How often should a DD paint be treated?

S

Striker

Active member
For those of us that live in harsh climates especially.

Without going over board, how often should you apply a decontamination process, clay and apply LSP again?

My idea was to let my two coats of 845 do their job over the winter months with constant exposure to salt and brine then come spring time- Decon. Clay. Dawn wash and more 845.


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I would say the weekly wash is the most important piece. Re-do the process you mention 2X per year.
 
Agree. A weekly wash is norm for me. That is until I can no longer do them because of freezing temps. A full on detail in the SPRING. With a touch up in the fall before winter.
 
I wish I had time for more, but my truck is lucky to get bi-weekly washes closer to monthly washes. I hit it with a quick wax or boaster wax (Meg`s D156 or Hydro2 or Wet Coat) every other month and it only gets full decon, clay, chrompolish, and proper lSP once a year. Gets full polish ever 2-3 years. Garage queen gets better treatment and a ton less abuse. The truck gets beat on daily, use it for work and for towing and plowing it never gets a break 20K-30K miles a year of hard labor.
 
Close to what I do in Chicagoland. In September gave it good wash and put two coats of 845 on. With the milder temps, I`ve been wiping down with a waterless wash and spray wax (currently use Griots). Once it gets really cold, let the 845 do its job. It holds up no problem. Come spring, wash, clay, correct as needed, polish and more 845. I`ve got CarPro Hydro on the wheels, we`ll see how that holds up.
 
I do it twice a year for dailies. Once in late Fall with two coats of sealant to get through the winter (currently BFWD). Then just maintenance washes with complementary products to extend the life of the LSP. When Spring rolls around, I`ll polish if needed and go with hybrid waxes or straight nuba for warmer months since I enjoy trying new products and fiddling on the cars outside once they days are warmer and longer.
 
Striker:
One exterior car-care process for daily driver vehicles that is a must are winter car washes via touchless automated car washes. If you live and drive in the sticks/boonies/rural areas, this may be difficult to do. How often is dependent on how "dirty" your car gets from de-icing chemicals and sand put down on the roads you frequently drive and outside ambient winter temperatures for your location.

If you live in a larger metropolitan area, it is much easier to find a touchless car wash, OR you can contact a local detailer who could do this for you, OR maybe a friend who has a heated garage with a drain and running water where you could wash your vehicle yourself. it is important to at least get the underside washed and clean.

I have done car washes outside during our "usual January thaw" in Wisconsin. I did so some time ago and got my picture on the front page of the local paper (Green Bay Press-Gazette) because it is NOT something you "normally" see being done outside in January in Wisconsin. I think it was about 44°F that Sunday afternoon, which the paper was trying to report on the "heat wave" we were experiencing at that time and what people were doing in it. Guess it`s my 15-minutes of fame (or a confirmation of being an obsessive-compulsive detailer!)
 
I experience the same issues as PA detailer mentioned: freezing temps. They just won`t let ya do a damn thing and I don`t have water inside my heated shop and don`t want to make the mess.

I guess pressure washing it down at a coin op would be the best option ?


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i park my car and ask my friends to drive me around. lol... seriously...

i put some sealant on and hit it with a gas station power washer when its not freezing.
 
I seem to get by just fine with far less frequent washes (and everything else) than most Autopians and I haven`t done a full decontamination since forever despite our daily drivers being used hard year-round including tough Ohio winters. Perhaps that`s because they`re garaged, but I simply don`t do things unless I consider it necessary and it seldom is.

I do DI-pressure wash `em in-between (my version of) maintenance washes if they get really nasty, maybe that makes a big dif.

I haven`t done anything but spot-correction for many years and even that`s a very rare occurrence. I`ve been using OCW as a Drying Aid on the A8 so it seldom needs a "proper" LSPing, and the FK1000P on the Tahoe and `93 Audi hardly ever needs redone. I haven`t even had to do a big Spring Cleanup for quite a while.

Collinite barely made it through a hard winter for me, that`s one of the main reasons I switched to FK1000P.
 
The other question is in spring time is it better to use a decontamination product or dawn to rid of the lsp and really clean the paint ?


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Striker said:
The other question is in spring time is it better to use a decontamination product or dawn to rid of the lsp and really clean the paint ?


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Click to expand...
Folks will be along to chime in that, for the most part, the Dawn removing LSP`S thing is mostly an Urban Legend these days.

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What if you mixed dawn and one of the stripper washes like Adams or CG. Lol. A super lsp remover. Bet it would work even better if Bigfoot was handling the washing duties.

Spring is a great time for the decon after the harsh winter stuff a lot of us get

I hit mine with the pressure washer underneath at least once a week and then just run it through the car wash can spray it with AquaBead (like wet coat and Hydro) before the rinse if I feel I want a boost in protection.


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