t talk about dents, scrapes, and scratches but you already know that damage of that sort needs to be repaired, especially if the paint has been scratched-through to the metal beneath. You can repair the damage yourself or have it done professionally. The goal is to prevent oxidation where bare metal has been exposed.