Car Care Product Recommendations
 

I thought it would be useful to have a general catch all thread for care care / cleaning product recommendations.

This is something i just found, that seems to work well at eliminating water spots at the last rinse:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm not sure how many washes I'll get out of it, but I put it between the hose and nozzle for my final rinse and did not that water spotting was significantly down.

I am really hooked on Zaino Leather in a Bottle for my seats. It does a great job of conditioning without leaving residue or clogging up the ventilated seats. The leather cleaner is quite nice too.
https://www.zainostore.com/product/Z-10.html

I'm still using Sonax wheel cleaner, is that still the easiest, or has anything taken its place?

I've gone through a shitload of those water filters while we were full time RV'ing. I didn't think they did anything toward deionization.

I'll have to give it a try.

I am getting quotes right now for adding a whole home water filtration system. (maybe a softener too) it will be installed in the small room in the back of my garage (like the room Clyde just got rid of) I'm thinking of having an additional line run to the garage door area that I can filter with one of these

And I want to thank the recent round of stimulus checks for making these home additions possible ;)

I'll add Meguiars wheel brightener for trying to recondition yellowed wheels. It's aggressive so make sure you don't leave it on for more than the 30-45 allowed. You can then rinse and re-apply. But it does a hell of a job. And it's concentrated, so that gallon will make 5 gallons and you don't need a lot of it. That thing will last me a lifetime.

And when Wheel Brightener won't do it, straight up muriatic acid saved my OZ Superleggeras from caked on track pad dust. No damage to the powder coated finish, but that's definitely a last resort.

CarPro Clearcut is my favorite current heavy cut compound, superceding Meguiar's M105.

Sonax Polymer Net Shield is an absolutely killer product for the lazy. Wipe on, wipe off, durable, flexible.

Sonax Wheel Cleaner is still good, but all of my cars produce brake dust that requires physical effort. This really limits the benefit over soap.

Iron-X is also still better for iron deposits on paint, although the Sonax works reasonably well for that.

Somewhere in the description/questions/comments, I saw something about 500 gallons. :dunno:

This guy didn't seem to think it was a good bet for eliminating water spots:
Water spots have become relevant to me. I never had an issue on the gray Camaro, but have noticed them the last two washes on the orange car despite using the same big ass and waffleweave drying towel process on both cars. It was not a problem with earlier washes of the orange car, but I had to replace the hose recently, and that's the only thing I can think of unless the water authority made some changes.

In DC, they just swapped chloramine for chlorine for the spring decontamination of the water pipes. I wouldn't be surprised if there's extra deposits in the water for the next month.

I use raggtopp cleaner & protectant 2-step for the boxster's top, only about once or twice a year; it seems sufficient as it's almost never parked out.

I've been happy with 303 products for my convertible tops.

I've been watching a lot of detailer Youtube channels lately. I've found a few that I've been enjoying and learning (hopefully good stuff) from. Chicago Auto Pros kind of stands out for some really high quality content in terms of explaining what, how and why they're doing things as well as showing (and generally do a good job of speeding up the parts that should be sped up).

A few months ago, they applied 26 different coatings and ceramics to a less-than-perfect Lexus that's daily driven in Chicago to follow up with to see how well the products work and how long they last. Since it includes a Chicago winter, the comparison includes a pretty harsh environment.

Application:




Two weeks:



One month:



Three months:

I should note that anyone in the midatlantic area should keep up on sealants/waxes BEFORE cicada season gets going.

Kudos to you for being able to sit through that. I would say metaphorically that it's like watching paint dry, but it's actually literally like watching paint dry.

Is there a takeaway about which product I should buy?

Setting the playback speed to something faster than 1.0x helps.

Hard to say? Partly depends on your tolerance/ability to apply, what you want to spend, and how often you want to do so. Whether you prefer water beading or sheeting also plays in. Some things looked better at one month compared to others than at three months and some that looked worse at three months looked better in comparison to others than at one month.

The ones that looked to me like they were worth considering at three months are:

Adam's Graphene Ceramic Coating Spray
Gtechniq C2V3 Liquid Crystal
AM Details Quick Detailer Plus
Lithium Ceramic Slam
Geyon Mohs Q2
Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light
CarPro UK 3.0
Glassparency Graphene Coating
Geyon Q2 Can Coat

Not entirely sure which are full on ceramics and which are coatings/sealants.

You forgot AM Quick Detailer Plus if lazy is the criteria. I'm interested in the Lithium Ceramic Slam.

