Paint care

[fullsized]

OK here is one I did not find info on. Maybe my search terms were not right. On paint what is the current top wax or ceramic coating to use? i hear the ceramic coatings quality very a lot from company to company. 65 Chrysler with original White paint. Thanks.

 

[Big_John]

OK here is one I did not find info on. Maybe my search terms were not right. On paint what is the current top wax or ceramic coating to use? i hear the ceramic coatings quality very a lot from company to company. 65 Chrysler with original White paint. Thanks.

Ask 10 guys and you'll get 10 different answers.

I've tried ceramics of different flavors, and I can't say that I liked any of them.

My go to is Collinte 845 "Insulator Wax" topped with P&S "Bead Maker". For detailing spray, I use P&S "Paint Gloss" detailing spray.

For the bumpers, I use Collinite 850 "Metal Wax" (none better and I've tried a bunch)

Product links below:
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com

The paint on my 300L isn't the greatest, but I got some shine with those products.

Obligatory clouds in the hood pic.

 

[Big_John]

And my white car with those products.

 

[MoPar~Man]

In early 2022 I took some deep dives into waxes, seeing what people were talking about. And the ceramic stuff. That took me to some forum sites focused only on detailing.

Regarding ceramics, I came away with the impression that to do it right, the car must be insanely clean first, so prep is super important, and that you are actually chemically changing the paint surface when you apply some sort of ceramic finish.

As far as waxes go, I found that a certain product was highly regarded:

Big White
Hi-temp paste wax
BWM 101
Finish Kare Products
South El Monte California

I could not buy any locally, at retail, I did find a can of it on ebay, in England (!), the price was reasonable so I bought it. Haven't really used it yet. It's a butter-yellow color, hard but greasy to the touch. Main claim to fame is that it will stay put on a car in the hot sun, so it has good hi-temp staying power, more important on cars painted in dark colors I suppose. I have no idea of it's current availability or what the crowd thinks of it today. After getting my Monaco ready for driving in a couple months after a 2-year re-hab I intend to try this wax on it (dark green body, light green top).

 

[CBODY67]

ONE main issue is what condition the current paint is now in. I'm suspecting it might be getting a bit thin if several cleaner waxes have been used on it through the years. Which remove the light surface oxidation and lay down a decent wax finish.

I had great results with the old Classic Wax in the later 1960s. Premium carnauba wax with jeweler's rouge for its cleaning agent. Worked well on our '66 Newport Town Sedan, which was also white. Made the anodized aluminum side trim look great, too.

Then I transitioned into the old Meguiar's "red bottle" cleaner wax. Worked well on another white car I have. Easy to apply and wipe off with great durability . . . all of this was pre-1980, though.

The whole landscape of waxes has changed since then, as has the ownership of Meguiar's.

There are LOTs of YTube videos on ceramic coatings and such. When I was looking at the a few years ago, after the Tork brand of spray-on ceramic protection came out, it seemed that most of the "competitions" were won by the new Meguiar's ceramic products. There were others that had bigger claims and such, but the Meguiars ended up besting all of them, even if by a small amount in ultimate durability. And NOW there are graphene protectants which are supposed to be even better.

For an aged paint job, you might want to use a cleaner wax to start with. Then after a week of letting that surface cure, do another application of the cleaner wax, to ensure that a good coat of wax is there and that it till stay stuck. Then a week later, put the final "sealing" coat of your choice of "fancy was" on it and enjoy. It seems, from my experiences, that that week of cure time between coats makes things work better.

Doing the first coats of cleaner wax, work in sections of the car, by hand. That will help you not get too sore as you build your arm and chest, maybe a little abs strength, as you get things rubbed-in. Then, you can get a somewhat inexpensive 6" orbital buffer and good pads at Harbor Freight for the next times.

With thinner OEM paint, DISCRETION is the operative orientation. Trying to get that last bit of shine can also "strike primer". No need to add "patina" because of that!

"Color" DOES matter. In TX, the summer sun can "cook-off" a wax job on a black car, no matter the quality of the was, in about three months. That was in the middle 1980s. Whites/lighter colors were much better, for me.

Enjoy!
CBODY67

 

[fullsized]

Ask 10 guys and you'll get 10 different answers.

I've tried ceramics of different flavors, and I can't say that I liked any of them.

My go to is Collinte 845 "Insulator Wax" topped with P&S "Bead Maker". For detailing spray, I use P&S "Paint Gloss" detailing spray.

For the bumpers, I use Collinite 850 "Metal Wax" (none better and I've tried a bunch)

Product links below:
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com

The paint on my 300L isn't the greatest, but I got some shine with those products.

Obligatory clouds in the hood pic.

Yes I know this is a can of worms, it is like asking which brand of oil to use (a band topic in my Honda motorcycle group). But I have not had to think about this in a few decades so I am out of touch with the latest info.

 

[57fury440]

There are so many different waxes to chose from. I used this after claying the surface. It looks great.

 

[3C's & a D?]

You know spring is here when these guys show up at the gas station's. It's actually a really good product. It's not going to be as good as the multi-step methods listed above. However it's very quick and easy. Spray everything including glass, rub majority off/in, then go around polishing. Done. Makes black plastic on newer vehicles darker, doesn't cloud windows when it gets wet, actually works like rainx, beads nicely for quite awhile, polishes and protects chrome, sort of works as tire shine, helps keep brake dust from sticking to wheels. The girl that approached me at the pumps a week ago claimed that it would take the yellow out of headlight plastic. I think that's a stretching the truth, but I could be wrong. A little goes a long way, the first time I used it I layed it on really thick which was a waste of product and time.

FW1 Wash and Wax Lab Tested, Pit Proven.® — FASTWAX