how to remove previous wax?

[hacker-pschorr]

Re: how to remove previous wax?

I wash twice-weekly with Dawn and I have won six of the last seven Meguiar's Car Detailing Tournament tournaments with my car. Enough with the "Dawn hurts your paint" myth. I'm really sick of hearing that.

Excellent

I'll keep using dawn as my pre-detail car soap.

The car in my avatar is up next, I have yet to really detail it in two years. Only 2,000 miles and dirty for the first time (caught in the rain). Should be fun to hose down.........

[john m.]

Re: how to remove previous wax?

Hacker, do not use dawn on that beautiful car!! Wash it with NXT or gold class, clay, and then do an IPA (isopropyl alcohol) wipedown before doing your correction. Dawn is high in alkaline and is made to cut dirt, gunk, grease, and such off of dishes not cars. You may be fine with using it once as it is more so the extended use that will do damage but I would much rather use a soap formulated for car washing that will remove dirt better than dawn. That car looks much so beautiful, give her a nice luxurious bath

[akimel]

Re: how to remove previous wax?

The virtues and evils of Dawn have been discussed ad nauseam over at the Autopia site. Here are some of the interesting threads. Do read through them.

Is Dawn dish soap bad for your car?
How much Dawn do you use?
Do you Dawn wash?
What's the deal with Dawn?

FWIW, I have a hard time believing that an occasional Dawn wash will hurt a car. After all, people have been putting their hands into the stuff on a regular basis without their finger nails falling out and their skin rotting away. But I personally would prefer to use products that have been expressly formulated for the task at hand. Car shampoos are formulated not just to clean the paint surface but to do it in such a way as to reduce the chances of marring and swirling. But if someone wants to use Dawn once or twice a year in preparation for their annual or semi-annual detail, I'm not going to object. Our cars endure a lot, lot worse during year's course of operatoin.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: how to remove previous wax?

I wash twice-weekly with Dawn and I have won six of the last seven Meguiar's Car Detailing Tournament tournaments with my car. Enough with the "Dawn hurts your paint" myth. I'm really sick of hearing that.

Btw, I use NXT as my routine wash. When I want to strip wax, I use Dawn. I don't know who ever came up with the idea that Dawn was hurting paint...
Maybe it's that "lurking variable"--that people who use Dawn in their normal washes are also the same people who use 250-grit sandpaper sponges, no grit guards, and bath towels to dry their paint? Helloooooo...Dawn never did a harmful thing. It was the poor techniques that did the damage.

Enough with the "Oh look at how Dawn hurts the paint" myth, already.

How is NXT your "routine" wash if you use Dawn twice weekly? You also say you use Dawn when you want to strip wax - are you stripping wax twice weekly? Just looking for some clarification as you seem to contradict yourself a bit here.

Even on the FAQ page on the Dawn website (http://www.dawn-dish.com/en_US/quest...o#other_things) they come right out and say:

Can I use Dawn to clean things other than dishes?
Dawn is so effective in cutting grease on dishes that over the years, consumers have used Dawn on other greasy messes around their homes, from cleaning kitchen messes like grease build up on the stove range hood to oily spots in the garage. Dawn is not recommended for window cleaning, car washing, body wash or washing hair.

While an occasional use is probably fine, why do it when even the product manufacturer recommends against it? With regular use it can, and most likely will, over time dry out and degrade not only the paint, but the vinyl, rubber and plastic trim as well.

Now, if you wash with Dawn and then immediately polish and wax your car, apply a quality dressing to all the vinyl, rubber and plastic trim after every use, you may not notice any negative effects for a very long time. But for a casual car owner, ie someone who just grabs the Dawn from under the sink to wash their car a couple times a month and can't be bothered with waxing, dressing and otherwise caring for their car, it is not a good thing to do. Dawn has pretty strong detergents and degreasers, which are not only not wanted on your car, they aren't even needed.

But simply having the manufacturer caution against using their product in this application should be enough for anyone to stop doing so.

[hacker-pschorr]

Re: how to remove previous wax?

But simply having the manufacturer caution against using their product in this application should be enough for anyone to stop doing so.

IMO it's a CYA in case someone comes home with their brand new Corvette, washes it with Dawn (without waxing it after) and sues months later when their paint starts to peel.

On the topic of IPA - does anyone use denatured rubbing alcohol? Not easy to find in some areas. It's common for use with cleaning electronics since it's more pure than IPA.

[hacker-pschorr]

Re: how to remove previous wax?

How much Dawn do you use?

From the above link:

http://www.autopia.org/forum/483303-post40.html

Dawn MSDS #1
Dawn MSDS #2
Water, surfacant, alcohol. Well that wasn't very exciting.

Lets compare that to some automotive specific cleaners. Surely there's going to be a huge difference.

Prizm car wash MSDS
3M car wash MSDS
Pearl car wash MSDS

Water, surfacant, alcohol. OH MY GOD!!! They've even got the same PH! The HORROR!!!

Yes folks, a little research and one finds that:
1) Dawn isn't an evil product with anti-paint properties
2) Car specific cleaners aren't any different than Dawn
3) Grease cutting cleaners are really all the same.

Interesting find:

http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-detailing-product-discussion/106337-wal-mart-prep-sol-3.html

[Michael Stoops]

Re: how to remove previous wax?

Yes folks, a little research and one finds that:
1) Dawn isn't an evil product with anti-paint properties
2) Car specific cleaners aren't any different than Dawn
3) Grease cutting cleaners are really all the same.

Yet Dawn has proven grease cutting capabilities (it would be worthless as a dish soap if it didn't) and is widely accepted as an effective way to strip wax.

A good car wash like Gold Class, NXT, etc will not strip wax. Obviously from that alone one can not say "Car specific cleaners aren't any different than Dawn". Some of the ingredients are most likely being generalized, like "petroleum distillate" often is when used in other products - some petroleum distillates are extremely powerful solvents, others are so thoroughly distilled as to be safe for human consumption. But they are still petroleum distillates.

It's like saying you shouldn't eat plants because, for example, the plant commonly known as Angel's Trumpets is highly poisonous and ingestion of same is sometimes fatal. Yet lettuce, corn, broccoli, etc are all perfectly safe, and often delicious, plants. Poison ivy falls somewhere in between.

People often use sweeping generalizations in an attempt to make a point. The point usually fails because of it.

Surfactants. Alcohol. Petroleum distillates. Silicone. Plant. All are extremely broad categories/materials.

How much? What kind? Used with what other ingredient that may alter a characteristic? Narrow down the generalizations and things change dramatically.

[hacker-pschorr]

Re: how to remove previous wax?

Good point Michael,

As it was pointed out in that thread, some car specific cleaners you find at PepBoys, like 3M Car Wash, looks like it will also strip off wax just like Dawn.