The Lesson White Paint Teaches Us

[Mike Phillips]

The Lesson White Paint Teaches Us




History
Near as I can remember, I wrote this article around 1997, which was actually a chapter in a book I wrote called "The Art of Polishing Paint".






It was first posted to my original forum by the same name, (TheArtofPolishingPaint.com), around 2003 and then later posted to the Autopia Discussion Forum sometime in 2004 in exchange for hosting the original ShowCarGarage.com forum which no longer exists.



My comment
Over the years I've received a lot of e-mails and PM's from car enthusiasts about this article and while most people get the point of the article, a few think it's about white paint. It's not, it's just a way of explaining that the paint on daily drivers exposed to the elements gets dirty but if you car is a medium to dark color you might not see the dirt build up, if your car has white paint then you can see the build-up.

Regardless of the color of your car, if it's a daily driver, exposed to the elements, i.e. driven daily and parked outside for any length of time, then the paint can become stained with embedded dirt and road grime.

The point is if your car is a daily driver, regardless of whether you can see any dirt-build up or staining on the paint, the paint on daily drivers needs to be periodically cleaned and polished to restore clarity to a clear coat to reveal the true color of the paint under the clear layer and in the case of a single stage paint to restore the full richness of the color.

It was never meant to be an article that states I don't like white cars, it was meant to help people understand that periodically they either need to use a cleaner/wax on their car's paint or a dedicated paint cleaner, compound or some type of cleaning polish and then apply a wax or paint sealant.

Anyway, the article is now at least 13 years old but I think you'll find it interesting and I'm not going to change it from it's original form as it would change the article too much. Do note that in one section it talks about product that have the ability to remove defects using diminishing abrasives and since this article was written there has been new advances and improvements in abrasive technology as it relates to paint care products.

Purpose
The follow-up to this article will be a listing of all the waxes that Autogeek carries so anyone reading this will better understand how to choose the best wax or paint sealant for their needs and the condition of their car's paint.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The Lesson White Paint Teaches Us

When I first met my wife, she was driving a 1989 Honda Prelude with a single stage, white finish. After a year of dating and watching me polish other people’s cars, she demanded I do that polishing thing to her car. I knew I would never hear the end of it, so I reluctantly polished her Honda Prelude.

Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t anything I won’t do for my wife. My reluctance is a personal dislike for white paint. I don’t like polishing cars with white paint and given a choice I usually won’t. There are two reasons I don’t like white paint. First, I find white paint boring. Second, and probably most important, is because white paint is normally a single stage paint system (no clear coat), and therefore extremely hard. When paint is hard, defect removal is at best difficult.


White Paint Is Boring!
From a visual point of view, most people cannot see the difference in the results you get after doing a multiple-step polish and wax process versus a one-step process when working on white paint. The exception would be a white car with a neglected finish that has heavy oxidation or stains. White finishes in neglected condition will visually benefit from a multi-step polish and wax process and even from a one-step process if you use a quality cleaner/wax.

My wife and I purchased an all original 1959 Cadillac whose finish was stained and oxidized from neglect after being stored outside without a cover. We used a multiple-step cleaning and polishing process to restore the finish and because the car was special to us, this particular white paint job was both a challenge and fun to restore.

Our 1959 Cadillac with only 56,000 original miles still has its original factory paint. It was stored inside most of its life. Unfortunately, it was not properly maintained over the years and had been parked outside for at least one full year before we bought it. It had heavy oxidation throughout and rust stains on the vertical panels below anywhere trim was attached. We meticulously massaged the paint back to show room condition.



At the Golden Oldies Car Show in Lebanon, Oregon circa 2001

The characteristic of white paint that makes it so boring to work on is that it offers no visual depth or reflectivity. Because of this, it is difficult to see your reflection, or the reflection of an object, even when the finish is brand new and in a highly polished condition. Conversely, dark colors like black paint, if properly polished, reflect images like a mirror.

You can work all day on a white finish, throw every kind of cleaner, polish and wax you have at it, but in the end your results will be only slightly better than what you can achieve from a thorough application of a quality, one-step cleaner/wax. For someone such as myself who enjoys the process as much as the results, working on most cars with white paint is just too boring; it doesn’t challenge me as a detailer or stir my passion for the craft.


Single-stage White Paint Is Hard
Generally speaking, single-stage, white paint is the hardest paint you will ever work on. By that I mean, the paint itself, (its physical make-up), is very hard. There are numerous factors that determine the hardness of paint; in the case of white paint, Titanium Dioxide Powder is used as the pigmentation, which is a very hard material in and of itself.

In order to remove a defect that is in the paint, for example a scratch, you must remove all of the paint surrounding the scratch until the surface is level with the lowest depth of the scratch. You could look at removing below surface defects as a leveling process. The problem with removing below surface defects in single-stage white paint is two-fold: Single-stage white paint is hard and automotive paints tend to be very thin.

