paint sealant

[AMCBimmer]

I work in a dealership. It's a scam. Pay me $400 and I will wax your car. Save your money for tint.

[SIRLOIN]

Originally Posted by blufin

There is no such thing. Nothing more than a coat of teflon wax. Paint is sealed with clearcoat from the factory.

....

Sealants are definitely the way to go. I have been detailing cars for many years and have tried just about every product on the market. Not talking about what you get at your local Auto Zone or Wal-Mart either. Sealants are not like your typical wax as they are made of polymers that bond to your paint when applied.

Sealants are FAR more durable and last way longer than your typical carnuba wax. Carnuba waxes last weeks, where as sealants can last months. Some can and will last up to a year.

If your looking for long lasting protection, and don't want to be waxing your car once a month, then sealants are your best bet.

Another big plus about sealants is that they are very easy to apply and remove, where as allot of waxes can be very finicky.

One of the absolute best sealants on the market is Klasse high gloss sealant glaze. One coat of this stuff and your set for as long as a year depending on how much you wash your car.

Other great sealants out there are Wolfgang deep gloss paint sealant, Blackfire wet diamond, Chemical Guys Jet seal 109, Optimum Poly-Seal, and Poorboys EX-P pure sealant.

All of those listed above will give you superior protection for up to 4-6 months. Also all of the products i listed can be found at this very awesome website http://www.autogeek.net/was.html.

Autogeek.net has tons of information and has just about all of the top products on the market for car detailing.

One last thing. There is one carnuba wax on the market that can last as long as sealants, and is one of my personal favorites. It is Collinite liquid insulator wax #845, or Collinite #476. This stuff right here is absolutely amazing! It can also be found at Autogeek.net.

Hope this helps...

[REVENGE]

People still falling for this. This guy was here since 2010. No excuses for.him.

[JWR046]

Yeah that is a money maker for dealer and I am sure people fall for it all the time. At least they threw it in. I use zaino and it is the best I found. There are others that are probably just as good. I can go almost a year on my truck partial because it is garage.

[BlackZL1]

I had the simonz glass coat put on my ZL1 and I like it.
http://www.simonizprofessional.com/b..._GlassCoat.asp

[lbls1]

Never. It would take the fun out of detailing and the joy of seeing my favorite carnauba wax exploiting the paint color. Just the paint for me.

[Kvapil28]

Simoniz Glass Coat is an awesome product interior and exterior $399 is what we charge here. 7 year warranty. www.simonizusa.com check it out..

[pastohio]

If you believe in dealer paint sealant, I have some prime land out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico will let you have for half price, $1500...., the only way to treat the car's finish, is a thorough wash job, with Dawn detergent (not in the sun) then clay car the car totally with lubricant, then use whatever glaze or polish you like, give it several coats like Zaino or Adam's, etc, following their stepped programs....you will be very happy with the results and the car always looks shiney !!!

[OCDetails]

The idea that the paint is sealed from the factory with clearcoat is not true. Clearcoat is just paint without pigment. It is there as a layer of clear protection for the color coat and provides gloss and some UV protection, but not much. If you want to keep the clearcoat from oxidizing and being damaged from UV rays, bird shit, bug guts, acid rain, or hard water spots from sprinklers, then you need to use something else on the paint.

The difference between 'wax' and 'sealant' is pretty significant. If you stick your finger in warm candle wax you can create a shell around your finger that you can wriggle out of. Car wax is very similar. It coats your car with a shell of carnauba (small percentage of it since carnauba is hard as concrete and requires a lot of solvent to make it usable for cars). There are other oils and fillers put in the product to make it work, but the result is moderate UV protection (just like sunscreen for your skin) and gloss from the oils. In the end though, it is just wax. It isn't going to endure high temperatures for very long and it isn't going to hold up long under acidic bird bombs. (birds don't have kidneys, so they also don't have bladders. The crap and urine is highly acidic and you can almost hear it sizzle on your paint when it drops.) Even the best waxes with the highest levels of carnauba are only going to last you maybe 6 weeks on a daily driver.

Sealants, on the other hand, will last far longer. There are a few different kinds to choose from. Acrylic sealants like Klasse Sealant Glaze are very very durable and provide a 'polished rock' kind of shine. Polymer sealants like Blackfire, Wolfgang, and others provide insane shine as well as some of the wet look and depth of a carnauba. Ceramic sealants will do similar things as acrylics but with even more durability. There are some out there that claim to be 'teflon' sealants, but they are not really any good. Teflon has to be applied at ridiculously high temperatures for it to bond, so putting it in a car wax is just a marketing gimmick.

