The need to strip off wax

[Imperiex]

Hey everyone,

My question is basically this; if I want to be able to do a good amount of paint correction, is it necessary to remove wax first?

I have a 1994 Acura Legend that was recently brought back to mechanical life, but the paint hasn't been properly taken care of. It's partially my fault though because I never really knew well enough what I was doing. I would use a 20 dollar buffer to try and do paint correction or lightly use a compound and then wax. Not the best methods, and it shows. There are some scratches, hazing, swirls, etc that are visible. One thing I was good about though is waxing. I was consistent and used NXT 2.0.

I looked through the forums and I found a thread or two that had asked basically the same question, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. They had asked if it was necessary before putting on another layer of wax.

[Murr1525]

Re: The need to strip off wax

Using a regular car soap (Gold Class, Nxt, etc), and then claying and using a paint cleaner will be able to safely remove any old wax (it does wear off, so not necessarily much there anyway) will be the safest way to clean and prep the paint.

The exact paint cleaners would be up to you of course, and what the paint was like, etc.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: The need to strip off wax

If it's been more than a few months since the car was last waxed then there's probably no real need to do anything special to strip the wax. Claying and compounding will take off what's left.

Now, if you just applied a very durable polymer sealant like NXT or Ultimate Wax or any of a wide range of similar products, then they can impede the compounding step, at least at first. Heck, they can even slow down wet sanding initially, surprisingly enough. If that's the case, then an IPA wipedown may be in order following a thorough washing.