Horizontal View of a Paint Scratch To remove a scratch the surrounding paint must be reduced to the depth of the scratch. Removal of the paint around the scratch removes the scratch and restores the appearance of the paint finish.

Workable Paint is a Blessing
If a paint finish is too hard it may not be workable. A workable paint finish makes scratch and blemish repair easy. Hard paints, like single-stage white paints, are not very workable. Soft paints like single-stage, black paints are noticeably more workable and it's easy to remove swirls and scratches out of them.

Workable means you can remove small particles of paint easily using some sort of abrading process. Hard paints, like single stage white paints, are so hard that when you abrade them with the intention of removing a scratch, (i.e. removing small particles of paint), you often end up putting in more, smaller scratches surrounding the scratch while potentially only marginally removing the original scratch itself. The process becomes self-defeating and in some cases dangerous in that you risk going through to the primer.

The hardness of paint determines what you can or cannot do when it comes to removing defects. This is especially true in the context of working on paint using only your hands.

When dealing with single-stage white paint, it is almost impossible to remove defects by hand or machine which are below the surface. Below surface defects can include:

• Rotary Buffer Swirls also called Holograms or Buffer Trails. These types of swirls are instilled by the aggressive pads and abrasive products via the direct drive rotating action of the rotary buffer.

• Cobweb-Effect - Random scratches distributed throughout the finish that appear in a circular pattern when a single point of light is focused and viewed on a panel.

• RIDS - Random, Isolated Deep Scratches. RIDS are caused by normal wear and tear to the car’s finish in the normal course of day-in and day-out use. RIDS show up after a neglected finish is either machine cleaned or hand cleaned using a compound or swirl mark remover and the majority of light or shallow swirls and scratches are removed exposing only the remaining deeper scratches, which will now show up like as Sore Thumb. These remaining deeper scratches are refereed to as RIDS.

• Tracers - Straight-line scratches instilled during wet-sanding by hand. Tracers are actually deeper scratches left in the paint after the majority of sanding marks are removed via compounding with a rotary buffer. Usually Tracers are instilled when some type of abrasive particulate is trapped between the surface of the paint and the sandpaper and ground into the paint leaving a deeper scratch than what the abrasives on the paper are leaving in the paint. Thus after the uniform sanding marks are removed, the deeper scratches or Tracers are left behind and like RIDS stand out like a Sore Thumb.

• Acid and Alkaline rain/water spots that have etched into the finish. There are 3 different types of water spots, Type I, Type II and Type III, Acid and Alkaline water spots are Type II and this means they are actually etching below the surface and the only way to remove these types of water spots is to abrade the surface and level the surface with the lowest depth of the water spots or etching.

• Industrial pollution and chemical fallout that has settled onto and etched into the finish. These are kind of like a Type II Water Spot except they may not look like round spots but instead randomly shaped mottled etchings.

• Bird droppings that have etched into the finish. Bird Droppings contain Uric Acid and if not removed quickly the paint will be eaten away and a below surface etching will be the result.

Simply put, a below surface defect is any damage where paint is missing due to abrasion or chemical attack. The reason it is difficult to repair below surface defects in white paint is because you must remove the paint surrounding the scratch to feather it in to the surrounding area. This means you must remove portions of the paint without causing further damage.

Removing below surface defects requires controlled paint removal. This is where it becomes difficult. Removing small particles of paint using controlled and measured products and procedures on a soft paint is easy because they are easy to abrade. By controlled products and procedures, I am referring to compounds, paint cleaners, and cleaner/polishes that rely on diminishing abrasives, buffered, or cushioned in a rich, lubricating oil film. Even when you resort to using an aggressive compound, (by hand or machine), you risk, removing so much film-build (paint) that you expose the primer below the top coat and creating finer scratches surrounding the defect in your removal process.

The Mohs Scale of Hardness

In 1822, an Austrian scientist by the name of Fredrick Mohs created a scale from 1 to 10, for measuring and determining hardness. Hardness refers to the measure of resistance a surfaces has to abrasion. Talc is rated at 1 while a diamond is rated at 10.

Titanium dioxide, the substance used as pigmentation in white paint, is rated at 7 on the Mohs scale. As far as pigments go, titanium dioxide is very hard. By contrast, black paints, (single-stage), are soft. The pigment used to make paint black is Carbon black, which has a Mohs hardness rating of 2.

While some will argue the Mohs Hardness Scale isn't the best way to explain paint hardness, in this example I'm only using it as an indicator of the hardness of different substances used as pigments or colorants used in automotive paints and when it comes to a single stage paint the type of pigment used WILL effect the hardness or softness of the resin/paint and this will affect how easy or hard it is for someone to work on the paint.

