When washing and waxing your car.

Is wax, polish, and sealant the same? What ever happend to keeping it simple?

 

Keeping it simple yields poor results, for example if you throw on a coat of turtle wax, the durability, shine, and protection is poor, compared to if you layer the steps and use better formulated products. Make sure you check out the Acurazine Care Care FAQ’s, I am not sure if this helps but I normally;

Clay
Optimum Compound (orange)
Optimum Polish (white)
Four Star UPP (red)

If your un-familiar with the terminology or what the products are (how to use them) start reading, look into polishers and buffer’s which significantly reduce the amount of effort being put in, and yield optimum* results.

 

Each product has its own purpose.
Polishes, much like a body soap, clean the surface of contaminants via attrition. Waxes/sealants, protect the "skin" much like a lotion one would apply after bathing. They're both after the same goal, that being protection. When you use products designed to accomplish both feats, you'll derive minimal 'cleaning" and minimal "protection". To reach the best of both worlds, its more often then not, better to use one product designed for each use, such as GTSX outlined above. He uses multiple polishing (cleaning) products designed to remove swirls and contaimants, followed by a supreme sealant (protection). There are a few products designed for "all in one" use resulting in satisfactory results, on vehicles already in well maintained condition. One being Optimum PoliSeal, or einszett Metallic Polish which is a very light abrasive cleaner, with carnuaba and polymer protection built in. It was designed for use by hand as well.

 

There's alot of emphasis on paint correction in this forum (ie: using mildly abrasive polishes with power devices such as a Porter Cable to remove swirls). In reality, you don't want to be doing this any more than you can get away with, because you are removing clearcoat from the car's finish in the process. I think most guys around here would only do a major paint correcting detail once or twice a year. The idea is the get rid of swirls and then prevent them from comming back with proper wash technique in the interim.

Thoughts?

 

Yeep ... I do a full polish out on mine in the spring ONLY then spot touchups here and there.

And I add sealants lots cuz I feel like it ..

Perfect your wash dry protocol and you have very few swirl issues.

 

So you guys just use wax a few times a year along with sealant?

Of course I did a search. But really didnt find what I was looking for.

 

Golden, no prep, no pride. You really have to prepare the surface for the sealant. Waxes atop sealants, arent necessary, but some folks like to add it for a multitude of reasons......Me? Just some UPP and Im good to go with a monthly additon of spray wax for booster protection.....

 

Actually I do the sealant x how many layers I want then I occasionally use a carnuba to top it off for depth /wetness and prior to shows.

You cant alterntly sealant then wax etc .. sealants don't bond well to waxes.

 

Cool, thanks! I just picked up an 08 Type S in NHB. This weekend I'll pick up the stuff I need... how soon would you use sealant, wax on a new vehicle?

 

I'd wait 30 minutes after you got it home .. give the brakes a chance to cool ... you can seal it right away.


But don't forget to clay it first.

 

Wow, you would clay a two day old car?

 

Yeep and its not 2 days old ... you would be suprised the sh*t you get off a new car. And the smoother the surface the better the shine later.

All kinds of contaminants end up on the car from shipping and sitting in holding pens.