Wet Shine Detailing: June 2009

Hello everyone!

About two months ago, we tested 4 sealants/wax against each other. So let’s get started.

First item on the agenda is to prep the panels to get it ready for the LSPs.
Here’s the condition of the hood under a halogen lamp.

Hmmm, not bad eh?

Here’s the same panel under an LED flashlight (I think this was a Fenix TK11)

Some water spots and light scratches.

Prepping the paint with Osren polish and a Lake Country White polishing pad

At the same time, our kind friend slk helped to clean the rest of the car with Soft99 Meta-Clean

THANKS bro!

A few new stuff that Kok Yi brought over, a lake country washing sponge and compressor pad.

Products that will be used later,

Paint inspector performing his round of duty,

The front hood is finished with Meguiars #205 Ultra Finishing Polish on a Lake Country Black CCS pad via Random Orbital. It stayed wet for sooooo long when being worked with the ROB and took a long time to turn clear (I would’ve used the term ‘break down’ instead of ‘turn clear’, but the M205 uses Meguiar’s new Super Micro Abrasive Technology that doesn’t break down like traditional diminishing abrasives, so I have to use ‘turn clear’ instead. Being abit anal here).

While Kok Yi was trying to get it to ‘turn clear’, I prepped the roof with M205/Meguair’s W-9006 Finishing Pad via rotary.

Kok Yi’s efforts on the hood,

Our master KrisMas prepping the boot with M205,

The roof is then taped up and as per the first sealant test, we taped a diamond shaped area in the middle to act as the control area, where no wax or sealant will be applied.

Products to be tested will be,
• Duragloss #105 Total Performance Polish
• Track Claw Racing Polish
• Enviroshield
• Optimum Car Wax

Why DG105 again?

Well the reason is since we already know how it compares to a few others in the first test, we would use it again as a benchmark for the others to test against.

Track Claw Racing Polish is a sealant promising to leave an ultra slick surface that reduces the drag coefficient of the car while driving.

Enviroshield is a clear spray sealant, something similar to Optimum Opti-Seal, Zaino Clear Seal, Ultima Paint Guard Plus.

Optimum Car Wax, the super easy to apply spray wax that states that it could provide up to 5 months of protection on the back of the bottle.

The panels with the sealants applied in the usual manner is then left to haze over while the other two panels with spray type application is already dry and ready to be showed off.

On the boot, slk applied one half with Duragloss #601 Polish Bonding Agent topped with Duragloss #105 Total Performance Polish while the other half only has DG105.

Buffing off the sealants,

And on the hood, another test was going on,

Meguair’s #16 Professional Paste Wax vs. Collinite 476 Super Double Coat Auto Wax

Because we tried to apply with bare hands, it resulted in product overload and when buffed off, was crazy streaky. So we tried to buff off the excess solvents with ice cold water. This helped to lessen the streakiness.

Using a small magnifier to detect defects,

After everything is done on the test car, we go outside and look at Krismas’ Super Glossy Waja.

If I’m not mistaken, it was wearing Enviroshield at that time.

Thanks to everyone who helped out on that day prepping and applying products.

Fast forward one week, all the sealants were repelling water very nicely!

With Optimum Car Wax showing the best beading since it is a blend of carnauba and synthetic waxes, while the others are purely synthetic sealants.

Optimum Car Wax,

Enviroshield,

Track Claw Racing Polish,

Duragloss #105 Total Performance Polish,

So far so good, so let’s hit the forward button again to Day 46 since application.
It is also worth noting that in between this duration there was once where I did not wash the car for 10 days, it had been rained on and the ‘stains’ from the rain were left to sit on the car. The car is also parked outside 24/7 and the contaminants from the rain GREATLY reduced the durability and water repellency of the sealants.
So rain is not the only culprit in killing the waxes, the contaminants left over, and left to bake in the hot sun is also the culprit.

On to the pictures, the roof is flooded equally with water.

