What Are Paint Cooties?

Dave Asks, What’s decontamination?

DAS: “Your cars’ paint is a living, breathing surface.”

Dave:  “How’s that possible?”

DAS:  “Think of your car’s finish like your skin.  It’s a living surface even though people put lotions, moisturizers and multiple layers of makeup on.”

The environment your skin lives in – experiences heat, cold, air circulation, opening, closing and more daily. What do you do to your skin? You protect it with daily cleaning, moisturizing, exfoliation and more, right?

Ahh, you’re a dude…okay, so you wash and shave your face don’t you?

DAS: “Dave, let’s think in terms of using a 3-or 5-blade razor. The first blade comes along, stretches the hair and cuts it off. The second cuts it off a bit short, and the third and so on. Each blade removes hairs closer and closer to your skin’s surface. Are you tracking?”

The decontamination steps help us clean, exfoliate and expose the pores of the painted surface to protect it from future elements. Once your car has been through our safe wash, we use a three-part chemical and mechanical decontamination system.

Step 1 is applying tar remover over all high-impact areas and horizontal surfaces where contaminants like to adhere; followed by a full-car rinse.

Step 2 is applying a highly effective, acid-free and pH neutral iron fallout remover to eliminate iron contaminants across the entire vehicle; followed by a second full car rinse.

Step 3 is applying the mechanical decon step using a “super-secret aqueous solution” and clay bar to eliminate the surface bonded contaminants remaining after the chemical process steps.

In some of our packages, we follow up with a second foam bath and a final rinse. Our final step is applying an isopropyl alcohol (IPA + water) mix wiping down each panel revealing clean, naked paint to assess your car’s true finish.

Think of the decontamination process as a facial scrub and chemical peel to open up the pores so it can be best protected and minimize aging. As we go through more topics on our processes from dtals, we’ll use similar analogies making it easier to grab hold of what’s important for your situation.