Uses for Cleaner Wax

[hoveralot]

Hi,

I went to a local shop (in Venezuela) to find some Meguiars products for my new car (it only has 2 month) and ask the guy at the shop that I wanted to wax my car with NXT wax but he told me that it is abrasive and I should use cleaner Wax instead. My car already have some swirl marks all around probably because they wash the cars at the dealer and when just new I used a wax (if we could call it that way) made in Venezuela that made more swirls to the finish.

I already read the correct process to wash the car and bought all necesary products like microfiber towels, Meguiars pads and wash products so I did wash the car taking care so I´ll not create more swirl marks and applied the cleaner wax. The shine of the car after the whole process is really nice (not much appreciated in this blue ice color) but still have some minor swirl marks.

Should I use Scratch X or simply get the NXT wax to eliminate them?? By the way, prices here are really high, cleaner wax is around $30, probably due import taxes so any help will be appreciated, don´t want to spend more that I should.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Uses for Cleaner Wax

Welcome to Meguair's Online!

Please don't double post the same question, we will answer the first one as we can get to it. A lot of people think a discussion forum is an instant messaging system but it's not, it's a post your question and we'll get to it as fast as we can system as behind the scenes we're usually multi-tasking making other things happen.

Thank you.




We'll go delete you second post and then come back here and answer your questions in this post.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Uses for Cleaner Wax

Hi,

I went to a local shop (in Venezuela) to find some Meguiars products for my new car (it only has 2 month) and ask the guy at the shop that I wanted to wax my car with NXT wax but he told me that it is abrasive and I should use cleaner Wax instead. My car already have some swirl marks all around probably because they wash the cars at the dealer and when just new I used a wax (if we could call it that way) made in Venezuela that made more swirls to the finish.

That's funny, a no Meguair's Consumer product is abrasive in the way that by the word abrasive it means it will scratch the paint. Why would a company with over one hundreds years of stellar reputation in creating beautiful finishes on some of the finest cars ever built in the world make a product that scratches paint?

The answer is we don't.

Our cleaner/wax contains diminishing abrasives as well as chemical cleaners to remove defects and stains and oxidation, so it's much more aggressive than NXT Tech Wax. Your counter person needs to log onto this forum and do some homework.

The swirls in your car's finish from the car wash probably come from the mitts and poor washing techniques.

To remove these you need to rub the paint out with one of these products,

ScratchX
Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner
ColorX

The above product have enough cleaning power to remove a little paint when PROPERLY applied, that's read to mean worked against the paint using a little passion.

Then follow whichever product you use with a coat of the NXT Tech Wax.

I already read the correct process to wash the car and bought all necessary products like microfiber towels, Meguiars pads and wash products so I did wash the car taking care so I´ll not create more swirl marks and applied the cleaner wax. The shine of the car after the whole process is really nice (not much appreciated in this blue ice color) but still have some minor swirl marks.

If you still have swirls, then you need to remove more paint. Read this,


What it means to remove a scratch out of anything...

We get a lot of questions on our forum and at our Saturday classes from people trying to remove scratches out of all kinds of things, for example:

How do you remove a scratch out of;

* Glass?
* Clear plastic like a headlight lens, radio face plate, dash gages?
* Chrome, like a chrome wheel?
* Paint?
* Interior plastics like a plastic door sill or glove box door?
* Stainless steel, like a stainless steel door sill protector?
* Aluminum?
* Rubber?
* Pebble textured plastic like trim components?

This article isn't' about the how-to for removing scratches out of the above materials or coatings but about the practical science behind how you remove a scratch or any below surface defect out of any material or surface coating.

Read the below statement and think about it for a few minutes...

"Some materials and/or surface coatings don't lend themselves well to being abraded with the end-result looking good or looking like the original appearance"

In order to remove a scratch out of anything, metal, plastic glass, paint, etc. You must remove material around the scratch until the upper most portions of the surface are level with or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or defect you're trying to remove.


Does that make sense?

