Some time ago I had to watch a NASA corrosion control video training course. One of the subjects was clear coat and rust. When car companies first introduced clear coat, the advantage was not ever having to wax the car. Oil companies, however, felt that if this were true, they would lose billions of dollars because wax (derived from crude oil) would not be sold. The compromise was for the car companies to recommend no waxing for 6 months after a new car was purchased.
The kicker is that folks wax their cars after they wash it. Due to this, small microscopic pitting in the clear coat is filled with water, then the wax will blanket over the pitting filled with water. Since wax is pretty waterproof, the water is trapped under the wax. Since it cannot evaporate, it will begin to fester and work its way towards the pitting, causing an anode effect. The result is small brown specs in the paint, which is rust. Effectively, waxing a clear coated car starts the rusting. has as the car companies first claimed, one should never wax a clear coated car!
Interesting collection of fables, but most sound false.
Sounds like a theory dreamed up by a teenager to get out of waxing dad’s car to me.
Clear coat is just paint with no pigment added. So it should be treated as regular paint and be waxed on occasion for protecting. I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t wax my vehicles until they’re completely dry.
Tester
Wow ! This Is A Good One. I Suppose These Microscopic Water Droplets, From Car Washing That Are Buried Under The Wax, Are Different Than Water Contained In Everyday Air, Eh ?
So that’s why the wax manufacturers’ instructions tell me to use a damp cloth/sponge ! They want me to ruin my car ! I thought so ! Not.
I believe the “small brown specs” in the paint are what’s referred to as “Rail Dust” and it’s not coming from the car’s finish. It’s coming from the environment. It shows up more easily on light colored cars, like my white and silver cars.
Many folks attribute rail dust to brake pads. Perhaps there’s a brake pad conspiracy !
Conspiracy ? No.
CSA
“Since it cannot evaporate, it will begin to fester …”
Fester? Okay, I’ll bite. What is special about this water that makes it “fester”, and able to eat through the paint?
Does Uncle Fester eat paint??? I don’t remember. I don’t think he does…
Maybe I should have mentioned, within the 22 years I spent in the USAF a year of it was in a maintenance control function. The video in question was from NASA’s corrosion control program for aerospace vehicles. The example was one of many that the NASA scientist was using to demonstrate the destructive qualities and power of rust.
Nothing made up and since my father died years ago, his car wouldn’t need waxing. Bear in mind that money speaks volumes, and more than not, the sheer desire of it causes folks to speak to the money rather than the truth. But please continue to wax your cars.
Disregard the science involved and by all means leave the aerospace corrosion control practices to NASA.
Now you’re upset, sorry!
But your post has a number of obviously incorrect statements, I don’t care WHO made them:
“When car companies first introduced clear coat, the advantage was not ever having to wax the car.” Says who?
"Oil companies, however, felt that if this were true, they would lose billions of dollars because wax (derived from crude oil) would not be sold."
Nonsense. TOTAL wax sales in the US is maybe half a billion per year, and the feed stocks from those nasty oil companies are worth what, about 10% of that, or $50 million? Easy to claim a conspiracy, but for car wax? Come on!
"The compromise was for the car companies to recommend no waxing for 6 months after a new car was purchased."
So car companies and oil companies are conspiring to protect the WAX companies? Right!
"The kicker is that folks wax their cars after they wash it. Due to this, small microscopic pitting in the clear coat is filled with water, then the wax will blanket over the pitting filled with water."
The water stays there after the car is dried? NONSENSE!
"Since wax is pretty waterproof, the water is trapped under the wax. Since it cannot evaporate, it will begin to fester and work its way towards the pitting, causing an anode effect."
An “anode effect” results from metallic corrosion, nothing to do with paint.
"The result is small brown specs in the paint, which is rust."
Never seen it, except for BRAND NEW cars with ‘rail dust’ as mentioned above.
"Effectively, waxing a clear coated car starts the rusting. has as the car companies first claimed, one should never wax a clear coated car!"
When the conclusion is based on false statements, the conclusion is worthless.
If NASA is really propagating falsehoods and unscientific information like this, I think that I will write to my Congressman, and demand that the federal government end all funding for NASA.
