Wax: How often is too often???

[s word]

Like the title

How often is too often?

When detailing for other people I can;t get obsessive because their car is not always in my hands

But when it comes to my car I am obsessive with keeping a shiny car.
I have a nightly ritual I follow with very little deviation.
I also have a weekly wash session.
But I apply wax of some sort during each process.

How often is too often, how much is too much?

To give an idea
Daily:
Once around the car with quick detailer, last touch, chemicalguys non-static spray... (not all at same time, just whatever i feel like that day)
Once around the car with quick wax, x-press wax (love that stuff), or sometimes just UWWA without doing the first spray. All these are applied in a very light mist.

Weekend:
I wash the car, use one of the spray waxes during drying, then put on a very very light layer of paste wax (gold class, deep crystal, nxt, dodo...). Rarely but sometimes I use a qax liquid like D301, gold class.

Am I losing shine by using too much wax?
Am I just wasting money?
Can the product seat properly on layer over layer of wax?

It is almost like I feel like I am not doing the job right/complete if I don't apply wax. I know that's wrong but I am trying to figure out how wrong.

Any feedback positive or negative is greatly appreciated...

[Murr1525]

Re: Wax: How often is too often???

You can wax as often as you like, it wont hurt the paint.

Just more product used up, so more cost.

The other factor is the more you touch the paint, the more you risk swirls... you would have probably noticed by now if you seemed to be causing any or not.

Unless you were in a really harsh environment, a spray wax would certainly last a week.

You could probably wax once a month with the liquid/paste, and then spray wax each week, and get the same results. If you would enjoy it as much or not is up to you.

And incidentally, D301 is a cleaner/wax, if that matters to you.

[smack]

Re: Wax: How often is too often???

You can wax to your hearts content without fear of damaging anything.

[s word]

Re: Wax: How often is too often???

You can wax to your hearts content without fear of damaging anything.

Waxing is just as good of a therapy for me as is a cruise in the car.

Would I get better results by stripping the wax every once in a while?
Not with dishwasher detergent, but something like chemicalguys citrus wash?

I have not seen any damage I have induced.
And being around the car as many times as I have I notice EVERYTHING.

I do have more products in the cleaner wax bin but I stopped using those as much as i had in the past. D301 is the only one in the bunch that I use and not often. Is overuse of cleaner wax an issue. I really don;t use it much, just curious.

[Murr1525]

Re: Wax: How often is too often???

Well, a lot of people like to try and apply 2 coats of wax to the surface, kind of making sure they cover everywhere and maybe add a little extra wax to the surface. So people will try not to use a cleaner/wax for both steps, as the cleaner/wax would remove more of the previous wax.

With you waxing so often, you would not need to do 2 coats at once, but you could consider a mild cleaner/wax every few weeks for your weekend wax if you wanted, to do a little more cleaning than just the soapy water alone. Just something mild would be fine if not fixing any defects.

Shouldnt need to use a stronger soap, or specialty product unless you were doing a once/twice a year deep cleaning or something. Even then, I would be thinking more of claying, tar, brake dust type removal than something to strip wax.

[s word]

Re: Wax: How often is too often???

I have never done two coats of wax at once. I think that would be too much work (says the guy who spray details/waxes daily). I like the cleaner wax suggestion and may work that into my mix.

I hear you on the wax removal. I will just make sure to keep up on the claying/correcting as needed and use that to be my wax exfoliater.

Note- that where I work the parking lot is extremely dusty. This is a top contributor to the frequency of which I do the cleaning.
I used to use a duster but the layer thickness, debris size and swirl prevention influenced me to get away from this and into spray products for nightly care. So i am not completely crazy

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Wax: How often is too often???

While daily use of a quick detailer spray is actually a very good idea - provided you're doing it correctly, of course - you really don't need to wax every week, especially if you're using a spray wax on a weekly basis as well. Some of the newer spray waxes, Ultimate Quik Wax (D156) included, are extremely durable in their own right.

Am I losing shine by using too much wax?

No, you shouldn't be at all.

Am I just wasting money?

Honestly? Yes. We're in the business of selling wax, and even we think this is totally and completely unnecessary.

Can the product seat properly on layer over layer of wax?

That depends. Nobody has ever proven that they can continue to build up an ever increasing film thickness by "layering" waxes or sealants. In fact, someone over on the UK detailing forum has shown that, in fact, you can not. When working with carnauba waxes you're actually dealing with a solvent carrier that allows the carnauba to be usable in the first place. Applying a second coat, or third, fourth, etc will effectively remove some of what was applied previously due to the solvents in the "fresh" application breaking down some of that previous application. Obviously a cleaner wax will eradicate any previous application, unless that previous one was a very durable polymer, in which case (a week later) a cleaner wax will likely just compromise the polymer quite a bit.

[s word]

Re: Wax: How often is too often???

Ok, I will do less of the waxing.
I guess I can swing the wax time into interior cleaning and conditioning.