I did. Editing...

They don't. Activated carbon filters are good for filtering out some biologicals and larger particulates. The particulates are what affect the service life of these things the most. as they clog the filter over time and reduce the flow rate.

That unit doesn't include the flow rate in its description. That might be too technical for the product listing, but it isn't in the linked user manual PDF, either.

I'm not sure how much flow you're going to get through a pair of 10" filters. I have a CR Spotless unit, equivalent to their current DIC-20. To be fair, the current product page for the DIC-20 doesn't list flow rate, either. But I am able to run the output through a regular garden hose and a "fireman's nozzle" without any flow restrictor.

https://www.glaver.org/transient/DSCF1010-s.jpg

https://www.glaver.org/transient/DSCF1009-s.jpg

Those pictures are 6 years old - some time after they were taken, Chuck sent me the newer-style TDS meter which directly displays in PPM instead of the old-style neon lamp go/no go indicator.

If these are in an un-heated garage, you need to turn off the water flow to the unit and remove and drain the filters before the first freeze. That's how I ended up with a new-style head and canisters on a 2005 chassis (note the old logo compared to recent production). :irate:

To answer some other questions - the hose reels are "Retracta reels" by Macnaught and are quite hard to find in the US (they're Australian). I have these 2 water ones and a red compressed air one. The strange looking gizmo to the left of the reels is a WiFi access point.

Who are the ad wizards who came up with these names? :ack:

Seriously, huh? :ack:

Those retracta reels are cool, but I have to say that the existence of expanding hoses makes them a lot less attractive than they used to be. Now, my hose just fits in the wash bucket when I'm done.

Do you have a good recommendation on expanding hoses? I've had them in the past and liked them, but the ones I've had have burst after not very much use.

The ones I randomly bought at home depot a few years ago have held up just fine.

I mean, I'd expect reduced durability from them, but they've been good enough that I would just buy new ones.

Here's my dilemma.

I have a ceramic (GYEON Q2 Syncro) that I intend to apply to the Camaro. Before I can do that, I need to do paint protection first to take care of some light swirls and marring that are already driving me nuts. I also want to remove a couple small pieces of factory PPF in front of the rear wheel and replace with higher quality self-healing PPF that cover more area. These sections got beat up pretty bad on the turbo and the 1LE's wider, stickier tires won't make that situation better.

I'd been waiting all winter for the weather to get warmer and now here we are. I've never done paint correction before, so I'd need to buy a tool, pads, and product...which means evaluating and decided on each of those or pay someone to do it. I have a guy that I trust to do it well and he would charge something about what it cost for me to buy that stuff. He's usually booked up pretty far in advance...and I kind of want to do it myself. I don't know why, but I'm nervous about doing it. Probably because of past horror stories of people burning through their paint in the old days (with the modern tools, pads, and products, it looks like you really have to go out of your way to make that happen), but I don't know.

What I want to do is remove the PPF, a strip/decontamination, clay, paint correct, add new PPF, ceramic, add a topper and be done.

This has all been eating at me every day since I got the car in greater and greater ways.

Buy a spray can of PNS and wipe it on the next time you wash it. Then you can keep dithering. :)

It's crazy low effort to apply.

That's what's probably going to happen this afternoon. I've had a can of PNS in the garage since last summer.

But I'd rather do everything else.

They've become very overpriced. They're quite convenient in that the 2 water hoses and the air hose are up out of the way (along with a power cord reel by Reelcraft). All are permanently plumbed or wired in.

https://www.glaver.org/transient/6F5S2629-l.jpg

No doubt. If you have to have a big hose, reels are tremendous.

Well, I did something different (but car related) that also needed doing , but now that's done. Have plans after work Friday, so hopefully this weekend.

This is the most horrible shit to apply and near impossible to "wipe off."

Absolutely aces for something that goes on super tacky and leaves streaky, though. :thumbup: :rolleyes: :irate:

On a scale of 1-10 for ease of use in application compared to Fast Finish, I'd put FF at a 7 and PNS at a 2. Applying a coat of FF to a Camaro takes about 8-10 minutes, tops. One coat of PNS took near 90 minutes with most of that time spent working the "wipe off" step. I went though a bunch of microfibers and ultimately had to go back over the whole car with a big waffleweave and I'm not sure I got all of it. Oh, and that time doesn't include the hood because I didn't know how well it would play with the black vinyl. I did one small edge and will how that performs before deciding whether to do the rest of it.

