Removing swirls from coating and then not re-coating?

[vaced]

Hi,

I picked up a (black) car a few years back and it had a coating on it. It has since developed some light swirls that I wish to remove. However, I do not intend to re-coat after polishing (One reason for not re-coating is that I don't know which coating was applied). Instead, I will apply a carnauba wax.

I worry that I may end up removing the coating in some spots and not removing it in others, and any wax I apply will adhere in a non-uniform way (by non-uniform I mean adhere differently where the coating remains and where it doesn't).

• In this case I am guessing that I should simply remove the entire coating?
• I don't have an EPTG, so would the best way to know when it is removed to check for water beading (after cleaning polished surface with IPA)

 

[MattPersman]

Would either polish it all and start over with your LSP of choice. Or use essence plus over what you got now


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[Rsurfer]

You could polish panel by panel and then wax or remove all the existing coating. Even if you missed a small area, I don't see a big deal. It's not like the wax is going to fall to your garage floor.

Like Matt suggested, try Essence Plus first.

 

[TTQ B4U]

I personally would re-polish/correct and re-coat. It's about as simple as can be with todays products and the costs are minimal. If the swirls are just light ones the time involved would be minimal too. Hit it with CarPro Essence then coat it and call it a day....or 2 years

You're going to regret putting wax over the coating as the properties will not be anywhere near as good.

 

[Audios S6]

If you have not already, I would take a step back and further evaluate your situation.

Was this coating done by the dealership as part of a paint warranty program or was this installer by a detailer?

I would recommend a thorough chemical decontamination of the paint - an iron remover, a tee remover and a strong coating friendly soap (carpro reset is a good option, but there are others). Then evaluate the condition: does the paint still behave as if a ceramic coating is on there?

If so, and the swirls are minor, I would consider essence plus as an option.

The next step up would be to polish and then apply your preferred protectant. There are very few ceramic coatings that stand up to an intensive polish, despite some of the marketing claims.