The difference between a wax and a sealant in terms of durability is that wax is like dipping your finger in a candle and a sealant is like dipping your finger in super glue. The sealant will bond to the paint and create a second skin that instead of lasting four to six weeks may last you four to six months or even longer. In terms of protection and shine it really doesn't get better than a sealant.

Consumer products still call sealants waxes just because consumers don't know the difference. So there are products on the shelf at AutoZone which say 'wax' but are really sealants. Meguiar's NXT and Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid Wax are both good examples of sealants wearing a wax's bottle. In fact, Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid Wax is one of the more impressive looking products I've seen on a vehicle. Definitely worth looking into.

[adamgl]

So should you use sealants one or twice a year and just forget about waxes?

[OCDetails]

My routine is to do a full wash, clay, and polish twice a year. Once in the spring and once in the fall. Perhaps once in the middle of the year depending on if anything happens which needs to be repaired, but typically just twice a year. On those occasions I will use a sealant. You can reapply it again if you want to increase the gloss or shine, and really that is recommended. If you did the full routine in March and October, then I would recommend another coat sometime in July just to be sure it stays protected all summer. There are a number of spray sealants and spray waxes you can use in the meantime to maintain the shine as well if that works for you. You just have to remember that you can't layer a sealant over a wax. The oils in a wax will keep you from getting the bond you need to the paint.

Sealants are just impressive animals. The way the light refracts through the molecules is unlike anything else. I could show you some really impressive photos which demonstrate the difference between some of the different sealants out there, but I don't think this is necessarily the forum for that. My blog has a lot of that if you are interested in looking there. ocdetails.com will direct you there. The bottom line is that you will get protection and appearance with sealants that you can't get with waxes. There is still reason to top a sealant with a wax on some colors and shapes, but the Camaro isn't one of them. I don't believe layering waxes and sealants are necessary on that particular car.

[Russell James]

Originally Posted by adamgl

So should you use sealants one or twice a year and just forget about waxes?

Back to reality and the basics. All these dealer paint sealants BS is 100% scams. It is purely to add profit to the sale. Period.

If there was a magic sealant that protected the paint forever, the factory would use it. Do you think they like paying warranty claims for damaged paint?

Wax your car a couple times a year, and accept the fact that just about anything the dealer is adding to the car is a frickin scam. Paint sealants, fabric protection, tire insurance, undercoating.... oldest tricks in the book to empty your wallet.

[OCDetails]

^^^ That is not true. It is true that nothing is going to protect your car forever, but don't confuse the dealership's "paint sealants" with the products available on the consumer and enthusiast markets. Anything the dealer sells you is going to be marked up and quite possibly pointless. This includes any kind of paint treatment. They are likely just applying some professional grade (simply meaning it isn't available to the general consumer) paint sealant and roping you into some sort of agreement to return and have them reapply it over and over and charging you for five years of detailing in advance even if you don't ever return. Dealerships know squat about paint care and they only want to prey on your desire to have your brand new car look brand new forever by convincing you that if you give them several hundred dollars they can spray a magic forumula on which will protect it from ever looking bad. That isn't true at all.

Dealerships rarely pay warranty claims for anything that waxing your paint could have prevented anyway. If the paint is going to peel off and crack, then it is going to do that regardless of what you put on the paint.

Again, dealership paint treatments are a scam. Paint sealants themselves are not a scam.

[SIRLOIN]

Originally Posted by adamgl

So should you use sealants one or twice a year and just forget about waxes?

IMO yes... A full detail including claybar, polish/glaze/cleaner, and a good sealant, in the spring and in the fall will leave you protected all year long... In between those full details, a good spray on wax once a month after you wash will help enhance the durability of your sealant, and bring back that slick feeling...

Originally Posted by OCDetails

^^^ That is not true. It is true that nothing is going to protect your car forever, but don't confuse the dealership's "paint sealants" with the products available on the consumer and enthusiast markets. Anything the dealer sells you is going to be marked up and quite possibly pointless. This includes any kind of paint treatment. They are likely just applying some professional grade (simply meaning it isn't available to the general consumer) paint sealant and roping you into some sort of agreement to return and have them reapply it over and over and charging you for five years of detailing in advance even if you don't ever return. Dealerships know squat about paint care and they only want to prey on your desire to have your brand new car look brand new forever by convincing you that if you give them several hundred dollars they can spray a magic forumula on which will protect it from ever looking bad. That isn't true at all.

Dealerships rarely pay warranty claims for anything that waxing your paint could have prevented anyway. If the paint is going to peel off and crack, then it is going to do that regardless of what you put on the paint.

Again, dealership paint treatments are a scam. Paint sealants themselves are not a scam.

^^^ THIS ^^^ Couldn't have said it better myself...