No opinion yet for how it actually does its job or for how long. Based on the youtube comparisons, my expectations are for it to beading and sheeting performance to be similar, but probably last longer (but doubt it will last so much longer that I'll ever willingly use it again).

edit: I reversed the ease of use ratings. I believe this is what prompted JST's response below. Whoops. Corrected now.

Wait, which one is Fast Finish?

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...L640_QL65_.jpg

Meguiar's Fast Finish. Goes on super easy. Spray a tiny bit on a microfiber, wipe on, then either wipe off or don't (I do), and move to the next section. It goes on and comes comes off super easy. As I said in the post above, only a few minutes to put a coat on the Camaro. (A metric AND Imperial fuckton easier than the Sonax PNS stuff.) Water beads and sheets very nicely for a few months (the "protects for a full year" on the box is an exaggeration). Since it's so easy to apply, I added a coat about once a month to the gray Camaro. With a little time, the car became very glossy. It also felt super slick all the time. Like, literally slippery. That's a double edged sword when you put as many stickers and decals on your car as I do since it makes it really hard for them to lay down and stick (but also makes it easier to remove them with less worry about potential clearcoat damage).

Clyde gives Fast Finish an A grade for ease of use and a A for doing what it's supposed to do and an A++ with bonus points on top for same when compared to the level of effort required. I used it for almost the entire two and a half years I had the turbo.

Tonight, I applied Sonax Polymer Net Shield for the first time and that's what I was talking about in the earlier post.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...L640_QL65_.jpg

Sonax Polymer Net Shield. Does not go on happy, it goes on tacky and doesn't let your microfiber or applicator move smoothly. It goes on leaving visible streaks. It MUST be wiped off pretty quickly. The stuff is so sticky that it grabs your microfiber and doesn't really let go which makes it impossible to systematically wipe clear with predictable effect. You need to constantly check your work with lights at oblique angles to make sure it's all off. And guess what? It won't be. Wipe some more. Get another microfiber. Still not wiped off.

Clyde gives Sonax Polymer Net Shield an F grade for ease of use, but no grade yet for performance. I am hopeful that there's some sun on Monday so I can see what it looks like in the sun. I didn't start the application until probably 8:30pm. Also looking forward to seeing how water behaves on the surface in the rain. Really, really, really hoping it's better than the Fast Finish product so at least it feels like all the extra effort gave me something in return.

Nick has talked up Sonax PNS quite a bit over the past year or so and I bought a can last summer, but did not use until tonight. Based on my praise for Fast Finish, Nick tried at some point and reported back that he did not like it. IIRC, Nick lives in a world where PNS is easier to apply than FF. I don't know where Nick's world exists in real life, because that shit couldn't be further from the truth.

I’m very, very, very puzzled by your experience with PNS. Absolutely none of what you describe is anything like any experience that I’ve ever had. Wipe on, wipe off. I typically do the whole car with one towel.

How are you applying PNS? The lazy way is just spray on the car and spread around/buff off. that’s what I do.

My experience w/ PNS isn't nearly as bad as you described either. I've applied it both ways, a bit on an MF towel and wipe on, and the lazy light spray, smear around, let dry and buff off. I have noticed it leaves smears/haze that takes some time to dry and come off MUCH easier with some quick detail spray. Pretty much smack in the middle of Nick and Clyde's experience.

I find the Zaino ZFX product very similar to your experience w. Meguiars. A super light spritz per panel, wipe on and let dry. 10 mins tops to do a car. I do all the glass w/ it too because it really helps with rain beading. I then go over it with Zaino Grand FInale and the shine gets deep and the sheeting lasts a few months.

I tried both spraying directly onto the car and using an applicator pad. They were equally as bad on the application step. Wiping off was also equally bad except spraying on the car led to overspray and excess time wiping it off, so I did most of the car with an applicator.

The process was basically identical as Fast Finish, but at 10 times the amount of work at 90 minutes vs 9ish minutes.

At first, I thought I might be using too much product, so tried a fresh pad and used only the tiniest amount and the results were no different.

The tackiness was really annoying, too, as it interfered so much with both wiping on and wiping off. I did some searching in some FB detailing groups I'm in and found more than a few people complaining about it...and a bunch of other people saying they don't know what those people are talking about. Makes me wonder if there could be some consistency or storage issues?

I found and reread the thread where you used FF just now. I can't comment on how either product works with single stage paint. Your 4-6 month photo of beading on the E30's roof is certainly compelling.

