Newbie Wash and Wax
04-14-2013, 05:26 PM
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Newbie Wash and Wax
To preface: I'm absolutely 100% completely exhausted and aching, so I may append this later when I have more energy, or when I can see how some of the stuff has held up. Nobody wants to see an amateur's attempt and this is more about the products than the pictures but I'll post up photos of the cars tomorrow (I did my S and the wife's JGC hence the exhaustion). I will try to list out all product names in full here because I kind of got tired cross-checking posts and Google to see what people meant by their abbreviations of "commonly used" products in their reviews.
I've washed my own cars in the past, but the furthest I went was dish detergent, sponge, dry, and maybe some spray on wax stuff. After noticing how thoroughly filthy my BB S2000 had become in the short while I've owned it, I decided to do my best to clean her up and keep her paint looking good a little longer. After a few days of digging around Wash and Wax, I ordered the following:
5 Gallon Professional Wash Bucket with Grit Guard
16 oz. BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond All Finish Paint
32 oz. Optimum Car Wash
Meguiars ColorX
16 oz. 303 Aerospace Protectant
Meguiars Even-Coat Applicators
Meguiars Water Magnet waffle-weave drying towel
Mother's lambswool wash mitt
Mother's wheel brush
Wanting a second bucket and needing a new hose, I headed over to Home Depot and picked up a 50ft hose and a Homer's Wash Bucket. FYI, it is $2.60 now at Home Depot and the Grit Guard that came with my "professional" wash bucket fit perfectly. In hindsight now, I should have gotten a pair of GG's off Amazon for $12 and two Homer's bucket for $5, for the price of this one bucket and grit guard I got. Oh well.
On to the products.
-Bucket and GG: $20. As noted above, I feel like I paid for peace of mind with the Bucket+GG deal after seeing other stories on this board about GG's not fitting various "standard 5G" buckets. In fact, that is the sole reason I went with this combo. Otherwise, I would have purchased separately and rolled the dice on whether or not the GG would fit my bucket of choice. Neither car was particularly dirty and I didn't look for residue at the bottom of the bucket before dumping to verify, but I like to think that the GG did its job. The bucket held the water just fine.
-Blackfire Wet Diamond: $39.99. Not sure how much I used, but I feel like I didn't use very much at all and still got both jobs done satisfactorily. Probably got enough to do the S 7-8 more times I think. I'm pretty happy with the result but I've got nothing to compare it to. On a black car, it was pretty easy to spot when the stuff "hazed" over and was ready to remove, and it came off super easy with the drying towel. On spots where I probably put too much, the excess bunched up into almost like baby powder. It smelled decent, not too "chemically" and it came with a microfiber towel so that was a plus. Now that I have used what seems to be the "benchmark", I may try something a little less expensive when this bottle runs out, just to see if there's a newbie-noticeable difference. We'll see how it lasts.
-Optimum Car Wash: $11.99. Not very expensive, and at 4oz per bucket I suppose it will give 8 washes which should last the summer. It smells decent. After watching Mikeyc's video of washing a Mini Cooper, I decided to skip the foam and fill the bucket first, then mix in the soap. Might have been a mistake with this stuff (or because I used cold water), as it didn't mix very well and I had to do some intense swirling to mix it in. Ultimately, it worked out well and the cars felt noticeably slicker than I remember from using dish detergent. Super happy with this purchase. Side note: I question whether or not I need to use even 4 gallons of water, as I had a full half bucket of water left over when I was done with *both* cars. Hmm.
-Meguiar's ColorX: $10.99. As a newbie, I'm still not super sure why I bought this in addition to the Blackfire Wet Diamond. They went on the same, dried the same, came off the same and based on the product descriptions, sounds like they are doing the same job. Except this stuff is almost a quarter of the price. What am I missing? Back on track - went on easy and came off easy with no streaks or smudges or anything unexpected. Also did not use much of it for either car, and still have a lot left so I'm happy with that. I suppose since I've already got it I'm going to keep using it, and multiple knowledgeable posters recommending this combination can't be wrong. Like with the Blackfire Wet Diamond, we'll see how it lasts. Although I'll be honest, I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for in terms of "lasting power" - water beading? ease of wiping off dirt? protecting from abrasions?
