Hey guys I've been hearing a lot about water beading.. I kind of know what it is. Its just pouring water onto the car after its waxed to see if the water falls down or not. I was wondering if someone can explain it to me in depth and the stages of it if there are any.
i dont know if there are stages, my understanding is just the way of showing how the nuba in the product is protecting the paint; creating nice, tight little beads of water that just sit on top of the wax.
Here's a good example: After washing/waxing the car, this is what you'll get. If you do a clay bar, I've found the results last longer (because the surface of the paint is cleaner). There are more stages to the actual detail/wax process, but simplified, it's 1) Wash 2) Wax 3) Profit!
Solid - water beading is nothing more than a function of surface tension. It is not an indicator of protection as clean bare paintwork will bead water just fine on its own. Aesthetically it can be quite nice to look at, but otherwise it's actually worse than an LSP that tends to pool the beads into one mass of liquid. The reason for this is down to the water droplets containing dust/minerals/etc and when the sun evaporates the water, it leaves behind these hitch-hikers, and you wind up with the telltale water spots. With pooled water, the evaporation tends to be lesser in totality, so you never end up with the minerals, etc being deposited out of solution, or you can disperse it with a cloth or waterblade, if you use/have one. A product like Duragloss Aquawax will remove any water spots easily enough though.
Waterbead is very over-rated though. If paint beads water, that means that it is hydrophobic. What can you put on paint that's hydrophobic? Oil of course!!! What does oil attract? Dust!!!! Dust scratches paint if not properly removed. John
