water beading and no wax

[rdockery_3]

When I waxed my car the other day I forgot to wax around the mirrors, but today when I went out to my car after it had rained water had beaded up on this surface. I washed my car with Dawn before waxing so all the old wax should've been gone. I have always used rain water as an indication of when I need to apply more wax. I thought if its beading then my wax is still good. If there isn't any wax on my mirrors why is the water beading or did the Dawn just not get rid of all the wax?

[Murr1525]

Re: water beading and no wax

Water beading comes from low surface tension... meaning the water cant grab onto anything on the surface, and so grabs onto itself and balls up.

So if the mirrors were clean, and the paint in decent shape, there wasnt much for the water to grab onto anyway.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: water beading and no wax

What you're seeing is the reason we've always said that water beading alone is not an indicator of protection. It is merely an indication of surface tension, and even that can change although the protection hasn't. That means that you can apply a fresh coat of wax and see a certain level of beading, but even if that beading changes in a matter of days or weeks, you haven't necessarily lost all the wax.

On the flip side, if you were to use Ultimate Compound on your paint to remove all below surface defects and then follow with Ultimate Polish the would not only look fantastic but it would bead water like crazy. And you would have zero protection on the finish.

We've seen cars that haven't been waxed in years bead water on the surface, and others where the water just lays there in a sheet. Yes, those nice tight water beads look cool, but they are not a guaranteed sign of anything other than surface tension.

[TOGWT]

Re: water beading and no wax

^^^ very informative post...

[rapport25]

Re: water beading and no wax

^^^ very informative post...

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