So who knew that Prima Epic, their synthetic polymer wax, could be used as an all in one paint cleaner/polish/wax? I've been experimenting with this for awhile and thought I'd share what 4 hours of work could do to this 2004 Alpine White 330I. In total we spent 6 man hours...4 on the outside to wash, clay, polish and 2 on the inside. This is markedly different from my typical 18 to 24 hour details..and yet the results were actually very remarkable. ** Clarification The results you see were in part influenced by the fact this is white paint. White paint is more forgiving. The paint you see here looks 100times better but it's still not swirl free, but that wasn't the goal for this detail. We just wanted the paint to look better and the interior to be fully cleaned..the owner has 2 kids, third on the way, and the interior was a mess. The customer didn't want to pay for my normal "Complete" and they said they would probably take it back to the car wash for maintenance, so I offered a lower priced alternative that they would still be happy with. I'm going to continue to see in what situations polishing with Epic will work in, but I don't plan on giving up Swirl or any of the other Prima products, lol. We went from To Some process shots Here's what we did: I cleaned the wheels with my favorite wheel cleaner, Meguiar's Wheel Brightener. That took off 99% of the brake dust in seconds. Then I used a wheel brush and my Nomad pressure washer, and cleaned the rims using ONR as the cleaning solution. Then I hosed off all the paint using the Nomad and ONR solution. The paint was filthy. I sprayed it twice to let the ONR (Optimum No Rinse) solution soften the contamination. Then I went around the paint using Pre Wow and cleaned up anything that looked like a scratch...doing this first lets me know very easily and immediately if the defect is really a scratch or not without even having to think about it. So like the pic below, those are not scuffs or missing paint. PreWow on a microfiber cleaned it right up On the trunk lid I poured on some PreWow Gave it a couple of wipes with the microfiber towel and much improved. Put on some more And now totally gone I wondered the same about the paint above the trim here yep no problem for PW What about these mirrors??? A few wipes with PW going along the scratch lines and big improvement. Polishing with an orbital restored it 100% I cleaned up the faded cowling with PW first, then applied Black Wow (BW) While I restored the outside, Stephanie worked on the inside Using a 7424XP and LC orange pad with Prima Epic as the polish (yes I know it's a wax, but I used it as a polish), and it gave me incredible results. I did two slow passes with it, and the orange pad turned black from all the contamination it pulled. At some parts I clayed the paint further and rebuffed it. Finally I used a black pad to apply a final coat of Epic and let that cure. Inside the shop Outside in the remaining sunlight or sunset?? The customer was elated! Prima Epic can be found at my shop at ShowCarSupplies.com Shopping Cart
Richard..... Sure saw a lot of references to something called Pre WOW. So where does one go to find some of this mythical magical solution..... Or is it just a rumor? Heh Heh Heh:ihih: Nice results.
So you are using PW as a paint cleaner? Interesting. Does Epic have abrasives in it, or was it the pad doing the correction, and the Epic was the "lube"? Mark
Yeah, I've been finding a lot of different uses for PW. Anytime I need to remove a contaminant/paint transfer...for example a scratch...I'll try PW first. On that BMW there was some interior pieces that are wood and clearcoated. There was a scuff, and a simple wipe of PW, and it was gone. It can save tremendous time during the cleaning stages. Just don't try to clay over a section that's been cleaned with PW..the clay will stick to it. Instead, I polished the area, then clayed afterwards. Epic doesn't have any abrasives in it, so the pad is what determines the level of correction. Being able to polish with Epic, and not even having to wax it after you are done, means you can quick polish the paint. Also Epic will dry much faster when used this way. Richard
By the way, feel free to post more pics of Stephanie detailing cars... we like that kind of thing around here.
Haha I was just thinking of posting a "Beautiful Girls Who Buff" thread or "Girls of ShowCarDetailing"....but I might get in trouble. Here are a few girls that really know how to handle a buffer...all students of mine.
So Richard you're saying just the polish with Epic is all you're doing? No BG afterwards? Interesting...