Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

So Paul, whats the best way to take care of my Ricks finish and chrome? Is there a secret family homebrew you use? Is it a run-of-the-mill, OTC polish that works best?

For paint, Rickenbacker recommends Turtle Wax, product #123, which comes in a green bottle. I've seen bottles of this in the finishing and assembly departments at RIC, so I know they like it, too.

This is a good quality, petroleum distillate-based wax, and if it's good enough for them, then it's OK for you, too.

However, I have tested (in my previous life as a prototype show car builder and wacko antique car owner/constant waxer/nutcase detailer) at least 50 different waxes, mostly so-called "premium" brands, and found three that are quite good, of which I find ZYMOL to be the easiest to find. So I heartily recommend Zymol Cleaner-Wax (in a light blue bottle), applied with a CSCC. This stuff is extra-nice because it smells like a Hawaiian Tropic Bikini Contestant, and because it's water-soluble, you can build coat-on-coat for best gloss and protection.

Of course, if you're a sort of SRV guy, just go out for another beer...

...and pour some onto your guitar, just for "mojo".

For chrome, it's another matter entirely. ALL commercial chrome cleaners are too harsh for guitar chrome, which at least in the case of Ricks, is nearly jewelry-quality triple-chrome. I use 3M Perfect-It III Machine Rubbing Compound, which you can get in 8-ounce bottles wherever auto body shop supplies are sold.

I went to Target, looked at a bottle of Zymol for something like $11 and tried to remember what kinds of car/boat wax I had at home in the garage that might save me the $11. I couldn't ever remember being particularly impressed with any of them. They were wax and did a decent job, but that's about it - nothing to get excited about. So I decided that as our finish guru (wouldn't that be a Laplander playing a sitar? Oh, I guess that would be Finnish...) Paul's advice was worth trusting, so I sprang for the $11 and headed home with a bottle of Zymol. The product is flat out excellent. You actually go around the house looking for stuff to use it on and it takes so little to do a guitar that a bottle should last a long time.

Hi Todd,

Welcome to the forum. Around here if Paul advises you to buy something that is good for your Ric, don't even question it. He is our resident guru on these matters. With many fans I may add.

Zymol it is. No matter what the price is.

Paul,

Is there an advantage to the "water-soluable" vs. "petroleum distillate-based" waxes?

If so, can you explain?

Thank you

You betcha...

Since the early 1950s, the finishing technologies of cars and guitars have drawn closer and closer together, until overlap finally happened when Fender's custom colors come on the scene!

So, guitar wax and car wax are, in most cases quite similar in chemistry. The majority of waxes available, for cars and guitars both, use petroleum distillate (generically, "paint thinner") as a liquifying agent or solvent.

When you wax a guitar with this type of wax, the petroleum solvent in the wax actually acts to strip the previous remaining wax off the surface of the guitar.

The water soluble waxes (of which Zymol is my favorite) allow you to build up several coats of wax, one on top of another, for maximum gloss and protection. This is because water won't strip the previous coat of wax, acting only as an agent to facilitate the transfer the waxes to the guitar's surface.

There are actually at least a dozen water-based waxes which are commonly or regionally available, but Zymol is universally available (I get it at Target) and keeps its formulation the same. Meguiar's used to make a wonderful wax called Medallion, but it fell off the map when they reformulated much of their product line, and Thompson's used to make a terrific wax called "The Treatment", but IT fell by the wayside when Joe Hrudka of "Mr. Gasket" fame bought the company and disbanded it.

There are a few others, but I'll stand by Zymol until something better becomes widely available.

Smells good, too...

Thanks, Paul. You are indeed a fantastic writer.

So with a wax build up of Zymol over time, does it yellow?

Or if you have several layers of Zymol wax built up on a guitar, then used a "petroleum distillate-based" wax, would it strip all the water based layers off?

The yellowing is an oxidation of the wax layer and seems to be more prevalent in the petroleum-based waxes. Zymol goes on very thin, and since it does not have a petroleum base, it does not yellow.

If you apply a petroleum-based wax over Zymol, it will strip the Zymol.

Paul,

Would stripping the Zymol be something one would want to do after several applications... and therefore several layers?

Zymol, being mostly natural waxes and vegetable oils, oxidizes and literally disappears after a period of exposure. So eventually it will go bye-bye. I'm not aware of any need to strip.

(Said the actress to the bishop...)

She did? Mustn't have been listening...........

Paul wrote:

Zymol, being mostly natural waxes and vegetable oils, oxidizes and literally disappears after a period of exposure. So eventually it will go bye-bye.

I don't doubt, from a practical perspective, that this is true.

However, from an organic chemist's point of view, this makes little sense. Natural waxes and oils are high molecular weight compounds, and although they can be oxidatively cleaved to smaller molecules, the oxidation products are still fairly large molecules that have higher boiling points and lower volatility, as a general rule.

What might be happening is that the oxidation products are less flexible and adhesive than the original oil/wax and the oxidized surface then very gradually sloughs off from the surface over time.

Not being an organic chemist, I really appreciate it when a real chemist sets the record--and my terminology--straight.

My interpretation of this was that they "burned off", but this also happens to guitars that see little direct sunlight. Thanks for explaining, Doc!

I think Gary said "It falls off".

As long as the finish doesn't "slough off, we're OK.