Keep in mind that the sequence of pictures above took ten minutes. A sealant that is still going strong will repel water almost instantaneously.
Individual shots of the different panels.

From the observation above, water repellency is rated from strongest to weakest:
1. Duragloss #105 Total Performance Polish
2. Track Claw Racing Polish
3. Optimum Car Wax

I did not include Enviroshield because Krismas said that his application method might not be correct during that time as he has found another application method that is more effective.

My thoughts are DG105 really surprised me, although the panel has water spots, and dirt in paint, it still pushes water away. It is a sealant to have for sure, very durable at a very competitive price point.
The Track Claw Racing Polish, probably something that you would use prior to a track day.

Optimum Car Wax, it’s very good for a spray application type wax. It’s as easy to use as a quick detailer, definitely improves the gloss after it has cured(12 hours), and can probably last up to two to three weeks (with regular washing).
In conjunction with the results of the first sealant test, what would I recommend to use personally is DG105 and Optimum Car Wax.

Zaino Z2 repelled water the fastest compared to DG105 on our first test, but it’s temperament with humidity and temperature conditions put it below DG105 for me.

Disclaimer: These are solely my opinions that might change in due time and the results are unscientifically tested. So do not treat this as an absolute.

Also on the boot where we compared one half with DG601 Polish Bonding Agent + DG105 TPP vs. the other half with only DG105, the side with the Polish Bonding Agent and DG105 repelled water twice as fast as the side with only DG105.
In other words, DG601 PBA does work to improve the durability of a sealant!

Oh and the test on the bonnet between M16 and Collinite 476s has been ditched because both beaded very weakly on the first week. Application must have gone wrong and the waxes are disturbed(e.g. rinsing with water to see beading) before it has fully cured.

Mini Review of Meguiar’s #205 Ultra Finishing Polish.

The other day when I was washing my car, I noticed some chewing gum residue on my rear bumper. The car is only have covered with the back facing the sun on a hot afternoon. So I just rinsed the panel to cool it down and sprayed tar remover on it. The panel got hot fast and cause the tar remover to leave some staining that couldn’t be removed with a cleaner wax.

So I took out my trusty Makita and a small sample of M205(Thanks Krismas!!!).

After one pass with a Meguiar’s Polishing Pad,

Oskee wow wow that curls my toes!! It took out the staining and any swirls that were on that section, and finished down well too (I didn’t do a wipedown with alcohol/M6000).

It impressed me a lot! And was superbly easy to use.

Then I wanted to test it on the boot.

Here we can see the terrible water spots.

Before hitting it with M205, I wanted to compare the abrasiveness level of Zaino-AIO (Thanks Brian for the sample!) and Dodo Juice Lime Prime.

Worked in a straight line motion,

Both products left a darker and cleaner finish,

Although I would add that I should have waited a while more before wiping off the AIO as it was a bit streaky.

Here’s after Dodo Juice Lime Prime,

Here’s after Zaino All-in-One,

As you can see from above, lime prime managed to remove some of the light water marks, leaving the deeper ones behind. Conversely, Z-AIO did little to the water spots, hence making it much less abrasive than lime prime.

I then hit it with M205/w-8006/900-1500-900 rpms

Oskee wow wow that curls my toes again! Super clear finish, and most of the water spots are removed, leaving only the deepest etching behind,

What a fantastic product for a finishing polish, the cut is great, workability is great and finishes off so fine.
I will be getting myself some of it soon.

Oh, if you were wondering what was the light source, it was an Eagletac P10A2 (Thanks vx55 for lending me!). Great bit of kit, I've seen the light(pun intended) and think it's worth the money from a detailing perspective.

That’s all for now, thanks for looking!
Please feel free to leave any comments.

p.s. links to the first sealant test:

http://wetshinedetailing.blogspot.com/2008/08/sealant-test.html

http://wetshinedetailing.blogspot.com/2008/10/sealant-test-results-m105.html

p.p.s the detailing flame is starting to rekindle

Read more!