Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

[wwe9112]

I am a person whom likes to try new products a lot and frequently. I have UW on my car now but I seen that Turtle Wax released a new wax and I wanted to give it a try for a little but and then obviously go back to Meguiar's lol but that leads me to this question. I need to remove the old wax that is on there so that the new wax adheres better to the clearcoat. I've, about a week or two ago, clayed already and put UW on there and I really liked it. But then I seen my old wax has a new line out and want to give it a shot. How do I go about doing this?

I thought about using ultimate polish, but it removes clearcoat so in theory wouldn't my paint and clearcoat last less time if I changed waxes frequently and used polish to remove the old wax? I'm a little bit lost so I am looking for the pro's advice lol.

On a side note, my car is the 2014 silver ingot Ford focus which is a brightish silver color with metal flake. Wax is REALLY a pain in the butt to try and see on the car. Is there some sort of tint you can buy and put in the wax to see it better? I've used gold class and it's a lightish yellowish color, but I wish there was a GOOD black wax or something with some darker so those of us with light colored cars could see the wax lol.

Thank you.

[The Guz]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

Welcome. You will be fine polishing it off. The amount of paint that UP removes is miniscule.

[davey g-force]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

Trivial even!

Alternatively, you could strip the current sealant with IPA or APC or a dedicated panel wipe product.

[wwe9112]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

What are those if you don't mind me asking. I know IPA is Isopropyl Alcohol -- wouldn't that dry the rubbers out? Wow that sounded wrong but I mean around the windshield and shuch?

[davey g-force]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

You can use IPA occasionally without doing any harm. If you do it a lot and it gets on the rubbers, then yes, it could dry out rubber / trim. You're supposed to keep it off the rubber anyway.

APC (All Purpose Cleaner) is the same. Occasional use is ok.

[wwe9112]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

What APC would you say is the best? How do you do it exactly? Is there a ratio? Do you literally wash the car with it or how does this work?

[davey g-force]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

Meguiar's APC or APC+ is good. I don't usually need to strip wax, but I'd say about 10 parts water to 1 part APC would do it.

Yes, just add it into a bucket with water, and wash the car as you normally would.

A lot of people actually just use dish soap for this purpose, but I'm not sure if it's strong enough to completely strip UW, since it's very durable and you only recently applied it. Definitely worth a shot though.

[The Guz]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

Polishing or claying are your best bet. IPA and APC don't work all the time. On a carnauba wax there is a good chance. On sealants maybe not. They are typically pretty durable. Dawn doesn't work to strip off sealants. The surfactants within the products is what you are seeing when there is no beading. There is an article that you can google on this exact subject having someone using dish soap and then followed up with an IPA wipe and the beading returned.

D114 at a strong dilution can also strip wax. That info is on this forum.

[Coach]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

I have never really "intentionally" stripped wax off my cars but will soon. My son's car has moderate swirls and needs correction. It has ULW as sealer topped with M26 and GCQW 1-2X per week.
Can I assume M105 or UC will strip the wax/sealer easily as we start the correction? Or, should he rub down with IPA first then start correction?
Also, would you recommend a full 2B wash after an IPA strip?
Thanks in advance!
Coach

[The Guz]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

If you are going to do any sort of paint correction I would not even bother using IPA.

IPA may or may not work to remove ULW.

[Top Gear]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

...I don't usually need to strip wax...

LOL, I've never had this problem Trying to keep it on is the bigger problem.

Seriously, though, wwe9112, I wouldn't use anything chemical-wise. I'd just use something like Gold Class Shampoo, mix it a little strong, do a sudsy bath, maybe with a couple of passes (avoiding grit!), and whatever wax you think is there will be essentially nil, or reduced so much as to be near enough gone.

I think where some of us are coming from is that we are usually doing a machine polish or other work and so the wax is just gone in the process of cleaning and polishing the surface, regardless of what method or steps are used. So, it sounds like you're just waxing and not doing polish or correction?, and given where you are, you probably get enough rain and resulting washings to have significantly reduced the UW protection already. Even if it's at 100%, it shouldn't require much more than a touchless wash or some sudsy washing to reduce it enough to put on your new wax.

Hope that helps.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

Your very recent application of Ultimate Wax might be a tad bit tricky to remove with clay or even a light application of Ultimate Polish, to be honest with you. UW is a very slick polymer sealant that can actually cause abrasive particles to basically glide over it. Heck, we can't tell you how many times in our training garage we've had Ultimate Quik Wax recently applied to a test panel and it dramatically slows down our ability to DA wet sand the panel!

You're best bet, if you really want to strip that UW now, would be either IPA or APC, or maybe even a couple washes with a dishwashing detergent. Had you applied this product several months ago, things would be a bit different, and much easier, to fully strip it off the paint.

[wwe9112]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

Your very recent application of Ultimate Wax might be a tad bit tricky to remove with clay or even a light application of Ultimate Polish, to be honest with you. UW is a very slick polymer sealant that can actually cause abrasive particles to basically glide over it. Heck, we can't tell you how many times in our training garage we've had Ultimate Quik Wax recently applied to a test panel and it dramatically slows down our ability to DA wet sand the panel!

You're best bet, if you really want to strip that UW now, would be either IPA or APC, or maybe even a couple washes with a dishwashing detergent. Had you applied this product several months ago, things would be a bit different, and much easier, to fully strip it off the paint.

So with IPA I just mix the IPA half and half in a squirt bottle and spray it on the surface and wipe it down with the microfiber towel?

How do you guys overcome this at your garage? Thanks for all the tips and advise everyone! I love learning new ways and things in this field.

[jjrakwichian]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

As " davey g-force " said, Using an IPA mixed to spray on the vehicle and wipe that off one section at the time is working perfectly and this will actually on taking down any buffing oil, polishing oil, sealant and wax with no doubt. As for all rubber trims and Vinyls, if happened to spray the IPA mixed on those surfaces then all you really need to do is wipe that off right away do not let that dry otherwise it will become a major problem for you to clean that off at the later time.......

Another way to do is just using a dish soap to wash down the entire vehicle and I know that may be sound like a dump advice, but it is actually not if you plan to rebuffing or repolishing your vehicle again and that will actually make it easier to buff or polish because it will take down almost everything off the paint or clearcoat ( but still need to clay after wash tho ( not as much ) ). NOW, I know you will tell me that oh, if using a dish soap to wash the vehicle will not this dish soap going to eat in all Plastics trims or Vinyl trims? Answer is yes, but again, it is actually good because the surface will be so cleaned and that will make it a whole lot easier to condition that back to like new again and it will stay very last long

[jjrakwichian]

Re: Safely remove old wax? Wax Tint?

not 50/50 but instead it will be 90% water and 10% ( On 99%IPA ) / 80% water and 20% ( On 70 - 80% IPA )

If mixing half and half that will actually overkilled the paint.....