Automotive wax ?

[lou s]

What automotive wax can you use for models ? I have turtle wax

[BigTallDad]

I use Meguiar's paste wax. I emphasized wax to indicate that another option (polish) is an option, as well as the form (wax vs. liquid).

[cowboy rich]

Haven't tried auto wax but seems like it should work, I do know DON'T  try mothers mag and aluminum on kit chrome..chrome leaves the building and doesn't even say have a nice day.

[Snake45]

NONE. 

I've played with various waxes over the years, including Lemon Pledge and some kind of "bowling alley wax." The BEST stuff I ever used was called The Treatment. It gave great results but I found it has some downsides that outweigh its upsides. These days I just concentrate on getting a good polish on the paint that doesn't need any improvement. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

32 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

NONE. 

I've played with various waxes over the years, including Lemon Pledge and some kind of "bowling alley wax." The BEST stuff I ever used was called The Treatment. It gave great results but I found it has some downsides that outweigh its upsides. These days I just concentrate on getting a good polish on the paint that doesn't need any improvement. 

Agreed 100% (except: though I never tried "bowling alley wax", I DID try Dog Wax, but that's another story for a different day).

A well-polished paint job really doesn't need anything else, but a coat of "filling glaze" or "machine glaze" can remove the absolute last of any polishing swirls or light "haze".

Modelers often make the mistake of thinking "wax" will substitute for a dead-smooth (color-sanded) and highly polished surface (both of which take time and effort). It won't.

 

Edited October 7, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[StevenGuthmiller]

I don't use wax either.

I use Novus polishes and Turtle Wax "Scratch and Swirl Remover".

The scratch remover gives me a super glossy finish.

 

Steve

[Ace-Garageguy]

10 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

I don't use wax either.

I use... Turtle Wax "Scratch and Swirl Remover".

The scratch remover gives me a super glossy finish.

Yup, that's pretty much the same thing as the "filling glaze" or "machine glaze" I use.  

Liquid Ebony was the original, back in the dim recesses of time. NLA.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[restoman]

3 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Yup, that's pretty much the same thing as the "filling glaze" or "machine glaze" I use.  

Liquid Ebony was the original, back in the dim recesses of time. NLA.

That Liquid Ebony was the absolute best on 1:1 cars. Nothing could finish off a black car like that stuff and a soft foam pad.

For years, I looked high and low for it.  Nowhere to be found... until I spied a nearly -full bottle in a buddy's cabinet. He hated the stuff and traded me for a large coffee. The bottle was so old, the plastic started to crack the first time I shook it. Still have half the bottle..

I like Meguier's Final Inspection on scale cars.

[Muncie]

I'm agreed with the no wax crowd. - my general rule is polish for shine, wax to protect the paint.  My daily driver needs wax.  I also stay away from most polishes available in the automotive section at the general merchandise stores.  They are usually made with a coarser abrasive to bring the shine up quicker. The polishes available at the automotive paint supply stores have a much better shine.   Every car painter I've talked to also has their own secret sauce.

Let's add one caution.  Some (most?) hobby shop paints that are made for model cars are very soft - even some model master colors that I've used.  Polishing may transfer more paint to the polishing cloth than it leaves on the model.  As always, it's best to experiment first.

Edited October 8, 2018 by Muncie

[dustym]

Novus polish for the win.

[Deathgoblin]

I use Novus polish to smooth out the paint, then once it's smooth I'll hit it with some Turtle Wax paste. 

[SfanGoch]

I use this

[Anglia105E]

For my Rolls-Royce scale model cars I use Meguiars Deep Crystal Carnauba Wax...... and it is beautiful  !!!!

Only use the polish 5 days after the paint has finished drying.

David

[GeeBee]

After wet sanding, I start polishing with the Poorboys SSR2, followed by the others in the order there numbered, usually when I'm using cellulose paints, I'll use them all, if I'm using acrylics I'll probably, like I did with the Corvette I'm building, I only used SSR2 and the deep Crystal wax.

