Biggest Wax Test Ever

[FinerDetails]

Its taken some time in the making, and waiting for time allowance and the right day of weather hasn't helped things either.

What I would like to start by doing, is to start by thanking those persons who have helped me in this mission.

Jon - Epoch
Alex - Serious Performance
Ben - Rubbish Boys
Dom - Dodo
Mike - mickeystman
Rob - Gleam machine
Brian - Drive n Shine
Dom - Meguiars

What these guys help me to do was put together the following for this test:

Swissvax Divine
Swissvax Mystery
Swissvax Best of Show
Swissvax Concourso
Swissvax Saphir
Swissvax Onyx
***** Royale
***** Vintage
***** Glasur
***** Carbon
Collinite 845IW
Collinite 915
Collinite 476s
Nattys Blue
Nattys White
Rubbish Boys Orginal
Rubbish Boys Dodo Juice
Dodo Super Natural
Dodo Blue Velvet
Dodo Purple Haze
Dodo Rainforest Rub
Vic Concours (red)
Autoglym High Definition Wax
Finish Klare Pink Wax
Espuma Revive
Autosmart Cherry Glaze
Meguiars NXT

First job was to get the horsbox washed with Activo:

Next job was to clean and prep the paint, using Duraseal and an MF pad. ALL done by hand!

 

[FinerDetails]

Once the prep was done it was time to start marking out some test beds:

Each wax applied with a clean foam pad. Each wax left for 30mins to cure. Each wax removed with a clean MF cloth.

Tape removed and glue lines left:

I have deliberately left the tape gaps and lines to help differentiate the areas for each wax. I aim to be checking the durability at the start of each month. I may even take a DW NW member on each occasion as witness.

And final full scale shots:

Not a bad afternoon's graft!

Best subscribe to this thread so you dont misss the updates!

 

[hon_n_gem]

wow, great job. I was wondering how you were gonna test all those waxes on a normal car!

I look forward to the results!

 

[Adam R]

blimey!!! are there any visual differences once freshly applied ?
which ones where more difficult to apply ?

 

[DPJ]

Damn, I might have to put off buying more wax until the results are out.

Out of curiosity though....
What sort of mileage does the box do?
Won't the lower panels be subject to more spray etc than those higher up?
What criteria will you use to judge the outcome?

 

[FinerDetails]

blimey!!! are there any visual differences once freshly applied ?
which ones where more difficult to apply ?

yes, two side by side ones have already shown a difference within 24 hours!

The Rubbish Boys orginal is the hardest to apply as its such a hard wax, very dense

 

[Adam R]

yes, two side by side ones have already shown a difference within 24 hours!

The Rubbish Boys orginal is the hardest to apply as its such a hard wax, very dense

i have this wax. find it a hard job to apply but the finish 2 weeks on is still very good. may remove it all with some srp on then give a nice 2 good coats.

whats your experiance with this wax?

 

[UncleFester]

Hehe i've seen you detail that before and as usual ... it comes out top notch. Will watch this with interest!

 

[olaf]

Nice effort!

Be good to see the results too.

 

[FinerDetails]

i have this wax. find it a hard job to apply but the finish 2 weeks on is still very good. may remove it all with some srp on then give a nice 2 good coats.

whats your experiance with this wax?

2 weeks. I'd be wanting around 3 months durability from that level of wax.

Not too much experience, its hard application and time consuming, so not a 'pro' product if you see what I mean.

 

[Rubbish Boy]

i have this wax. find it a hard job to apply but the finish 2 weeks on is still very good. may remove it all with some srp on then give a nice 2 good coats.

whats your experiance with this wax?

2 weeks. I'd be wanting around 3 months durability from that level of wax.

Not too much experience, its hard application and time consuming, so not a 'pro' product if you see what I mean.

Iain, he didn't say it was spent after 2 weeks, he said it still looks VERY good after 2 weeks.

Adam, how does it look, was the finish worth the extra effort?

 

[air121005]

good work!

could be an intersting experiment!

 

[Adam R]

Iain, he didn't say it was spent after 2 weeks, he said it still looks VERY good after 2 weeks.

