Quote:
Originally Posted by nollid
My brother is a chemist along with being a car guy so as you can imagine he has looked into this subject a little. He broke it down to me like this, you have two main types of waxes natural and synthetic based. Most "natural" waxes are Carnauba based. Carnauba gives an incredible shine and the wet look that everyone looks for but the problem is that Carnauba in it's pure form is incredibly hard. So any wax that claims that it is 100% Carnauba is actually not. The portion of the product that is actually wax may be 100% Carnauba, the rest are lubricants and other additives that put it into a usable form. Here's where it gets tricky, there are different grades of Carnauba the most common being #1 yellow in the auto polish industry. Most high quality waxes fall into the 25-35% carnauba content range. The problem with these waxes is that carnauba is very sensitive to washing and detergents so it is not very durable.
On the flip side you have synthetic based waxes that provide great durability but in my opinion do not provide quite the shine of a carnauba based wax. There are tons of synthetic polymer based products on the market today some of which are excellent and will provide a very durable long lasting shine.
I guess the bottom line when it comes to waxes is that durability and shine are at the opposite ends of the wax spectrum. You have to determine the application that you are wanting to use it for and experiment and find the product that works the best for you.
Hopefully this clears some things up, I know I'm a wax nerd  |
Totally agree, carnauba gives paint more depth and warmth ....it's all i use for my dually which only sees about 500 miles a year (primarily weekend cruising and shows).....and never gets near any water ever....just cal dust mop and if something is stuck to the paint ...claybar.
Daily drivers can get much more lasting shine with sealants ....but most agree that they have more of a "plastic" look and seem to just be sitting on the surface without much depth.
One thing to consider for max shine is BEFORE you apply the wax the paint should already be smooth and glossy ...this is polishing. Don't expect to achieve a show quality shine by applying wax to a surface that is not properly prepared....
One trick that show only vehicles use is a hand glaze before wax ..or sometimes just glaze applied to a perfectly polished surface...one of the original and still my fav is meguires #7 (show car glaze) it has great filling properties for very faint swirls or slight defects. It is not machine compatible except for orbital but if your surface is prepped right its simple to apply by hand just dont let it dry before polishing, cause it will cake up badly.