# Dutch car wax home brewing



## Frans D (May 23, 2011)

Got also curious about making a car wax, so read a lot about it and recently started buying waxes, oils and other needed equipment.

Hereby a picture of my "gear";










The first mixture I made had a total wax content of 40%.
The solvent is turpentine and the oils are a mixture of several oils.

Weight de waxes and oils;










Time to cook and monitoring temperatures;










All waxes nicely molten and mixed;










So time to preheat the oils to avoid solidification of the waxes;










I choose to preheating the oils, because with adding cold oils the waxes start to solidify immediately. Also some oils cannot have high temps (for to long).

Monitoring the temp of the oils, didn't want them higher as around 70 degrees Celsius. 
Water was at that moment 75 degrees C, temp of the oils around 65 degrees C.










Next I moved the waxes to the pot with the lower temperature and gave it the opportunity to go down in temp a bit.
After that I added the preheated oils and mixed thoroughly;










Poured the wax in a can and let it cool down;










After cooling down, the wax had a bit the texture and feeling of a hard wax.
Applied it on a cd, however it had a big disadvantage it wouldn't dry and stayed greasy.










Buffed of the remains to see what it would look like.
Not bad; nice shine. Hold it under the tap as a test and it had also a good sheeting and beading;










---

Tried some other formulas after that;










--------------------------

Formula 2

Waxes

10 gr	Carnauba
2.5 gr	Candellile
5 gr	Bees

17.5 gram total on waxes (35% of total weight)

Solvent

25 gr	Terpentine oil (50% of total weight)

Oliën

3 gr	Safflower oil
3 gr	Parafine oil
1.5 gr	Jojoba oil

7.5 gram total on oils (15% of total weight)

_Were I had the problem on Formula 1, that the residue stayed greasy, with this mixture I had the problem that it was feeling sticky. A bit like when you let a wax cure to long.
Texture feels again like a hard wax. Applying goes well, buffing out is hard, nice shine remaining though._

-----------------------

Formule 3

Waxes

15 gr	Carnauba
5 gr	Candelille
5 gr	Bees

25 gram total on waxes (50% of total weight)

Solvent

15 gr	Terpentine oil (30% of total weight)

Oliën

5 gr	Safflower oil
5 gr	Cocos oil

10 gram total on oils (20% of total weight)

_Can be short on this;
Wax was visible dried in and very hard, so unusable..._

-----------------

Not giving up, counted already on many trials and errors.
Am still cooking and trying other formulas, will keep you updated. :thumb:

---


----------



## NarN (Jun 24, 2011)

Nice post Frans, looking forward in your progress.


----------



## nothelle (Apr 28, 2010)

Looking good.... good luck on the experiments


----------



## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Great work and are you going to post the magic mix when found....????...
Or will it be your in house secret wax...:lol:


----------



## rapidTS (Feb 24, 2010)

great work. a lot of stuff. 

good point, you have a special kitchen so no problem with the smell of terpentine oil. 

but imho terpentine oil is too greazy. 

i'm trying some natural subsitute for white spirit based on coconut oil
( ester ) , 2.20 € for 1 liter. 

you can find also some silicones substitutes based on coconut oil, in the shop you'd buy the waxes and oils. 

if you have some orange oil, try to make a pneu wax ( carnauba + orange oil + perhaps glycerin ? ) 

now your big problem is to find a new panel for testing :lol:

if you


----------



## CAB (Oct 24, 2007)

Important question though..... does it smell nice?


----------



## oz7 (May 9, 2011)

Great DIY , now I want to make my own wax


----------



## Frans D (May 23, 2011)

Tnx all.

@ James; I don't think there will be a magic mix. I simply don't have the possibilities, knowledge, products and equipment to make such a thing.
It's just for fun and to learn a thing or two about making car waxes.

@ rapid: The idea is also to get some other solvents to try. I am trying to learn some basics with the stuff I have now.

@ XTR: If you like the smell of turpentine, it does. 

I tested some other formulations, and they are still not what I want them to be.
Some are still to greasy other are still to sticky.
Keep trying new ones though.


----------



## The_Bouncer (Nov 24, 2010)

Frans - good work, it's interesting making a homebrew and it absorbs you quite a lot, you start thinking of all types of things to put ( and what to remove ) into it. However as said to me, delving into the exotic side of oils sometimes is not worth the expense or the effort - find a good combo and thats where you learn to tweak it. I'm up to version #19 of mine and still got a bit of way to go before I'm happy with it.

You have the correct kit there - it's all down to trial and error.

Good luck with it and keeps us informed how you get on.

p.s bet the house smells nice :thumb:


----------



## Frans D (May 23, 2011)

Hello Bouncer,

I am more trying to find the right combination regarding percentages, between waxes, solvent and oils.
I am keeping the solvent right now quite steady in my formulas (around 35 - 40%) and am playing with the total percentages on oil and waxes.

So lets say I am at 40% solvent, I try a mixture with 30% on oils, next 20%, 15%, 10%.

30% and 20% left a greasy/smeary residu, 15% to, but less greasy and 10% was to dry.

So next I am going to try a mixture just a bit higher as 10% on oils.

Doesn't that give a better result, next I am going to keep the percentage on oils and solvent steady and fiddle around with the percentages between hard and soft waxes (carnauba, candellile, parafine and bees) of the remaining part.

Having to much bees can lead to a sticky wax, to much carnauba - to gritty and hard, to much parafine to soft or greasy, so there is also a lot to experiment with regarding the combined waxes.

There are so many variables to take in account.

The house smells okay, I am doing my experiments on the attic and (luckily) don't smell it downstairs.


----------



## The_Bouncer (Nov 24, 2010)

Not all the mix has to add up to a % - this is the balance you maybe are trying to work to.

a simple mix ( all available on ebay ) is :

25gr of Carnauba
15gr of beeswax
50gr of Linseed Oil ( I used boiled as it is a quicker drying solvent )
10gr of turpentine
8gr of Lemon oil

That simple mix, once cooled down would give a usable wax, good beading and fair durability.

As I said, that's a smiple mix - it's about what is finding works for you - you can then go further on fasting acting odourless solvents, fragrances, PTFE, etc.

You'll also find yourself looking at chemist's style websites and product producers MSDS, COSHH sheets and wierd formulae.

Overall, just have fun, keep testing and you'll find something starting to take shape - as with anyone before tho' there is a limit you can take a wax to with homebrew, It's defining at which point you accept how far you can do with it.


:thumb:


----------



## Frans D (May 23, 2011)

Hello Bouncer,

Have you tried that formula?
Because I did some tests with drying oils (linseed is one) and it can take days before they are dried.
It's not really drying what they do, they react on the oxygen in the air (oxidation).
Turpentine is a real solvent which evaporates.

That's why in oilpainting they add a solvent (like turpentine) to a drying oil (like linseed) and sometimes they even add a siccative to help the drying (oxidation) proces.


----------

