Pre-Existing Wax

[Exec Root]

I have been advised to use DAWN soap to remove pre-existing wax before I re-detail my car again.



Why is this important?

[Buick_guy]

It strips the wax. Also, welcome to autopia, lots of good info on this site.

[Exec Root]

Thanks for the welcome. What difference does it make if I decide to just re-detail my car before Dawning the car.

[hawk393]

If you wax the car, then wash it with dawn, you won`t have wax on the car anymore. Usually you want to dawn the car before you begin detailing so if you polish, you know you`re polishing the paint surface rather than having to cut through the existing wax first.

[shaf]

Welcome to Autopia Exec Root. :welcome



(BTW, is your name a very round-about Office Space reference?)



People always talk about doing the Dawn wash for stripping things, but:



1) If your existing wax coat isn`t very recent I`m not sure if I would bother stripping it. The first polish you use on your car will eat through what wax remains anyway.



2) The Dawn wash is highly overrated. By this I mean that it`s stripping power isn`t very reliable and that it has a hard time (or is totally incapable) of removing certain waxes.



3) On the other hand, it doesn`t seem to hurt to do a Dawn wash once in a while (more frequently is a bad idea). Some people like its increased cleaning power over regular car shampoo.

[kustomsol]

The reason to use Dawn is to help prepare the surface. All of us on the board, I think, will agree that the final results depend greatly upon the basic cleaning and preparation of the surface. Dawn is a well known liquid detergent which is widely available. Had Zaino not "named" a brand, some people would probably use a dishwasher detergent (powder), etc. I Dawn wash and follow with a vinegar rinse before claying. Then Z-7 wash and apply Z-5 or Z-2 (with ZFX).