Car wash soap

[Surf City Garage]

Maintenance wash: This should be something slick and sudsy and not strip wax right? Do the car wash soaps that have "wax" or other "paint conditioners" in them actually provide any real protective or gloss benefits?

Pre-wax wash: Would it be counter productive to use an above mentioned soap that has wax or other paint conditioners in it? Would this leave a slick surface or residue on my Tahoe that would keep my carnuba from bonding to the clearcoat?

Stripping: While I can think of several things I know of that can strip wax, is there a product that is best practice to use?

Thanks!

Hello! Surf City Garage has a couple options for washing your vehicle...

For a Maintenance wash, Surf City Professional Extreme Suds Balanced Wash is the sudsiest, most foamy, and clingy pH neutral Car Soap out there. It can be used in buckets, a Foam Gun, or even a Foam Cannon. Small amounts of this stuff produce LARGE amounts of suds! Being pH neutral also won't strip your finish of protection.



Wax will never bond to the clear coat. UV rays will melt it off long before it has a chance to bond or settle on the clear. Think of wax as a living thing that starts dying as soon as you lay it down. Wax surfs your clear coat whereas Sealants DO bond to the clear coat.

Surf City Professional DOES have a dedicated strip wash. It's called Surf City Professional Surface Prep Wash. It's a light alkaline cleaner but safe to strip any waxes, sealants and dressings that you need to get removed before going into paint decon and polishing...or just to reset the paint and lay down some new sealant or wax. It's much safer than a household cleaner, and already mixed so that you don't have to add anything additional into your wash bucket.

Using things like an air blower to dry is a great idea. However, you need to make sure the air is filtered and heated. Without filtered air, say from a compressor, you risk shooting oil onto your finish. There are two types of drying towels we currently carry. The Plush Microfiber Drying Towel and The Waffle Weave Drying Towel. I prefer to use the Plush towel, as it's much softer, still soaks up a bunch of water, and used in conjunction with a great detail spray like Surf City Professional Pro Polymer Detail Spray as a drying agent, helps buff down the residues much easier than other styles of towels. PLUS, IT'S HUGE! (26x48)

For touch-ups when you don't feel you need to get the buckets out, Surf City Professional Rinse Free Wash and Wax is perfect. Saves water, easy to execute and leaves the paint feeling nice and slick!

 

[Snacky]

Lots of good replies, thanks everyone! I am working out of town this summer and the apartment complex I am in doesn't have a hose spigot
I take my bucket, mits, and all my products to the coin wash and pay to use the wand (water).

 

[Surf City Garage]

Lots of good replies, thanks everyone! I am working out of town this summer and the apartment complex I am in doesn't have a hose spigot
I take my bucket, mits, and all my products to the coin wash and pay to use the wand (water).

I know a lot of places aren't cool with that so make sure it's always right at dawn or dusk to avoid the, "Get off my Lawn" speech!

 

[MarkD51]

Hello! Surf City Garage has a couple options for washing your vehicle...

For a Maintenance wash, Surf City Professional Extreme Suds Balanced Wash is the sudsiest, most foamy, and clingy pH neutral Car Soap out there. It can be used in buckets, a Foam Gun, or even a Foam Cannon. Small amounts of this stuff produce LARGE amounts of suds! Being pH neutral also won't strip your finish of protection.



Wax will never bond to the clear coat. UV rays will melt it off long before it has a chance to bond or settle on the clear. Think of wax as a living thing that starts dying as soon as you lay it down. Wax surfs your clear coat whereas Sealants DO bond to the clear coat.

Surf City Professional DOES have a dedicated strip wash. It's called Surf City Professional Surface Prep Wash. It's a light alkaline cleaner but safe to strip any waxes, sealants and dressings that you need to get removed before going into paint decon and polishing...or just to reset the paint and lay down some new sealant or wax. It's much safer than a household cleaner, and already mixed so that you don't have to add anything additional into your wash bucket.

Using things like an air blower to dry is a great idea. However, you need to make sure the air is filtered and heated. Without filtered air, say from a compressor, you risk shooting oil onto your finish. There are two types of drying towels we currently carry. The Plush Microfiber Drying Towel and The Waffle Weave Drying Towel. I prefer to use the Plush towel, as it's much softer, still soaks up a bunch of water, and used in conjunction with a great detail spray like Surf City Professional Pro Polymer Detail Spray as a drying agent, helps buff down the residues much easier than other styles of towels. PLUS, IT'S HUGE! (26x48)

For touch-ups when you don't feel you need to get the buckets out, Surf City Professional Rinse Free Wash and Wax is perfect. Saves water, easy to execute and leaves the paint feeling nice and slick!

