Matte Paint Never Looks Clean

My Cervelo p5 paint never looks clean (even after being cleaned). What do you use to clean your bikes with matte paint?

I use Simple Green or Windex, whichever is handy. Helps maintain that flat matte finish. Also a gentle touch with a magic eraser will get grease or other troublesome things off.

http://img.directindustry.com/images_di/photo-g/65539-8214117.jpg

This will get the dirt off :slight_smile:
.

I use Simple Green or Windex, whichever is handy. Helps maintain that flat matte finish. Also a gentle touch with a magic eraser will get grease or other troublesome things off.

A magic eraser is a mild abrasive, so I wouldn’t touch my bike with that.

On my P5 I used degreaser, which worked well. My gf has the matte white P3 and degreaser works well on that also.

I have Matt grey paint so maybe not quite as important, but I have found standard car wash soap (or even dish soap) on a microfibre has cleaned off everything that it should and left a nice finish :slight_smile:

WD :slight_smile:
.

With matte finishes, the key is not to rub hard, or ‘polish’ the surface. Then it is no longer matte.
You may have already ground into the surface the grime you were trying to remove. Oils and grease can be solvent-washed off, but if you scrub you’ve rubbed it in.

There are plenty of $$pecialty products out there, but dish soap is fine. I like Dawn. Good solvent for petroleum products (see Exxon Valdez, Deepwater Horizon, et all cleanup). Gently gently gently rinse off the obvious sand/debris.

Use microfiber cloth, be sure the cloth face is clean, ie, doesn’t have the grit and bits in it.

Use a 50/50 mix of rubbing alchohol and deionised water for the spots the soap didn.t get.

The finishing touch is to use a UV/protective wax sealant made for matte/satin and vinyl finishes. This layer provides the barrier between oils/grease/GU and the matte finish. This is the step everyone forgoes; you really need this thin layer to act as your ‘clear coat’ barrier.

I use simple green or standard are bike wash solution to clean my P5. Afterwards, I apply a tiny (I stress tiny) of amount of WD40 on a rag and wipe down the matted paint areas, just enough to restore the new paint look.

Finish Line or Pedros (I forget which one) have a cleaner specifically designed for matte finishes.

Look for a cleaner called “mighty boss” it is a miracle worker
.

I use Meguiar’s Ultimate Quik Detailer
.

I use Chemical Guys Meticulous Matte Detailer and Spray Sealant. Works wonders on both matte and clear.

https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Guys-SPI_995_16-Meticulous-Detailer/dp/B00FQHY64S/ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1471009485&sr=1-2&keywords=chemical+guys+meticulous+matte

I wash my P3 with dish soap and then use a liquid car wax and soft cloth. Do not rub and polish. Wipe a thin layer on and gently wipe it off. Finish looks like new.

Not sure why it inserted up side down, however, what measures can be taken once rubbed too hard or used harsh products. I don’t know exactly how this happened but the spot on the seat tube is most prominent. You can see a little on the head tube as well, and up close the matte is pretty streaky. I’ve been searching for a solution to even it out. I use the WD-40 foaming bike cleaner and I used to wipe with WD-40 afterwards as a protectant…guess that didn’t work.

speedconcept.JPG

If that’s not grease or oil suggesting that the areas are polished then I don’t know what will rescue / reverse it … :frowning:

Have you ever aggressively scrubbed / cleaned / polished in those areas ?

Maybe consider a partial wrap ?

If all else fails spill some energy drink over the front, blame the back on piss and tell people you don’t wash it … ?

WD :slight_smile:

i was looking at that the other day, i think i’ll give it a try based upon your experience, thanks.

The finishing touch is to use a UV/protective wax sealant made for matte/satin and vinyl finishes. This layer provides the barrier between oils/grease/GU and the matte finish. This is the step everyone forgoes; you really need this thin layer to act as your ‘clear coat’ barrier.

-THIS! On gloss, semi gloss, high gloss… wax it! Take care of it! Protect it! I paint bikes, motorcycles, guitars, you name it. Wax or polish helps preserve a finish very well. I highly recommend doing this no matter what the finish! Just wipe it down between rides, clean it every so often with soap and water (just like a car) and wax/polish the mofo once a month or so, depending on use! (And if it’s a dirt bike, even more so!)

What did you end up using as a finish coat? I’ve got a white matte NP3. I need to get some sort of protective coat on it–to repel dirt. Thanks.

This-- works better than anything else I’ve tried.
http://i68.tinypic.com/amax6r.jpg

I was just going to suggest something from the automotive world designed for some of the new factory matt paints.

That little symbol on the bottle looks like what we know as ‘chemical guys’ in the U.K. ?

WD :slight_smile:

Thanks. Amazon had the kit on sale, so I purchased this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IS01MRS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00