Thought about water beading versus sheeting

[imported_hooked]

this morning it rained and as I was walking into work, I was looking at the cars (as people with OCD tend to do.) The cars with some protection had beads of water and then the really neglected ones looked dry because there was no beading.



That got me thinking, I know we see our beautifully detailed cars beading after a rainstorm and our hearts fill with pride, but are we really causing more harm than good? Aren't those little beads of water just concentrating the contaminants and acid rain into tiny little invaders trying to break through the car's barrier of protection?



So, are there sealants/waxes that cause water to sheet of the car instead of beading? Wouldn't that be a more desirable state?

 

[audicoupej]

I agree with you. The beading is great to see, but if you get an afternoon thunder banger for 5 minutes and your car bakes in the sun it is not very good for the paint.



Most sealants do sheet water rather than bead. This helps when it comes time to dry after a wash as well. Although a well protected car(sealant/wax) still makes it easier to do a low pressure flood rinse before drying.



The only drawback to the sheeting is it might be harder to determine when to reapply the LSP. Just pick a schedule and stick to it. (I.e. 6 weeks, 3 months, 4 weeks, etc)

 

[Accumulator]

I'll admit that I just plain *like* seeing the beads; I'm an old-school guy and I don't mind being subjective about this as long as it doesn't damage my vehicles.



A mechanic once left the XJS outside for an extended period of time ( :angry You can bet we had a discussion about it and he hasn't been near that car since). It had Souveran on it and it got horribly spotted; I had to cut off a lot of paint to fix it. A sheeting LSP might've helped a lot, but that was a case of pretty extreme neglect so it's hard to say.



On vehicles I take decent care of, I've never seen any first-hand evidence that the beads cause problems. Collinite 476S protected my outside 24/7 Volvo just fine but I didn't neglect it for long periods of time either. As soon as the beading changed I rewaxed it.



I'd possibly consider using a sheeting product if I lived in an area with really awful acid rain (like the stuff RAG struggles with) but IMO it's not all *that* much of an issue for most people if they keep the car well-detailed. IMO the "magnifying glass"/sunlight argument is just marketing talk, but then I live in Ohio where the sun's rays aren't all that strong.



Heh heh, as soon as my UPP and KSG start to sheet I redo them and they bead again.

 

[mikebai1990]

Hehe, I'm glad I'm not the only one who actually spends time looking and comparing the water beading on other peoples' cars I'm an absolute beadaholic, and I haven't been able to find good (cheap) wax that'll do the job. I've recently put down the money to buy some Collinite 476S after seeing everyone's great impressions of the product. I don't know of any waxes/sealants that have a "sheeting" action as opposed to a "beading" action.



As for your question about the concentrated water beads containing the contaminants: With no wax and no protection (ex. fresh paint) and nice water beads, it would probably be bad for the paint. However, most of the water beading cars are those that have wax/sealant protection. This would mean that we get more protection than those people that don't have any protection on their car and have their water sheeting on the paint surface (Yuck )



Usually, if I have the chance, I always spray/hose down the car while it's still wet with the rain (obviously after the rain has stopped ). This way I'll be able to get some of the acid rain off the surface before the sun comes out and bakes the contaminants right in. Yikes!