Why are you still waxing your Pilot?

[OCDetails]

Are you still using a carnauba to wax your car? Why? If you ask any detailer about why they use one wax or another they will tell you all about how ‘wet’ it makes the paint look or how ‘deep’ the reflections are. The fact is that waxes achieve that by using greasy oils. Anything covered in oil is going to look like wet paint. It’s the nature of the product. And deep reflections are more a product of proper polishing and prep work and not as much a result of which brand of wax you are using.

Let’s look at what wax really offers you. Wax offers you between 4 to 6 weeks of protection from UV rays that cause paint fading. If you live in a hot climate then you can expect 4 weeks or less. Wax is wax and heat will cause it to melt and evaporate. What kind of protection is that?

That ‘wet look’ appearance is due to oils in the wax. Those oils also attract dust. We all know how nice it is to have a perfect looking car and then 5 minutes later have it covered in dust. Those oils don’t stay around forever, so your car is only a wet paint looking dust magnet for as long as the oils don’t evaporate. Give it a couple days and your car will look shiny, but not as wet anymore.

Prices for wax are also out of this world. One of the best waxes I have ever used is only $15 bucks at any Harley Davidson shop. It is called S100 and it is amazing. It competes with waxes that cost 5 times as much. You may not believe me, but some waxes out there break the bank at over $1000 a jar. Want proof? Check this puppy out. What a deal, eh? On sale for a mere $1500 bucks. A few years ago I had an Autopia member send me a chunk of this wax. He has a Ferrari dealership in his back yard, so I’m sure it wasn’t a hardship to purchase this wax. He wasn’t impressed with it and he sent it to me to compare it to other waxes that I used at the time. Compared to my $15 S100 I wouldn’t pay more than $30 bucks for Zymol Vintage. It was really under impressive and not worth anywhere near $1500 bucks. I keep it around for some customers who want to say that they have this wax on the car for shows, but other than that I wouldn’t suggest it. I don’t even use it on my own cars, so that tells you something. Pinnacle Souveran also claims to have a high amount of Brazilian White Carnauba in it, but you don’t see them slapping on a house payment sized price tag on their wax. Souveran is, by the way, a great wax… but also not worth $70 bucks when compared to S100 and other lower priced products.

I’m not a wax hater by any means. I have loads of wax myself. I have at least a dozen different waxes on my shelf that get used on customer cars. When someone comes to me for a detail and request certain products by name to be used, I want to be prepared. However, for my own cars I have found a much much better product than wax. I’m talking about sealants.

Sealants are not new technology. They become more popular in the last 20 years, but they have been around much longer than that. It has only been in the last half dozen years that polymer technology has really started to wow the detailing community. There are some names that auto enthusiasts are familiar with like Klasse, Zaino, Meguiar’s and others, but recently some remarkable advances in polymer sealants have brought us products like Blackfire, 4* Ultimate Paint Protection, and Wolfgang. Recently this technology was put back on the shelf in the form of Meguiar’s NXT and Eagle One Nanowax. Sealants offer outstanding durability at over 6 weeks for most products. 10 to 12 weeks is average for most sealants while some will last for much longer. These products bond to the paint like super glue and don’t evaporate with a little heat. They aren’t greasy oily products that attract dust either. Some of them actually have anti-static properties to them that repel dust instead of attracting it.

It is worth it to explore sealant technology and see how it compares to your favorite waxes. Most sealants are priced competitively and aren’t that much more expensive than a good carnauba. For example, a 16 ounce bottle of Wolfgang Paint Sealant costs under $20 at any of the retailers. If you are a member of any forum where Autogeek or DetailCity is a sponsor then there is probably an additional discount on top of it too. Not to mention that you won’t be out in your garage waxing every weekend just to keep it looking good. Wolfgang is a very durable sealant that looks as good or better than any wax I’ve ever used. For anyone that says their carnauba is the only product to produce ‘deep’ or ‘wet’ looking finishes, take a look at these pictures and reevaluate your stand on car care products. Sealants have a lot to offer and I truly believe they are the way of the future. Why use a greasy carnauba that is fragile and creates so much work when you can use a sealant that looks this good and protects for much longer without the dust attraction? I know these aren't Pilot pictures, but how good can you really get silver looking? lol I hope that these will prove a point and provide to be a little educational at the same time.











I don't want to sound like a spammer by any means, but there are many places to buy 'the good stuff' online. Autogeek.net, DetailCity.com and Danase.com are just a few that I have had great luck with. If you are in Canada and want to shop locally then there is Eshine.ca as well that sells some fine sealants. I'm really not concerned with what brand of sealant that is used as long as you use what works best for you. On Silver I've found that Danase Acrylic Paint Sealant looks really good.



On black I would recommend Wolfgang, but there are many schools of thought on that. Zaino does a great job as well as Klasse. Any sealant on black is going to look fantastic.



Something new to be considered is Polycharger. It is an additive that you can add to any sealant or liquid wax and enhance the durability and appearance. Polycharger.com has more information about that. I've added it to Meguiar's #20 as well as Blackfire and the results are outstanding. With #20 it actually reduced dust attraction for a couple weeks.

