Of course I procrastinated and have not given my truck a coat of wax before winter. It might hit the lower 50's today and I was hoping to apply a coat of Carnuba wax. I'd like to give it a Clay Bar first to make sure the paint is clean.
When is it to cold to wax?

 

ive waxed my vehicles when it was in the 30s already and no problems here

 

Liquid wax works better in cold weather. I use pinnacle liquid souveran when it gets too cold for my paste wax.

 

The better quality wax will be harder to apply when cold. There are some waxes that costs hundreds of dollars and people apply them with their hands so it will be warm enough to get into the paint. If you are going to clay your truck, then I'd get some Scratch X and get all the swirl marks out before loading up on some wax.

 

Scratch x just hides swirls, it does not remove them. Use a DA polisher like a flex, porter cable, or grits and do it the right way. I just polished my 2 month old truck the other night which was around 40 degrees. Truck came out great, took a bit longer since wax takes longer to haze/dry. Also for the platinum owners out there, watch out when waxing. If any gets on the platinum grill it may dull some.

 

50's are probably fine. I'd just figure if you have to bundle up, it is probably too cold.

Quick question here^ How do you get swirl marks from clay barring?

 

You shouldn't get them from claying, they're just really small scratches on your clear coat. You can get swirl marks from claying if the piece of clay you're using gets too many contaminates on it. I like using Scratch X because its not abrasive and won't thin out your clear coat over time. To each his/her own. If you really want to get in it, hit up Autogeek.net I get most of my cleaning supplies from them.

 

No offense, but this is a weird post to me. At 1st you say you "shouldn't get them from claying." But then you say, "you can get swirl marks from clay, if the clay has too many contaminates in it." Those would be scratches, not swirls.

Swirl marks, and scratches are 2 totally different things.


Scratches like that happen when particles are on your clay or polishing rag/microfiber.

Swirl marks are from rotary buffers.


And I've never heard of "thinning out your clear." Unless you put compound (it any other kind of buffing product)on a buffer or orbital, and lean on a certain spot.

 

i agree