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Glossary of Terms Many times confusion enters into the detailing world by not having a clear definition of what things are. Many times cleaning manufactures call products things that they are not to give them a more marketable name. Regardless of names a set of definitions has been made to categorize and describe cleaning products accurately. Wax-As the name may infer a wax is just that, a wax. The most common wax used to protect paint and gel-coat surfaces is Carnauba. Carnauba wax is rock hard in its natural form. For that reason thinners are used to soften the wax into liquid or paste form. Those thinners evaporate and guess what they leave behind; that's right, the wax. Protectant- A general term used to group things that are rubbed, spread or applied to a painted or gel-coat surface to act as a barrier between the surface and the environment. Without some type of barrier environmental effects like acid rain, UV light and surface filth will slowly break down the surface on your boat, oxidize. Protectant is not the the Microsoft Word dictionary so like "Cleanie" it may be special only to this website. Cocktail- A mixture of a natural Wax and Protectant. Most products today are not just a wax or protectant but rather a cocktail. Like many have learned late nights on the town, sometimes cocktails will be great, other times they will be horrid. Cleanie- The state of being completely and sublimely clean. Oxidation- literally the combination of an element with air. We all know that rust is simply an oxidation as well as silver tarnish and that cool green stuff on copper roof. In our case oxidation can be broken into two different categories, gel coat/paint and Polish- A polish can have many definitions. These range from providing conditioning agents for the surface to actually being a protectant. In Cleanie Land a polish is a light abrasive, mechanical or chemical, that is used to remove light oxidation as well as surface contaminants. There are different polishes that are designed for hand, random orbital or rotary polisher application. When a polish is referred to above is the definition unless otherwise stated. Can be further defined as light, or heavy to describe different degrees of aggressiveness. Compound- A compound is a mechanical abrasive that is used to remove heavy oxidation. Compounds usually have abrasive that one can feel and can be likened to liquid sand paper. There are varying different grades of compound from very aggressive, like the old 3M Super Duty Compound or Presta Ultra Cutting Crème, to very moderate like 3M's Finesse-It III Compound or Presta's Ultra Cutting Crème Light. Compounds are best used with a rotary or random orbital polisher and for the everyday Cleanie Freak should not be used on any painted surface, paint is simply too soft and will quickly be compounded away. Glaze- As with many things the definitions of a glaze is always up for revaluation. 3M just released their new Finesse-It III line of products that includes a Hand Glaze and Machine Glaze. They informed me that these two items replace the Liquid Polish that is no longer available. The 3M Glazes fall under my category of a polish or cocktail. They have very light abrasives that remove small scratches and swirl marks very much like the quintessential two polishes, Presta 1500 Polish and Presta Swirl Remover. My definition of a glaze still stands as a product that contains fillers that will reduce the appearance of imperfections in a painted surface. For instance it will fill a scratch in to lessen its appearance. A prime example of a glaze would be Mothers Sealer and Glaze that effectively fills in many small scratches and swirl marks. |
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