Film-Build
Automotive paints in general, tend to be very thin. The most crucial and deciding factor that will determine your ability to successfully remove a below surface defect from any automotive paint is the thickness (film-build) of the paint. Because you have limited amount of film-build that you can safely remove, the depth of a scratch you can safely remove is limited. Simply put, you don’t have a lot of room for error when removing defects, (removing paint), from the finish on your car’s painted panels. Paint is thin, we’re talking anywhere from 2 mils (.002 inch) to 8 mils thick.

The word thick as it is used to describe the film-build of your car’s finish is a little misleading. A better word would be thin, because the film-build on your car is anywhere from 2 to 8 mils thin. As a relative comparison, the average business card has a thickness of about 12 mil, whereas standard copy paper is about 3.5 mils.

The typical new car has a paint coating that’s 6 to 8 mils thin. Film build includes the entire film-build, not just the working film-build of the topcoat. The working film-build averages around 2 mils thin but can be thinner. Are you starting to get the idea here? Paint is thin!

Most professionals and serious car enthusiasts use a rotary buffer to remove paint defects. With good polishes and the right buffing pad, the rotary buffer makes paint defect removal easy, except on single stage white paint. The reason for this is that the rotary buffers creates heat between the pad and the paint surface. If heat build-up becomes excessive, you can burn the paint. The hardness of white paint requires more pad pressure, which creates more heat and increases the chances of burning the paint.

That said, most, if not all the white cars I had worked on prior to my wife’s car would fall into the general category of what I call special interest cars, that is classics and antiques. For this reason, none of these cars were exposed repeatedly to inclement weather or long term outside exposure and thusly had no staining or oxidation to speak of.


Dirty White Paint
About the time I polished out my wife’s Honda Prelude, I also polished out another white Honda for a friend. Both of these cars were daily drivers, exposed to lots of rain and highway driving. Another item these cars had in common was a protective bra on the front of the car.



While restoring the finish on these two cars, I discovered something very important as it pertains to daily drivers. Daily drivers get dirty. I know that sounds pretty obvious, but it’s not. I’m not talking about the kind of dirt you can wash off the surface with a wash mitt and car soap. I’m talking about deep down into the pores road grime that build up on the paint and in the paint.

The paint on both of the white cars was so dirty they had what I can only describe as a dingy, gray finish. It was a translucent gray cloudiness on all of the top surfaces of the paint. It was very apparent if you worked a little paint cleaner into a small area in the middle of a large panel like the hood and then removed it. After wiping the worked area clean, you would see very bright, white paint, surrounded by the dingy gray colored paint.

When I first looked at these cars, I didn’t notice the staining right off because it was evenly dispersed throughout the finish. The contrast of clean and dirty paint hit me like a ton of bricks when I removed the bras. The paint beneath the bras was a clean, bright white. The paint not covered by the bras was gray. It was a dramatic contrast. This drove home the point that paint exposed to the elements over time becomes grayed with embedded dirt on and in the paint.

This dirt revelation caught me somewhat by surprise. I know all about dirt build-up and paint staining. I just never paid much attention to it since it was never so apparent to me before polishing these two white cars and again, that's because in my detailing career I always tended to avoid working on white cars.

Detailing these two white cars taught me something very important. The paint on ALL cars becomes stained and dirty when continually exposed to outdoor environments and inclement weather, it's just on medium to dark colored cars the average person won't see the gray build-up.

Dirt and pollution, both in the air, and the water in the form of road spray on wet roads, accumulates in the pores of the paint. The paint on all cars used as daily drivers becomes cloudy and gray from exposure to outdoor environments and inclement weather, not just cars with white paint (it’s just more apparent on white paint).

The average person cannot see this staining taking place because it happens slowly over time, and builds-up evenly over the entire surface, so in most cases, there is never a contrasting section to tip-off the owner that their paint is becoming more cloudy and less clear. This staining effect grays your finish and hides the true color and beauty of the finish. This is especially true on cars with medium to dark colored finishes.

Dirt Is Not Selective
Dirt builds-up, embeds and attaches itself to all exterior paint regardless of color. In the above example, it was just more apparent to me on these two cars with white paint because they both had protective bras covering and protecting a section of paint that showed the dramatic difference after approximately 6-months of exposure to outdoor conditions and wet weather. (I had detailed them before winter, and then detailed them again in the spring, thus removing the bras and exposing the staining-effect)

If the white paint on my wife’s Honda Prelude acquired a gray cloudiness or unsightly staining-effect because of continual exposure to outdoor environments and inclement weather, then all paint is susceptible to dirt build-up and the resulting gray, staining or clouding effect. Color is not the factor. White paint simply made it possible to see what's taking place to the surface over time.

If your car is a daily driver, even if you park it in a garage or under cover, then the paint gets a blackish, grayish cloudy film that builds-up on the surface and in the microscopic pores and surface imperfections of the paint over time.