Edited November 2, 2018 by GeeBee

[Funkychiken]

A quick question on this topic!

I recently used the final Nuvous wax (I think it's called clean and shine)b on my last model. Then realised I still had to do the rubber trim. The problem was that the masking tape no longer stuck to the model, so when airbrushing, I got a lot of over-spray. 

 

So my question is... Do you guys wax after the complete model is finished... After decals, trim, BMF and photo etch have been added?

 

Thanks!

[W-409]

I have always polished the body with polishing cloths. Then I finish it off with Micro Gloss Liquid Abrasive. Then I wax it with Auto Glym's Super Resin Polish. After this it's time to do chrome trim with BMF. Usually I've already done all paintings before polishing, but I've found out that at least Tamiya masking tape that I've been using, sticks very well to the paint job even after polishing and waxing with those products.

Don't know how decal application might work after polishing and waxing, as I've always added decals before clear coats.

[Bainford]

On ‎29‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 6:10 AM, Funkychiken said:

So my question is... Do you guys wax after the complete model is finished... After decals, trim, BMF and photo etch have been added?

Thanks!

Yes, if you are going to use wax, it must be the last thing you do to the body. Nothing will stick afterwards.

Tamiya wax is my personal favourite. It works great on kit glass, too.

[aurfalien]

48 minutes ago, Bainford said:

Yes, if you are going to use wax, it must be the last thing you do to the body. Nothing will stick afterwards.

Tamiya wax is my personal favourite. It works great on kit glass, too.

Yes, I found that formulations by Tamiya or Novus work best.  I found car wax a bit heavy.

Novus #2 in particular is great, followed up by Novus #1, you can then apply decals.  Novus #3 is for scratch, swirl and orange peel mitigation.

[GerN]

I recently polished out a thumbprint in Model Master Acryl using Nu Scratch Doctor; it worked very well.

[935k3]

ZYMOL brand will deepen the shine and it smells good because of the coconut oil in it. I use over Future for all my racecars that always have allot of decals.

 

[moparfarmer]

After I wetsand with 2000 and up I use either Meguiar's Scratch X 2.0 which is just a touch more agressive than Meguiar's Cleaner..Follow with Meguiar's Gold Class paste, light coat then buffed when haze..Buy the products once and good for you models probably for life..Been using Meguiar's on my 1:1s for over 35 years and thought why not on models too..

[Lovefordgalaxie]

I always use wax. 

First I do wet sand and polish the paint up to the shine level I want it to be, and after I have all the gloss I can get, and no more any evidence of the polishing compound, I gave the entire body a coat of Meguiar's Tech Wax 2.0. It makes much easier to remove all the fingerprints from the model once it's all assembled. Since I use almost 100% automotive paints, the wax won't hurt the paint a bit. 

[Anglia105E]

For my first five Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud builds I used Meguiar's Deep Crystal Carnauba Wax liquid polish, which is wonderful stuff. Picked up a large bottle from Halfords that will last a long time for scale models and I must agree with other members on here, in saying that a poor paint job cannot be enhanced much by slapping on some expensive polish, no matter how good the product is. My thinking was...... if I was lucky enough to own a real 1:1 Rolls-Royce, then this is the polish that I would use  on such a fine motor car, so if it's good enough for the real car, it has to be good enough for my model cars too.

David

[Intmd8r]

On 1/3/2019 at 10:40 PM, moparfarmer said:

After I wetsand with 2000 and up I use either Meguiar's Scratch X 2.0 which is just a touch more agressive than Meguiar's Cleaner..Follow with Meguiar's Gold Class paste, light coat then buffed when haze..Buy the products once and good for you models probably for life..Been using Meguiar's on my 1:1s for over 35 years and thought why not on models too..

This is the EXACT process I use, though I have not been doing so for 35 years.

Happened to have the products on hand for my real vehicles and tried it on my models with positive results.

Agree with some other comments in the thread - wax is not a substitute for a good wet sand/polish to remove the orange peel.  It takes work and discipline to get a glossy finish.  Short cuts will always show.