# How to break open a coating of wax and remove it by creeping out...



## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

*How to break open a coating of wax and remove it by creeping out...*

The most important factor for removing any wax or paint sealant is to apply a *thin*, _*uniform*_ coating, this usually takes a little practice and in my opinion is best done using a DA Polisher.

Once you have a thin coating of whatever it is you're applying, for example a pure polish or glaze, or a wax or paint sealant, the job is to remove it without struggling and without inducing toweling marks back into the paint.

The words _*toweling marks*_ are a nice way of saying light or shallow swirls and scratches from pushing too hard with your wiping cloth or in other words struggling with your wiping cloth against the paint as you're trying to remove something that's not coming off easily.

Let me share with you the technique I call

_*Breaking open a coat of wax and then creeping out...*_

Kind of a weird title but it's all I can come up with that describes what you do using this technique.

First let me share the problem, most people try to wipe off large or huge swaths of product with each wipe and for some products this works well because the product is very easy to wipe off no matter how you wipe. But for a lot of products, wipe off requires a little more work because of the product itself.



> From TheFreeDictionary.com
> 
> *Swath:* _the width of one sweep of a scythe or of the blade of a mowing machine_
> 
> In the context of this article and topic it's the width of one sweep of your hand on a microfiber polishing towel.


When a product wipes off hard, trying to take huge chunks of it off in a single stroke doesn't work very well and usually what happens is you place your polishing towel on a panel, push on the towel and try to move it forward to remove the coating of product in that area; what usually happens is the towel stays in place and your hand moves forward emptyhand... so to speak... :laughing:

The reason for this is because when you try to take off huge amounts of product, the surface tension between the layer of glaze, wax or paint sealant is greater by the shear volume of surface area as compared to what your hand and a wiping cloth can _*convince*_ to release and pull away.

*If that makes sense...* 

*Take little bites!*
Now if you try to take the same product off but instead just take _*little bites*_ of product off using a gentle, circular motion with your hand and polishing towel, then taking off any product is easy. This is because when you only try to remove a small amount of product at one time your wiping cloth has more _*removing or lifting-off power*_ than the product has _*grip strength*_ onto the paint.

*Little Bites*
With little bites any wax or paint sealant is easy to remove and you _*reduce the potential*_ for inflicting any toweling marks...

*Breaking Open A Coating of Wax*
(Or breaking open a coating of _anything_, Glaze, Pure Polish, Wax or Paint Sealant)

If you have applied a coating of something to an entire car, then before you can remove the coating taking little bites of product off with your polishing towel, you must first have a place to start from that has no product.

*You need a starting point, you need a shiny spot*
You need to break open the coating of wax. You can do this anyway you like, I usually show placing a microfiber towel folded 4-ways placed flat on a panel and then place your hand on top of the folded towel, and then gently but with firm pressure twist the microfiber in a circle, this will usually remove most of the wax in that area and create a "shiny spot". This is called, _*"breaking open a coating of wax"*_ .

The way this works is when you apply pressure to your microfiber polishing towel, the weave or nap of the microfiber is slicing into this _*continuous layer*_ of product and gently breaking it up so you can remove it off the surface.

Now that you've broken open the coating of wax and have a shiny spot to start from you can start taking small bites of wax off the paint by making small circular swipes and _*creeping out*_ from the shiny spot.

Now when I say _*creeping out*_... I don't mean _*get weird on me*_... I mean using your folded microfiber towel, gently and methodically begin moving outward from the shiny spot taking wax off in little bites in tight little circular motions.

_*This is called breaking a coating of wax open and then creeping out...*_

Creeping out from the shiny spot by taking little swipes with gentle circular motions truly does work and the reason it works is because when you *only* try to take a little portion of wax or paint sealant off at one time your wiping cloth has more leverage over the grip-strength or surface adhesion between the coating and the paint than the coating can resist.

I've been using and teaching this technique for going on 2 decades and developed the technique from years of using M07 Show Car Glaze and M16 Professional Paste Wax and anyone that's used either of these old school products understands the _*grip strength*_ they have over the paint. Thus I needed an effective technique that could duplicated over and over again from car to car that would enable me to remove these two products off the paint without instilling swirls and scratches back into the paint at the same time.

In the below two videos, I demonstrate _*how to break open a coating of wax and then creep out*_, _*I even look into the camera and make a joke about it just like I do in all my classes*_.

Because these videos are longer than 10 minutes they are loaded onto YouTube in segments as they have a 10 minute maximum length rule.

I've only included the last segments of each video that have the creeping out technique for your viewing pleasure. At the end of this thread you can find links to the full videos if you want to watch the first segments...

Here's the videos, the first one goes right into the technique... watch for the funny part...

*Part 3 - How to apply a synthetic paint sealant by hand without instilling swirls*​




In this video, about 2 minutes into I show how to make the shiny spot and then the technique...

*Part 2 - How to apply a Carnauba Wax by Hand using the Straightline Technique*​




At the end of the above video I go over "The Final Wipe Technique"

I mess up my words and don't get the idea of how doing a slow wipe enables you to go faster by slowing down so I'll explain it here...

If the goal is to remove all the polish, wax or paint sealant to leave a streak free finish, then the ultimate goal besides removing all trace residues is getting to the point where you are in fact... finished. As in you don't need to touch the paint any longer.

The Final Wipe technique is a technique that enables you to remove all trace residues out of all the microscopic surface imperfections that the human eye cannot see but where product residue can accumulate.

If you think about it...streaks left in the paint is un-removed product... (what else could it be?)

If you ever watch people wipe wax off their car they usually look like what we call *"The Wild Man Technique"*, which is actually a bad thing and it's a description of someone moving their hand at the speed of light like some kind of frantic crazy person trying to wipe wax off their car.

Think about it... if you're moving a polishing cloth over the paint at light speed, how much time is there for product or trace residues to _*transfer*_ from the surface to the cloth moving overhead?

*Nanoseconds?*

Now think about this... if you _s-l-o-w..._ _d-o-w-n..._ if you purposefully move a clean, soft microfiber _*slowly*_ over the paint you give the trace residues plenty of time to transfer from the paint to the fibers of the cloth...

If in fact you successfully remove all the product including the trace residues off the surface then you reach your goal, you finish. You reach your goal faster by slowing down...

Pushing a microfiber polishing cloth over the paint at light speed makes you look like you're moving fast but you're not getting the job done... you're not finishing. You're spinning your wheels and probably inflicting toweling marks back into the paint...

_*So slow down to speed up...*_


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Great stuff and makes total sense....:thumb:


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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

james_death said:


> Great stuff and makes total sense....:thumb:


One of the easiest and quickest things you can try anytime you see a streak or an area that looks different than the paint surrounding it...

Doesn't always work but it does work in some instances...


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

As you say you can spend all that time getting the paint swirl free and then be destroyed by bad wax application and or removal.

Great Post as ever Mike...:thumb:

Always a pleasure to read your post's sir...:wave:


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