-303 Aerospace Protectant: $12.99. I used the towel included with the Blackfire stuff to apply this to the top. Based on reviews I have no doubt that this stuff will satisfy. And there's plenty of it. Continuing to purchase and use this is a no-brainer for me.
-Meguiar's Even-coat Applicator (2-pack): $3.50. At $1.75 each I should have gotten a couple more of these. Not because they are so great, but because they are so difficult to use. At approximately the size of a standard hockey puck, and being foam covered in microfiber, these are not the easiest things to keep a hold on especially when you hit a panel gap or are wiping at odder angles. The applicator's popped out of my hands no less than 6 times during the washes, and twice ended up on the ground and covered in debris. Of course I did not use the affected sides again, but having more on hand in these situations would have been safer. Not thrilled with these overall but was tempted by the price and did not like the idea of using a microfiber towel to do the applications. I'm going to find something else next time to apply my stuff.
-Meguiar's Water Magnet Waffle-weave drying towel: $9.99. Kind of expensive but did the job. Not sure how a non-waffle weave or cheaper microfiber towel would have performed, but this was ok. Left some lint that I'm not very happy with throughout both drying processes, start to finish. Also plan on finding a replacement for this next time.
-Meguiar's Lambswool wash mitt: $17.99. Did not leave lint for me, and performed well. Wasn't expecting it to hold and carry water INSIDE the mitt but I guess I should have. So the first few passes I basically carried a cup of water over the car with each wipe. I learned to "pour it out" before each wipe later on. Let's see how long it lasts. I did not see this mentioned in any reviews or product descriptions, but the globe is honestly kind of big, and I typically wear a "large" when I buy any gloves. This thing was downright baggy. Didn't really affect the washing process.
-Meguiar's Wheel Brush: $6.79. Did a GREAT job on my AP2V2 wheels, thought I'd have a problem getting to the spokes but did not! The bristles are long enough that they reached deep into the spokes and into the lugnut wells, and they are soft but still removed the grime very well. I like the rubber edges around the brush head, great idea to protect the paint finish on wheels.
I've washed my own cars in the past, but the furthest I went was dish detergent, sponge, dry, and maybe some spray on wax stuff. After noticing how thoroughly filthy my BB S2000 had become in the short while I've owned it, I decided to do my best to clean her up and keep her paint looking good a little longer. After a few days of digging around Wash and Wax, I ordered the following:
5 Gallon Professional Wash Bucket with Grit Guard
16 oz. BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond All Finish Paint
32 oz. Optimum Car Wash
Meguiars ColorX
16 oz. 303 Aerospace Protectant
Meguiars Even-Coat Applicators
Meguiars Water Magnet waffle-weave drying towel
Mother's lambswool wash mitt
Mother's wheel brush
Wanting a second bucket and needing a new hose, I headed over to Home Depot and picked up a 50ft hose and a Homer's Wash Bucket. FYI, it is $2.60 now at Home Depot and the Grit Guard that came with my "professional" wash bucket fit perfectly. In hindsight now, I should have gotten a pair of GG's off Amazon for $12 and two Homer's bucket for $5, for the price of this one bucket and grit guard I got. Oh well.
On to the products.
-Bucket and GG: $20. As noted above, I feel like I paid for peace of mind with the Bucket+GG deal after seeing other stories on this board about GG's not fitting various "standard 5G" buckets. In fact, that is the sole reason I went with this combo. Otherwise, I would have purchased separately and rolled the dice on whether or not the GG would fit my bucket of choice. Neither car was particularly dirty and I didn't look for residue at the bottom of the bucket before dumping to verify, but I like to think that the GG did its job. The bucket held the water just fine.
-Blackfire Wet Diamond: $39.99. Not sure how much I used, but I feel like I didn't use very much at all and still got both jobs done satisfactorily. Probably got enough to do the S 7-8 more times I think. I'm pretty happy with the result but I've got nothing to compare it to. On a black car, it was pretty easy to spot when the stuff "hazed" over and was ready to remove, and it came off super easy with the drying towel. On spots where I probably put too much, the excess bunched up into almost like baby powder. It smelled decent, not too "chemically" and it came with a microfiber towel so that was a plus. Now that I have used what seems to be the "benchmark", I may try something a little less expensive when this bottle runs out, just to see if there's a newbie-noticeable difference. We'll see how it lasts.
