The Difference Between a Cleaner/Wax and a Finishing Wax

Mike Phillips · 02-03-2010, 01:26 PM

The Difference Between a Cleaner/Wax and a Finishing Wax

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

Cleaner/Waxes

Finishing Waxes

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,

Clean the surface
Polish the paint to a high gloss
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,

Dedicated compounding or paint cleaning step
Dedicated polishing or glazing step
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,

The washing and drying step
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.

The washing and drying step
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).
Dedicated compounding or paint cleaning step
Dedicated polishing or glazing step
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