Remove Wax before polishing?

[larry_bar56]

Hi,

I'm new to this group but it seems like a really knowledgeable bunch.

I have a white 1995 BMW that I have owned for about 7 months now. Here in New England we have been anxiously awaiting the good weather to get the cars clean.

My car has some swirl marks, not horrible, but it would be nice to remove them. I spent some time polishing it last weekend using both 3M swirl remover for light cars and 3M Imperial Hand Glaze. The Imperial HG, I believe is not aggressive enough to remove the swirl marks, but the 3M swirl remover didn't do a good job either. My concern is that there is already a coat of wax on the paint and these polishing agents get used up cutting through that before they can do any good for the paint.

Do I need to do something prior to polishing to remove the old wax? Are there other products that might give better results? Is there a procedure to follow prior to polishing the paint?

Thanks!

[bretfraz]

Welcome to Autopia

If its been 7 months since your last wax job then there is no wax to cut thru. Carnaubas rarely last past 12-18 weeks and most are gone in 6-10 weeks. So unless you were using a really tough polymer sealant, wax was not a factor in your polishing.

The problem is that the polishes you are using are too mild. When polishing by hand you need a more aggressive product than if polishing by machine. That's because the product needs to do a lot more work since your hands can only do so much. The IHG has no polishing/cleaning ability at all. Glazes are comprised of fillers and oils mostly and are designed to fill in light swirls and leave a nice shine. Think of glazes like makeup. SMR's are the next step up the ladder from glazes but they too are mild by design. SMR's work much better by machine.

You need something with more bite. Sticking with the 3M line you could go to Perfect-It II Rubbing Compound which should do the trick, followed by the SMR which should polish out the light swirls caused by the compound. Skip the glaze if you want to and go right to wax. Frankly, I think glaze is a waste on white because white hides the microswirls that glaze fills. On black glaze is critical to get a perfect finish but not on white.

Hope all this helps. Let us know if you have more questions.

[larry_bar56]

Thanks for the advice, yes it was very helpful.

Since I just applied a fresh coat of wax after my "polishing" I guess I'll have to wait a while before I tackle the swirl marks again. Any other suggestions besides the 3M Perfect-It II? Or a better question, what have you used in the past that you like?

[Accumulator]

larry_bar56- Welcome to Autopia! If you wash your car with Dawn, it'll strip off most of the wax. But, even your fresh coat of wax won't stand up too well to the abrasives required to remove swirls. If it'll remove PAINT (swirl removal) it'll easily remove the wax too. It MIGHT gum up your applicator/pad a bit, but it shouldn't be a real problem. I myself would probably wait until the wax shows signs of degrading before doing anything, unless the swirls are SO bad that the car looks crappy.

Generally, what bretfraz said

Remove the swirls, and use the proper wash/dry techniques to avoid introducing new ones.

I recently used the PI-II rubbing compound (I think the p/n is 39002) and I DO think it might be just the thing for your application, followed by the SMR. Don't be nervous about the "rubbing compound", it's much milder than I thought it would be (not like the semi-liquid-sandpaper paste stuff). I wouldn't use it all the time, or press real hard, but it's really not all that aggressive.

BTW, if you decide to spring for a PC, your white car can be a breeze to keep nice. Without one, you'll just have to work a little harder.

[larry_bar56]

Good stuff!

I can wait. The swirls aren't that bad, really only visible in very specific light conditions. I've got plenty of small nicks on the front to deal with in the mean time.

I use a cotton terry (very long knap) covered sponge to do the washing, with P21S Auto wash. Then dry with a Super Absorber towel...kinda feels like rubber but is very absorbant.

Being new I'm not up on all the abbreviations. I assume PC is some type of power buffer, what does PC stand for?

If it would speed things up I could probably justify it.

[ronald_m]

I Love 3M PI II fine cut rubbing compound.It removes all the swears on my black benz that the DACP can't.I think 3m fine cut RC is mild it can only cut the the swirls but can't remove deeper scratches which is good that means that your clear coat will not remove.The only downside is it has alo of powder residue compare to DACP.

[Accumulator]

larry_bar56- Before someone screams "do a search" the PC is a Porter Cable random orbital polisher (originally made for sanding). There are a few virtually identical models out there (so, uhm, do a search ). It's the "standard" around here, although a few of us also like (or even prefer) the Cyclo . Prices run from around $110 for the PC to around $230 for the Cyclo (I think, bought mine YEARS ago). BIG time-savers, shoulder-savers, etc.