So you say a "thin" coat of wax is best huh?

[tcope1]

Re: So you say a "thin" coat of wax is best huh?

Only thing I would change is not spraying your pad with Last Touch before applying wax... I don't see why you would want to do that. It sounds like it would make the wax dry less effectively.

I do it so that less of the product being used is absorbed into the foam applicator.

[xantonin]

Re: So you say a "thin" coat of wax is best huh?

I do it so that less of the product being used is absorbed into the foam applicator.

But when applying wax, you _want_ only wax to be absorbed into the foam applicator. It ensures you spread it more evenly.

If you apply Last Touch, how do you know if you've spread wax across your panel or if you spread last touch?

If you use only wax, you should be able to apply pressure on the foam pad to "squeeze out" any excess wax absorbed, if you're worried about using too much product.

[searle]

Re: So you say a "thin" coat of wax is best huh?

What's really interesting about this gentleman's testing (he has a second thread on that forum testing more products) is that he used a broad variety of waxes and applied them in different ways, yet the net effect of any one test subject was always within a fraction of any other test subject. What's also interesting is that he found, under repeated "buffing" of the wax or using heavy pressure to "buff" the wax, that he actually remove the vast majority of his film build. Meguiar's has always taught that once the wax has dried all you need to do is wipe it off, there is no need to repeatedly buff it as you don't gain more shine from doing so. His testing would seem to prove that in so doing you actually continue to remove more and more wax. That, obviously, is not a good thing!

I read the results mostly the same as you, but not totally. When he applied waxes and extremely lightly buffed, he ended up with different thicknesses (which he noted as an inconsistent problem). When he then re-buffed the thickness decreased. But with slightly heavier buffing (not just a trivial wipe) and/or more buffs, he seems to always end up with approximately 5.6nm of final wax. I believe his conclusion was that this final 5.6nm coat was the "net" wax, and that anything else above that was just excess still not buffed off (due to overly light wiping)

Clearly massively aggressive and repeated buffing will eventually remove all wax (due to abrassive action of the wipe cloth).

But, I believe his conclusion was almost exactly what Meguiars has always said:
1) apply a THIN coat, let haze dry, and lightly buff off the excess to get a nice shine.
2) Do NOT keep re-buffing over and over. You can buff excess once, let dry again and lightly give a final wipe - but that is it. Heavy or repeated buffing does not improve the wax process, you end up with the same thin coat (until you start to abrassively wear off the wax coat)
3) layering is a myth, you still end up with the same thin coat (2 coats just helps ensure no missed or overly-thin spots).

Many other companies try to sell consumers on applying MANY coats of their (expensive) product. Meguiars tells customers exactly what they need to know and do (2 thin coats), without over-sell of product over-use.

[searle]

Re: So you say a "thin" coat of wax is best huh?

...I followed it up with some ColorX and applied it VERY thin, so thin that I had to look at an angle to see that I had even applied anything. I let it dry and buffed off after doing the swipe test, but it seemed ready to buff after about 5 minutes. It was about 70 degrees F outside.

...And is it ok that it only took 5 minutes for the ColorX to dry? Isn't that kind of fast?

...just wanted to simply clean the paint and add some protection. Does everything I did sound ok? I have some SwirlX, too, maybe I should have used that to clean the paint? I will be following it up with NXT 2.0 wax and GC carnauba wax if everything looks good.

Sounds good. As long as everywhere on the panel there was SOME wax that hazed and you could perform and see the "swipe test" (or see the haze looking sideways etc) then you are fine. Any more wax just makes removal harder and does NOT give any better protection.

ColorX has a pretty good cleaner, probably no reason to use SwirlX first if you are not trying to do any defect removal.

Always do 2 coats of wax, but that can be one of ColorX (with its cleaner and polish as well as wax) then followed by another ColorX, or followed by a pure wax (like DC3 or #26) or sealant (like #21 or NXT2).

You seem to have everything well in hand.