hmm ... regular Windex with Ammonia (no weird colors or flavors ... just old school blue ammonia windex) works for me ... just rub it with a towel

 

Very interesting thread. I read the whole thing...here is my take.

The reason it turns white is because the pores in the plastic pick up the wax when it's accidentally applied. The pores trap the wax and do not allow the buff rage to get inside the pores to wipe out the wax.

IMHO Unless you use something that will get into the pores and CLEAN out or melt out the wax your just covering it up. Peanut Oil, BW, 303, all they do is just hydrating the wax inside the pores and make the "white" temporarily go away. Once a wash or heavy thunderstorm happens the oils are washed away. The wax then has the opportunity to dry out again and show the white.

So the process should be two fold, clean the wax out of the pores, then dress it just like you do the rest of the molding.

I am going to try Windex and a tooth brush first. It will evaporate fast so results can be seen quickly.

I use 303 on all of my molding, tires and interior.

 

Black Wow is a cleaner dressing/restorer product. It contains a mild solvent to dissolve wax/polish residue but still requires a mild abrasive like a shop rag or sewn edge of a microfiber applicator to be most effective on more stubborn stains. Unlike 303 or other products that are only dressings, BW does clean the trim first, but because it does require more effort instead of simply wiping it on, PW was developed as an easy wipe on, let dry, and follow with BW system.

Note that removal of wax and polish on the same trim are different. It's actually easier to remove "wax" stains from trim than polish stains, this is contrary to logic since a polish like Prima Swirl is water based, it would seem that a wax thats hydrophobic would be much harder to remove. What matters is HOW that product got on the trim.

A wax is normally hand applied whereas a polish is usually machine applied and that's where the problem is. Machine applied products with or without heat tend to drive the polishes deeper into the trim than hand applied applications.

I put wax in quotes above because there are "waxes" on the market that provide protection but don't turn the trim white. This comes down to the debate between Natural carnauba waxes versus synthetics.

Bottom line, using a good cleaner first is essential before applying a dressing but a cleaner/dressing can be just as effective under the conditions it was designed for.

Richard

 

You see in a moment weakness I waxed my Yakima box. Not the smooth painted kind, the all black porous kind. So it's a perfect test bed for this sort of thing.

I just tried Pine-Sol. It seems to work great as a cleaner of trim/wax smudges. I am a little concerned that it contains about 9% Pine Oil. I hope oil is not just hydrating the wax. I scrubbed it full strength with a terry cloth towel. The Yakima box looks great. I good hard rain will tell me the true results.

I'll keep you guys updated.

 

The Pine-Sol worked on the arches, but turned out to be not so great in the Yakima box.

After searching for some Wurth I gave up and bought some "Grease Lightining" at Wal-Mart. Just applied it to the Yakima box. It took it right off with slight pressure and a MicroFiber towl.

It's been sitting out in the sun for about 30 minutes now. Averything looks dry and I only see a few white specks of wax left. I sprayed the Grease Lightining on the towl, not directly on the box. The box is on my Clubman right now so I did not want to get the untested stuff on my paint. When I get home I will take off the box and and give a good soaking with this stuff.

Works well for removeing/cleaning the surface. I will coat everything with 303 or BW when I get home.

 

During my tenure at the Jeep Wrangler online world, our black fender flares would turn ash gray after a few years. There are only a few things I have not seen mentioned on this forum...
- Heating the plastic to bring back the color (melting/vaporizing the wax)
- Paint it with plastic spray paint

Heating the plastic will make the fender new again. It will "burn" off the wax if you do it right. But this is a high risk method as direct heat can and will melt/deform the plastic if left on one spot for too long.

The other successful method was spray painting with the Krylon Fusion. This does work as I've done it first hand on my Jeeps fenders. The paint does stick and doesn't flake off (prep is critical). It held up for years (3-4) before needing a touch up. However, if the plastic part flex enough (like whacking a tree branch hard) it will spider. Thin coats are better than thick coats...applies for your situation since the box is so flexi. Cost is minimal, time is minimal, outcome may be better as you won't have to paint the box for years. Also, they have all sorts of colors if you wanted to go that route.

I know how much those roof boxes cost...so I hope this helps.

 

Magic Eraser guys

Any ill affects after using it for awhile?

 

The best solution is use Armor All® on all the plastic and rubber parts before you wax the car. This seals those surfaces and seems to prevent the wax from getting in there in the first place. I've been doing this since Armor All® first came out and it hasn't failed me yet. Don't bother wiping off the excess that gets on the paint, waxing the surface will take care of that. The toothbrush trick with solvent does work well, but I haven't had to do that in years.

 

.

 

Yeah, all these methods seem so complicated and messy. I just magic erase any little error. Works beautifully and the white residue never comes back.

