Dodo Juice Supernatural beading after 1.5 months

seems to have turned to sheeting, and the paint is not very slick anymore. i think it's time to re-apply. this was after washing with duragloss 901 and rinsing with de-ionized water from the CR spotless.

 

Is this 1.0 or 2.0 and how many coats did you do?

 

2.o with 2 coats

 

and i top it with fk425 after every wash

 

Wow I am surprised to say the least.

 

Wow, I thought it would last a lot longer than that! I wonder how my OE is holding out, if it lasts longer then I think Dom should hire Ben or something...

 

my car does get about 100 miles a day... so i don't think it's too bad... it is garage kept at home.

 

I guess I'll do my own test of SN 2.0 and OE when I remove everything next time. My car is outside 24/7 and driven between 20-80 miles a day

Keep us updated man

 

Hmmmm....

 

I've never tried it so I don't know but what I did notice is that there Is still a Beautiful shine there....:shrug:

 

weird. Does fk452 have any sealant or protection booster properties. If it did that could affect the way the paint beads and sheets.

 

its still shiny like from the day i put it on, just the beading has worn out...

fk425 doesn't have any sealant or protection. it is just anti-static

 

It is always tricky assessing durability as there are so many factors... the main problem is that beading diminishes as the wax layer gets eroded by UV light etc. A lack of beading means that the surface is pitted - but not necessarily that the coating is no longer there entirely.

That said, if a dark car (more UV susceptible) is being used for 100 miles a day then we'd expect durability to be slightly lower than for a lighter car being used less frequently.

In the UK, in normal test conditions, a couple of layers of SNv2 will typically last 2-3 months without issue and often longer. We have had reports of up to 5 months with multiple layers of SNv1 on a car that gets used on a fairly regular basis, but even that seems very extreme. You'd normally expect up to 6 months from a sealant and up to 3 months from a naturally-based wax.

Because waxes are sacrificial layers and industrial pollution in the UK means cars get dirty quickly, stripping off a dirty LSP and recoating after 3-6 months makes sense, so there is little sense in chasing sealant-esque durability with a carnauba wax. The only way to match it is to create a sealant, which may be something we'll do next year.

 

hmm so in the case of the OP, according to his usage and surroundings, the interval would be something like 1.5-2 months.
which after that you would recommend him to strip off the LSP (SN wax) and start over again right ?

so during that 1.5 months or so, no relayering of wax in between ?

probably double coat in the first few days or week. then leave it as it is till its time (1.5 months) ?

my reasoning would be if relayer in the middle (3rd week) , the wax might be going on top of contaminants and might not be a good thing...
so when it's time to "restart" in 2 months, just apply paint cleaner and then fresh wax . (may or may not need clay depending on conditions) .

that would be what I plan to do anyway

 

Yup... relayer when the wax looks 'tired' and the lack of beading will indicate that the surface of the wax is pitted, so even if it is still protecting the underlying paint and still present, it will be more likely to collect dirt and is 'old'.

At least a double coat at initial application, allowing it to cure as well as possible between layers (i.e. an hour or two if possible).

Then no relayering until reapplication. Maybe just a spray sealant like Z8 to keep it 'topped up'. Just wash it with a ph-neutral 'wax friendly' shampoo.

Then strip the sacrificial layer of wax after 2-3 months with a full degrease, clay and pre-wax prep. Then reapply the wax.

 

in a few weeks im going to re-polish the car anyways because it got scratched by a cat that decided to sleep on my roof...

 

That looks quite bad.

Even after 5 Months Vintage is beading very strong.

 

I find through my reading and experience that wax, with no sealant added, lasts 6 weeks at the most, whether you pay $6.00 or $3,000. for the wax. Although the $6.00 wax (Collinite) lasted longer, but I'm not so sure there's no polymers in that one.
Wax is wax, durability-wise speaking. It has a melting point, an evaporation point, and, since it doesn't crosslink like polymers do, anytime you rub it, (wash, QD), you're removing some of it.
Of course, YMMV.

 

On the same car? Exposed to the same conditions?

That is the problem assessing durability. It is highly subjective. If someone wanted a year of durability from Supernatural we could simply put it on a car that rarely sees the light of day and bring it out with perfect beading a year later.

The problem is exacerbated by the use of hyper-beading spray sealants like Z8. We could keep topping up a wax with that and it would bead forever. Conversely, some QDs kill beading in an instant. And some shampoos also change the beading characteristics of a wax layer - some will strip the wax, others will fortify it.

If Vintage works for you, then great. But Supernatural is a lot cheaper and people have got 5 months of durability out of that, too.

 

Whether for Supernatural or any other good carnauba wax, this sounds like an eminently reasonable and practical strategy for those of us who want to keep our daily drivers looking good, yet who are not willing or able to spend hours and hours on our cars each week. Durability is not decisively important for me, except during the winter months. For me the appearance of my car is more important. I also find washing and waxing to be personally therapeutic. I have no problem doing the full routine (prep, polish, wax) every other month during the spring, summer, and fall months. I look forward to it.

(But I admit that when it comes to my wife's spruce green Taurus, things are different. Durability is more important than appearance, and so I have turned to Collinite 845 as my LSP. The less frequently I have to wax the Taurus the better. What can I say? I'm partial to my own car.)

Cheers,
Al