Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 6
How-to Machine Apply Wax using a DA Polisher
3M's but not 3M
Mike the owner and Mike his buddy joined me, (Mike Phillips), here at Autogeek's Show Car Garage to put a Show Car Finish on a 1954 Corvette
This Corvette was restored as part of a car collection and painted approximately 20 years ago using a basecoat/clearcoat paint system. Although from 5 feet away it looked great, we felt the paint and could feel Above Surface Bonded Contaminants of some type all over the paint, even the sides using Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay.
These are the contaminant after claying just the passenger side door, a vertical panel that is often times skipped by most people. Although contaminants primarily build up on horizontal surfaces, you can still have Above Surface Bonded Contaminants on vertical panels. Because we wanted to maximize the gloss we clayed all the paint panels.
There were some very light swirls in the paint but Mike aka Merlin will be doing a complete swirl removal process on this car down the road so for today the goal is just to apply a coat of wax to protect the paint and create a show car finish.
In most cases, claying will remove a majority of anything off the top surface of the paint, so after claying you really need to apply a coat of wax or a paint sealant.
What we want to do with this project is show that with just two simple steps, claying and waxing with a true show car wax, you can bring out the full richness of color and maximize the glossy look everyone loves...
Applying Paste Wax By Machine
Souveran Paste Wax can be applied by hand or machine, I personally prefer to apply all my waxes and paint sealants by machine plus the owner Mike has never used a DA Polisher before, only rotary buffers, so I wanted to introduce him to one of the most popular types of machine polishers in the industry.
Using a microfiber glove to hold the wax, you can pop the wax out of the jar and then simply swipe the wax a few times across the face of the foam finishing pad and you're ready to machine wax. Sometimes it helps to lightly heat the outside of the plastic jar with a Hair Blow Dryer as this will loosen the grip crated by surface tension the wax has with the jar.
Here's Mike the owner using a DA Polisher to machine wax his Corvette...
Next up I get Mike aka Merlin on our forum set-up to machine wax...
Then I put some wax on the face of my pad and we thoroughly waxed this Corvette in less than 10 to 15 minutes...
Notice the cord over the shoulder to prevent it from marring the finish...
Pinnacle Souveran Wax does not need to dry before removing, so after we machine applied the wax we then slipped on Microfiber Gloves and removed the wax using Cobra Indigo Microfiber Towels.
The microfiber gloves make it real easy to grip the microfiber towels plus you never leave any finger print smudges should your hand touch the paint in the process. For show car quality work, you can't go wrong taking the extra step to wear microfiber gloves.
3M's but not 3M
Mike the owner and Mike his buddy joined me, (Mike Phillips), here at Autogeek's Show Car Garage to put a Show Car Finish on a 1954 Corvette
This Corvette was restored as part of a car collection and painted approximately 20 years ago using a basecoat/clearcoat paint system. Although from 5 feet away it looked great, we felt the paint and could feel Above Surface Bonded Contaminants of some type all over the paint, even the sides using Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay.
These are the contaminant after claying just the passenger side door, a vertical panel that is often times skipped by most people. Although contaminants primarily build up on horizontal surfaces, you can still have Above Surface Bonded Contaminants on vertical panels. Because we wanted to maximize the gloss we clayed all the paint panels.
There were some very light swirls in the paint but Mike aka Merlin will be doing a complete swirl removal process on this car down the road so for today the goal is just to apply a coat of wax to protect the paint and create a show car finish.
In most cases, claying will remove a majority of anything off the top surface of the paint, so after claying you really need to apply a coat of wax or a paint sealant.
What we want to do with this project is show that with just two simple steps, claying and waxing with a true show car wax, you can bring out the full richness of color and maximize the glossy look everyone loves...
Applying Paste Wax By Machine
Souveran Paste Wax can be applied by hand or machine, I personally prefer to apply all my waxes and paint sealants by machine plus the owner Mike has never used a DA Polisher before, only rotary buffers, so I wanted to introduce him to one of the most popular types of machine polishers in the industry.
Using a microfiber glove to hold the wax, you can pop the wax out of the jar and then simply swipe the wax a few times across the face of the foam finishing pad and you're ready to machine wax. Sometimes it helps to lightly heat the outside of the plastic jar with a Hair Blow Dryer as this will loosen the grip crated by surface tension the wax has with the jar.
Here's Mike the owner using a DA Polisher to machine wax his Corvette...
Next up I get Mike aka Merlin on our forum set-up to machine wax...
Then I put some wax on the face of my pad and we thoroughly waxed this Corvette in less than 10 to 15 minutes...
Notice the cord over the shoulder to prevent it from marring the finish...
Pinnacle Souveran Wax does not need to dry before removing, so after we machine applied the wax we then slipped on Microfiber Gloves and removed the wax using Cobra Indigo Microfiber Towels.
The microfiber gloves make it real easy to grip the microfiber towels plus you never leave any finger print smudges should your hand touch the paint in the process. For show car quality work, you can't go wrong taking the extra step to wear microfiber gloves.
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