Cars are supposed to perform fast and look shiny all the time. Many car enthusiasts do take care of their cars a lot when it comes to performance and looks. You can repair mechanical issues but you can’t have a genuine car paint look back once it’s lost totally. Following this issue, people do wax their vehicles to protect the car paint surface from sun rays, dirt, and many other contaminants. No doubt that waxing a car brings a protective coating layer to your vehicle paint that lasts for about 3-4 months. Today we will find out how to strip a car wax and why it is required to do so.
Either applying or stripping a car wax, you have to follow all steps and instructions carefully. None of you would want to ruin the condition of your car paint. Stripping a wax off your car might sound very professional stuff but even you can do that. There is no rocket science in removing car wax. Before we start discussing the process to remove car wax, we have to find out the reasons why one should remove automobile wax from the vehicle paint surface. Remember that your car deserves a proper car so make sure you take care of your ride in the best possible way.
Reasons Why You Should Strip Wax Off Car Paint
Automotive wax is supposed to protect the paint surface along with providing a glossy shiny surface. There are lots of auto detailing waxes available made for protecting the paintwork of your car. As stated earlier, the protection of any car detailing wax usually lasts for few months which also depends on the type and nature of the car wax.
Natural carnauba wax might provide paint protection for 3-4 months but wax with synthetic polymers might last for a year as well. The average protection period of car wax is just about 3 to 4 months. Now the question that arises here is that why we should strip wax from the car paint? We’ll discuss three reasons why one would have to remove wax from the car. So, what are we waiting for?
Let’s go down to have a look at the reasons for wax stripping.
1- Preparing Paint For Another Protection Product
In order to apply any other paint correction product, you would have to remove the existing layer of wax. There are many other products like car wax, sealants, ceramic sprays, ceramic coatings, etc. Let’s take the example of automobile ceramic coating, this coating layer fills the imperfections of the paint with its microscopic elements. In the presence of old auto wax, the ceramic car coating won’t provide protection to fill paint imperfections. So, stripping a car wax is required whenever you are planning to apply any other automobile paint protection product.
2- First Thing of Paint Protection
We usually polish a car or use the t-cut product to strip a thin layer of car paint. At that time, we would have to strip the older layer of car paint wax. Washing a car is probably the first step for paint correction which will definitely remove wax from paint if you use any automobile car wash soap.
3- Car Body Repair
Getting a dent in the car body is very common when you come on the road. Some hits will cause dents or some kind of scratches which can be repaired by any car detailing expert. You would have to must visit an auto paint body shop where they might perform prepping the section of your car paint or repaint the specific area. In both cases, they would have to remove the car wax from your vehicle’s body.
How To Check If A Car Still Has Wax
Basically, waxing a car provides protection against weather, UV rays, dirt, and other harmful elements. Also, the wax provides a glossy shine to the surface of any vehicle’s paint along with offering hydrophobic properties to provide maximum water beading level.
Here are the tips to follow if your car still has wax.
- If your car paint is still shining as it started shining after applying wax, it means wax protection is still there.
- Put some water on the paint for a hydrophobic test, if water rolls of your car paint body then the wax is there otherwise it’s gone.
- If wax supposed to provide protection for 4 months, you can say that it’s gone in the 5th month of applying wax.
By the way, paste wax does last longer than the spray wax product. An automobile spray wax act as a quick detailing agent but won’t last that much longer.
How To Strip Car Wax
Finally, it’s time to find out what it takes to remove the layer of wax from the paint surface of your car body. No need to worry about stripping a car detailing wax because it’s not that hard as many think. First of all, we need to have a look at the supplies we need to gather to perform the whole process of stripping car wax. By the way, getting familiar with how to apply a car wax is also recommended for all of you.
Requirements
- Automobile wax stripping car shampoo
- Car wash mitt
- Snow foam gun or cannon
Step 1- Pre Wash Your Car With a Foam Gun or Cannon
At first, you would have to wash your car with water to remove any kind of dirt or dust from the paint surface. After that, you need to spray the layer of foamy soap using the snow foam cannon or gun. Doing this will spread a soft layer of soap to cover the entire surface of your whole car.
Step 2 – Prefer Two Bucket System For Car Wash
Use one bucket filled with normal water and the other one having a mixture of soap and water. It’s time to spread that wax stripping car soap onto your car paint surface to remove the existing layer of wax. You can use the car washing mitt to spread soap that is pH positive to remove greasy oils of wax for stripping the wax layer completely. The soap acts as a car wax remover as many professional car detailers do use these soaps to remove the auto wax.
After that, you have to wash the car surface and then dry the car completely using any auto microfiber towel for a gentle vehicle drying process. In case this process won’t eradicate wax totally, then you can also use a clay bar to remove the existing old layer of car wax sealant from your vehicle’s paint body.
Tips To Remember
- Don’t perform this process under direct sunlight because of the quick-drying issue.
- Cover the whole car with the soap and let the soap stay there for almost 3 minutes.
- Use fresh water to rinse off the soap.
- Don’t use dishwashing soaps because they may damage the oils and color of your vehicle’s paint.
- Use a car cleaning soap that is pH positive.
That’s it. The process of removing a car wax is way simple and easy. All we have to do is to keep tips and instructions in mind if we want to strip wax from the car at home without acquiring any professional help. Another thing you need to keep in mind is that this process works for stripping all kinds of waxes either colored automobile wax or any standard color wax.
FINAL VERDICT
On a concluding note, we can say that everyone can strip off the wax from the car paint surface. It takes proper steps to follow along with following some dos and don’ts of wax stripping. We came to know the reasons why one should remove the wax layer from the car. Also, we’ve found out that how to check if there is no wax left on the car paint surface. On whole, follow the process carefully to remove wax from your car without causing any damage.