Using cleaner waxes after a polish?

C

candy eg

New member
well i've been looking at OTC waxes, and as i looked around my local stores (walmart, pepboys, kragen) i looked on autopians reviews of them, and the best one of the stores were cleaner waxes. i have light swirling and i wanted to remove them, should i use the cleaner wax itself or polish with scratchX before than just apply the cleaner wax?
 
One great cleaner wax to use is ColorX by Meguiars. It can help you deal with very light swirling, and does a great job for what it is.



If you are using a PC, you can work this product in a little longer, like a polish, and probably achieve what you seem to be wanting. You won't achieve results like you would if you went through the full process, but it will be good for a 1 step product.





If you have a few spots that are bad, a product like ScratchX would be useful in removing them, then move on to the cleaner wax.
 
so would using just the cleaner wax remove light swirling? or should i just the scratch x and then use the cleaner wax?
 
The ScratchX can remove swirls and scratches. ColorX can also help remove very light scratches and swirls, and will also help to hide some. It is a sort of all in one product. It cleans, polishes, and waxes in one step.



Are you working by hand or using a PC?



Also, applying ScratchX will remove anything on the surface, so make sure to use your lsp after it or any polishing you decide to do.
 
There's a difference between "cleaner waxes" and a wax that has cleaning properties. Not ALL OTC waxes are cleaner waxes, but 95% of them probably have some form of cleaning properties in them. NXT for example, is not a cleaner wax, but it has some MINOR cleaning properties compared to Meguiars Cleaner Wax (the step one thing in their 3 step)
 
A little clarification (not that I'm an expert on OTC products..):



The Deep Crystal Step #1 Cleaner is not a cleaner wax. It's a *very* mildly abrasive chemical cleaner.



The Meguiar's Cleaner Wax (known as "A12" to Meg's folks) in the burgundy bottle is a *very* mildly abrasive cleaner that does have wax in it (as the name says).



Color-X is a "cleaner-wax" but it's more of a cleaner and less of a wax, if that makes sense. It too is very mildly abrasive. It does do a bit of concealing though.



I don't know how the abrasiveness of the above three products compares; it's gonna be very close between them. I'd guess that the Deep Crystal Step #1 is the most abrasive and I doubt anybody'd notice a difference between the other two.



Scratch-X is a mildy abrasive cleaner, no wax. It's the most abrasive of all these, but it's still pretty mild.



I'd use the Scratch-X on the worst of it as Matt Colvin suggested. Then pretty much flip a coin between the Color-X (heavy cleaning) and the A12 Cleaner Wax (less need for chemical cleaning). Keep all these products off black plastic/rubber trim. I'd top that with something like Collinite wax because none of these cleaner waxes have great durability. You can often find Collinite in autoparts or marine stores.



There are other OTC waxes that people report good durability from. I think it was Mosca (maybe worth a search) who used something like "Rally" and was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. Meguiar's #26 is also commonly available.



A cleaner-wax topped with a "straight wax" is a good combo.



And don't forget autopaint/body supply shops. I've shopped at those since I was a kid and they can radically expand your conception of "OTC".
 
yea i ended up buying the mother's ca gold original shine cleaner wax because it was so cheap and had the best review in the reviews section compared to other OTC products.
 
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