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Does anyone here do an IPA wipedown?  Is it really necessary?

If you do, do you dilute it?  If so, how strong of a mixture? 50/50?  And what concentration alcohol?

I don't know what it is, but I'm curious.

Isopropyl alcohol.. i think it removes any sealants or wax that's protecting the paint, so that you can build up a new protective layering.

i've never done it..

I never went that route either. I usually just do the wash, clay, polish, glaze, sealant, then wax.

To get all your wax/polish/sealant/anything off use Dawn, the dish washing soap. Will get it all off. It's even what Zaino recommends doing before detailing your car with their products...

It is isopropyl alcohol.  It's typically used just after the polish step to clean up any polish residue left over and it is supposed to help the sealant and/or wax adhere to the paint better.

I'm just curious if it does actually help clean up any leftover residue and help the sealant and/or wax adhere better?  Also, if it strips any polish that was used?

Oh, and its supposed to help verify paint correction, i.e. swirl mark removal, scratch removal; and that the polish isn't just filling in imperfections with the lubrication oils.

Essentially, I'm trying to find out how much of a problem a LSP has sticking to the paint surface after the polish step without doing an IPA wipedown.

Granted, the alcohol should be cheap, so I don't have an issue with that.  I just want to make sure the alcohol won't have any adverse effects and somehow ruin the paint finish?

I've used it for cleaning body parts before installing lip kits, so I don't see why it would hurt your paint in any way if you did it.

+1 it is in Hondas instructions for installing the HFP lip kit for the 7th gen.

It might not have any problem on paint, but rubber and vinyl might be a different story. I could be wrong, but it can probably dry it up or cause it to fade.

+1 on using dish soap to remove old wax/sealant. I think I would only use alcohol for special tasks like lip kits etc.

I'm planning on taping up the car, so rubber and vinyl pieces should be covered.


I'm not planning to use the alcohol to remove old wax and sealant.  I'm planning to use it to clean up polish residue so to be sure that the paint is fully corrected.  At this stage, old wax and sealant should already have been stripped.

Oh sorry, I misread your post.  I've never heard of people wiping their paint down with IPA after applying polish.  Once the polish is fully broken down you should be able to wipe down any residue with a MF towel.  I spend a lot of time on Autopia and Autogeek and this alcohol thing is new to me.

I actually saw a thread about it on Autopia, which is why I decided to ask about how many people do it.  I read it somewhere, and it peaked my interest, so I started searching about more info on it.

I've just never heard of it before, so I was curious about how many people actually do it.  I know there are some on autopia and autogeek that do, but I'm curious how many more people outside of those forums might do it.

I used to lurk a bit on Autopia and Autogeek, but I've recently decided to step up my game, so I finally signed up.  It's fairly overwhelming with how much I've read lately, but I'm learning a lot. :-)

http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-detail ... edown.html (http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/100112-ipa-wipedown.html)
http://www.autopia.org/forum/machine-po ... stion.html (http://www.autopia.org/forum/machine-polishing/107340-ipa-wipe-down-question.html)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/aut ... -down.html (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-university/15012-50-50-alcohol-wipe-down.html)

Yeah, the "professional" detailing methods on those sites are enough to make your head spin.  I do not think many people do this...only those super crazed about car detailing.  From what I read the IPA is used to remove any residual polish that might be filling in surface imperfections on your paint.  Personally, this seems rather anal to me...

It seems the popular mix is to go with 50% in a 50/50 solution. Most spray it on a MF towel then wipe the paint...being mindful of plastics and trim.

Give it a shot it you want...personally, I think this is a bit overkill...maybe our expert detailer (DeepGloss) will chime in.

From reading Jason's threads, I see that he uses DuPont Prep Sol 3919S for this step instead of IPA.  I'm sure he does it for a reason, but you'd have to ask him.

Folks,
The IPA or PREPSOL wipedown is done after compounding & polishing steps to see the pure finish. It will reveal if the problems were removed or not. Some compounds & polishes may hide the problems that you are trying to remove if the surface is not cleaned. This process cleans all oils or fillers off of the surface and either confirms or denies that the problem was taken care of prior to proceeding to the next step in the process. When you are charging $400-$600 and up you MUST make sure that every step you have performed has accomplished what it was supposed to. This step reveals if you reached your goal or not.
If so then proceed to the next step, if not then back up and go at the previous step (or another strategy) again.

Unless you are into super high end paint correction this process will likely not be required. When you are charging big money then this is part of the process required to confirm that you are giving your client the best that you possibly can.

Thanks for clearing that up for us Rick.

Thanks Rick! +1 on browsing Autopia, they have quite a bit of info on anything you could possibly need...

Glad that I could shed some light on the subject.