-Optimum Car Wash: $11.99. Not very expensive, and at 4oz per bucket I suppose it will give 8 washes which should last the summer. It smells decent. After watching Mikeyc's video of washing a Mini Cooper, I decided to skip the foam and fill the bucket first, then mix in the soap. Might have been a mistake with this stuff (or because I used cold water), as it didn't mix very well and I had to do some intense swirling to mix it in. Ultimately, it worked out well and the cars felt noticeably slicker than I remember from using dish detergent. Super happy with this purchase. Side note: I question whether or not I need to use even 4 gallons of water, as I had a full half bucket of water left over when I was done with *both* cars. Hmm.
-Meguiar's ColorX: $10.99. As a newbie, I'm still not super sure why I bought this in addition to the Blackfire Wet Diamond. They went on the same, dried the same, came off the same and based on the product descriptions, sounds like they are doing the same job. Except this stuff is almost a quarter of the price. What am I missing? Back on track - went on easy and came off easy with no streaks or smudges or anything unexpected. Also did not use much of it for either car, and still have a lot left so I'm happy with that. I suppose since I've already got it I'm going to keep using it, and multiple knowledgeable posters recommending this combination can't be wrong. Like with the Blackfire Wet Diamond, we'll see how it lasts. Although I'll be honest, I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for in terms of "lasting power" - water beading? ease of wiping off dirt? protecting from abrasions?
-303 Aerospace Protectant: $12.99. I used the towel included with the Blackfire stuff to apply this to the top. Based on reviews I have no doubt that this stuff will satisfy. And there's plenty of it. Continuing to purchase and use this is a no-brainer for me.
-Meguiar's Even-coat Applicator (2-pack): $3.50. At $1.75 each I should have gotten a couple more of these. Not because they are so great, but because they are so difficult to use. At approximately the size of a standard hockey puck, and being foam covered in microfiber, these are not the easiest things to keep a hold on especially when you hit a panel gap or are wiping at odder angles. The applicator's popped out of my hands no less than 6 times during the washes, and twice ended up on the ground and covered in debris. Of course I did not use the affected sides again, but having more on hand in these situations would have been safer. Not thrilled with these overall but was tempted by the price and did not like the idea of using a microfiber towel to do the applications. I'm going to find something else next time to apply my stuff.
-Meguiar's Water Magnet Waffle-weave drying towel: $9.99. Kind of expensive but did the job. Not sure how a non-waffle weave or cheaper microfiber towel would have performed, but this was ok. Left some lint that I'm not very happy with throughout both drying processes, start to finish. Also plan on finding a replacement for this next time.
-Meguiar's Lambswool wash mitt: $17.99. Did not leave lint for me, and performed well. Wasn't expecting it to hold and carry water INSIDE the mitt but I guess I should have. So the first few passes I basically carried a cup of water over the car with each wipe. I learned to "pour it out" before each wipe later on. Let's see how long it lasts. I did not see this mentioned in any reviews or product descriptions, but the globe is honestly kind of big, and I typically wear a "large" when I buy any gloves. This thing was downright baggy. Didn't really affect the washing process.
-Meguiar's Wheel Brush: $6.79. Did a GREAT job on my AP2V2 wheels, thought I'd have a problem getting to the spokes but did not! The bristles are long enough that they reached deep into the spokes and into the lugnut wells, and they are soft but still removed the grime very well. I like the rubber edges around the brush head, great idea to protect the paint finish on wheels.
04-16-2013, 04:55 PM
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booo.. shatty weather yesterday and today. Left rain spots all over the car, so don't feel like taking photos.
The 303 protectant is *not* providing the "beading" effect that others have claimed. Odd.
The 303 protectant is *not* providing the "beading" effect that others have claimed. Odd.
04-16-2013, 06:51 PM
#3
303 on the softop doesn't really hold up well with rain, I've heard others report that it actually runs off when it encounters rain. I would try Raggtop produts for the softop.
04-18-2013, 07:32 AM
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