I know there was a thread a while back where someone was asking about using dish washing soap to remove old wax. So I've been looking at other ways to remove it, and I was wondering if anyone here has used a car polish to remove their old wax?

If so, how did you do it? Any other special tricks to removing it?

Sorry if this seems like too much a repost by the way.

 

Any dedicated paint cleaner will remove wax, that is, any solvent or abrasive polish.

Meguiar's Deep Crystal step 1 will do it.

Why are you removing your old wax? If you're only doing it to put on new wax, what I would do is use a cleaner wax or other type of all-in-one type product like Klasse AIO. If you want to go extra, then you can top your AIO with a non-cleaner paste wax.

Otherwise, yeah, use any kind of polish.

 

Well, for a while I thought it just wore off on its own. But now I'm under the impression that your simply caking on more wax each time if you don't remove the old after a while.

So do you just never have to remove the old? I figured that since there are products made just to do that, then it must be necessary at some point or another.

 

Oh, and how will I know that it's off the car? Will there be an obvious difference in the shine or something?

 

The feel. Just claybar the car and then wax it! Claybar, polish, wax. Or claybar, cleaner wax, and non cleaner wax.

 

Is there anything wrong with not removing it at all? Or will removing it and occasionally putting on new wax make a better shine?

I really really wanna try and clay bar it, but is there anything I could possibly do wrong with a clay bar that could screw up my paint? And I read in one thread about using clay bars, that some guys clay turned almost pitch black just after doing the hood. Do you have to stop and switch to a different side occasionally like you would with a dirty cloth or something?

Questions questions, answer them all and get a prize!

 

No problem at all. I don't strip my car down until I need to polish it. Otherwise at every wash, I apply a coat of my Collinite 476S and then top it with Duragloss Aquawax.

What you do generally get with stripping your paint down to bare paint is, usually, whatever you used to clean your paint has some kind of oils and/or fillers in it that mask imperfections and deepen the paint. This is what you'll get with Meguiar's Deep Crystal 3 Step system. The difference isn't all that huge and if you're working with consumer stuff, I don't think you'll mind. I spend hours detailing my and others' cars but I need to REALLY look for the nuances between one wax and another.

Some waxes might be a little funky. Pinnacle Souveran, as been reported by some, seems to "die" on the paint and leave a weird residue. But generally, you wouldn't be able to tell at a glance that a wax is losing its protection.

Clay bars are easy to use but yeah, there are ways to mess up really badly. The key is to make sure there is some kind of lubricant underneat the claybar. Most clay bar kits come with a quick detailer but it's more economical to use your car soap solution. What I usually do when I clay is wash the car, rinse, and then soap the panel that I'm working on and clay bar it. Then I soap down the next panel, clay bar that, and so on. After I'm done with the clay bar, there'll probably be dried soap suds all over. I just do a quick once-over with the rest of the soap and then rinse and dry.

As far as claying with a clean clay, after the clay bar surface is soiled (has a film of grime on it or is embedded with a lot of black specks) then told it in on itself so that the soiled side is in the middle, sandwiched between two clean sides. Keep doing that until you can't refold it into a new clean side. You should get quite a few uses out of any one clay bar.

 

So you can just use soap and water as your lubricant? Can you clay the glass and plastic parts as well?

 

So are you saying that I will be stripping off my clear coat as well, or do you mean stripping down to bare paint as in simply removing all the wax?

 

Clear coat is paint. Clear coated paint jobs are a base color coat and a clear coat on top. The clear coat is to protect the base coat and has a sort of different formulation but you need to protect it as well.

Soap and water as a lubricant... yes. Except make sure it's car soap. Car soaps (or shampoo if you want to sound sophisticated) are mostly just lubricants with some detergent power. The point is to get the dust and dirt off of the paint and onto your mitt or sponge or what have you. Don't use Dawn or Palmolive or anything like that as clay lube as it won't "lube" and be bad for the clay. You can clay glass and lights. I don't know about trim and the like. I'm sure there'll be no harm done so long as there's lube underneath. You can also clay your wheels. If you have enough clay, split it and use one for the paint and one for wheels and glass.

 

Cool, thanks for answering all these questions you guys. As you can see, I'm obviously still a clay virgin.

 

there are some auto shampoo's out there made for this. I used some BMW auto shampoo when i ran out of mr clean, and had some laying around, aparently it takes wax off, even though that wasnt what i was tyring to do

 

It really depends why you want the wax removed. But if it were me, I'd wash the car, then Bug Bar (Turbo Wax clever clay bar type thingee), pre-cleaner wax it, then wax. Obviously drying and removing product after each procedure.

Mixing products will dimish the results in any brand.

 

Ok, so, I just watched a quick vid of someone using Meguiars clay and he said it was not abrasive...I thought it was somewhat...

Secondly, I went and bought the Mother's clay bar kit thingy today and when I felt the clay, it almost feels like play-dough (play-do, play-dough???). Could that be used if something happened to my clay bar lol? Maybe it's a dumb question but when I pulled it out of the package I was like, ?????

 

don't drop the clay, if you did, the clay bar is ruin. I heard u can use the clay bar to clean wheel too, but i haven't try that.
I use Mr.Clean Easer for wheel.

 

We never really strip a wax off per say. We just wash, clay and wax. If we use swirl remover it will take the wax off. Dawn is very strong and should not be used very often.

In addition detail clay will remove embedded brake dust and fallout that penetrates the clear coat or paint as well as over spray. The Pre Wax Cleanser removes road grime, light oxidization and tar.

Here is what we use

Product Description

New generation and Technology , environmentally friendly product for dropping , oxidation and insect grime remover on surface of paint finish.

Purpose:

Turbo Wax Oxidation and Bug remover can be used to quickly and safely remove bonded contaminants, dropping and insect grime from automotive finishes. For automotive paint finishes, this product has the same function and environmentally safety as clay-based stain removers.

The value and benefits:

1)Just use with water, no need to buy other tool or special detergents for rigid stain.

2)Reduce over half time of removing contaminants: Use friendly and it is very easy and quick to remove dropping, insect grime and containments, which bonded on paint finish and only operate with water.

3)Extra value: This product also has same function of clay based when use properly, Will work better than any clay bar when used properly

4)Environmentally friendly: Just use with water and decrease water pollution.

5)Long lifespan of product: At least wash 20 to 35 times in properly use and store.

6)If block is drop in the floor, simply rinse it down and re-use.

 

Okay, the tC has officially been clayed for the first time. I must say, I'm pleased with the results of the clay bar and wax.

I also went ahead and completely vacuumed out the interior, dusted everything, etc. So I came in and chilled for an hour or so, then went back and cleaned out the engine bay, armored all wiped everything black that i could reach, cleaned up all the dust. Then I cleaned out the area where the sunroof closes over, underneath the little deflector and all that.

I'd say that it's cleaner now than it was the day it left the lot.













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The pics are bigger now, had the thumbs up there earlier.

 

looks good man, a little tip for the engine bay, once you clean everything, spray it down with some of that spray on tire stuff, and then wipe everything down, it will keep it shinign for months.

 

Yeah it's all armor all'd for now. But that Black Magic Tire Wet stuff would make it shinier.

 

i actually prefer the el cheapo aerosol stuff, that foams up, because it will get in behind all your hoseclamps, and in the little cracks and crevacies, and its cheap.