This comes from the airborne dirt, dust, and chemical contaminants that settle over your car’s finish and if not removed in a reasonable amount of time will penetrate into the microscopic pores and surface imperfections where they will eventually bond to the paint and won't wash off using a normal car wash. This cloudy film also builds with repeated exposure to road grime during inclement weather. Using a non-cleaning wax will trap this dirt build-up in the paint and seal over it.

If your daily driver has anything but white paint, especially medium to darker colors, both clear coats and single stage finishes, it will be harder to see this dirt build up on and in the paint.

The reason it is hard to see against a medium to dark colored finish is because when you look at your finish you see through it. That is your eyes will focus on the big picture, the color of the paint, not the dark cloudy build-up on the surface. This dark, gray/black cloudiness is translucent and against a solid color, it is transparent.

You see past it, to the color underneath. And because it builds up slowly over time, it’s very hard to notice through the normal course of your daily activities and even normal car washing. That doesn't mean it isn't there, in fact, I will guarantee you it is, you just can’t see it.

If you are a serious car enthusiast, and it’s important to you to keep your car’s finish in tip top shape, then it’s important that you understand that dirt is building-up on your car’s finish. This is not a problem, per se, you simply need to use a paint cleaner or gentle polish to clean the paint surface and remove the build up. A paint cleaner, (also referred to as a pre-wax cleaner), or a quality cleaner/wax are products you can use and should use for good regular maintenance of your car’s finish if your car is a daily driver.

Dedicated paint cleaners and the chemical cleaners used in cleaner/waxes, remove the dirt build-up off and out of your finish. This restores clarity to your paint enabling your eyes to clearly see the true color without any contaminant blocking your view.

The slow build of dirt in paint explains why the majority of car waxes you find on the shelves of your local auto parts stores are usually some type of cleaner/wax. If you merely wash a car whose paint has accumulated dirt build-up on both the surface and in the pores, then apply a pure wax, or at least a wax with little or no cleaning ability, you will in essence be sealing or locking the dirt into the paint. This will exacerbate the clouding-effect and it will also accelerate the deterioration of the paint itself.


Here's the lesson...
If your car is a daily driver, exposed to the environment for at least some portion of each day, then your paint becomes dirty over time and you need to either use a dedicated paint cleaner of some type to remove the dirt build-up and then afterwards apply a finishing wax or finishing sealant. The other option is to use a one-step, cleaner/wax, which will clean, polish and seal the paint in one step.

Don't use a finishing wax on dirty paint as this will just trap and seal the dirt build-up and gray your car's finish.

[Mike Phillips]

The Difference Between a Cleaner/Wax and a Finishing Wax

Subtitle: How To Choose The Right Wax or Paint Sealant for your Detailing Project

Copyright ©PBMA - AutogeekOnline.net® All Rights Reserved

Have you ever been confused as to which car wax to use? There are so many car waxes on the market and all of them claim to be the best? Some say they’ll last through 52 car washes? But are you waxing your car just so it will make it through 52 car washes? Or are you waxing your car because you want the paint to look good again? Like it did when it was new?

Or what if you’re taking your special ride to a car show or on a cruise? Do you really need a car wax that will bead water after 52 car washes or is there something better that will really make your car’s paint *POP* especially if hundreds and even thousands of people will be looking at it all day long while it’s on display?

2- basic groups of car wax
Let me see if I can remove just a little bit of the confusion… There are two basic groups most car waxes and paint sealants fall into, these would be,

• Cleaner/waxes or Cleaner/Sealants
• Finishing waxes or Finishing Sealants


A cleaner/wax or cleaning/sealant would offer some level of cleaning ability using either chemical cleaning agents, solvents and/or some type of abrasives and often times a combination of all three. Cleaner/Waxes are also referred to as One-Step products or All-In-One products. Cleaner/waxes can be used to restore neglected paint to good to excellent condition depending upon how bad of condition the paint is in and the cleaning ability or strength of the cleaning agents in the cleaner/wax.

A finishing wax or finishing sealant would not contain any ingredients with the intended ability to clean or abrade the paint. Products in this category should only be used on paint in excellent or brand new condition or neglected paints that have been previously cleaned and polished and thus restored to new or excellent condition.

Besides dividing products into two groups by whether they have the ability to clean the paint or not, paint protection products are also divided into two other groups or categories and that's car waxes or paint sealants.

Car Wax
Contains some kind of naturally occurring waxy type substance, for example Carnauba wax.

Paint Sealant
Made from synthetic or all man-made ingredients.

So from the above, we can have,

Cleaner/Waxes
A product that cleans, polishes and protects and contains natural protection ingredients like Carnauba

Cleaner/Sealants
A product that cleans, polishes and protects and uses all synthetic protection ingredients

Finishing Waxes
A product that offers no cleaning ability with the focus on maximizing beauty with the protection based upon naturally occurring ingredients.

