Rejuvenate - Pre-Wax Paintwork Cleanser

Aside from making sure surfaces are clean and free of contaminants, this always depends on the circumstances. Are you topping up wax protection from a previous full detail or adding wax protection for the first time? This is important because, first and foremost, polishing will remove any protection layer – the reason why we don’t use abrasives during routine maintenance, and only polish paintwork when it’s absolutely necessary. In this case of maintenance, we’d assume that any paint correction needed had been carried out before adding the first round of wax protection. When it comes to adding wax protection for the first time, we’d always recommend getting surfaces to the best possible level of refinement first. Although it’s wholly possible to apply a wax to car with swirly paint, and it will still bond, protect from grime and offer extreme water behaviour and beading, what it won’t do is hide any major defects, so essentially, you’ll be locking these in. Pure waxes are non-abrasives, so they’re not designed to correct or obscure defects in the surface underneath, they are purely for protection and to add extra gloss. So, for the best results, we’d always recommend correcting or enhancing any paintwork you’re not completely happy with the condition of, and fully preparing the surface, before applying any protection layer. The advantage with waxes over ceramic coating in this instance though, is that you don’t have to consider the chemical bonded needed for an SiO2 coating to adhere, so you can utilise any of our correction products and cleansers depending on the finish you require regardless of if they already contain waxes and paint glazes. This includes our Revitalise V2 System Compounds, One Step All-in-One Compound, Tripple All-in-One Polish and Rejuvenate Paintwork Cleanser. For more information, and some top tips on preparing your vehicle for a hard wax, see our full guide - Getting The Most From A Hard Wax. 

This will always depend on the finish you’re looking for, the effort you’d like to put in and the time you have available because you can get great results using either method. Rejuvenate Paintwork Cleanser has been developed using advanced diminishing abrasives which are designed to be extremely easy to break down by hand, so it doesn’t require a machine polisher to work the compound all the way through. All you need to effectively clean away oxidation and hardy contaminants, along with lightly refining paintwork, is a Microfibre Applicator or a Polish Pad. But that said, when you’re looking for the most consistent, professional finish over a whole vehicle, using a DA machine (such as our DPX or MPX Dual Action Polishers) can be the easiest option. Machine polishers will apply the same mechanical action to every panel for the ultimate constancy, and they will certainly take out most of the elbow grease. When using a machine polisher with Rejuvenate we recommend utilising a suitably soft, Revitalise No:3 Refining Pad for 5-inch polishers, and the equivalent (red) Revitalise Spot Pad for 3-inch machines.

While both Rejuvenate Paintwork Cleanser and One Step All-in-One Compound are polishing compounds that use advanced diminishing abrasives to correct and prepare surfaces prior to application protection, perhaps the most important way they differ is their ‘range of cut’, or their ability to remove various levels of defect. One Step has been developed to start off as a coarse cutting compound for heavy defect and swirl mark removal, finishing down to a near flawless finish as the abrasives are broken down using a machine polisher. It contains no waxes or glazes, so can be used prior to adding any protection layer - in other words it will not block the chemical bonding needed for ceramic coatings to adhere, and also accepts physical bonding from waxes. Rejuvenate uses fine abrasives and deep-cleaning solvents that are capable of refining surfaces to correct light swirling and remove oxidation. These abrasives have been designed to be easy to break down, making Rejuvenate ideal for hand polishing, along with light refinement with a machine polisher. Rejuvenate is classed as a cleaner polish, but contains glazing agents to obscure defects and promote a concours finish, so it's suited to surface preparation before application of a hard wax - more specifically, we initially developed this product to make the most of the characteristics of our Signature Hard Waxes. Whereas One Step is an advanced all-in-one compound designed to cycle through all the correction stages (coarse cutting, polishing and refining), giving a true finish without the need for multiple (and progressively finer) compounds and machine polishing pads.  

Technically speaking both Tripple All-in-One Polish and Rejuvenate Paintwork Cleanser are compounds, because they use abrasives to ‘level down’ the top layer of your paint or clearcoat to refine, enhance and remove light defects such as minor swirling. These special diminishing abrasives are extremely fine and easy to break down, meaning that these products lend themselves being fully worked through when hand polishing as well as application by machine polisher. Rejuvenate and Tripple are also classed as ‘cleaner polishes’ because they utilise deep cleansing solvents within their formula to remove oxidation, staining and suborn contaminants. The difference between the two is that Tripple is an all-in-one and protection product which contains paint glazes and an infusion of Carnauba Wax to fill and obscure the appearance of defects, and leave behind a layer of wax protection, while Rejuvenate contains no waxes itself to offer protection, it has been specifically developed to prepare the surface to give the ideal top-layer for strong wax bonding, and to make the most of the individual characteristics of our Signature Hard Waxes, which are available for different paint types and finishes (along with Radiance Carnauba Crème). For more on Rejuvenate, and how it’s best used see our article - Three Steps To A Lightning Quick Showstopping Finish.