I still haven't seen the car in the sun, but I was not disappointed by how it looked with some reflected ambient cloudy light when I had the garage door opened this morning to take out the trash.

That's extremely weird. I can only guess that there must either be some batch issues (althoguh I haven't had any across the different spray cans I've used), or maybe there's some weird paint compatibility issue that's just different from the weird paint compatibility issue that I ran into with Fast Finish?

When you bring the scales by, bring your can. :)

I was thinking I might pay you rent for the scales with PNS. :lol:

vroom. between me revving the s54, and the helicopter arriving, we probably annoyed my neighbors. :)

sonax looks damned good on this car.

Ok so what’s the verdict on the PNS+Camaro issue?

The verdict is damfino. :/

There were a few minutes this afternoon when the sun came out. I rolled the car out and…it looked pretty nice in the sun. I found a few spots where I hadn't gotten it all off last night and it all came off with a gentle wipe from a microfiber.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ie...11AfMR6W4=w800

I went to Nick's tonight. He demonstrated his application method and I totally get the disconnect. I had to beat back my inner OCD to not scream "BUT YOU'RE NOT FUCKING DONE!!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!" Earlier, when Nick talked about "wipe on, wipe off," who thought what he really meant was, "you just keep wiping until you feel like stopping"?

The interesting thing he mentioned was that residual product comes off with the first wash. If that's the case, my wipe off stage could probably have been toned down quite a bit…but I'd have to do the wash immediately after application. Also, with a little more thought, if I had put less effort into wiping off as I went and just went back for a wipe down the waffle weave after finishing the whole car, that may have worked out better.

While I was there, it started to rain again and I got to see how it beaded…and it beaded pretty well. The rain wasn't heavy enough to see a whole lot of how it sheeted, but what I did see looked good.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Tl...ao8VQINNc=w800

So, my updated thoughts are that initial performance is very good. Still not wild about ease of application, but my earlier assessment may have been too harsh for what's actually required.

So, maybe I was a little too quick to jump to that solution?

When it rained Monday night when I was at Nick's, it was pretty clear that the Sonax PNS was pretty hydrophobic. Much better than with Fast Finish.

With a near equally fresh coat of Fast Finish:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ma...i48Q9FIEY=w800

Monday with a fresh coat of Sonax PNS:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ms...x758wOhyQ=w800

The FF photo is of the roof. Note that the portion of the panel in the photo includes surfaces on three different planes while the PNS photo shows a single plane (well, none of them are actually planes because none of them are perfectly flat, but they're close enough). The FF photo shows a lot more water and the beads are more irregularly shaped than the nearly perfect circles/spheres in the PNS photo. Had PNS been on the car instead of FF for the FF photo, I don't think there would be nearly as much water, and there would not be any on the most vertical of the three planes.

When washing the car, I could see it was much different (and better) as soon as the water started hitting it. While actually washing it, it felt different. It was easier to move the wash mitt. It was also weird in that the sudsy water wanted to let gravity have its way with it to a much greater degree.

Where it was really clear that something different was going on was drying the car. After rinsing, there was much less water remaining on the car. Maybe only 70% as much water?

My next drying step is to use a leaf blower to blow off as much as the remaining water as possible. That was where it was REALLY different. At the end of the blow drying stage, there was only 25% as much water left. Maybe even less. It also took less time.

After the leaf blower, I use a super absorbent large microfiber towel to dry the little remaining drops so they don't dry on the car and leave water spots. With a lot less drops to get to, I can cover the whole car faster which means fewer of what drops are there have an opportunity to dry on the surface.

The last step is to use a big waffleweave microfiber to dry off the glass surfaces, door jambs, trunk and hood area, and nooks and crannies that always seem to continue leaking water for hours. This stage took just as much time as the others. If I add the coating to some of those areas and apply a good coating on the glass, I think that will take less time and effort, but won't do anything about the never ending dripping.

The next question is how long will it last? :dunno: If it's good for long enough, I think it may be worth the extra effort to apply. If I modify my application process a bit (leaving more clean up until the whole car is done), it would be a major shift towards being pro-PNS.

It actually has me rethinking the ceramic application. Hmm...

The one thing may make this an unequal comparison is that the PNS went on top of an existing Fast Finish coat. That could make the PNS perform better than it would if the FF hadn't been present. Additional FF coats could also have improved its performance, but I had multiple coats on the gray Camaro and had gone on top of corrected paint, too, and it never performed this well.