Finishing Sealants
A product that offers no cleaning ability with the focus on maximizing beauty with the protection based upon synthetic ingredients.

Hybrids
There's one more group into which waxes and sealant fall into and that would be the hybrid category. Hybrids contain a combination of both natural and synthetic ingredients.

If we use the loose definition above for car waxes and paint sealants, (For the wax group the primary protection ingredients are naturally occurring waxy substances and for the sealant group the primary protection ingredients are man-made or synthetic substances), then since hybrid products use a combination of both it would seem natural to group them and place them into their own category with both words, wax and sealant used to describe the category.

My comment...
Since no one to my knowledge has ever separated and placed the different products on the market into their own categories I decided to step up to the plate and take a stab at it myself, feel free to create your own categories and write your won article if you feel so compelled.

Let's take an in-depth look at the two basic groups, (the hybrid products will also fit into either the cleaning or finishing group).


Cleaner/Wax or Cleaner/Sealant
Now a cleaner/wax is just that, the formula will contain a blend of chemical cleaners and often times some type of abrasives, either diminishing or non-diminishing.

Together the chemical cleaners and the abrasives will remove oxidation and road grime from the surface which will restore clarity and richness of color. At the same time they’ll leave behind a layer of protection to help lock in the shine and of course protect the paint from the elements.

When you go to your local auto parts stores, most of the retail waxes on the shelves do in fact fall into the cleaner/wax category as they are targeted at the average person and the average person is driving what we call a Daily Driver, that is the car they drive back and forth to work each day and most of the time it’s parked outside. Over time, the finish quality deteriorates and in order to restore it with just a single product you’ll want a cleaner/wax.

A cleaner/wax is also what we in the detailing industry call a One-Step product or an AIO.

AIO stands for All-In-One. AIO products will do multiple processes in one step, that is they will,

1. Clean the surface
2. Polish the paint to a high gloss
3. Leave behind a layer of protection

The problem for the average Joe Consumer is that most retail products don’t specifically state what type of product they are? The tell you how to apply it, how long to let it dry and then how to remove it but they leave it wide open as to what the product is and how its best used.




A cleaner/wax is best used on a neglected finish because a neglected finish needs to be cleaned. Cleaner/Waxes, or All-In-One products are designed for a large market which includes do-it-yourselfers and detailers that want to restore a bright, shiny finish to the paint but want to do it in one-step. Their goal is to get a great looking finish without having to invest the time and effort associated with a multiple-step approach which usually includes,

1. Dedicated compounding or paint cleaning step
2. Dedicated polishing or glazing step
3. Dedicated sealing step using a finishing wax or finishing paint sealant

Keep in mind besides the above 3 steps that are the norm for a multiple-step process, there's also,

1. The washing and drying step
2. The claying step if the car is parked outside a lot and has built-up above surface bonded contaminants. (Most daily drivers need to be clayed).

If we add the above two steps, (washing & drying step and claying step), together with the multiple 3-step approach that would make the average car detailing session 5 steps at a minimum.

1. The washing and drying step
2. The claying step if the car is parked outside a lot and has built-up above surface bonded contaminants. (Most daily drivers need to be clayed).
3. Dedicated compounding or paint cleaning step
4. Dedicated polishing or glazing step
5. Dedicated sealing step using a finishing wax or paint sealant.

Because the majority of people in this world look at their car as a mode of transportation instead of an extension of their personality, its' easy to understand that most people want and only need a one-step cleaner/wax.

A cleaner/wax doesn't need to be used, and in most cases shouldn't be used, on a car in which the paint is in excellent condition, for example a brand new car or an older car in which the paint has been properly cleaned and polished. For finishes on both of these types of cars the paint would be better served using a finishing wax or finishing sealant.

Another example would be a brand new paint job after the regular 30 days air-cure waiting time. Brand new paint should look great after you pick it up from the painter but most painters will tell you to wait at least 30 days before sealing the paint with either a wax or paint sealant.

After the 30 days have passed, a finishing wax should be used not a cleaner/wax because theoretically, the paint is supposed to be in excellent condition so you shouldn't have to use any product with cleaners or abrasives in it.


Application Method
In most cases, a cleaner/wax type product needs to be worked over and into the surface. Cleaner/waxes are not wipe on, wipe off products. Part of the cleaning action comes from you either working the product over the surface and engaging the cleaning ingredients with the paint or you running an electric polisher and the polisher is engaging the cleaning ingredients against the paint. The worse condition the paint, the more you'll need to work the product.


Finishing Wax or Finishing Sealant
A finishing/wax is much different than a cleaner/wax. A finishing wax either doesn’t offer any cleaning ability at all, or at least not enough to be a usable feature of the product.

A finishing wax is just that, it’s a wax or paint sealant used to add the finishing touch to a car in which the paint is in excellent condition to start with and/or in situations where the owner has just cleaned and polished the paint to perfection and the next step would be to apply a finishing wax.

