I'm sure many of you have worked part time jobs in your earlier days of enployment... at Supermarkets, Stores, or Restaurants. If so, you're probably at least vaguely aware of the waxing process that professionals tile floor maintenance companies are hired to perform on the floors like once every 3 or 4 months. Basically, they come in and clean the floors, apply an industrial strength stripper to the floor to remove the old wax, and then they apply 2 or 3 coats of new wax and buff it to a nice shine with buffing machines.

When those floors have been done with that process, they shine like crazy for months and they have to stand up to the daily abuse of people dragging their feet, rolling carts, wheelchairs, and other abusive items over the surface all day long... as well as being exposed to the salt that gets dragged in on them in the winter, and also being exposed to being washed daily and occasionally having chemicals accidentally spilled on them(example.. customer in a supermarket drops and breaks a bottle of bleach on the floor).

I was thinking.... Why can't someone make a version of that type of wax that would work on a cars surface and provide even a fraction of the protection that those floor waxes do? I wish I had an old beater car in my yard that I didn't care about at all.... I'd probably try getting my hands on some of that industrial wax that they use on floors and try applying it to the paint to see what kind of results there were. I'm sure the buffing process would be pretty rigorous in order to get it to shine at first, because those guys who buff the floors use a pretty abbrasive buffing machine that is usually powered by either gas or propane.

Just in case anybody was wondering... I would never try this on my G35 unless I had tried and proven the results on at least a few other junker test cars first... but it just got me thinking that there's got to be more durable products out there that we could use on our cars surfaces to protect them, that the automotive wax industry doesn't want us to know about.

 

The floor is much rougher and absorbs the wax better which is why the wax can be applied thicker and a harder wax more durable wax can be used. The finish is also FAR from perfect, it may look shiny, but its full of scratches and marring, which would be very noticeable on a car.

 

Have you seen the buffing machine? It's about 1.5 the size of a shopping cart and obviously weighs a lot more. And I wouldn't say the shine lasts months.. But I'm sure the reason we can't use hard wax like that has something to do with our delicate paint

 

Its not a buffing machine you have seen..its called a "burnishing machine". It's used in a way similar to a "buffing machine" but it works at a much higher speed.

It will heat up the wax to smooth the surface and causes the wax to last much longer( the wax will be harder).

There is no "perfect wax". All will scratch and mar, either on a floor or a car over time. Is all about upkeep!!!

Also, the floors are coated with a sealer prior to waxing...making the wax last longer as well.

 

A funny story for you:

When I was in the Marines I saw all kinds of stupid stunts performed by Marines in an effort to produce the desired results with less effort. Pledge on floors, painting boots with gloss black paint to get a shine, washing a rifle in the shower, etc... Overcome, improvise and adapt took on a whole new meaning when it came to cleaning things. For those who don't know, Marines like things to be CLEAN and SHINY.

We used the floor buffers (burnishers) and paste or liquid wax on our barracks floors. Done properly, they would produce a mirror like finish.

One day I saw a young Marine in the barracks parking lot speading Johnson's paste floor wax on his new Camaro. He had a hand held buffer that he had attached a piece of a burnishing pad, cut to size. A long extension cord connected him to the barracks electrical. His friends stood around, anxiously waiting to see the results. I stopped by to see what was going on and explained to him that he was about to ruin his new car. He, being a Marine floor polishing expert (we all are), knew exactly what he was doing and respectfully told this Sergeant as much. His theory assumed that if this wax worked so well at bringing shine and protection to a dull floor, it would be magical on his new paint. I stood back and watched.

He proceeded to buff the paint into a nice dull, incredibly scratched finish with the wax merely providing some goopy lubrication to the burnishing pad, much to his dismay. So he switched to cloth and made even more of a mess of it. I left before the temper tantrum ensued. Later I found out that the car had to be taken to a body shop where they stripped the wax off using a hot chemical stipper, repainted the damaged area (hood) and had to polish the whole car back to shine.

Ooh Rah!

 

Ouch!!!!

 

^+1 that must have been a humbling and upsetting experience.

 

yeah, I would never just go out and try something like that on my car. If I really wanted to, I'd go buy a hood or fender or something from a junk yard to test with.

 

Young, smart Marines almost never listen to anything they know they know more about than their wise and kindly Sgt. could possibly ever hope to know. Fact of life that takes much effort and care to correct.

 

Or time and/or an *** kicking if you don't have the patience or the situation does not afford the time.

 

whoa what is up with your sig! Thats cool!

 

In my basic training back in 1998 I saw a guy use floor wax "paste type" on his boots to a high shine. At 0900 formation the next day all the drill SGTs wher praising him that his boots where as shiny as theirs. By lunch time we wher laughing at his boots looking "fuzzy" because the wax was flaking off! Needless to say no one else tried this!