Using Carnauba (Car) Wax To Polish....... (Page 1 of 2)

Carnuba is one of the natural waxes that used to be found in good ol' Johnsons paste Wax (for those of you that used to do a lot of woodworking).... also popular for hardwood flooring (you can slide a mile in your socks!!).  Anyway I digress, one of the more common "hard Waxes" in a lot of high grade auto waxes as well.  But it should be noted that many car products also contain ultra fine polishing abrasives to remove surface scratches which might not be a good thing for those really thin "French Polish" guitar coatings.  But if you know that there is plenty of film thickness to wear away at (as modern urethanes are), I can see no problem either and am in total agreement with the Metalizer.  I used to get some 100% Carnuba liquid from my Pro Car Care Distributor, that was outstanding.  But it did have a fair amount of solvent to make it thin and easy to apply.  Also added a little bit of a yellow color to the finish, but the trick with hard waxes is thin coats and start buffing before it has a chance to fully dry, or it can be a lot of work to achieve a smooth glass-like finish.    Any streaking will leave a texture like fingerprints which takes a buffer or much hand polishing to smooth out.  Durable and long lasting, unless you are in the habit of running your guitar through machine car washes, or leave it out in the hot Arizona sun, or maybe strap it to your grille and run down the freeway at 65mph every day for six months.... then you might have to reapply more often than every couple of years.

This is where you HAVE TO READ THE  PRODUCT LABEL.     What you are referring to is a "Cleaning Wax"  Pure Caranuba does not contain the silica's which provide the abrasives.  As I mentioned I use Sealants that are a combination of Natural waxes and Polymers.  A wax many don't know about is called Monton.  It's deep mined and has a higher resistance than caranuba.  One of my favorite products i s made this way. it is called POXY by HD car care (amazon sells it.)  and if you do have a bit of pick scratching  and what not , their product called SPEED cleans up the surface very nice.   If all you are doing is by hand, even with a thin french coat, you would have to really work the _____ out of it to do damage.  Most damage is due to improper use of a buffer.  The pictured guitar has a product called KNOCKOUT by Greenways  car care. it is a Polymer based sealant.  (As a note, Meguiars yellow wax is a real pain to remove, so stay away from it)

Armor All contains Silicone wax, which is great for plastics and vinyl, but never put it on your motorcycle seat (!) or under hard braking you might just wind up sitting on the fuel cap.  Another in that family of spray on products is this stuff called Protect- All... if you can find it, contains Carnuba and Monton waxes and an additional UV Inhibitor (without polishing abrasives).  Usually available from RV and Marine supply stores.  Pump spray, aerosol can, and in bottles, easy to apply and easy to buff by hand with long lasting protection for almost any surface including wood, leather, fiberglass, rubber, chrome, vinyl and paint.  I've used that as well on guitars with good results and almost as easy as that old favorite (gasp!!) Pledge.  Please don't laugh (I did), when it was recommended by a guitar salesperson at a "big box" retailer..... it's better than nothing.

I use Car Wax on one of my guitars regularly. Being an old car guy, my go to products are typically from Meguiars.

Of course, that guitar is my CA - completely made out of Carbon Fiber.

I bet beamer could put a real nice polish on that one - next time he makes it to chordiestock!

would love to, and when I do make it I am bringing  My polisher  since now I have enough backups that i dont have to worry about a broken one.

I actually have some experience on this. On a satin finish or a finish in rough shape (Gibson LG 2), I use Pledge. I had a luthier tell me that the only difference between Pledge and the guitar polishes is the lemony smell. On a painted electric or an acoustic that is perfectly smooth, I use old fashioned Johnsons Paste Wax.  A lot of work but it is a small area so it isn`t that bad. Just a lot of buffing. Dont put it on the bottom if you play sitting down. It will become too slippery. I would never use Armor All. I do use it on my FJ with no padding inside. I won`t use it on my Falcon. I definitely wouldn`t use it on my guitars.  A lot depends on which guitar I am cleaning.

I only know about Classical guitars and many  guitar builders and Luthiers suggest using Fenders Spray Wax on the body of the guitar (not on fret board) and use a micro fiber cloth. I use it when I change strings. When guitars are built they do not have strings on them until at the end, so usually I remove all strings, do my polish and cleaning, and then restring. It take almost a week for classical strings to stop stretching. I tune the strings 2  or 3 times a day and do not play them until they stop stretching.

Steel strings settle in must faster. That is a plus for steel steel strings guitars.

I only know about a metal guitar I loved to play the guitar some time I also listen to classical guitar and play my friend play rocking.Thanks for discussing.

I was told by a luthier that both furniture and car polish are an absolute 'no-no' for a guitar. They build up a coating and ruin the resonance of the instrument. The best way is to wipe down well with something we all have in our bathroom, a wet wipe, to remove dirt and marks and then finish off with a clean lint free cloth.

Roger     

I use the PRS equivalent: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail … tar-polish

Better? Worse? Probably made in the same factory ...      

True - I didn't notice that ... I'll have to have a look on the bottle to see what it consists of; I bought it from the John Mann shop to increase my purchase to get free postage (if I remember correctly), as postage to Australia from the USA seems to have grown dramatically over the last few years ....