Do You Really Need an IPA Wipe Before Ceramic Coating?

One thing I spend a lot of time doing

that I actually enjoy, and I've really done it forever,

is demystifying stuff or clarifying things for people.

And that's exactly what I had to do over the weekend

for someone who reached out.

Ken had a couple questions about the Picture Perfect Polish.

And I think just like with most of my products,

they are kind of unique and different.

And the Picture Perfect Polish is exactly that.

And since all my products are purpose-driven

and need to serve a purpose and be different,

it created some confusion, at least for Ken.

And he said, with your Picture Perfect Polish,

there's so many polishes out there.

But after polishing with the Picture Perfect Polish,

can you use any coating, and can you actually skip

the IPA or the panel prep part of it

before you go to the coating?

So can you polish the car with the Picture Perfect Polish

and then go straight to applying the ceramic coating?

And the answer is yes.

In fact, this is kind of a subtle feature

of the Picture Perfect Polish, but an important feature

that I really took a lot of time on and wanted to do

because I think it saves not only a bunch of time,

but it saves a very, very important step

where you can mess things up.

And that's actually why I wanted it to polish like this

because I personally had a lot of experience

messing things up during the panel prep step.

And so, or a lot of things can happen

during that panel prep step, you can realize

you didn't get the true result

that you thought you were with the polish.

You can mar really, really soft paint.

When you're polishing, I realized that the solvents

in the polish can kind of open up the pores sometimes.

And so it can make soft paint even softer

and then you go with the panel prep or the IPA wipe

and you actually mar the paint.

And so then you're kind of in this predicament of like,

what do I do when I polish the paint?

It looks perfect.

I go to IPA wipe and now I'm marring the paint.

How do I get this coating on the car?

It kind of opens up an area that can be very frustrating

for you as the detailer.

And in fact, a panel prep polish is not anything new.

The panel prep polishes have been around

for a very, very long time.

Just when the problem is that they only served one purpose

of prepping the panel for a coating, which is great.

And I think it's actually better than an IPA wipe

or a panel prep wipe because you eliminate

all those issues that I just talked about.

But the problem with panel prep polishes in the past,

I think CarPro had one.

I think Shine Supply even had one.

Maybe they still do and I got another one

directly from B&B blending a long time ago.

The problem with those is that they don't do anything

other than prep the panel.

They have some of the other brands

that even have them claim.

There's no cutting ability.

There's no finishing ability.

There's nothing.

In fact, back in the day, I think with the Shine Supply one

and I don't know Shine Supply even sells it anymore,

but I got the same one from B&B blending.

I was hoping that it would, and I think it even claimed to,

it could be wrong in this,

but I think it claimed to have a little bit

of finishing ability, like maybe a slight abrasive in it.

But what I found, even with the CarPro one

way back in the day, it really had no finishing ability.

So what I was looking for way back in the day

with a primer polish, the name finally came to me,

primer polish is that it would have

like a slight finishing ability.

So you could kind of like finish out the paint

and then go straight to coating.

That would be perfect.

And in my experience, I was never able to do that, right?

But when I was developing the Picture Perfect Polish,

what I wanted was a polish that could cut really heavily,

finish down really good and then not require a panel prep.

And the way you do this is by not overloading

the polish with oils.

So a lot of polishes, compounds, whatever,

use oil as the lubricant in there,

but that oil sometimes can fill the surface.

Oil also, and the oil solvent ratio mix, whatever,

can also make wipe off really difficult,

can make the polish never dry out,

which is what a lot of brands talk about,

is hey, our polish will never dry out.

And while that is good,

the workability of a polish is really good,

it can have some downsides.

Again, I've talked about it a million times,

but there's give and take to all these polishes

or all these products in general in detailing.

So as the brand owner or as the person making the decisions

for the liquids in the bottle,

you kind of always get to this roadblock of like,

huh, what do I want more?

Like workability or do I want this?

Do I want really tight water beading

or do I want easy use?

Do I want crazy water contact angle

or do I want easy use?

And so you're constantly battling these things

and that's why we had these primer polishes

that did nothing really except for prep the panel for coating.

They weren't able to figure out that perfect ratio

with like, hey, let's get a little bit of cut in there,

let's change the abrasive a little bit,

let's change up the formula a little bit

and let's also still make it able to prep for a coating.

