Automotive Care Products Case Study: De-Waxing at the Port

Vehicles arrive from the ship coated in a waxy protective film, and an import centre had 1,800 of them a month to clean and release. The first cleaning chemistry it tried removed the wax and dulled the paint on the bonnet line. We supplied a two-step pack, a solvent-based wax remover followed by a pH-controlled wash, with the dilution table set for the centre's own water. Process time per vehicle fell, and the paint complaints stopped.

Project Snapshot

The Problem: Shipping Wax Meets a Fixed Release Date

Cars that cross an ocean spend weeks in salt air, so they travel under a protective film. The film does its job and then becomes the PDI centre's problem, because it is designed to stay put and the vehicles have release dates attached.

The centre's first attempt used a single strong solvent. It removed the wax, and it also attacked the clear coat wherever the film had thinned, which showed as a dull patch under workshop lighting. The second attempt used steam and clay. That was gentle, but it took far too long per vehicle, and with six bays and a monthly volume in the high hundreds, time per car is the whole cost model.

Three constraints then shaped the answer. Aluminium trim and wheels had to be treated as touchy surfaces, because strong alkaline products cause immediate damage there. Run-off had to go through the centre's existing collection system. And the products had to be supplied in packs small enough for a technician to handle and large enough that the centre was not reordering every week.

Why We Chose a Two-Step Chemistry Over a Single Solvent, Steam and Abrasive Clay

Single solvent remover. Excluded. It is what the centre had already tried, and the paint damage traced back to dwell time on a surface it was not formulated to protect.

Steam alone. Excluded. No chemical risk, no throughput. Cycle time per vehicle ruled it out at this volume.

Abrasive clay. Excluded. Mechanical removal works on bonded contamination, but it adds a polishing step and leaves residue in panel gaps.

A solvent remover followed by a pH-controlled wash. Selected. The first stage dissolves the film, the second lifts the residue and neutralises the surface, and each stage can be tuned separately.

The Products We Supplied

The pack has three parts. The wax and adhesive remover does the dissolving, and it is supplied with a dwell-time table rather than a single instruction, because the correct contact time depends on how long the film has cured in transit. The engine degreaser handles the underbonnet film and the transport grease on hinges and latches.

The third part is a multipurpose car cleaner used as the second stage wash. It is pH-controlled so that it lifts solvent residue without attacking the clear coat, and it is diluted on site from a 20-litre pack, which is what keeps the centre's storage footprint small.

Because the aluminium problem was the centre's main worry, we specified the wash stage rather than the remover as the product that touches bare trim, and we put the dilution table and the dwell times into a laminated sheet for each bay.

Installation: How the Work Ran

The chemistry changed over a five-day trial rather than a shutdown.

Day one was a controlled comparison: six vehicles cleaned with the centre's existing solvent, six with the two-step pack, photographed under the same lighting by the centre's own quality inspector. Once the centre accepted the finish, we moved to dilution setting. The centre's water is harder than the water at our plant, so the dilution table was adjusted on site and the wash stage was checked with a meter before the first production vehicle was released.

Training covered the part that decides the outcome: dwell time. A technician who leaves the remover on for twice the stated time will reproduce the original paint problem, whatever chemistry is in the bottle.

Testing and Quality Control

We test each production batch against the specification before it ships, and the client's own consistency record covers the mixing and filling stages as published. For this project we supplied the batch numbers with the delivery, so the centre could trace any single pack back to its production run.

At the centre, the quality inspector checked a sample of vehicles from each shift under workshop lighting and logged the result against the batch number in the bay.

Results: What the Numbers Show

The centre now de-waxes 1,800 vehicles a month in the same six bays, with fewer minutes per car than the single-solvent routine, because wax removal and neutralising happen in sequence at one station instead of being followed by a separate rinse and polish.

Paint defects traced to cleaning dropped to zero in the first full quarter, and the aluminium trim issue did not return. The centre takes the same pack through our product range for adhesive residue left by transport tape.

What This Case Means for Your Project

De-waxing is a chemistry choice and a timing choice, and the timing half is usually what causes the damage. A product that removes a protective film quickly on one surface will attack another surface quickly too, which is why staged chemistry and a written dwell time beat a single strong solvent.

If your site handles imported vehicles, or your workshop deals with heavy transport grease, send us the surfaces you need to protect and the water you work with. Our team will propose the stages, the dilution table and the pack sizes, then quote and ship. You can also review the compliance documentation we supply, or discuss a private label programme for your own brand.