I won't debate the differences in chemistry between true natural waxes, versus synthetic sealants. Yes, I've heard the term "crosslinking" used with Sealants.

In the laboratory perhaps, synthetic products may very well outlast, and possess properties that waxes do not. And yes again, I've heard that natural waxes begin to fail at temps of about 105 F Degrees.

Does this then necessarily confirm that true waxes are then inferior to sealants, and that if one uses waxes, then one is wasting time, or not receiving good protection? I think that all depends.

I would say both waxes, and sealants have their shortcomings, that nothing is of course perfect. Nor do either last forever, or somehow magically protect that giant small car sized Tumbleweed traveling across the road at 40mph like we can see here, or other accidental damage-marring. Not even the most durable coatings are able to be able to eliminate such.

In the real world, to say all sealants will outperform all waxes that an end user can get his/her hands on, and in all ways, and on all counts would be I believe a fallicy.

There are quite durable waxes on the market, and will say that some of these will outlast, and will out-protect many sealants.

Wax products such as Collinite 476, and 915 Waxes are two that quickly come to mind that are extremely durable. Collinite 845 Insulator Wax, a liquid is said to be a Hybrid, both Wax, and Sealant, and it may be possible that so are the two pastes I previously mention above? I do not know the exact proprietary formulas , and what makes these so durable, but they are without a doubt.

Periodic maintainence is of course key with any car care products. None last forever. One can maintain a showroom finish on a vehicle for 20+ years easily with waxes alone, or sealants alone if one knows how to properly care for their vehicle, and gets in a habit of proper periodic care.

You'll of course agree that any paint system-finish that isn't properly prepped and possess a surface that's not "squeaky clean", then of course all bets are off as to anything properly bonding-adhering to the paint, coatings as well included.
Mark

 

[Surf City Garage]

I won't debate the differences in chemistry between true natural waxes, versus synthetic sealants. Yes, I've heard the term "crosslinking" used with Sealants.

In the laboratory perhaps, synthetic products may very well outlast, and possess properties that waxes do not. And yes again, I've heard that natural waxes begin to fail at temps of about 105 F Degrees.

Does this then necessarily confirm that true waxes are then inferior to sealants, and that if one uses waxes, then one is wasting time, or not receiving good protection? I think that all depends.

I would say both waxes, and sealants have their shortcomings, that nothing is of course perfect. Nor do either last forever, or somehow magically protect that giant small car sized Tumbleweed traveling across the road at 40mph like we can see here, or other accidental damage-marring. Not even the most durable coatings are able to be able to eliminate such.

In the real world, to say all sealants will outperform all waxes that an end user can get his/her hands on, and in all ways, and on all counts would be I believe a fallicy.

There are quite durable waxes on the market, and will say that some of these will outlast, and will out-protect many sealants.

Wax products such as Collinite 476, and 915 Waxes are two that quickly come to mind that are extremely durable. Collinite 845 Insulator Wax, a liquid is said to be a Hybrid, both Wax, and Sealant, and it may be possible that so are the two pastes I previously mention above? I do not know the exact proprietary formulas , and what makes these so durable, but they are without a doubt.

Periodic maintainence is of course key with any car care products. None last forever. One can maintain a showroom finish on a vehicle for 20+ years easily with waxes alone, or sealants alone if one knows how to properly care for their vehicle, and gets in a habit of proper periodic care.

You'll of course agree that any paint system-finish that isn't properly prepped and possess a surface that's not "squeaky clean", then of course all bets are off as to anything properly bonding-adhering to the paint, coatings as well included.
Mark

The parts I highlighted in Bold are very, very important regardless of protection choices. You are correct in your statement that says some waxes will outlast some sealants. No two products are the exact same recipe, and certain chemists know more about car care products than others. In the last 6 mos. alone I have tried over 9 sealants and 4 paste waxes. Some of those sealants after trying out went straight into the garbage. Some I chose to keep. I haven't used any paste wax in all the years I have been detailing that lasts longer than 6 months on a daily driven vehicle. That said, I have used sealants that outlast that by another 6-10 months.

 

[ccapehartusarmyINF.(ret)]

dish soap

 

[NathanJax]

dish soap

 

[Goodinblack]

dish soap

I really hope you were kidding