 

+1

 

Used to have a Volvo that had more of that black plastic tacked on than I care to admit. Whomever mentioned it above, the wax needs to be dissolved and products like Back to Black work temporarily, but really don't have enough alcohol in them remove the build-up. You'll definitely need something like a toothbrush to get in there and scrub and using something like hydrogen peroxide/rubbing alcohol once in a while is actually the best way to remove the stuff. Griot's Garage also sells a wax remover that seems to work relatively well (but again, the main ingredient is alcohol so you could cut out the middle man).

The downside is that this will also probably start to wear away some of the color or make aging and fading plastic look even older after repeated treatments. Ultimately, what I ended up doing was using plastic dye to get the color back. Forever Black or the Griot's trim dye work well for this. Just have a wet cloth ready to wipe up and excess that might hit your paint.

 

Pre Wow is nearing launch. It doesn't affect paint, but it does remove wax, polish and paint transfer with very little effort.

It doesn't dry out the plastic like alcohol (alcohol free), and it doesn't need more than a second or two of brushing with a toothbrush. It smells great and isn't harsh on your skin.

Once the plastic is clean, you can follow with Black Wow for best results.

Richard

 

Glad to see there are products out there (or on their way) that address these annoying issues. As soon as it's out I'll be sure to stock up.

 

It's been undergoing testing and development for the past two years. Plus I'm kind of picky when it comes to releasing my products. We've had some successes along the way that many of the NAM testers would say they liked..but it didn't work well enough for me. As far as I'm concerned, the formula has been perfected and we're just waiting on some packaging/design stuff.

 

So, I found this thread (yay! stickied!)...

I just waxed my car (poorboy's paste, red) with a PC, and some parts of the trim got hit -- the wheel well trims, and the roof-strip (clubman)...

I went out with isopropyl, toothbrush and Prima Nero...

I can't say the results were amazing... the toothbrush I don't think did much, honestly? and on the wheel wells ... well, it's not like I can see caked on wax or anything, looks more almost like a discoloration (which it obviously isn't, I'm pretty sure)... like a white ghosting... alcohol doesnt do much over it, toothbrush neither... applying nero sorta helps, but in the end you can still tell where the ghosted-white was, where the PC rubbed against.

So, peanut oil, really?

 

The answer is simple.

PreWow. 2 years in the making and developed specifically to fix this problem in seconds, permanently. Better than peanut oil, alcohol, and even the magic eraser because you can use PW on any material including paint without causing damage.

Richard

 

I'll look into pre-wow (I've been meaning at some point to get black wow...); I wasn't going to use a magic eraser, since I know very well how it works, by breaking down the material you're rubbing (with luck and on a wall it will mostly affect the dirty stuff before the wall itself, but then again wall paint isnt as important and hard to replace as a car paint or trim depth!)

 

Hey, wait a second -- so, where can I order prewow/blackwow ? (somehow I thought it was on sale at the usual places like autogeek, although I had noticed you seem to be related to its development!)

 

Uhm yeah, I'm the inventor of Black Wow and Pre Wow, lol.
The only people that have PW so far are a handful of testers, but 40 lucky people at MITM/MTTS will get some to take home.

I'm expecting to have the product at the usual outlets by the end of September.

Richard

 

aw man, what a tease!

 

Will Pre Wow be available through Prima? I have Black Wow already- Is that where I got it?
I have used Nero for the first time on my interior and really like the freshening it gives. It helps with my hot chocolate interior doors and piano black, and everything. I even found Nero to fix my outside black trim, at least quickly and temporarily, like Black Wow, only easier, and probably not for too long. (But how nice to be able to rub some on the inside door trim with the open window.
I had the outside paint buffed out and touched up for $90, and my interior is always vacuumed as a counter measure to my dogs.
It's hard to tell my '08 isn't new until you see 35,000 on the odo.

 

Black Wow is a product of ShowCarDetailing.com aka Detailing Innovations, Inc. Detailers Paradise, now Prima Car Care used to sell Black Wow, until they became strictly Prima.

So unfortunately, no you will not be able to purchase PreWow or Black Wow for that matter from Prima, however you will be able to purchase it from my site www.ShowCarSupplies.com as well as a bunch of NAM retailers like Way Motor Works, OutMotoring.com, MINIMania, all found at www.blackwow.com

Note that PreWow has NOT been released yet, but it IS being manufactured, so we're still on track for end of September rollout.

Richard

 

pencil eraser works for me

 

After a few months of not being able to get it off, I finally tried rubbing alcohol, and it helped a little bit. I was unable to find peanut oil so I couldn't attempt it.

Not sure about Prewow... the photos didn't do justice for me.