Recommendation for a good brand of wax

[Jeffbo1]

I'm looking for a recommendation for a product that will work well on Stits Polyfiber....mine is colored red and black and these two colors can tend to thin with too aggressive a polish or even wax...was wondering if there is a product out there compatible with this covering and color process used on my ship...i'm reluctant to use cheap car wax etc. but have had good but limited results from Pledge furniture polish believe it or not...many thanks

Jeff

[VictorBravo]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

Pledge works well, although I believe theirs is "no wax" these days. It definitely will not hurt, and I don't think there is any abrasive in it. (Lemon Pledge seemed to work really well on glider canopies once they were rinsed free of dirt)

There is a spectacular super whiz-bang polymer aircraft product called "Supercoat" but it only works well on shiny paint (If you have Aerothane on your Stits). On a J-3 Cub that had been painted with car enamel (eek!), this turned a 4 airplane into a 7 in one application.

Meguiar's Car Cleaner Wax is wonderful to put a shine on any good paint but it does have a mild abrasive, so you only want to use this once in a while. I'm 100% certain there are many other Meguiar's car waxes and products that will do very well without any abrasive. Go to any decent size car show or event and there will be a Meguiar's tent, they will have some genius expert that you can talk to about abrasives.

I still have an old can of pure carnauba wax in my hangar that came with a glider I owned, you're welcome to have a go with that if you like. No abrasive in it. If you want, I'll drop it off for you up at "the drunk tank" at the north end of the airport.

The big question IMHO is whether your paint is smooth and hard (Aerothane put on heavy) or whether it is soft dope and has fabric weave in it (Poly-Tone). My last T-craft had the soft dope on it and the Supercoat did NOT do its magic on it. I used the Meguiar's Car Cleaner Wax on it and it worked well but I was not as worried about the abrasive as you..

[Jim Doody]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

Rejex

[NY86]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

I've used a product called "Perma Shield" for about 20 years. I think it was recommended in Aviation Consumer or Light Plane Maintenance, back then, but I'm not sure. Since I haven't tried anything else, I can't compare it, but I'm still happy with it...

[Jeffbo1]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

Thanks for the tips and especially the offer of the wax Bill! I got a call from Gary A. and he suggested I call Stits, which I followed up on...they suggested much as all here that if my finish is still well sealed and shiny that I simply go with a McGuiar's "glaze" first which gives it an extremely mild buff and to follow this up with pure carnuba wax to give it a really glassy shine..if my poly fiber was getting dull they suggested i go with a rejuvination kit that adds to the polymer of the skin, refreshes its flexibility and follow this with a polish, then glaze, then wax for a deep shine like new...they recommended this on any of their fiber skins that are more than 15 years old...anyway, i have the glaze and wax coming and should be all set for a bit of exercise in the old hangar soon...see you at the drunk tank Billy

Jeff

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

I have been using pure Carnuba for years (it is VERY expensive for real, pure Carnuba!) Just a couple of warnings. First, just do a small area at a time! Carnuba will get as hard as concrete when it dries and is VERY hard to rub out when it gets hard. Second, it works by getting warm from the gentle heating from the rubbing. I have only used it on painted metal where I can polish it out with a CLEAN COTTON cloth. Well used CLEAN all cotton diapers are the best thing I have found. The more worn out they are the better. DON'T try to use blended fabrics and DON'T use a cloth you dropped! Get a clean one and wash the one you dropped (by the way, clean cotton diapers are GREAT for the plastic in your windshield too, but NO WINDEX!!!!! Ammonia in Windex will react with the plastic and cloud it!
Last thing I found about Carnuba is it is unaffected by mild soap and water, but liquid detergent in the wash bucket will strip every bit of it off. If you DON'T want to remove the Carnuba, use liquid dish washing SOAP. If you need to remove it, just use a stronger dish wash DETERGENT. GREAT for when you need to do a fabric or paint repair.
I love Carnuba, BUT I have NOT used it on fabric (yet).
Hank

[bashibazouk]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

Whatever you do-- stay away from anything with silicone in it! It's a real PIA to get off if you need to do repairs down the line.

[jim cooper]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

I use Mothers paste wax once a year. Slightly abrasive but has never hurt the finish as far as I can tell. On leading edges I use pledge spray wax on occasion. Makes bugs come off easy with plain cold water and a towel. I try NOT to spray the aircraft with a hose much. I use cold water in a bucket and a segment of turkish towel to wash it, then dry it with a chamois. Looks good! I polish my prop with mothers metal polish. It works well.

[Ray36048]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

Pledge has silicone in it. You will hate youself if you have to do any painting after using pledge.

[jim cooper]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

I don't understand the silicone bit...Why would I paint the airplane? Or , if I had to, after sanding it well, why could I not paint it? I used pledge on leading edges only of: Stearman, 2 140 Cessnas, 7BCM Aeronca, etc. I started because so many other pilots used it. I AM NOT a good painter or mechanic, leavibg those items to the pros.

[Ray36048]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

I have painted 3 airplanes and have recovered 4. The silicone creaps everywhere and goes under any lap joints. When you start to spray, you get fish eye. The last project I did, had silicone caulk on all of the metal glass trim pieces. Even after cleaning with MEK on the bare metal I got fish eye.
I talked with a guy who has an airplane refinishing business, he has the same problems with Pledge and silicone waxes.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Recommendation for a good brand of wax

Best way to remove silicone is with a razor blade. Like was said before, it seems to flow out over everything near it and is almost impossible to remove. It REALLY screws up paint but I have tried two things that seem to work "pretty" well. First, clean the surface with "Prep-Sol". You can get it from commercial car body shops. The second step, and please don't laugh, is I wipe the surface down with a rag and WET PAINT. That's right, I just slop it on with a rag and then wipe it all back off. Usually you need to let it dry and then do some fine sanding to get the surface smooth again, but somehow the wet paint seems to soak up the silicon and the spray coats go on smooth without fish-eye.
Don't let anyone see you do it. They will think you are nuts.
Nice thing is you can wipe with pretty much any color since you are going to wipe it off again. It makes a REAL MESS but seems to work.
Hank
One more warning, DON'T USE PAPER TOWELS! Some of them have silicone coatings in the paper. Who was the IDIOT that thought to do THAT!