Does your paint care products claim to restore nutritive oils to paint finish?

[ktlimq]

Zymol Cleaner Wax, The Wax Shop Super Glaze and Cleaner Wax, many Meguiars products, Einszett polishes, etc. claim to put nutritive oils to the paint that are absorbed INTO the paint.



However, there are paint care products that do not make such claim – e.g. 3M, Mothers, TurtleWax, Eagle One, etc. -. They may claim to fill swirls, but swirls do not seem to be the "pores, empty air pockets in the paint" that Meguiars polishes claim to fill.



Is the oil replenishment claim important when you choose a product?

Why? Why not?

 

[Accumulator]

IMO (and note that I'm no chemist) modern b/c catalyzed paints don't give up/absorb "oils". You might get some temporary benefit on a horribly dried out/near-failure paintjob, but generally *IMO* the whole "replenish the oils" bit is [not valid] on today's paints. And bythe same token, I don't put much stock in worries about "drying out" modern paints with stuff like Dawn/IPA/etc. either.



That's not to say that filling the pores/micro-fissures/etc. with such products won't improve the appearance, so it's not like there's never any benefit from using such products. But on a great-condition paintjob with no/minimal surface defects, I never see any advantage. Putting Meg's #3/#5/#7/#81 on a perfectly prepped new Audi was a complete waste of time for me- the stuff went on and came off without improving the appearance a bit.



Single stage (especially older paints, and *especially* old lacquer) can be a whole 'nother ballgame, and these really *can* absorb, and benefit from, the oils; that's what they designed those types of products to do and they work well *for that application*. The proper use of something like #7 on certain single stage paints can produce some jaw-dropping results, just beautiful. Yeah, old dried-out lacquer really will absorb oils and achieve (somewhat short-term) rejuvenation; I used these products extensively back in the day (before b/c paint) and I've done it more recently (and quite dramatically) on a neglected '75 Jag using #7.



But there isn't all that much in common between old lacquer and today's automotive paints, at least not that I can tell. Gotta watch the generalizations, things change.