Painter's Tape....

OCDinPDX

OCDinPDX

Paint Ph.D
Detailer's best friend or deadly weapon? I'm beginning to lean towards the latter. Two cars this week and I've injured myself with both of them using painter's tape.

First time was with the white Camry Hybrid I finished on Saturday. I was taping off the weatherstripping on the B-pillar and tore the tape with a bit too much gusto. In a move you could not orchestrate with a supercomputer, my thumbnail went cleanly under my opposing index finger nail and at a speed that felt like no less than the speed of sound. Hurt like an SOB, too and bled profusely until I got a bandage on it.

Cut to today...(pun intended) and I'm taping off the EXACT same area on my dad's black Acura RL (write-up coming tonight) and the tape rolls up on the weatherstripping and turns into a knife blade. I ran my index finger (same one injured Saturday) along it for about 3" and got a nice, deep paper cut. I think this hurt more than the nail-under-nail bit.

The moral of the story? Painters tape is far more dangerous than cars. Such is the life of a detailer. :wall
 
You'd be amazed at how helpful it can be to wear gloves. When I am doing details on other's cars, I always wear gloves. You never know what you're going to run across in someone else's vehicle.
 
Most of the time, I don't see why folks are using painter's tape - especially with a PC and polishes that don't stain. Maybe it's a good practice, maybe it's a waste of time. I can see it's advantages, for sure, but I can also see it being overkill at time.
 
I have yet to be injured by painter's tape, But I one time used some cheap painters tape on a mustang out in the hot summer sun and when I attempted to remove the cheap Harbor Freight tape it left a thick layer of adhesive on all of the rubber moldings which took hours to get off. I seved three dollars a roll over 3M painters tape but it cost me roughly $70 of my time. The moral of my story is don't skimp on the tape.
 
Sorry about your boo boo, but while we are on the suject of tape. There are several levels of adhesion on the 3m tapes. So what level do you all use. Last time i used tape i used the medium level.
 
tuscarora dave said:
how do you keep the splattering polish from staining the rubber trim and the like?
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I have very little splatter and with a full detail that always includes dressing the trim.
When wiping the polish wipe anything on the trim and treat with back to black and the trim looks like new.
In extreme case I can use Duragloss wax remover and clean the trim in half the time it takes to tape.
I never waste time with tape.
Also remember I only do my own vehicles and I seldom need to polish just clean and apply a LSP that don't stain the trim.

If I was doing paint correction on someone else's car all the time I may change but fortunately I don't have to deal with that.

With proper washing I seldom need to polish.
 
PerroneFord said:
You'd be amazed at how helpful it can be to wear gloves. When I am doing details on other's cars, I always wear gloves. You never know what you're going to run across in someone else's vehicle.
Click to expand...

Exactly! I received a free pair of Mechanix gloves with my Makita. I wondered how they would feel... now I'll never work without them.
 
I think I know what's in my dad's car. :gotcha:

The thing that ticked me off is I had just taken my gloves off as my hands were sweating like mad due to the humidity. I had them on while claying because I don't like the residue on my fingers and hands.
 
Wow that's quite a story man... sorry to hear... did you make sure everything was dry when taping? I still don't get how you stuck your thumbnail where ever you stuck it haha...
 
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