Adam, how does it look, was the finish worth the extra effort?

i will be as honest as i can here because maybe it will help you with your products abit.

the finish was 'ok', you will see why in a second.

the product went on well but was time consuming. unfortunatly it did not hide the defects in my paint as well as i had wanted, and it didn't shine as much as i would have liked.

BUT and that is a very big BUT! it is now 3 weeks on and the car is filthy, even though this is the case the water still beaded off nicely the other day when raining, and even though it is very dirty, it is still shining through.

i wish the product had a bit more 'shine' to it once applied but apart from that its doing its job well!

will let you know how it come out when i go over it next weekend with the hose.

 

[Rubbish Boy]

i will be as honest as i can here because maybe it will help you with your products abit.

the finish was 'ok', you will see why in a second.

the product went on well but was time consuming. unfortunatly it did not hide the defects in my paint as well as i had wanted, and it didn't shine as much as i would have liked.

BUT and that is a very big BUT! it is now 3 weeks on and the car is filthy, even though this is the case the water still beaded off nicely the other day when raining, and even though it is very dirty, it is still shining through.

i wish the product had a bit more 'shine' to it once applied but apart from that its doing its job well!

will let you know how it come out when i go over it next weekend with the hose.

Of course Feedback is very important Adam, you can't improve something without it. I also don't want to take Iain's thread off topic too much, but I think I need to just make it clear what a wax of this nature can and can't do.

Waxes like Original Edition and the majority in the test don't offer much in the way of swirl and defect hiding. Natural waxes do have some filling ability, but it is miniscule. Just like if if you were painting a wall and didn't prepare the wall first by filling the cracks, removing nail heads, sanding it smooth etc all these defects will show through the finish.

They also don't have abrasives and cleaners (although I think NXT does have some cleaners) so will not polish or burnish the paint to make it shine. Again this needs to be done before waxing as part of the preparation.

By hand, a couple of well worked hits with SRP is probably about as good as you will get in terms of defect hiding. Obviously a good machine polish will remove the defects altogether and burnish the paint to get the shine too.

So to sum up, a wax like this is a last step, the icing on the cake. It will impart the finish with some depth and gloss, adding it's own subtle look to the finish and it will provide protection from the elements and help lock in all that hard work before hand.

 

[UncleFester]

When i've machined mine, I view the wax as final protection, not extra shine - i can get a finish that looks like it has already been waxed by using Menzerna RD3.02 and 106FA in sequence, it doesn't seem to matter what goes on after that - the only factors at this point are ease of application / removal and how durable the wax is.

It's those last two things which interest me in this test and to be entirely fair, my main concern is durability

 

[FinerDetails]

Ben, I agree with what you saying. Adam says the wax has been down for only two weeks. For the quality of wax you are producing I was suggesting that 2 weeks was a pure breeze, and I would expect your wax to go around three months.

Some waxes do add to the machine finish. The likes of Best of Show upwards easy add more shine to any finish.

 

[UncleFester]

Will you be adding retail the cost of the prouduct as well Iain? Would be interesting to see whether the most expensive wax guarantees you best finish and best durability.

 

[FinerDetails]

As time goes on and each wax finishes its performance I will summarise accordingly.

As a quick guide, price range to £15 to £7,250 (approx)

 

[Adam R]

£7k for wax ??? thats royal jelly teritory isnt it with that price.

 

[FinerDetails]

update added to main thread and here to help record date of review:

Update 26.7.08

Well I finally got round to getting back and checking up on progress. Not the best day with the heat, but at least it wasn't doing the massive big fat rain we have had sooo much of since I applied all the waxes.

The waxes have now been in place for one month. Pics of dusty Horsebox:

I firstly gave the area a rinse with the P/W before spraying a layer of Ph Neutral Snowfoam over for washing:

Then rinsed off and checked the various sections as I did:

A reminder of what is where:

So any has happened?

Both Autosmart Cherry Glaze and the Espuma Revive have all but failed. There is some evidence of some remianing protection, but not enough that I could tell a customer their car had wax on it. We have our first two drop outs. This, if I am being honest, is exactly what I expected to see and thus confirms the progress to date and planned approach of comparing on the same panel area.

The rest of the waxes are all much of a muchness, and will need more time to see how they perform. This is with the exception of three waxes which displayed a lessening level and I feel will be shown up at the next update end of August time.