Are waxes or sealants even necessary with today’s modern clearcoats? If so, how?



Are they adding longevity to its composition? Hence feeding, coating, sealing…



Are they eliminating UV rays from fading the basecoat?



Are they eliminating acids from rain, birds and insects from etching into the clearcoat?



Do they create a sacrificial barrier that eliminates surface marring due to slickness? Even though initial slickness falls off almost initially after the 1st few washes, does that mean this so-called protective characteristic has diminished too?



Is beading indicative of protection? If so at what capacity?





I`ve seen and worked on tons of 2-3++ vehicles that had never been LSP`d and most times never witnessed any damage that the LSP could have eliminated. Yeah, each one had tons of RIDS and swirls, but that`s irrelavent to protection value.



Is the silicone content in LSP’s, (which is what’s really responsible for this attribute enthusiasts cherish/envy/idolize so much that creates a vehicle to bead and sheet water) add any benefit to the longevity of paint? (i.e. waxing an oxidized finish and 3 weeks later it fades right back but still beads water)







Thought:

If you split up a daily driven vehicle into ’s where 1 side was LSP’d every 4 months for 10 years & the other half was lightly polished at the same interval with a non-abrasive finishing polish coupled with a non-abrasive finishing pad (i.e. jewelling) which side would be better preserved over the long term? No matter how well refined your wash regiment is, you’re still instilling a measureable (not seen by the naked eye mind you) amount of super micro-marring that’s slowly depleting the appearance of the gloss. The LSP’d side will never correct this super ultra fine micro-marring, thus snowballing the hazing effect, where the regularly polished side will be regularly correcting it. I’m sure at this point in your reading you’re saying to yourself that every time you polish the surface you’re thinning the thickness of the clearcoat, right? But are you, and how much? I’d be willing to say that this non-abrasive practice that’s being done 40 times over the course of the comparison *might* remove less than 5 microns (not mils) of film build? Doing the math and acknowledging the thought that many vehicle manufactures don’t recommend removing any more than ~.5 mils(12.7 microns) of clear before *possible* detrimental UV exposure *could* occur, there’s still tons of clear left to still be on the “safe” side. The upside of this comparison is that the polished finish will look totally better than the just LSP’d side.





Which would you rather have?