Exterior Protection: Wax, Sealants & Coatings
There are a few ways to protect your paint. Here is the basic information you need to know to decide between waxes, sealants & ceramic coatings.
In the world of car care, there are a number of options when it comes to the protection and enhancement of the exterior of your vehicle. Differing in longevity, durability, and gloss enhancement, all of these forms of protection serve a purpose.
Carnauba Wax
Wax is commonly comprised of naturally occurring substances, harvested from a specific type of palm tree, commonly known as the detailing world as Carnauba wax. Carnauba wax comes in a variety of pureness, and grades, and can be refined to various levels. Its blended with oils, other wax types (like bees wax), and in some cases even some polymers to create car wax.
Blending various waxes, solvents, oils, and polymers together can give you virtually an infinite number of combinations and types of car wax, but there are some limitations no matter how good the blend. These limitations center mostly on how susceptible to deterioration from heat, detergents, and abrasion wax is. Even the best grades of carnauba will have a melting point between 160-180 degrees F, meaning a black car parked outside on a summer day in a climate like Arizona will easily begin to see the evaporation of wax coating, within just a few days, or even a few hours the wax will be completely gone.
The biggest benefit to natural waxes is their overall enhancement to painted finishes. A good wax will enhance colors, fill minor imperfections, and produce a rich, deep look.
On dark colors (blacks and blues) you'll see additional depth and dimension. On brighter colors (yellows and reds) you may notice a more rich, vibrant look. Given that they are derived from plants, they are glossy and protective by nature and provide a dramatic aesthetic enhancement. As waxes contain oils and polymers, they will fill in peaks and valleys of your paint’s microscopic surfaces, creating a glossier finish and a highly reflective surface. In doing so, the surface has much less surface energy, allowing water to bead and sheet off easily.
Sealants:
Sealants tend to be mostly synthetic man made products chemically engineered to do very specific things, but mostly they excel at providing durable protection. Because these products are essentially created in a lab they can be modified, customized, and engineered to meet any number of criteria and perform in different ways.
On average a sealant will provide better durability than a comparable wax product. With much higher resistance to heat, UV, and detergents an application will withstand more abuse. Sealants encompass a wide variety of chemical compounds including acrylic resins, polymers, and aminos. Some will include varying amounts of wax in their blend to aid in filling or adding gloss. In more recent technological advancements, we are able to adapt Silica Resins into blends and mixtures, creating a ceramic-like performance with the ease of use of a sealant.
For years sealants fell behind waxes in terms of providing aesthetic enhancement, but more recently sealants have been bridging that gap, offering better durability and an ever increasing levels of gloss and depth. While a sealant hasn't quite been able to recreate the rich depth found from carnauba based products the gap separating the two is increasingly smaller. Most sealants currently on the market offer excellent clarity and reflective properties making them look ideal for colors that don't typically benefit from waxes like metallic silver and white. Sealants withhold a strong hydrophobic potential as they also fill in and bond to the peaks and valleys of your painted surfaces, reducing surface tension and letting water roll right off.
Ceramic Coatings:
In the car care industry, ceramic coatings and “nano” technology have become buzzwords and industry standards and although sometimes effective, these are not true “ceramic” coatings.
The first swipe of the product will reveal a quickly appearing “rainbow” effect, there's your proof! This is not a streak, smear, or defect— The rainbow effect is a mixture of gases and liquids evaporating and curing to your finish to provide the hydrophobic, acid-resistant, water spot-resistant, and UV inhibiting layer that we’re all after. As the rainbow effect begins to widen and develop, the applied product is turning to evenly hardened SiO2, or glass— hence “glass” coatings.
The most recent technology for exterior protection is found in coatings
Described as nano coatings, glass coatings, or ceramic coatings the chemicals used in this category offer durability spanning multiple YEARS rather than months.
Coatings can almost be thought of as a clear coat for your clear coat. They form a hard, clear, cured, hydrophobic barrier that is more resistant to scratches than an automotive clear coat and even prevents contamination from sticking making them easier to clean.
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