The below diagram is for paint, however the the same idea applies to just about any coating or surface material.





In essence, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove material around a scratch.


Then the big question becomes...

Is the material or coating workable?

As in, can you abrade small particles of the material or surface coating and leave behind an original looking surface.


For example: Some things you can abrade, (remove the scratch), but you can never completely remove all of your abrading marks, thus you can't really fix the problem, all you can do is exchange one set of scratches of a different set of scratches.

The next factor you have to consider or at least understand is;

How thick is the surface material or material you're working on?


You are limited to what you can do with any material or surface coating. By this we mean there is usually a limit as to how much material you can remove before you run into the risk of removing too much and exposing the underlying surface or removing so much material that you change the component you're working on in a way that it won't look good and you can't undo the damage.

There's a saying on this forum we use often when discussing different members detailing projects and it goes like this,


"Sometimes you don't know what you can so until you try"

It's always a good idea to test your choice of products, applicator materials and application process, (by hand or by machine), to an inconspicuous area. If you cannot make a small area look good with your product, applicator and process, you will not be able to make the entire surface look good.

It's always a good idea to test first and error on the side of caution, versus make a mistake you cannot undo over the entire component or vehicle.

Should I use Scratch X or simply get the NXT wax to eliminate them?? By the way, prices here are really high, cleaner wax is around $30, probably due import taxes so any help will be appreciated, don´t want to spend more that I should.

At this time, if you're working by hand, ScratchX is our best hand applied swirl and scratch remover, just work small sections at at time, about a foot square or so and when you move on to a new section, overlap into the previous section.

You could rub your car out with ScratchX and then follow this with NXT Tech Wax and you should be pretty close to the results you're looking for. The more perfect results you want, the more time you need to spend with ScratchX as it's the cleaning step that remove the swirls and scratches by removing a little paint and in essence flattening or leveling the paint out.

Then just don't put any more swirls and scratches back into it.

[hoveralot]

Re: Uses for Cleaner Wax

Hey, thanks for the response and apologize for the double post, it was my mistake.
This is a problem here in Venezuela, people don´t know what they are offering and give wrong advices.

I have a question that I don´t have clear in my mind, what is cleaning wax used for? I´ve being reading the forum and have not found much info about this product, my guess is that this should be used only by those people that only want excellent wax protection and shine and don´t worry about swirls or scratches.

As per your recomendation I´ll try to find any of the products you mentioned and try to get an area where to test it.

Thanks again.

[PorscheGuy997]

Re: Uses for Cleaner Wax

Cleaner waxes are often used on finishes with light swirls and scratches. Also, I like a good cleaner wax for details that must be finished in a hurry.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Uses for Cleaner Wax

I have a question that I don´t have clear in my mind, what is cleaning wax used for?

Cleaner/Waxes are for cleaning, polishing and waxing in one step instead of using 3 products to do the same job.

Cleaner/waxes are also great for doing places like door jambs, the paint in and around trunks and engine compartments, places where you want the paint to look good and be protected but you don't want to do 3-steps to it.

Always shake well before using.

Here's the first Consumer products Meguiar's introduced in 1973,

Cleaner/Wax Paste


Cleaner/Wax Liquid

[hoveralot]

Re: Uses for Cleaner Wax

Thanks again for clearing up my mind about this, you are doing a great job in this forums I think this is as important as this great products because if we don´t know when and how to use a product we can feel disappointed of the results just because the ignorance we have about them.

[yalerd]

Re: Uses for Cleaner Wax

Mike,
I don't know in the states but in other countries were you have someone "represent" or use the Meguiar's brand they really don't how to use the product and give bad information about it

I know this for experience because I have a friend that he owns a body shop and someone that represents Meguiar's here in the country went to "teach" him how to use the products, well how to teach his personal and he ended up saying that Meguiar's didn't deliver the results 3M did, so I told him I could give him some key notes and show him, I ended up going to the body shop, showing him how to use #80, #84 & #85 and he's using Meguiar's since then, that was like 2 months ago