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Getting the most from carnuba wax


Baron_Von_Awesome

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With the release of Adam's carnuba wax just around the corner, I thought I would post a technique I use on some cars about how to get the most shine, depth, and clarity from your wax. The procedure is tedious, requires the touch of a surgeon, is time consuming, and expensive but the finish you get will be incredible (show car folks - print this out and hang it up in your garage).

 

Ingredients:

Fine mist spray bottle

1 gallon of ice cold distilled water

Many, many microfiber polishing towels

Quality carnuba wax

Many, many foam applicators

 

A lot of car care enthusiasts and pro detailers know multiple coats of wax can really make a finish look great. While that's true, very few people have the knowledge or take the time to actually apply the coats correctly. The end result of "two coats" of wax in that case is simply rubbing and smearing the first coat while applying the second coat - so your two coats are really just a blithering mess of wax that's nowhere near as beautiful as it should be.

 

At this point, your washing, claying, polishing, and alcohol wipe down should be complete and the car's finish must not be hot or exposed to sunlight or excessive dust in any way during this procedure:

 

Begin by very lightly misting 1/2 of a panel with ice cold distilled water and then, using very little pressure, apply a very thin layer of the wax over the misted area using an applicator dampened with your cold water spray. Gently work this wax/water mixture until it all but disappears. While working the mixture, the surface should be periodically misted. When the mixture is near invisible, again very lightly mist the panel with ice cold water and leave it (yes, leave the panel misted). Move on to the next panel and the next - using a new applicator for every 1 whole panel.

 

At the end of every third panel, go back and exactly repeat the above steps on the first panel you worked. Then, do area four, then back to two, then move on to five, then back to three, then six, and so on and so on. (it may take a minute to digest that, but I swear it will make sense after you read it a few times).

 

Once you've made your way around the car, we're now ready to buff off our first layer. Very lightly mist your cold water over 1/2 panel and very lightly and gently buff dry with a microfiber towel. Once the microfiber towel begins to get damp, toss it and start using a new one. Continue this process around the entire car until your spots are gone.

 

Repeat this process every 24 hours for the next 3 to 4 days. You read that correctly: It will take you almost an entire working week to fully complete this procedure.

 

At the end of your 3 to 4 days you'll be left with something that looks like this:

 

330i.jpg?t=1241228438

 

Enjoy! :)

Edited by Rich
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lol...I hope not. I was just saying as a pricing point the 50/50 is cheaper initially and over the long term.

 

Easier too :D:D:D

 

Plus if you get thirsty while detailing I bet it tastes better than Revive :jester::jester::jester:

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lol Bill. I was just wondering if it could do the same job as the 50/50. Because if I use revive after the polishing process to clean and further polish I don't want to follow up with 50/50 if I don't have to.

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Great write up!!

 

To save people the agonizing work of formatting in Word (can you sense the sarcasm?) I made a PDF of this so it can be printed and easily read while working.

 

See attached PDF.

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Great write up!!

 

To save people the agonizing work of formatting in Word (can you sense the sarcasm?) I made a PDF of this so it can be printed and easily read while working.

 

See attached PDF.

 

 

Excellent :D

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Excellent writeup... cold water is a very underused tool in detailing. I generally only reserve this type of process for my own car and/or special details. People think its funny when I have an ice chest w/ my spray bottle and a beer next to it in the garage :D

 

Sounds like a reasonable way to benefit from having a cooler with ice while doing a long detail. :)

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Yeah, I wanted to take a look at this. I am currently getting ready to do my first detailing of my black HHR with the PC, and was thinking about what kind of wax to use. I have buttery wax on hand, and I seem to keep seeing that the Buttery (with it's part polymer part carnauba composition) seems to be more disposed to being on top of the MSW, which I will try first off. I will surely need the MSW on my DD that lives outside.

 

But that Americana is whispering in my ear... Of course the 5 day ice cold distilled water Americana treatment is waay beyond what I can pull off. But it WOULD be interesting to at least see the shine that Americana can produce. Seeing some of the pix of Dylan's black truck was, to say the least, inspiring.:D

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