Dumb Question: How cold is too cold to apply?

shipkiller

shipkiller

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It's been over two months since I applied Liquid Sovereign to my Alpine White ///M Coupe.

Now it's cold, about 40' out and my garage is not heated.

After six track days and numerous washes since my last wax, the Coupe needs a good clay and wax for winter.

I use Liquid Sovereign on the Coupe, SSII on the black Roadster and have a couple of cans of DP Max wax in reserve....

How cold is too cold to apply LS on my Coupe?
 
I'm not sure of a minimum temperature but I always try to apply when its well over 50°.
 
40 is my lower limit; I do have a heated garage, but more important than the ambient air temp is the temperature of the body panels you're working on. Pick up an infrared thermometer and use it to measure surface temps before you get to work.
 

shipkiller said:
Now it's cold, about 40' out and my garage is not heated.

How cold is too cold to apply LS on my Coupe?
Click to expand...

What is the temp inside your garage? I'll assume that your garage is not insulated, so your garage may very well be close to the outside temperture. How many lights are in your garage? How big of an area is your garage? Do you have fluorescents?

If it's 40 degree's outside, and you have a small single car garage, placing two 500 watt halogen lamps on opposite sides af the garage, (one on each side) should definately generate more than enough adaquate heat to apply almost any wax.



 

I have waxed in 50 degree temps. As long as your car is dry, I don't why you couldn't wax in 45 degree temps. When I say dry, I mean low relative humidity. This means your car will have to be inside with the door closed.

In the scenario I described above with lights on, I would think your garage should easily be over 50 degree's, with it being 40 outside.


:buffing:



 
Just checked the long range forecast (yea I know, voodoo science) and it is supposed to be 55 on Saturday...

Looks like a window of opportunity has opened up.
 
I live in New England and prepare my vehicles for winter by giving them a full detail in late October. The final wax coat is Collinite 845 and I think this gives me the best protection.

Washing is another challenge but there are ways around this too. Once clean the car goes into the garage and I have a woodstove to warm things up a bit. It doesn't get real warm, maybe 65 or so but it does give me the opportunity to go over the finish with something like Optimum Spray Wax or Pinnacle Souveran Spray Wax.

Both of these work well in cooler temps and provide additional protection and can be applied very easily.
 
Thanks Mike.

Good info and tip on the search term. I did do a search but 'ambient' would have been much faster..

Since I have a good window this weekend, tonight I am going to order some DGPS and Dodo Diamond White hard to see how they hold up. I do love Pinnacle products but since winter is coming up and I drive the coupe every day, I am going to experiment with a synthetic sealer (DGPS) and then overlay carnauba (Dodo) overtop this time.
 
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