Sorry to sound like an infomercial. I just like having this information out there because it really sparks some good discussion. I've been a detailer professionally for the last ten years and have been consulting professionally for half that time. I train local detail shops and dealership detailers in how to properly take care of paint and I like to consider myself somewhat of an expert on the subject. I am the most objective guy you'll ever meet when it comes to this kind of thing. I try to never call one product better than the other unless you are asking about specific attributes. Some look better on silver than black, but that doesn't make it a better product overall. Anyway, hopefully this is helpful and we can get some good discussion going.

[AznSlumLord]

This is baller wax Zymol Royale Glaze

[OCDetails]

Yep, but at the end of the day it is still just wax. Just because they put a price tag like that on it doesn't mean it is worth it. I just sold my motorcycle for about twice what it was worth simply because some idiot was standing there with money burning a hole in his pocket and he bought it. I guess he thought if I was asking that kind of money then it must be worth it. Little did he know that I was asking twice what it was worth so I could see what people would offer on it. I never expected someone would just write a check. lol As long as suckers out there believe that Zymol is the best simply because it costs the most, then they'll always sell crap packaged in acrylic boxes and call it 'the best'.

[breakfastchef]

Turtle Wax ICE is my current favorite. It can be applied to paint, rubber, chrome and lenses. Iused it for the first thime last weekend and I am really impressed with the results and the ease of application. Highly recommended!

[jay]

Originally posted by breakfastchef
Turtle Wax ICE is my current favorite. It can be applied to paint, rubber, chrome and lenses. Iused it for the first thime last weekend and I am really impressed with the results and the ease of application. Highly recommended!

Looking forward to a report on how long it lasts. We got a lot of positive reports on Meguiars NXT or whatever when it came out, but it has no longevity whatsoever. BTDT. Dried the car with the T-shirt the next wash.

[BoomerSooner]

OCDetails,

Now that is an excellent post!

[pat2k8]

Zaino fan here! Best thing i ever used! On my DARK plum civic I would get an easy 3 months out of it in the hot summer minimum! So I put a coat on my white 07' and will see how long it lasts ( I'm guessing alot longer!) I'm not spamming either, but I have Zaino available in the GTA. I loved it so much I started selling it.......

[Edthered]

What about Finish 2001? I've been using it for 10 years or so and I really beleive it's extended the finish on my cars. It looks great and lasts 5 to 6 months (even though they say a year). Have you tried it in the past. Comes in an orange bottle......

[metsfan]

OC - Will Wolfgang take care of swirls and surface scratches?

[OCDetails]

Originally posted by metsfan
OC - Will Wolfgang take care of swirls and surface scratches?

No. The only thing that will take care of swirls and surface scratches is to machine polish the paint with a polishing compound. It can't be done by hand and it can't be done by a cheap orbital buffer. It has to be done by a heaveier duty machine than what you can get at Sears for $40. They can be removed fairly easily, but you just need to have the right tools for the job.

What Wolfgang Paint Sealant does is protect and enhance the shine. It can only enhance so far as you have preped the surface properly. If you still have scratches and swirls then those will still be visible after you apply the sealant.

[filmschool]

Originally posted by metsfan
OC - Will Wolfgang take care of swirls and surface scratches?

I use a porter cable and the xmt line from Pinnacle - great results and not too hard to use... usually, use Klasse AIO and Sealer as well. good stuff...

[waynerd]

I started using Griot's Garage Paint Sealant, and it does a sweet job. It has a bit of polish in it, so it takes out the swirls, etc. It lasted about a year on DW's Subaru, but I've used Griot's spray wax after I wash it, or detailer after I run it through the car wash in the winter.

I just clayed and waxed the Ody (whew!) and used my new orbital polisher from Griot's,too, and the van looks better than new. My hand just glides over the paint.

Question for you OCDetails: How do you keep from getting all the sealant "gunked up" in the trim, door handles, and seams? It's a pain diggin' all that stuff out later.

[abhiku]

OCDetails - Excellent post!! for novice like me

I live in Seattle where it rains for full year Will it protect from water? How long it will last in rainy weather?

So for black color, just get Wolfgang and that's it? Do I need some kind of tool etc. to apply it on vehicle?

Thanks for your advice!

[OCDetails]

All of the sealants that I've used can be applied by hand. No special tools are needed. Machines like the Porter Cable 7424 and other orbital buffers pretty much just make the job go faster, but don't really have anything to do with performance. Just spread it around as much as you can. A bottle of Wolfgang can last me for a year of detailing cars on a daily basis. A little goes a very long way.

The products that stain the trim are things that either have polishes in them or other fillers that hide swirls. Wolfgang Paint Sealant doesn't have either of those and won't stain the trim. However, I would recommend that you always wipe down any plastics or rubber trim that the product gets on just to be safe. To be really safe you should mask those areas off with painter's tape prior to polishing at all. On high end cars I always do that to protect it from damage. I haven't found any areas on the Pilot that are too big of an issue if polish gets on it, but even if you do get some on then you can wipe it off quickly and it won't stain.

To remove the stain after the fact there are several ways of doing it. One of the funniest, but still effective, ways is to use regular peanut butter. The peanut oil will actually soak up the polish and remove the stain. It is pretty cool. Other ways that work involve a tooth brush. You can use something simple like Armor All and a tooth brush to scrub the area and that will restore it. WD40 has been known to work as well, but I would stick with a good rubber/vinyl protectant instead.

[PhishingPhreak]

Do sealants or waxes "expire" after a certain amount of time? Or are they good forever?