What’s the Difference Between Car Wax and Paint Sealant?

A car enthusiast will find few things more pleasurable than standing back and admiring the results of a few hours labour on a Sunday afternoon after having washed and waxed his car.

If you are interested in maintaining that showroom look you need more than elbow grease. You will also need quality products, especially when it comes to getting a nice shine onto your car using wax or paint sealant. Both will give you a lasting shine and both need to be applied regularly, so what is the difference?

First of all let’s start off by saying that they essentially achieve the same thing. They are both paint protectors. They are designed to be applied after you have polished your car’s paintwork. Polish works to remove those tiny abrasions and scratches that occur in your paintwork. It is slightly abrasive itself and because it is designed to restore the finish of your paintwork it will remove any previously applied wax etc leaving your paint unprotected. This is where wax and paint sealant comes in. It is applied after the polish has done its work in order to protect it.

By saying that they both achieve the same thing, hopefully that also infers that you don’t need both. Some people think that they need to apply paint sealant before they apply wax. This is not the case. You can do if you so choose but you don’t really gain anything. So, you have a personal choice to make. Paint sealant or wax.

Right, back to the original question. What’s the difference?

Essentially the difference is in the ingredients. If the product contains any naturally occurring waxy substance such as Carnauba wax then it is a wax. If it is made from synthetic ingredients and contains no naturally occurring wax then it is a paint sealant.

However, there is another problem. There are no laws to stop a car sealant manufacturer calling their product a wax. The reason they do this is that that majority of people who will buy their product know they want to wax their car. They will therefore look for a wax in the shop. The majority of people won’t care whether it is synthetic or not as long as it does the job they want it to do.

So, in the end, you have a personal choice to make. If you prefer to work with natural wax then look for a wax. If you prefer to work with synthetics then look for a paint sealant. Don’t go by the product name though. You need to look at the ingredients, just to be sure. China Adhesive Manufacturers