cwrm4

I have a white 964. When I bought the car a couple years ago, it had basically been undriven for 5 years (though only had 45k on the odo).

Now that I've finally got the mechanicals sorted out, I'm turning to the paint.

Much of the paint has a grayish tint from old wax. If I take the palm of my hand and rub it against the paint, I can rub the wax off. However, I can't seem to "wash" the wax off. I've tried soaking the paint with a dilute silution of P21S TAW but with only mixed results...it gets less gray, but you can rub more wax off with your fingers before the paint is pure white. If I polish an area with P21S Paint Cleanser, it gets whiter, but there is still a slight tint of grey.

Anyone have any suggestions on quickly and completely removing the old wax?

uzj100

Sounds like your car needs to be washed again, then clayed, polished and re-waxed. Based on your post you've done nothing for the paintwork in the 2 years you've owned it--right?

HTH

cwrm4

Yep, I did wash it again, clay it again, and then hit it with the PC and some Griots #3 I had on hand, and it cleaned right up.

nup3

You might want to consider washing the car with either Dawn or using Griot's Paint Prep before you start claying the car. It will remove all of the old wax.

Marine Blue

So did you solve the problem or does it still exist?

cwrm4

Going over the car with the PC and a fine polish took the remaining wax off.

The difference was actually quite dramatic. I just thought I had a white car before!

None of the methods I found on the net to strip wax (via some sort of liquid) worked. When using the PC I did have to stop frequently and wipe a lot of "balled" wax up.

TOGWT

For future ref-

Paint Cleaning:
There are a number of products that will clean a paint film surface of existing products, DuPont’s DuPont PrepSol 3919 II (Also for use when preparing surface for re-painting), detailer's clay, a 1:1 solution of distilled water and Isopropyl Alcohol, Klasse All-In-One, and most pre-wax cleaners

Cleaner wax or pre-wax cleaners are usually a mildly abrasive (CAS 1/10) liquid polish containing solvents for cleaning and Kaolin for an abrasive, that will remove surface contamination that either normal washing or using detailer’s clay alone will not remove. They offer little in the way of surface protection, as they are formulated with a high percentage of solvent

With all cleaning products (especially when they contain solvents) always test a small inconspicuous area first to ensure it won't discolour, stain or etch the surface, and ensure that the pH of the product is suitable for the material After the paint surface has been subjected to a chemical cleaning its protective layer (s) have been removed and the paint surface left without protection, so it is very important that a wax or polymer protection be applied immediately.

troos

I agree with the Dawn suggestion. Dawn, and most other commercial hand dish wash products, have a pretty high ph and attack the wax pretty well. Another solution would be to run it though a touchless automatic car wash a couple of times. These need to use pretty harsh detergents to remove the road grime without any rubbing. I've see them peel wax right off. With either solution, try to let the suds sit for several minutes before brushing (with soft auto brush) or agitating with a cloth.

Anthony Orosco

Ummm, doesn't sound like a wax issue to me because wax won't build up on the paint and usually bfore it "yellows" it has long worn away.

What it sounds like is oxidation, it being a white 93, correct? I'm guessing that you have a single stage white and the grayish material you're speaking of is dead paint and not wax. This is why polishing made it brighter but still looked somewhat hazy or still a bit gray.

Claying the car won't remove oxidation nor will a Dawn wash have much effect on it. You need to abrade away the oxidation by polishing the paint and it can be very time consuming in that your pads will load up with oxidation from the paint and you'll need to rinse out every few panels. It may take several passes with various grades of pad and also products.

I just did a very nice Speed Yellow TT and it took 3 machine steps to get the paint clear looking even though the paint had, what many would consider, a great shine.

So, are you pulling paint as you polish it?

What type of polisher do you have, products and pads??

Hope I can help you out here,
Anthony

Marine Blue

Agree with Anthony on this, waxes never really build up on paint. Oxidiation would however cause the flaky dry appearance and a paint polish with orbital is a great way to correct this.

Did the car spend a great deal of time in the sun?

cwrm4

I suspect both of you are right...it was oxidation, not old wax. As I mentioned, the car wasn't really driven for 5 years, and for 2 of that it was apparently under a carport, which probably explains why the oxidation was much worse on one side. This is first time since I've owned it that I've really tried to polish the paint.

I got a Griot's polishing kit for Christmas and used that on the car After washing and claying (with Meguiars clay, not Griot's), I used the Griots #3 (fine) twice with the Griot's PC and their orange pad, followed by 2 (hand) applications of P21S paint cleanser, followed by 2 coats of the Griots wax with their red pad. I didn't really get that much build-up on the pad during polishing.

The shine is pretty good now (the neighbors are all "oh wow"), but, as Anthony predicted, it just doesn't seem to be as good as it could be. From certain angles I swear I still see a little "gray" as well.

If anyone has any recommendations on what pads/polishes/waxes to use to truly eliminate the oxidation and smooth out the shine, I'm listening. I've never been much for concours-level detailing (too much of an engineer/racer I suppose), but this 964 is really growing on me...

And Anthony, if you migrate towards Houston, I'll turn it over to you!

ekeeton

I had a similar oxidation problem with an Alpine white '87 944. I used Optimum polish with an LC white pad, PC D/A set at 4. Then I went back over it with Poli-Seal with the PC at 5, again a white pad. I finished up with Optimum Car Wax, sprayed on and wiped off with m/f towel.

I like Optimum products but I'm sure similar results can be had with similar products from other manufacturers. I'm not offering professional advice here, just what I did to please myself. I am a rank amateur as well as being fat and lazy, (just ask my wife) so don't blindly follow what I did. I only attempt "car care" level detailing, "concours" level is way over my head. (On the other hand, I do have a 2nd place concours trophy, having been one of the two cars in my class at the annual Upstate region PCA Hawaiian Barbecue picnic.)

The speeds I used on the PC might be too fast, but I didn't detect any harm. This car has some serious paint "issues" already so I'm not overly concerned. The results were a big improvement. By the time I got done it was too dark for pictures, but it's hard to get good pictures of white anyway. It's always amazing how nice a white car can look from 10' away.