They weren't able to do that.

So that's where actually the whole IPA

and panel prep kind of segment of the market came

is because older polishes and older compounds

had a lot of oils.

They still do, a lot of the compounds and polishes

on the market are really old formulas,

just really, really old formulas.

And so they still have heavy oil shoots,

some of them even still have fillers.

And so the problem with that is that a coating

needs to bond to bare clear coat.

And so formulators and chemists and brands

haven't been able to kind of achieve this of like,

how do we get something that can cut and finish

and leave the surface squeaky clean?

And I'll say, I get it, it's very difficult.

It took six or eight months to develop the picture

perfect polish of that being the sole focus

of the only product that I was focused on, right?

And then once we got the formula, I'm like,

oh, this is why no one's done this before

because it's super expensive, super, super expensive.

So heavy oils and fillers are relatively cheap

but to not only take the time to figure out

how to do that have comparable people

to make the formula and then you have to be able

to afford the formula, right?

So a lot of times things in detailing

like little steps are born out of other reasons.

It's kind of like, I think about construction sometimes

and I don't really know much about construction at all

other than everything is done to hide something else.

So like crown molding is done to hide

where the ceiling drywall meets the wall drywall, right?

And then baseboard is to conceal something else.

Everything in construction, I feel like every layer

is just to conceal a previous layer.

And so sometimes that happens in detailing as well.

We add extra steps to fix the problem of the previous step,

right?

And so, but just like in construction

it's not necessarily always a problem.

It's just we are eliminating one thing

and creating another so then we need to address that, right?

And so the same thing with polishing in general

which again makes the picture perfect polish so unique

is that traditionally we would,

if you're going for heavy defect removal

you would use a heavy cut compound

which you would remove the deeper defects

but then you would have a haze in the paint

and that haze is a lesser defect

but still a problem.

So then you would need a lighter polish

to remove that haze and kind of finish out the paint, right?

It still is very difficult to get heavy defect removal

and a perfect finish.

That's where the picture perfect polish came in.

You could do both.

And again, you can ceramic coat right on top of this.

Doesn't leave fillers,

it's not leaving heavy oils behind.

That's the real trick here.

So nothing is interfering with the bonding

of the ceramic coating with the surface of the car

and that is the key.

That is why you would need a panel prep.

Now I will say that you can use a panel prep

and if you do use a panel prep,

you'll get the same results.

I've tested it on dozens and dozens of cars

not using a panel prep

but some people are still skeptical.

So just like Kenny's like, I'm confused.

There's a lot of information out there.

What do I need to do?

What do I do?

And so the thing is you can still use a panel prep.

You can still use an IPA wipe.

When I do it and when I've been testing it,

you kind of feel like when you're using

picture perfect polish,

you kind of feel like you're wasting a step

or you're wasting time

because it doesn't look any different.

The picture perfect polish doesn't have any fillers,

doesn't have any excessive oils,

it doesn't have anything that you don't need in a polish

to make it work better.

So I will say if you are using the picture perfect polish,

there are a couple of things that you want to make sure

that you are doing.

You want to work the polish down

to where it's virtually invisible.

There's been a couple of videos

that I've seen of people using it

where they complain about the wipe off

like the wipe off is a little tacky

and every single video,

the consistent theme that is happening

is that they're not working the polish down enough.

Now it is a non-diminishing abrasive formula

or in the formula.

We actually use a blend of abrasives in that formula

but they're all non-diminishing.

So you really want to cycle through

and work the polish for as long as possible

almost to where it's virtually invisible.

If you're having a hard time working the polish down

you're using too much polish.

So you don't need a ton of polish

and then you want to work it towards almost clear

to where you almost look like you don't even know

if you've removed any residue.

You want to work with an extremely clean pad

because it doesn't have a bunch of oils

and there's sometimes you can get a little bit of dusting

especially mainly the dusting happens

when you hit an edge, a panel edge

because what it's doing is it's basically cleaning

out your pad of all the leftover debris.

So those are the two main issues that I see people have of like

oh it dusted on me.

You probably hit a panel or an edge or something

and it cleaned out the pad.

So to mitigate that make sure you're blowing out

or using a pad washer if you need that.

You're cleaning out the pad really well

so there's no residue in the pad.

Again, there's no excessive oils

that are kind of grabbing onto all that extra residue.