If you use a multiple step approach to polishing your car’s paint, that is you use a dedicated compound or SMR, which stands for Swirl Mark Remover, to first remove any defects like swirls and scratches, and then follow this with a polish to further refine the paint to show car quality status, then what you want next is a finishing wax, not a cleaner/wax.


Frosting on the cake

After all the hard work of claying, compounding and then polishing your car's paint to perfection is over... it's time to put the frosting on the cake...


Taking your car's finish to it's maximum potential
Assuming the paint on your car is truly in excellent condition, a finishing wax, sealant or hybrid will take your car’s paint to it's highest level or it's maximum potential.

An analogy would be,

Like frosting is to cake a finishing wax, sealant or hybrid is to a highly polished automotive finish...


Cake is good, but frosting on cake is better. It's the finishing touch or last step which creates a work of art to gaze upon and a taste heaven that's sweet and delicious...


If you were to use a cleaner/wax after using a dedicated cleaning and polishing process that would be what we call working backwards because you’re going back to the cleaning step and you’ve already done this step when you used the compound, polish or swirl mark remover.

What you should be doing, what you want to be doing is working forwards towards the goal, which is a show car finish. Thus you want to use a finishing wax, sealant or hybrid.




Application Method

• Wipe-on, work in and then immediately wipe off with no drying time.
• Wipe on, allow the product to dry and then wipe-off.

Since finishing waxes and paint sealants should really only be applied to a finishes in excellent condition, there's no need to aggressively work the product over the surface like you would a cleaner wax. With a finishing wax or sealant you would apply and spread the product out of a section of a panel and then work the product gently for 2-3 passes over each square inch just to evenly cover the paint. You would not work the product like you would a cleaner wax with the idea of trying to remove defects.

Finishing waxes and paint sealants are either wiped on, spread around and then immediately wiped off. On detailing discussion forums, these types of products are referred to as WOWO products.

Some manufactures recommends their products need to dry before removing, for these types of products you would apply and spread the product out to create a thin even coating and then allow this coating to fully dry before removing.


No wrong choice
It's important to note that one category isn't better than the other as both categories of products play important roles in the car world. The focus of this article was to explain these two different categories so anyone confused about waxes in general would have a better understanding of the two basic groups. And then the ultimate goal would be to help people to actually choose and use the correct wax for their application and goals.

How To Choose The Right Wax or Paint Sealant for your Detailing Project

The way you pick the right wax for your car's paint is you first evaluate your car's paint and then you evaluate yourself.

Is your car brand new? If so they you probably want a finishing wax.

Is your car older and the paint is looking dull and lifeless? Then you need to evaluate yourself? Do you want to do a multiple step process? Or do you simply want to wash and wax the car and then move on with life? If you want to do a multiple-step process the you're going to want a finishing wax, if you want to reduce your time and investment to the bare minimum then you want a cleaner/wax.

As stated previously, in most cases, a cleaner/wax, cleaner/sealant, hybrid cleaner/wax or hybrid cleaner/sealant, needs to be worked over and into the surface. These are not wipe-on, wipe-off products. Part of the cleaning action comes from you either working the product over the surface and engaging the cleaning ingredients with the paint or you running an electric polisher and the polisher is engaging the cleaning ingredients against the paint.


Summary
The waxes and paint sealants in both of these groups can be great products, it just a matter of matching the right product to the condition of the paint on the car, your goals and how much time you want to invest into the project.

List of Paint Protection Products

Here at Autogeek we care a great selection of both finishing waxes and cleaner/waxes, below you'll find a list for both types.


Cleaner/Waxes
Menzerna Sealing Wax APO 60
Collinite Paste Sapphire Auto Wax #73SS
Mothers California Gold Original Formula Carnauba Cleaner Wax
Poorboy’s World Polish with Carnauba (BLUE)
Poorboy's World Polish with 100% Carnauba
Collinite Liquid Sapphire Auto Wax SS216
Dodo Juice Need For Speed Cleaner Wax


Cleaner/Sealants
XMT 360 All In One Cleaner Wax
Griot's Garage One-Step Sealant
Klasse All-In-One Polish
Duragloss Polish & Cleaner 101
Finish Kare 215 One Step Cleaner & Surface Sealant
Finish Kare 2180 Ultra Poly Wipe Sealant Conditioner
Optimum Poli-Seal
Mother's FX Synwax Paste
Mother's FX Synwax Liquid
Mother's Reflections Advanced Car Wax
Wheel Wax Glacier Polish & Sealant
3M One Step Cleaner Wax


