By washing and waxing your car, you protect the paint and prevent oxidization and rust. This essential maintenance, done routinely, will preserve the beauty of your car. Wax will create a protective seal over your car, preserving color, enhancing glaze and reducing damage caused by washing detergents, UV rays, and oxidation. Although you can always take your car to a professional detailer to safeguard the appearance of your car, it’s also easy enough to wax your own car.
While the benefits of a well maintained, newer-looking, and shinier car are obvious, ranging from preserving the aesthetic to the resale value, what is not so obvious is the best type of wax to use. With so many types of wax available and with so much deceptive advertising prevalent, it’s often hard to figure out the best wax for your car.
The first thing you have to do is decide is how much time, money, and effort you’re willing to invest in the appearance of your car. Once you’ve arrived at some basic ideas on your level of commitment, then it will be easier to compare the different types of car waxes. If your car is new, your commitment is likely to be high. Alternatively, if your car is an older one, you may not be as interested in spending a lot of time and effort on waxing it or buying the most expensive solutions.
Basically in deciding on the best wax for your car, you will be choosing between natural or synthetic wax, liquid or paste wax, and plain or colored wax. Let us look at each of these choices in detail.
Natural or Synthetic Wax?
Do you want your car to shine with a natural or a glossy look? And do you want to work hard or do you want to get the job done in the quickest, easiest way? These are the choices you have to make when deciding between natural or synthetic wax.
Natural wax comes from natural plants, trees, or seeds. It also includes beeswax. An example of a natural wax often used in showrooms to accentuate the magnificence of an expensive car is carnauba. It is also the natural wax preferred by vintage car owners who want to highlight the exquisite detail of their cars at a car show.
Natural wax, compared to synthetic was, is often softer and less scratchy. It also imbues a more aesthetically appealing shine. But, while more attractive, it is also more difficult to apply than synthetic wax, requiring much more buffing and quite a bit of polishing. Usually the best way to work with natural wax is to use a rubbing compound first, as this will smooth over the marks and scratches in the paint. Natural wax is often considered the old-school way of bringing out the beauty a car’s color because it requires a considerable amount of elbow grease to apply successfully.
Synthetic wax, on the other hand, takes the hard work out of waxing jobs because both the compound and the wax are combined into a single mixture. Moreover, oil additives make fine scratches and blemishes disappear easily. After an application, the car has a wet look to it.
Liquid or Paste?
If you chose the natural car wax, then liquid wax will work best. If you chose the synthetic car wax, then you can choose either liquid or paste, as both will be easy to apply and buff.
Plain or Colored Wax
A clear coat car wax takes the mystery out of matching the color of the wax to the color of your car. Alternatively, those who have found just the right color are often pleased with how much the wax color brings out the color of the car. However, the downside of a colored wax is that if it is not an exact match, it can create poor results. If trying out a colored wax, it is advisable to first test it on small portion of the body to see if it blends with the color of the car.