I didn't want that in there.

So if you hit an edge

and you're not cleaning your pad out good enough

you will have residual polish that is drying in your pad.

You need to clean that out

or you will get a little bit of dusting.

So that and then making sure

that you completely work the polish all the way down.

It's super intuitive.

It doesn't, again, it's not complicated.

Just work, use less polish and then work it down more

and you will not struggle with the wipe off at all.

The wipe off is actually very, very easy.

When I was testing it part of what I would do to test

is I would work the polish for a long time, not wipe it,

come back 24 hours later

and make sure I could still wipe it off easily.

So the wipe off was a big, big part of the testing that I did

across I think we had at least a dozen iterations of this polish.

And so those are the two things.

Again, if you're getting dusting

you're probably hitting an edge

or your pad isn't clean enough.

To mitigate this what I like to do,

I know it's a little expensive

but I'll have like four to six pads to do a whole car

and I just switch them out

instead of cleaning them in between.

I switch them out

and then when I'm done with the whole car

then I will clean all six pads at once.

I know it's a little bit more of an investment

to have more pads

but while you're polishing the car

it goes much, much quicker

and then you could use maybe one pad per panel

or something like that.

So maybe you need eight pads

but obviously the pads aren't like microfiber towels

they're not single use

you could use them over and over and over again.

And so yeah.

But with that again, I just wanted to,

I get a lot of questions from Ken.

This is, Ken obviously is who kind of sparked this idea

but I get a lot of questions about that.

Do I need a panel prep?

Do I need an IPA?

And again, yes you can

but if you're using the Picture Perfect Polish

you don't.

It is a completely pad dependent polish

so if you want heavy cut

it'll work on a rotary with a wool pad.

It'll, my favorite is the Burgundy Cut and Finish Pad

that I offer in the bundle

which I will link below as well.

That's my favorite kind of one step all around pad

but it also works as a primer polish as well.

So if your paint is already perfect

and you just want to, you know,

clean the surface good

before you apply coating

just put it on a finish pad

and polish, polish out the car

like you would just finishing out the car

and you'll get the best of every world

but that polish is exactly what I wanted

way back in the day

with a primer polish

but the added benefit of being a heavy cut compound

which it is

and a one step which it is with no fillers

and a finishing polish which it is.

So you really get the diversity

you get the flexibility of doing

what you need to do with one liquid

and so people said it wasn't possible

but we developed the whole thing here on YouTube as well

so if you have any questions

about any part of the development

you can just go back and watch those videos.

I demo it from the very very first sample

to the final sample

and I'm doing the same thing

even now with this foam on rinse off sealant

I have a tire cleaner that I'm working on

I did it with the Super Soaper

I just didn't do it with like Tuffa Shell

I didn't do it

because that was the first product I launched

but every product I add into the line

I do a full developmental series on it

this foam on rinse off sealant

wax whatever that I'm working on

it's the fourth video

the fourth video that I've showed

doing it

I showed the failures

I showed the successes

and I love doing that

and I did that with the Picture Perfect Polish as well

so if you have any questions

happy to answer them in the comments below

but if you're using the Picture Perfect Polish

which I think is the most

the best polish on the market

definitely it replaces all compounds

all polishes

all panel preps

and so you could actually save a ton of money

by just using one liquid

and you could be way more efficient

so a lot of brands claim efficiency

I try to demo that efficiency

and then sometimes when it needs clarification

like this with the panel prep

where it seems a little risky

I like to come in and clear it up

so there you go

hope you guys enjoyed that one

thanks for the support

of course your support in supporting my brand

not only delivers fantastic products to you

but it also keeps this R&D in full swing

and I love showcasing the R&D on YouTube

and showing you guys kind of the ups and downs

and all around

so thank you for supporting my brand

so that I can continue to do what I do

and in return

I want to give unique products

that over deliver

under promise

and really support you

in your detailing journey

so I hope that I'm accomplishing that goal

so with that

I'll catch you guys on the next one

see ya

Do You Really Need an IPA Wipe Before Ceramic Coating?

About this episode

panel prep

polish

mar

IPA wipe

CarPro

Shine Supply

water contact angle

paint coating preparation

abrasive

cut

compound

paint haze

ceramic coating

pad washer

rotary

wool pad

rinse off sealant

tire cleaner

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