Thank you sir for taking this from PM's to the forum and welcome to AutogeekOnline!
:welcome:
Hi,
I hope you could shed some light to my observations and curiosity.
1. I have Pinnacle Liquid Souveran wax and used it to remove some mild scratches and road film by hand and it worked. Does this mean it has cleaners with it?
There are no cleaners or abrasives in this product. It is what in this industry called a pure wax or what I call a finishing wax.
Assuming you're working on a modern clearcoat finish, (hard), and not a soft lacquer single stage paint, I'm not sure how it could really remove enough paint to level the top surface of the surrounding paint to the lowest depths of the scratches you're removing.
This type of procedure is hard enough to do with an actual compound let a long a non-cleaning wax.
If these scratches are just topical, then my guess is the wax just clear up the surface and made it look like they've' been removed.
That said, if you can this product to remove paint as that's how your remove scratches, more power to you.
2. Since the label of Pinnacle Liquid Souveran states that it has polymers and is classified as a hybrid, does that mean it is also a sealant with less concentration?
Yes. The majority of products on the market are hybrids or what I call blended products and this is actually a benefit to the user as instead of getting only the benefits from a single ingredient, (Carnauba Wax), you get the benefits from multiple ingredients. Thus a good chemist creates a hybrid or blended product.
I actually explain this topic, blended waxes, as well as pure waxes and cleaner/waxes in detail in this article.
The Difference Between a Cleaner/Wax and a Finishing Wax
Subtitle: How To Choose The Right Wax or Paint Sealant for your Detailing Project
Here's a small portion of the article...
Cleaner/Waxes
A product that cleans, polishes and protects and contains natural protection ingredients like Carnauba
Cleaner/Sealants
A product that cleans, polishes and protects and uses all synthetic protection ingredients
Finishing Waxes
A product that offers no cleaning ability with the focus on maximizing beauty with the protection based upon naturally occurring ingredients.
Finishing Sealants
A product that offers no cleaning ability with the focus on maximizing beauty with the protection based upon synthetic ingredients.
Hybrids
There's one more group into which waxes and sealant fall into and that would be the hybrid category. Hybrids contain a combination of both natural and synthetic ingredients.
If we use the loose definition above for car waxes and paint sealants, (For the wax group the primary protection ingredients are naturally occurring waxy substances and for the sealant group the primary protection ingredients are man-made or synthetic substances), then since hybrid products use a combination of both it would seem natural to group them and place them into their own category with both words, wax and sealant used to describe the category.
3. I have Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0 and used it to remove mild scratches and road film by hand and it worked. Does this mean it has cleaners?
No cleaners, no abrasives. See my answer above and here's an article I wrote that also relates to this topic.
Factors that affect how aggressive or non-aggressive a product is
4. I also tried Turtle Wax Platinum Liquid Wax and even their quick detailer and was able to remove road film. Does this mean it has cleaners?
I've never used this product but most retail waxes do contain some type of cleaner in them and I explain why in this article.
The Difference Between a Cleaner/Wax and a Finishing Wax
Subtitle: How To Choose The Right Wax or Paint Sealant for your Detailing Project
From the above article,
When you go to your local auto parts stores, most of the retail waxes on the shelves do in fact fall into the cleaner/wax category as they are targeted at the average person and the average person is driving what we call a
Daily Driver, that is the car they drive back and forth to work each day and most of the time it’s parked outside. Over time, the finish quality deteriorates and in order to restore it with just a
single product you’ll want a cleaner/wax.
5. Is it safe to conclude that sealants that are in liquid/semi suspension form contains cleaners while sealant in spray form such as Opti Seal do not?
In my opinion "no".
Depends on the type of product and the brand.
6. Is there really a need for claying if you are using a DA? I've noticed I was taking out a lot of dirt when I use a DA whether in polishing or applying waxes. Can that substitute that? (of course clean pad regularly or replace it every few panels)
Great question and one I've answered for the last 10 to 12 years on discussion forums. Here's the deal...
The most
effective way to remove above surface bonded contaminants is though a dedicated mechanical process focused just on removing the contaminants. This can include detailing clay or tools like the Nanosking Mitts, Towels or Pads.
Some contaminants will come off when buffed. Some won't. depends on the contaminant and the strength of the bond it has to the paint. That's why when I type out answers to questions like you ask I pick and choose my words
very carefully.
The above word in my answer effective is bold and italicized on purpose. You see I'm never going to say that buffing paint with a foam pad won't remove contaminant as it will. But the
MOST EFFECTIVE way is to do so using a procedure that's focused on just this task.
The beneficial feature with foam pads is they are GENTLE to the paint. We like this characteristic as most of us are trying to create a beautiful finish. The problem with this feature is that they will tend to conform and glide over some contaminants... not remove them.
Now a wool cutting pad on a rotary buffer with a compound will remove contaminants but that's a much more aggressive combination than say a foam pad on a Porter Cable.
