People often ask what is car wax and what is car polish?
They are two vastly different products, one protects, while the other has a slight amount of cut in it to remove oxidation from the paint work. Using too much polish will cause damage in time, you find yourself going through your painted surface to show the undercoat below or even worse the metal work, so using them with caution is always best.
A great deal of people do not know what is best to use and miss use the term polish and wax, some people will say I want to polish my car and others will say I want to wax my car and both these people mean the same thing, we hope the below will help you gain an understanding of the two, if you require further help you can email an expert on sales@robornes.com for further details and guidance on this subject.
With a car polish its designed to cut the paint with the small amount of abrasive products it contains, car polish will help remove swirls, scratches and oxidation.
With the cutting actions of a car polish, it will remove slight amounts of the top surface layer, to gain the best reflection from the paint and cut away the oxidation caused by the environment and incorrect care.
A car polish can come in many different grades, from coarse to fine, depending on the level of oxidation you have will depend on the type of cut you require with your car polish.
Modern car polish is made of what’s known as diminishing abrasives, which break down into further smaller particles as they work on the surface, getting smaller and smaller as they polish the surface.
With some paints being softer than others, its best not to use a polish often and in these cases once a car polish has been used a quality glaze can be used to maintain the shine and appearance of the freshly painted and corrected surface.
Scratch removers are also a good product to help with removing swirls and scratches in your painted surface. A scratch remover is perfect for working in areas around door handles, boot lids and where keys may have scratched the surface or even the edges of doors that can get abuse from getting in and out.
Polishes do contain waxes and oils but these are mainly in them to help with lubrication when working into the painted surface to remove swirls and oxidation from the painted surfaces.
When you are using a polish you will see a transfer of colour to your pad, but this can be deceiving as modern cars have had a clear coat applied to them and older classic cars that had a restoration carried out may have a clear coat on them as well, so you won’t see any colour transfer to your pad in this case. Without knowing you can remove a great deal of the clear coat which is designed to give clarity and depth to your paint, so always work on the caution side when polishing your painted surfaces.
A polish can remove items like bird lime etchings that stain the paintwork due to the acid in the bird lime, when you get bird lime on the paint its always best to remove as quickly as possible to avoid any etching of the paint work.
Wax is a natural product that comes in many forms i.e carnauba the vegetable form to bees wax the animal form. Due to these waxes being natural it makes them perfect for protecting your painted surface, they have no cut or abrasive actions in them whatsoever and are designed to care for the freshly polished and corrected surface producing shine and depth to the painted surface.
The most commonly used wax in the automotive industry is carnauba this is derived from the leaves of the palm copernicia prunifera, also called a Brazil wax or Palm wax.
Carnauba in its natural form is harder than concrete, so as you can imagine it produces an exceptionally durable finish on the painted surface, it has a high melting point of around 82 – 86 °C as well making it the perfect wax for protection against the elements, its also virtually insoluble within water, which means it wont wash off after your first wash or after rain showers.
Companies claim all sorts of figures what carnauba content a wax is and some even say 100% pure carnauba, that’s impossible because if it were it would ruin your car as its harder than concrete in a 100% pure carnauba form.
Most waxes contain UV inhibitors to help protect your pain further, this will help stop UV fading and bleaching of the paint work, you can wax as often as you like, but polishing is something that should not be done very often as its removing micro layers of the finish each time you do this step.
Modern coatings can come in many forms now, from Ceramics to a polysilazane car coating, the polysilazane coatings have a great deal more active ingredients in them making them in our opinion more durable and stronger than a ceramic coating, a polysilazane coating prevents oxidation, rain spots, and graffiti on your painted surface, but they also protect plastics, dull and shiny plastics in one hit.
Another form of polysilazanes coat wheels preventing break dust build up making them the perfect partner for your alloy wheel protection.
To find out more details about your car protection, polishing or waxing email sales@robornes.com Tel 01482 235265