As was said, this theory is full of holes big enough to drive an 18-wheeler through it.
Didn’t mean to seem upset, but on the contrary.
If I need to quote facts, then I should probably have references. In that light I can only reply with opinion because the tape I refer to was not made available to the public during my USAF career.
So in my opinion:
Many oil companies, wax companies, etc… will tell you that you SHOULD wax the clear coated car to keep it maintained. The car companies, however, RECOMMEND that the car should not be waxed after the first six months of purchase.
The ‘billions’ of dollars lost will include cars in more countries than the good old USA. Think worldwide. The money comes from all markets which purchase the product. USA is only one of those markets. In that respect, yes, billions is more accurate.
Since I really have nothing to gain or lose with this post, I can only assume some of the replies are from folks sounding off. Thats okay. Not a problem if someone does not wish to think about the possibilities of the claim being true. In all consideration though, what can be gained by whom, or lost by whom if the claim is true? I gain or lose nothing. Oil companies would be a bit annoyed due to possible loss of revenue. and consumers would gain. If you feel the info is incorrect, please disregard, thats your option.
I think I must have disturbed either employees or executives of wax makers. Not to worry, you will probably dismiss this soon enough.
OK, let’s make it simple. If your post was correct, we’d see thousands of carefully waxed 5-year-old cars driving around with damaged paint.
We don’t see that, therefore you post is incorrect, regardless of source.
I do not work for, and have never worked for “wax makers” or petroleum companies.
Instead, I am someone who is fastidious about the upkeep of my cars.
All of my cars have been waxed repeatedly at least once a year (beginning when they are a few months old), and even when these cars have reached the age of 9-10 years, I have frequently gotten comments from people who think that the car is only 1 or 2 years old. That is because the paint always looks so good.
If your theory (or NASA’s theory) was valid, those cars would have looked like decrepit wrecks, rather than like almost-new cars.
Also, please clarify this theory for us.
In your initial post you tell us that “the car companies…recommend no waxing for 6 months after a new car was purchased”, and in a later post you tell us that, “The car companies, however, RECOMMEND that the car should not be waxed after the first six months of purchase”.
Ergo–your two statements are contradictory.
Which crackpot theory are we supposed to believe?
When I Managed A Body Shop Our Painter Always Recommended That Customers Not Wax Newly Painted Body Panels For Several Weeks Until The Paint Fully Cured. Perhaps Some Car Manufacturers Made The Same Recommendations.
I don’t know much about paint, but modern clear coats are a type of epoxy that does need time to fully dry or harden. I really don’t think one has to worry about immediately waxing new paint, either on new cars or on newly painted surfaces. Perhaps it is desirable to wait a while.
CSA
P.S. Meguirs Link:
Scroll down to question “10. How soon can I wax my new car?”
http://www.meguiars.com/faq/index.cfm?faqcat=paint%20care&faqquestionid=54§ion=_54
Turtle Wax:
"How long should I wait until I wax my new car?
A: New cars can be polished 30 days from its production date. Repainted cars should be waxed 60 days after painting."
I don’t buy this for one minute and it’s certainly never been the case with any of my vehicles.
Along the lines of your statement about car companies recommending no waxing for 6 months after the purchase then I ask you why every new car dealer on the 'pike will push “Paint Protection” on sales of new vehicles? This “Paint Protection” is nothing more than thin wax and it’s applied AFTER the detail guys have washed the new cars.
As to whether NASA and it’s offshoot the NOAA are always correct, honorable, do the right thing, and so on and so forth I have 3 words for you.
Doctor James Hansen
This Froot Loop was dredged from the very bottom of the box. He’s not a colleague of yours is he?
My brother NEVER EVER waxes his vehicles (although he does wash them)…Whereas I wax ours 3-4 times a year…After 5 years the paint on his cars look 100 times worse then the paint on any of my vehicles…
You beat me to it.
I don’t understand what 22 years in the military has to do with it. It sounds like the OP is saying that NASA recommends that planes and spacecraft not be waxed. Am I following?
Impala
I think that the aluminum foil hat must have slipped off of the OP’s head temporarily.
What else could we conclude from a wacko post like his?