Applying wax: what did I do wrong?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

SW18

MB Enthusiast
SUPPORTER
Joined
Jul 7, 2016
Messages
1,785
Location
London
Car
Tesla Model Y (Formerly S212 E500)
Hi. I’d welcome some advice! Over time I’ve picked up some great tips for detailing from helpful folk here. Last month I finally decided to take all the good advice and give the car a proper clean, but I had trouble polishing off the wax and quite a few smeary patches were left. That was last month, but this week when I washed the car again and the sun shone on it, the waxy smears were still there. I buffed them again but some still remain! I am wondering did I apply the wax too thick or did I apply it in too much warmth (last month when I applied it, it was 15-16 C, and very light cloud).

My full approach was as follows:
Two-bucket wash with Meguiars Gold Class
Dry fully with Meguiars towel
Apply and buff off Meguiars Swirl Remover (lovely stuff! easy to use and great result)
Apply and buff off Bilt Hamber Doublespeed wax

It was all going swimmingly until the last part! All thoughts are gratefully received...
 
Something has left residue, I've not used the last 2 item's in your list, I did find Ones of Meguirs Wax's leaving excess grease and promptly binned it.

There Gold class Paste Wax is extremely easy to use and doesn't leave any smears.

P1010086
 
I would get a good wax remover . And only use one polish .I can tell you a good polish to try after .You can polish every thing on your car all but front window. Try Williams Waterless Wash and Wax. I do lots of detailing on cars and caravans .In that time i have used all types of car polishes.But the wife picked a bottle of this WWW and W .She did her car in 1/2 the time it took me with my polish .So looking at the finish, and i gave in , and thought i will give it a try .The polish is as good as any i have used in a long time .main thing is its easy to put on, and just as easy to remove in half the time .Now it said waterless,,, now,, i wash my car every time .Dont like the idea of polishing a car without a good wash first .
 
I apply the wax too thick or did I apply it in too much warmth (last month when I applied it, it was 15-16 C, and very light cloud).

Heat it rarely an issue. Probably due to what you alluded to , incorrect application
 
Something has left residue, I've not used the last 2 item's in your list, I did find Ones of Meguirs Wax's leaving excess grease and promptly binned it.

There Gold class Paste Wax is extremely easy to use and doesn't leave any smears.

P1010086
What a helpful reply, I have no idea what your problem is but my car looks great. You must be very proud.
 
Well thankyou for taking my reply completely the wrong way, glad I took the time to even bother. Perhaps it was down to the last 2 products the Op used, but having no experience in those last 2 I couldn’t pass judgement. What I have experience with worked well so there was the point with my picture. Jeez man chill out.
 
Last edited:
Just to add I never ever comment badly on other posters on here, I’ve got to much stress n drama going on in my own life without trying to add problems in other people’s lives. Some get a buzz out of it. I DONT!
 
Problem is the wax you used, i use a wax specially designed for black cars, now for a litre of it its £30 and the stuffs awesome, can be applied in hot sunshine with no problems, when i finished it i thought im not spending all that on wax again and bought some autoglym it was £13 for a litre, it was hard to put on, hard to take off and the next time i washed the car all these powdery white bits appeared, gave the polish away after 1 application and have kept buying the £30 stuff for years now and never had a problem except once, i did the car twice straight after 1 another. Car looked really good at the time i will add. So i conlude that too much product will cause the marks. Now i have used a 2 part polish system thats designed to go 1 after the other and again the car looked totally awesome but didnt have the whitish marks problem
 
Is there the chance you have slathered the wax on? No matter the type of wax or whether it has been specially formulated for your paint colour, the fact remains you are just applying it to the clearcoat and this surface will only accept a fraction of a micron of the product. Anything more and you are simply investing extra time to remove the surplus. Think of it as applying wax fumes. A quarter turn of a foam applicator on the surface of a tin of hardish wax should be all you need to cover a third of a bonnet.
 
It is now that horrible cold damp time of year when these products are more difficult to remove as they don’t dry properly. Whenever I have had similar disasters with products leaving hard to remove residue, I always find Auto Glym SRP very effective in this situation. Just remember to try and do it in a warmish garage if possible
 
I agree with reflexboy, whenever I have experienced issues with polish it has been down to the environment, there is a lot of damp in the air this time of year even on sunny days this can occur.

Robin


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
What a helpful reply, I have no idea what your problem is but my car looks great. You must be very proud.
Sarcasm : Bet your a nice guy to be around... :eek:
 
Sounds like you've just been a bit over generous with the wax OP. :)

Regardless of colour or wax type, if you got full on with it and over apply, if it cakes on it will be a right bugger to remove. Try a little bit of quick detailer on a cloth to see if it removes some of the residue.

I recall applying Collinite when i was first into detailing and over applied, it baked on and took longer to buff off that apply.
 
Thank you all! With the advice given, I am sure I did put too much wax on - particularly going by Toobad's description in post #12. I was using about 10 times the amount described! After using cheap liquid polish in the past, which can be slapped on and easily wiped off, I think I need to adjust my approach to get the best out of the hard wax. I will try again, and will also reconsider a wax formulated for black paint - I was originally put off stuff like Purple Haze by the cost, but maybe I should go for it.
 
I've recently used some Dodo Juice Black Widow on the Mrs black car to good effect.

The wax was more difficult to buff out than the Poorboys Black Hole glaze that went on before it so maybe some more effort should be expected.
 
Zymol carbon along with the paint cleanse is excellent on black cars. It’s is expensive but lasts for ages definitely worth a look I think I paid £75 ish at the time. They say to keep the wax refrigerated which pleased the wife no end haha
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom