No UV protection from carnauba

[Anthony Orosco]

I was just reading up on some waxes and some of them are claiming that carnauba in its natural state provides excellent uv protection.

This is false. Carnauba has no uv protection in its natural state thus no paste or cream wax has the natural ability to protect from uv. The clear coat on your cars paint is clear, like carnauba, and uv passes right through the clear coat. This is why uv absorbers must be added to the paint and likewise to paint protection products.

I believe this myth was started years ago by the Zymol people, just like "feeding the paint with oils".

If anyone has information that states otherwise please post it up.

Anthony

[Surfer]

Not sure, but I could honestly care less. Before AG, I was just using normal stuff like Turtle Wax and Megs of which I used on my truck for 5 years or so before buying all the boutique stuff, paint still looks like the day I bought the truck new and even though we have a garages it sits outside 24/7. And even on past cars (Porsches) etc owned we used those same products, had a black 95' 993 for 10 years of which paint still was in great shape just using otc stuff.

What about a sealant? Anythings better then having nothing on the paint.

[supercharged]

What about palm leaves carnauba comes from?

[Anthony Orosco]

Polymers and waxes provide durability more so than protection or it can better be said that they provide durability first and protection second.

If I have a nice polymer plus wax on my paint and park it under a tree and it gets bird poop on it and I leave it there it is highly unlikely that my paint will NOT get stained from the bird poo. So it may still be there but both polymers and waxes have limited protection.

So again there is no natural UV protective properties in carnauba wax or polymers and need to be added in the manufacturing process but as of right now I know no waxes that have added uv protection.

It sounds nice coming from a manufacturer or distributor (much like feeding oils) but even so the information is incorrect.

Anthony

[ScottB]

There is alot of myths and unknowns in waxes and sealants !

carnuaba in its natural state is contained on the leaves of the plant to protect from the environment and water. Not sure how, but it appears it can almost seal itself from water, yet is completely breathable.

I would wonder how these leafs dont burn up with the oil on them without having some benefit ?? Also, wonder how leafs take in oxygen (roots take in water) without some ability to allow air in and out ??

Thus what brings me to paint sealants. By definition they seal and enclose the paint. So how can they be safe for new paint when they seal in, thus not allowing the paint to outgas and remove the leftover solvents ??

[Anthony Orosco]

OEM bodys coming through the painting process are completely cured. They are then sent along to a series of people with Dynabrade machines who then sand and polish out any surface imperfections such as runs and dirt nibs.

So freashly painted bodys are not only polished with an abrasive product but also sanded.

There is nothing left to outgas and even if there was no super thin wax layer could seal in the gasses because the pigmented paint needs to outgas also and it does so through a much thicker "clear coat" than any single layer of wax.

Even an aftermarket paint job can be waxed because again the wax layer is so thin that it passes right through it. Remembering that the pigmented paint must cure through another layer of clear paint. If the paint can outgas through a layer of paint, which is much thinker than any wax or ploymer, how then can it be stopped by a super thin layer of wax which only resides on the top surface of paint?

Wax on a molecular level is far larger than the cross linked paint it rests upon so it can't block the "pores" (for lack of a better word). Water is smaller on a cross linked level so it can be absorbed by the paint to a degree. When it rains or when you wash your car it is absorbing water. Solvents also which are smaller on a molecular level than the paint can be absorbed by the paint....if I remember correctly, kerosene can literally be absorbed and "swell" the paint temporairly and thus make it appear like it has no swirls. Once it evaporates though the swirls reappear.

So paint sealants do not totally enclose paint either and while they do cross link and bond with paint to a point they do not become part of the clear coat.

Anthony

[budman3]

Do you find that there are UV protectors in sealants? I'm a little confused because on DC you said that OCW contains UV absorbers and here I was thinking that was a spray wax and not a spray sealant. Is there a difference between UV protectors and absorbers? I'm not sure about the UV stuff but I personally don't believe any marketing for SPF in car care...

[Anthony Orosco]

Do you find that there are UV protectors in sealants? I'm a little confused because on DC you said that OCW contains UV absorbers and here I was thinking that was a spray wax and not a spray sealant. Is there a difference between UV protectors and absorbers? I'm not sure about the UV stuff but I personally don't believe any marketing for SPF in car care...

When you see OCW after it has been sitting for awhile you'll notice it seperates. The liquid on the bottom of the bottle are the UV absorbers and they sink to the bottom because tghey weigh more than the other ingredients. Turn the bottle up side down and they al mix together.

OCW is a polymer/wax combo with UV absorbers added and uv absorbers, inhibitors or protectors pretty much mean the same thing.

As for sealants, OptiSeal has uv absorbers but I'm not sure if any others have them. It should be stated on the bottles as that would be an advantage to the end user. Like waxes though it can't be stated that a polymer product has "natural UV protection", it always has to be added.

Anthony

[budman3]

OK thank you Anthony. Learn something new every day. :cheers: That clears up any confusion.