Finishing Waxes
Pinnacle Souverän Paste Wax
Pinnacle XMT 180 High Gloss Carnauba Paste Wax
Griot's Garage Best of Show Wax
Griot's Garage Carnauba Wax Stick
Finish Kare 2685 Pink Paste Wax
Collinite Paste Fleetwax # 885
Collinite Marque D’Elegance Carnauba Paste Wax #915
Collinite Super DoubleCoat Auto Wax #476
Meguiar's Gold Class Car Wax Liquid
Dodo Juice Supernatural Wax
Dodo Juice Supernatural Wax Machine Stick
Dodo Juice Banana Armour Hard Car Wax
Dodo Juice Blue Velvet Hard Car Wax
Dodo Juice Diamond White Hard Wax
Dodo Juice Hard Candy Hard Wax
Dodo Juice Light Fantastic Soft Wax
Dodo Juice Orange Crush Soft Wax
Dodo Juice Purple Haze Soft Wax
Dodo Juice Rubbish Boy’s Juiced Edition Carnauba Wax
Dodo Juice Austintacious Soft Wax
P21S 100% Carnauba Wax
P21S Concours Carnauba Wax
S100 Carnauba Paste Wax
Mothers California Gold Pure Carnauba Car Wax
Poorboy's World Natty's Paste Wax
Poorboy's World Natty’s Paste Wax – BLUE
Poorboys World Natty’s Paste Wax – Red
Dodo Juice Supernatural Wax, 250 ml. Refillable Hardwood Pot
Collinite Liquid Insulator Wax #845
Mother's Power Wax



Finishing Sealants
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0
Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze
Duragloss Clear Coat Polish (CCP) #111
Finish Kare 218 Poly Wipe Sealant Conditioner
Griot's Garage Paint Sealant
Four Star Ultimate Paint Protection Boosted with Polycharger
Finish Kare 1000P Hi-Temp Paste Wax
3M Perfect-It Show Car Liquid Wax
3M Performance Finish
Meguiar's M21 Synthetic Sealant
NXT Tech Wax - Liquid
NXT Tech Wax - Paste
Liquid Glass Auto Polish
Poorboy's World EX-P Pure Sealant
DP Poli-Coat Paint Sealant



Hybrid Cleaner Waxes/Sealants
Meguiar's Mirror Glaze #6 Cleaner/Wax
Duragloss Total Performance Polish (TPP) # 105
Meguiar's M20 Polymer Sealant
Meguiar's ColorX
Meguiar's M66 Quick Detailer
Meguiar's D151 Paint Reconditioning Cream
1Z Einszett Metallic Polish Wax
Duragloss Wet Look Paste Wax


Hybrid Finishing Waxes/Sealants
Wolfgang Füzion Carnauba Polymer Estate Wax
Pinnacle Liquid Souveran™ Car Wax
Mothers Reflections Advanced Top Coat
Poorboy's World EX Sealant with Carnauba
DP Max Wax
Meguiar's Mirror Glaze #26 Hi-Tech Paste Car Wax
Meguiar's Mirror Glaze #26 Hi-Tech Liquid Car Wax
Dodo Juice Blue Velvet PRO Hard Wax
1Z Einszett Glanz Wax
Poorboy's World EX Sealant with Carnauba
Finish Kare 2685 Pink Paste Wax
3M Perfect-It Show Car Paste Wax



Spray-on Paint Protectants

Spray-on Carnauba Waxes
Pinnacle Souveran Liquid Spray Wax
Flitz Waxx Speed Wax
Griot's Garage Spray-On Wax
Mother's California Gold Spray Wax
Poorboys World QW+ Quick Wax Plus



Spray-on Synthetic Paint Sealants
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Spritz Sealant
Duragloss Aquawax - 22 ounce
Duragloss Aquawax - 128 ounce
Meguiar's NXT Generation Spray Wax
Mothers FX Engineered Spray Wax
Optimum Opti-Seal
Stoner SpeedBead One-Step Quick Wax



Spray-on Hybrids
Pinnacle XMT 360 Spray Wax
Four Star Ultimate Spray Wax Boosted with Polycharger
Meguiar's X-Press Liquid Wax
Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Wax
Mother's Reflections Advanced Spray Wax
Optimum Car Wax
Stoner Bead Max


Wheel Waxes
Detailer's Pride Wheel Glaze
Wheel Wax
Poorboy's World Wheel Sealant



Question: How many car waxes do you need?

"Car waxes and paint sealants are to men like shoes are to women, you can never have too many" - Mike Phillips


Resources
Main Store Webpage for Autogeek's Car Wax and Paint Sealants

[surajprasade]

Thanks Mike,
Really a helpfull article. It will help me a lot in future while detailing white car. Now rather than getting bore I am waiting for a white care to detail.

[Ted S.]

I remember the first time I read this article a few months back. I've hated white paint since then. I wonder if there is a correlation between the two?

[silvermesa]

Very informative article Mike!

A couple of questions from someone new to detailing.

