Panel wipe and sealant

[RippyD]

There's been some debate about the effect of panel wipe on sealants here. I decided to test it.

I first cleaned up the hood of the trusty Sentra: washed, clayed, polished, prep polished, panel wiped with N-914 and rinseless washed again to get rid of any excess soap.



Using prep polish and panel wipe is likely redundant. I've gotten comments that Ultimate Polish is hard to remove for sealant application. It's worth the extra 5 minutes to ensure everybody trusts the results.

I added three polishes using the hood indentations as dividing lines. I wanted to try three different types of sealant (WOWO, buff off, and apply and wipe off). Left to right they are Duragloss Aquawax, Sonax PNS, and FK 1000. I let them cure for 12 hours in my garage, and then another 12 hours in the sun with a high if 60 degrees F.


I did a rinseless wash and gave it the hose test. Water is flying off as expected. (I'm always amazed that WOWO works as well as it does.)


I dried it, dried, put down some tape, and took the N-914 panel wipe to it.


Hose again... looking good.


Did this three more times, and...


It took 4 panel wipe washes of N-914 for the Aquawax to start visibly slowing down. I stopped here due to darkness. Will do more testing in the next day or two with N-914 and an alcohol based panel wipe as well. This leads me to believe that it would be removed with 1 panel wipe wash after a week or so. Will see if that happens.

(Edited to read better and not sound like an a-hole.)

[fightnews]

Beading is not an indicator of having sealant on the paint. My glass beads/sheets water as good as the paint with nothing on it.

[MattPersman]

While I agree with that beading doesn’t always mean protection I would say at this duration and head to head with others it’s a pretty strong indicator of what is effected more than the others.

Thanks for doing this Rippy


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[Setec Astronomy]

I can't help but think about the possibility of "clogging"; are you sure the N-914 is removing the Aquawax, or is it simply bonding to it and "clogging" the beading/sheeting performance?

Remember we went through this a few years ago with Swanicyouth and PiPUK (what ever happened to him?) with Dawn and APC washing which seemed to remove sealants, only to do an IPA wipe which removed surfactant residues and restored the beading. Which opened up a whole can of worms about sealant bonding to "bare" surfaces if we weren't really getting bare surfaces to begin with.

[Desertnate]

Of the three products I would expect the Aquawax to fail first, if it is indeed failing, since it's a spray sealant with limited durability. As for the PNS and FK1000, I'd be pretty disappointed in those products if the panel wipe had an effect at all.

From my experience with sealants, the only products that would really have any effect were things like Tarminator, a citrus degreaser, or a bug remover I mixed a little too strong.

[RippyD]

I can't help but think about the possibility of "clogging"; are you sure the N-914 is removing the Aquawax, or is it simply bonding to it and "clogging" the beading/sheeting performance?

I did not consider this. Any ideas how how to counter it without applying IPA? More rinsing? Following up with a waterless wash or two to remove the excess soap?

I'll take an IPA wipe to it today and see what happens. I would hope that N-914 leaves far less residue than Dawn, but I have no idea.

Of the three products I would expect the Aquawax to fail first, if it is indeed failing, since it's a spray sealant with limited durability. As for the PNS and FK1000, I'd be pretty disappointed in those products if the panel wipe had an effect at all.

Me too, and we'll see... I have no idea. Thinking about this very simply, just the abrasion of washing may remove some sealant. If it takes 20 washes with N-914 at 8:1, it is the washing or the chemical that's remove it?

You know... now I need to do a control test to see how quickly Aquawax will start to slow down using rinseless concentration.

Thanks for comments and questions. Should help get this done in a more meaningful way.

[DetailZeus]

I can't help but think about the possibility of "clogging"; are you sure the N-914 is removing the Aquawax, or is it simply bonding to it and "clogging" the beading/sheeting performance?

Remember we went through this a few years ago with Swanicyouth and PiPUK (what ever happened to him?) with Dawn and APC washing which seemed to remove sealants, only to do an IPA wipe which removed surfactant residues and restored the beading. Which opened up a whole can of worms about sealant bonding to "bare" surfaces if we weren't really getting bare surfaces to begin with.

This worries me because if N-914 is surface substantive then it's not really suitable to use as a coating prep. A panel wipe should lubricate then evaporate away.

[JHL88]

Maybe try an actual panel wipe like Gtechniq or prep all

[RippyD]

This worries me because if N-914 is surface substantive then it's not really suitable to use as a coating prep. A panel wipe should lubricate then evaporate away.

It's a waterless/rinseless wash. It doesn't volatilize light an IPA or Naptha based panel wipe would. I suspect the idea is that it takes any oils into suspension that are then removed when it's dried. I haven't tested it against others and don't have any reason to believe it doesn't work well for removing polishing oils.

Maybe try an actual panel wipe like Gtechniq or prep all

Will do. Unfortunately I don't have enough on hand to do repeated applications across the hood. I could probably get 3-4 done. More is on the way.

[Calendyr]

Hum... if you wipe the panel with an IPA or surface prep, you will remove the sealant. That is the idea behind using those products in the first place... not to sure I understand the logic of using them to restore beading ... ?