No one wants ugly scratches on their car paint. But unfortunately, they can be a little hard to remove. So what are you gonna do?
In this article, I will discuss whether car WAX has any effect on removing or covering scratches from car paint. So let's get started.
A quick answer
Waxes do not remove scratches and swirls because they do not contain any abrasive. To remove a scratch, you will need to use a polish or compound if it is in a clear coat, or respray the area if it gets into a color coat or primer.
Wax can help temporarily mask or cover up very slight clear coating scratches. However, the wax will not hide the appearance of deeper clear coat scratches or damage that has gone through the clear coat into the colored coat or primer.
The type of scratch
There are many different types of scratches that can occur on your car's finish. To understand the effect of wax on them, we need to look deeper into different levels of scratch severity.
This is what your car paint looks like. It consists of several different layers.
You own the body of the car (made of metal or plastic) and then coat the top with an electrophoretic paint and primer.
Then you have the primer, which gives the car its color. The sheer coat is at the top of it all.
Clear coatings protect your car from UV damage and prevent your primer from fading over time. Clear coats are also responsible for how shiny your paint looks.
Let's look at the clear coating scratches first.
Clear coating scratches (mild)
The first kind of scratch you can get is very mild and occurs in clear coatings. They are often caused by poor washing techniques, for example, when using a sponge or bath towel to dry the car. These are radical methods that cause slight damage to the clear coating, sometimes called swirl marks.
They're hard to see, and you can only really see them in direct sunlight. Look at this picture. In the image on the left, you can see these "vortex traces." Clear coat scratches (medium)
The next type of scratch is again in the clear coat, but deeper. These often make your paint look a little dull in normal light, but rarely visible except in direct sunlight.
They are again caused by incorrect washing techniques and look like spider webs. Take a look at the picture and chart below. The photo was taken with a flashlight in the dark, so there was a bright spot. Look around the bright area and you'll see short scratches.
Scratch primer (severe)
The next type of scratch is a primer scratch. This is usually not caused by improper cleaning, but more direct damage to the car's paint.
These can be seen in any light, not just direct sunlight, and they appear white. This is because the varnish and primer have been removed.
Scratch primer (very serious)
This leads to the worst scratches we can get. Again, this would be caused by proper damage to the paint, not just an incorrect cleaning technique.
This scratch looks gray because it goes all the way through the primer (color) all the way to the primer.
Does wax remove scratches?
Unfortunately, wax does not remove scratches, regardless of their severity.
To truly remove scratches, you need to remove the damaged paint layer to create a flat surface. This involves using polish or compounds to "cut" the paint away.
This is usually done using a machine polisher, most commonly a double-acting polisher. It can be done manually, but it's less efficient and the results won't look as good.
Here you can see polishing/compounding in action. You can only see scratches because the light reflects unevenly from the surface. The paint correction flattens the surface so that scratches are effectively removed.
Polishes and compounds contain abrasive particles, so they can cut through the paint. Wax is not abrasive and therefore does not really remove scratches.
But keep in mind that you can only safely remove clear coating scratches. You cannot remove deeper scratches, such as primer or primer scratches. If you try to remove that much paint, then you won't be left with any clear coating, and the finish on your car will look terrible.
If you have a primer or primer scratch, then you will need to repaint the area to make the scratch disappear. This cannot be done by simple paint correction techniques such as polishing.
Does wax make the scratch look better?
Fortunately, wax can make some scratches look better. This is because they have some filling capacity. This means that they will cover the scratch slightly. Look at this picture.
Here you can see the wax covering the surface of the paint and covering some small clear coating scratches. This gives the impression that the surface is flat and therefore light will be reflected more evenly.
However, wax does not do a very good job of properly covering scratches. The main purpose of wax is to protect your paint from UV rays, dirt, and other contaminants. Wax is not used to cover up scratches.
As a result, their usefulness is very limited. They may be able to hide some very small clear coat scratches, making your paint look smoother. However, wax will not have much effect on deeper clear coat scratches, especially not on primer or primer scratches.
You can use a product called glaze to fill slightly deeper clear coat scratches and make undercoat scratches look less ugly. A glaze is applied before waxing and contains a filler designed to make the car paint look flatter.
Again, glazes don't work miracles. If you have a primer or primer scratch, you will need to respray the area to hide the scratch. Check out my article on waxes and glazes for more information on what these two products actually do.
Thanks for reading! I hope you found this article helpful. Don't forget to check out the rest of the blog for more information on making your car look good again.