Also, if you've never done the baggie test, perhaps try it over paint that you know is contaminated, that is before you buff on it you can feel contaminants and the re-inspect using the baggie test. The paint should feel 100% flat after buffing or buffing isn't working.
One thing I know for sure, using foam pads and any tool would never have 100% removed all the yellow paint overspray off this 1947 Chevy Truck.
I can't speak for other but as for my criteria... if the paint has contaminants and it's my project I want the contaminants off the paint and the most effective way to remove contaminants off paint is by using a dedicated mechanical decontamination process.
How to remove overspray paint using the Cyclo Polisher
Color Ghosting
Here's the before pictures, if you look carefully you can see YELLOW GHOSTING outlining all the perimeters of the green body panels...
After the overspray paint has been removed...
When I look at the after pictures the
yellow color ghosting is gone...
7. How am I going to classify Optimum Finish Polish? can I use it as a cleaner polish before applying sealants? How often do you think is safe? will using it 4 times a year over 10 years ruin my paint?
Optimum Finish Polish is a Fine Cut Polish. See this article or my how-to book.
Word Definitions - Compounds, Polishes, Glazes, Paint Cleaners and Waxes
8. How will I classify Blacklight? AIO?
The acronym AIO stands for All In One and it means the product is a one-step cleaner/wax or cleaner/sealant. That is a product that will
Clean or abrade the paint.
Polish the paint that is maximize gloss and clarity
Seal the paint with some type of protection ingredients.
When I look at the webpage on the AG store for this product I see no where that it states it's an AIO.
Chemical Guys Black Light Hybrid Radiant Finish
The description for the product reads like it's a pure or non-cleaning product.
I've heard there is now a CG forum, not sure how busy it is but you could check with CG people for their official answer as to whether the blacklight product is an AIO or not and if it is then I'm always open to learning new information. I consider myself a,
Perpetual Student
As I've typed many times on this forum. Too much new technology being introduced all the time for anyone to ever think they can know it all. In my humble opinion.
9. Knowing that paint is porous and polishing oils go to cracks, holes and crevices of the paint and only a few remain in the surface and since upon observation that almost all cleans, is it safe to assume that almost all sealant and waxes can clean oils thus I do not need a wipe down after polishing to prevent marring?
No I don't think you can assume this. Modern clearcoats are very non-porous or impermeable. The can become more opened up with time, exposure and improper treatment.
Old fashioned, solvent-evaporation lacquers and enamels are impermeable, that is they are porous. Not like a sponge but a heck of a lot more open than a new, modern clearcoat.
10. Is it right to conclude that when you want to seal, always use by hand and foam because if you use aggressive applicator, more pressure or use it via DA, it will clean the surface and remove what is on the paint?
No, at least not in my opinion.
I try my hardest to do EVERYTHING by machine and get my hand completely out of the pictures. When I seal a surface by machine I start by using a very soft foam pad, a light touch, a slow speed and a non-cleaning product unless I'm doing a one-step production detailing with an AIO or one-step cleaner/wax and then I use a high speed, firm downward pressure and an actual cleaner/wax or cleaner/sealant for those of you on the AR side. I do try to use the softest pad I can get away with as this is the secret to doing production work and I teach a class on this topic.
11. Since I've been through this trial and error too long and have a handful of inventories for an enthusiast, I just want to make it simple.
Here is the plan I intend to do. What's your take? I only plan on using my M205 only when needed.
-clay and polish with Optimum Finish on finishing pad 1x a year
-apply Blacklight via DA on finishing pad to fill in those imperfections
-apply Opti Seal
Optimum Finish is a Fine Cut Polish and so is M205. So you're comparing apples to apples as far as cut goes.
Second,
IF Blacklight IS and AIO and I don't know that it is but IF it is, then using it after any fine cut polish would be redundant.
If Blacklight is NOT an AIO but a non-cleaning finishing type product, then following with Opti-Seal is redundant but lots of people like to do what's called topping, that is apply one form of protection over a previously applied version of protection. It might not help but it likely won't hurt.
12. As a maintenance and will do it every three months
-no clay & no polish
-apply Blacklight/Pinnacle Liquid Souveran/Wolfgang Deep Gloss Sealant 3.0 via DA on finishing pad to clean and somehow to glaze & correct minor imperfections
Again, I don't believe these products are able to abrade paint. You could use them as lubricants and a really aggressive cutting pad and the cutting pad can abrade the paint but in and of themselves I do not believe these products are abrasive with the ability to abrade and level paint. I believe they can create a very clear finish when machine applied and this can act to mask very shallow defects and to the untrained eye appear to have removed them.
See my answer about this above for question #11
Thanks Mike and to those who would want to chime in. I hope you can enlighten me with these questions and observations.
Regards,
Marc
Don't know if I helped or shed any light, the above is just my take on your questions....
