Wax Ghosting

Wax Ghosting

A number of people we have spoken to at shows have asked us about their wax always ghosting. Wax Ghosting is where your car hazes over a few hours after the waxing process. This usually occurs when too much product is applied, and this can be a single layer of too much wax or multiple layers in one go.

 Lots of wax means lots of solvent and this solvent has to evaporate before the wax can fully cure and harden. To understand this better, we should first cover why there is solvent in car wax. 

Carnauba wax in its natural form is rock hard and in order to break this down to make it smooth and easy to apply to your vehicle's paintwork, it requires an addition of a solvent; this is also known as a 'carrier agent'.

If you apply a wax or any product which has this solvent within, and you haven’t allowed the previous product you applied sufficient time to cure then all you are doing is introducing that solvent back into that product and breaking down what you have just applied. 'Ghosting' is a term used where the surface hazes over as a result of too much solvent and its process of evaporation.

A quick buff will usually remove this hazing, but the hazing usually returns until the solvents have evaporated. Thin layers are better than slapping on loads!

Other factors such as the paintwork being too hot, wax build up on the microfibre towel can also cause wax ghosting; a reason why we recommend a number of cloths for detailing, both plush in design and colour coded e.g blue to remove initial product and green to buff. The deep pile lifts the product away from the paintwork far more effectively than short pile microfibres. And while we are discussing microfibres, it’s worth noting that a 70/30 mix of Polyester & Polyamide Microfibre is far better for your paintwork when you demand high gloss than 80/20 mix. The added Polyamide (the ‘30’ part) will provide increased softness and absorbency. It’s a far softer blend of microfibre.