When I first joined a Corvette club here, at one meeting we had a body shop owner that had a solid reputation for being very good with paint. His tip: never wax your car! WHAT!? No wax!
Well, what he meant was; if you want the deepest and best shine, just use a professional quality car polish, no wax. Theory is wax will yellow out (esp on a white car) over time. He also said this was best on cars that did not have to live outside. That was over ten years ago. And to this day, I never put wax on my cars that basically live in the garage. The cars that stay outside, I polish first then add wax. But everytime I re-new the process I strip the wax off first or the polish coat will smear whats ever left of the wax. I have had folks ask me how the hell do I get that shine my cars look so great!

This same dude also suggested the very best way (although few of us do it) to apply polish or wax is with YOUR BARE PALMS! No rags, no sponge, just your hand.

Try it....!

KXM

'91 Red/Black ZR1, best qtr: 12.6 @ 115
'03 CLS, Red/Parc 6spd., daily driver

 

Hell, my hands feel like sand paper. Dont think I want to do that...

 

The old waxes, Simoniz and the like, used to work best by using your hand. Reason being: your hands tend to warm up the wax, making it flow better.

Today's waxes and polymers are light years ahead, and so should your application process. I use only foam applicator pads. I get mine at the local auto parts store. Made by Meguiars.

 

INteresting, but I don;t have a car that sits up, so I'll stick to my waxes.

 

What type of product would you use to strip the old wax off? Would clay plus a rubbing compound do it? (My car has tree sap plus tar plus collision repair overspray plus numerous fine scratches)

Thanks,

Daniel

 

Dan,

Best way to strip off any wax build up is just to just wash the car with a mild detergent. One washing is usually good enough to get most of the wax off. You would be surpsied at how easy the wax comes off with this method. I would not suggesta any kind of powerful stuff, like Simple Green or any of the arnage based stuff. Far too strong. Get a tar remover for the tar & sap, I use WD40 for small amonts of tar, you use what you want. Agagin, I would not use rubbing compound unless you have a lot of experience as this stuff is rather abrasive. Their are milder over spary removal products on the market. Clay baring is great to get the little dimples of dirt out of the paint, but use have to do it the right way or you will creat other problems. I clay bar my outside cars once or twice a year with fantastic results. Then I polish the hell
out of them then apply a good wax that will last a few months. I am an old school old fart and agree that the new poloymers may be better, but I do not belive in a "one step" product.

Have fun,

KXM