Corn Starch

M

moosey

New member
So I'm helping my dad polish his car with a PC and a know-it-all type neighbor has to come over. So right away I hear "You're going to burn the paint off with that thing." Then I'm brushing off my pad and it's "That's the problem with those things, they gunk up like that." Then after he gets one more burning the paint off comment in he goes..."If you use corn starch it'll get rid of those swirls. Just get some corn starch." At this point I just wanna yell and tell him to get out and ask him if corn starch can get swirls out then why is there a huge car care product industry.



So anyway, has anyone heard this corn starch thing before? I'm sure it doesn't "get rid" of swirls., but is what he's talking about that maybe it can fill them a bit temporarily?



Had to rant about that one. People that don't understand these things or don't care to learn shouldn't be making stupid comments like that.
 
It's an old shade-tree mechanic trick, IIRC.



Sort of like using brake fluid on tires to make them black again.



Bottom line-- It could LOOK like it works, but you're probably doing damage.
 
You wont ruin anything, but it is old school. Before there was swirl removers all you had was corn starch. It was very messy so you would have to wash the car after. Corn starch was also used to remove Simonize easier.
 
I guess that kind of explains the fact he was recommending that because he was an older guy. So it actually works like an abrasive and not like a filler?
 
When I was kid, my Dad used corn starch to get Simonize to buff off. Back in those days, it was all done by hand. I never used it and never even thought about it until this thread.
 
Sounds like the guy that came up to me a few months back telling me if I put a few drops of motor oil on my rotary pad it would make the paint shine like never before....... I swear. The old guy might have had to do some weird stuff back in the day but thank god I have new technology LOL
 
ROFL.



I say do a test on your trunk lid..........half the "normal" way and the other half w/cornstarch



then do an ipa wipedown and let the results speak for themselves
 
rkf76 said:
ROFL.



I say do a test on your trunk lid..........half the "normal" way and the other half w/cornstarch



then do an ipa wipedown and let the results speak for themselves
Click to expand...



Haha, that's what I was thinking. But images of cornstarch totally swirling the paint come right into my head.
 
Cornstarch, water, and a bit of kerosene to keep it fluid was the formula I learned.



I've never used it, but I've watched people do it on old lacquer paints with wool pads. It does work, but I doubt it would do well on today's harder clears.
 
I used plenty of cornstarch *way* back in the days of single stage. Two functions: abrasion and drying.



Added to Meg's #7 it made for a mild SMR; the starch added a little abrasion to the #7. This was back before local shops had #9 SMR (not sure if they were even making it back then). It would sometimes leave light micromarring on black lacquer but not all *that* bad compared to the other abrasives I had on hand and nothing worse than I was risking with cotton terry anyhow.



Sprinkled on top of LSPs (and Meg's #5) it would allow for a slightly easier buff-off in very humid conditions. But again, it'd sometimes cause a bit of micromarring so I always used straight-line motions to make said marring a little less obvious.



Would it work as an abrasive on b/c? :nixweiss It'd depend on how hard the clear is and IMO you really can't generalize more than that. Think about the clears that are very hard- I'd be surprised if it were functionally abrasive on them; OTOH, think about the super-soft new BMW clears- I'd be surprised if it didn't *really* mar them up.



Now that there are a scad of decent products on the market there's no need for cornstarch. Or for kerosene/oil mixes for paint preservation (which really *did* work, knew a guy who use it on his zillion-mile '62 Chevy..looked like crap though).



But, heh heh, I understand the difficulties involved in "educating" one's father ;)
 
I use cornstarch all the time...cooking ;)



Used it 'way back when for polishing nitrocell paint; least abrasive first talc then cornstarch :)
 
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