1) Will a cleaner wax or Cleaner sealant yield the same result as a multi step compounding topped with a finish wax or finish sealant?

2) Besides compounding, is there a liquid cleaner that can be applied and then topped with a finish wax for daily drivers that are a few years old and in pretty good shape but just need a light paint cleaning before a finish wax or sealant is applied?

Thank You!

[Mike Phillips]

Very informative article Mike!

A couple of questions from someone new to detailing.

1) Will a cleaner wax or Cleaner sealant yield the same result as a multi step compounding topped with a finish wax or finish sealant?

Depends upon the condition of the paint you're starting with, if the paint is in good condition maybe, if the paint is neglected, as in lots of deep swirls and scratches then "no".

You normally get better results with a multi-step process where you're using dedicated products,

1. Dedicated or true compound
2. Dedicated or true polish
3. Dedicated or true finishing wax

When you're using a one-step cleaner/wax you're depending upon a single product to do multiple tasks and it's never going to do as good a job as breaking the process up into dedicated steps using dedicated products specific to each step.

Here's a 1947 Plymouth Coupe I did a two step too years ago using ONLY a one-step cleaner/wax and then topped with what is more or less a finishing wax, originally had some light cleaners in it, it's been reformulated a few times so I don't know the current status of the product but since it's sold and marketed as a retail product the the average "Joe Consumer" then by default it needs to have some level of cleaning to create a visual difference to a "Daily Driver" or the customer will be unhappy. Keep in mind the average "Joe Consumer" doesn't know half of what people that hang out on detailing discussion forums know.


I rubbed this car out by hand on purpose to show what could be done by hand even though I had electric polishers at my disposal. It actually takes less talent and skill to use a tool like a DA Polisher than it does to work by hand....


Here's what ColorX did by hand to a 1947 Plymouth Coupe,

Before - Horrible Swirls throughout the finish








First we removed the white paint overspray using Meguiar's Quik Clay System now replaced with Smooth Surface Clay Kit.



Then applied one hand application of ColorX followed by one hand application of NXT Tech Wax Liquid






I did this car back when ColorX first came out, I saw the car right before I moved from California to Florida and it still looked great. (Taught the owner how to maintain the paint)


Here's a car that was extremely neglected that I used a one-step cleaner/wax on by machine, the results were a day and night difference but to get more cleaning power out of the wax we used aggressive foam pads.

And on that note, here's something similar to what you're working on but note that XMT 360 is for machine application...

KISS Detail - Extreme Makeover - Toyota Highlander

Before



After

2) Besides compounding, is there a liquid cleaner that can be applied and then topped with a finish wax for daily drivers that are a few years old and in pretty good shape but just need a light paint cleaning before a finish wax or sealant is applied?

Sure! There's lots of them, they are called paint cleaners or pre-wax cleaners and most can be applied by hand or machine. You can also use a Medium Cut or Fine Cut Polish, same kind of idea as a paint cleaner or pre-wax cleaner but usually they are formulated with some type of abrasives to offer more correction and polishing ability while paint cleaners and pre-wax cleaners are usually non-abrasive or if they are abrasive they are very light in their abrading ability.

Here's an article on paint cleaners with a list of products in this catagory...


The benefits of a light paint cleaner, cleansing lotion or pre-wax cleaner

[Shakabruddah808]

After reading this article, I am VERY hesitant about doing any surface correction on my white Honda.

Perhaps I would be better off using just a pre-wax cleaner to remove old LSP layers and top with a good sealant. EX-P and Opti-Seal are my two finalists with the edge going to OS.

I'm thinking my next car should be a light silver or light blue.

[SR99]

Here's a great pictorial I came across on another forum, of a white Audi with a black roof:
Mothers Reflections results on white car - Wax Forum
I think the white color on this Audi is called Ibis white.

The reflections from the white portions of this car are about as good as it gets for white, but what's most interesting is the comparison to the black parts of the same car under the same lighting.

In the shaded garage with indirect light, the reflections in the white are pretty crisp, but not so much in the photos with the car out in sunlight.

Still, even the best case reflections in the white paint in the garage pale in comparison to the mirror-like reflection of the black roof in the garage.

There does seem to be some differences between the many different white paints over the years and across different makes of cars. Some, even when new, lack vibrant reflections under ideal lighting or look "whitewashed" because the white paint reflects and washes out the color of whatever is being reflected.

[Mike Phillips]

Some, even when new, lack vibrant reflections under ideal lighting or look "whitewashed" because the white paint reflects and washes out the color of whatever is being reflected.

I agree... that's why I find working on white cars kind of boring...

[Detail-Impressions]

OK Guys send me your boring white cars.
I will send you my polishing of my black cars. LOL
Black cars double the work for the same pay.
Wait six months and the black is back in the same shape.
Repeat the cycle.

I guess if you are working for a living or personal satisfaction may be the difference?