Oli928

After a general search regarding best waxes, most were from 2002 thru 2007. There was a thread in 2011, couple in 2010 and 2009...so I thought it might benefit some people to post a new thread which encompasses more detail than I saw.

This thread is not intended to ruffle any feathers...I know everyone has their favorites. If you have feedback, please reply with more than, "I use brand "X". Please tell us if you used my recommendation or not and if so, why you still chose brand "X".

This post is not the "know all" of all car care products, they are just my personal experiences over the last 34 years. I hope people will benefit, save time and save money. I do not have any personal or professional stake in any of the companies I mention. This is my way of "giving back" to the forum community.

That said, here we go:

Here is a small group shot of just some of the products I've used. You probably have a stash like this yourselves:



Let's start with compounds:
If you have not used 3M's stuff, it will save you a lot of time, sweat, curse words and you will get better results than with typical turtle wax, Meguiars, etc. If I had this on my second to last paint job, I would have literally saved 10 hours and one burn thru.

It is a little hard to find and may even be behind the counter. Please find it; I tried 5 different compounds and this stuff was like magic.
I used a cheap Harbor Freight buffer, since I only planned to do this 2-3 times

You'll need to experiment with speed and pressure. I found the 100% wool pads were much better than even the most high tech synthetics. If you need more info on this step, let me know.


Polishes:
One could say that using a random orbiter and a soft foam pad with the less abrasive 3M compound can polish your car. This depends on the amount of your orange peel or oxidized paint. I'm going to assume most of you are not coming off a paint job and rather want to polish your clear coat or paint. For that, I highly recommend using Wolfgang's (no, not the chef) Swirl remover, then glaze coat:

This stuff is awesome. The swirl remover can be used anytime you start to get swirl marks, acidic bird droppings, etc.


Use something similar to this Porter Cable random orbital polisher with foam pads:

Yes, these units are expensive...but well worth it. You can usually just use the weight of the polisher to do the work. They reduce risk of burning the finish. ALWAYS use the least abrasive foam pads to start with / you don't want top remove too much finish.


Waxes:
Please remember, waxes are not supposed to polish your car, they are meant to seal the finish. If they have abrasives, they should be very mild. I am not going to get into a technical debate which is better, carnauba waxes or synthetics. I've tried most on the market. If the instructions say, "do not apply in direct sunlight"...it is probably wax based vs. synthetic.

As you can see from my group shot from very top, I tried most everything including P21S and Rejex (here is where I will ruffle some feathers) all these products disappointed me in one way or another...Rejex the most (yes, I followed the instructions to the "T")...P21s second. If you take away anything from my post, please try Formula-113 from Wax Daddy. http://www.formula113.com/
or his other site (more products): http://www.formula113ny.com/
This stuff really does what it says. If you want a wax that goes on easy, comes off easy, doesn't throw powder everywhere, can be used in sunlight, doesn't stain your seals (like sunroof seal), lasts, doesn't leave uneven marks, reasonably priced, etc...This stuff is the bomb! Don't let the infomercial type appearance put you off. I see it as passion...He offers a 365 day money back / nothing to lose.
He also has other products:

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox before you wonder if I have stock in this company.

Interior:
You guessed it, I like the interior spray from Wax Daddy. I use it on my leather seats, vinyl and non-clear plastics.

(top is bent because I dropped bottle)
I also like:

Shop around...Mr. Leather was cheaper at my grocery store than Amazon.

Plastics:
I use this for anything with clear plastic...even my wife's headlight lens


Rubber: (like bumpers, black seals, etc)
I use these two products


Tires:
Another feather ruffle potential. There is no final "right" appearance...some people like natural, others satin and others a high gloss/wet look. I prefer the slightly more satin/wet finish Mother FX tire shine gives me:

The Wax Daddy product is good if you want even less shine then FX. ALWAYS remember to go with a water based product.

New age: (waterless car wash?)
I was very, very hesitant to try waterless car wash stuff, but this stuff from Griots works and is perfect fro small touch ups (like when a bird dive bombs your car after eating nuclear waste)


Misc:
When using a buffer, these products from XMT work well. One is to keep the pad lubricated (reduces chance of burning finish), the other to clean them


FYI:
Yes, in the "what was I thinking?" department, I did touch up/repaint most of my 928 in my garage last year. This is the 4th car I did myself since I've been driving. While I don't have the knowledge of a professional, I hope my recommendations help the DIY'er.



I ran out of allowable JPG uploads in this post. I will post some pictures of my finish.

This post could have went on forever, but I just wanted to throw out some general info. If you would like details, leave a reply or e-mail me.

Oli928

Here is one photo...let me know if anyone needs more. Yes, I know that clean/polished cars usually look good in far away shots. I just to show how my DIY paint/clear coat rescue came out

Jim Morton

Very fun and informative post. Thanks for taking the time to present all the info.

Formula 113, eh ??? Got to try that one.

:^)

SMTCapeCod

Car Care Specialties was once active on renn-type fora, and still offers an O/C discount.
Last decent product i used was Blackfire Ice ....something. On a tip from one of the prof detailers on another forum, where all the rage was $220/ounce concoctions (the blackfire was cheap, though..) Wish I could remember the name...something tropical...EDIT: Oh yeah, Dodo Juice.

Adams is supposed to be decent, as well.

Oli928

I found Formula-113 (Wax Daddy) after reading one of my many car magazines. An article covering a restoration talked about how the original paint was brought back by nothing else but Formula-113 and some elbow grease. Like any car geek, I immediately Googled Formula-113, watched some of his videos on YouTube and figured, "what the heck?"...I can always ask for a refund. I got his Wax and Bead-X combo for $32'ish w/shipping

When I asked (by e-mail) some questions, the owner answered back and even included his mobile number...can't ask for anything more than that when it come to personal service. I know his YouTube videos are something right out of late night infomercials...but it kind of grows on you...fun to see someone so passionate about their product.

Oli928

...more pictures of my crazy "week off" last year:

Right after clear coat



Getting rid of orange peel with buffer. This shine is still before any polishing and waxing.


...and one more shot. Harbor Freight buffer actually smoked a couple of times in 3 days of use, but still works.

Kalspeed

Did you respray the entire car? Looks good, you did in your garage? what type of paint did you use?

Bill Ball

Yeah, tell us more about the garage respray. How did you deal with the black beading? It appears you sprayed it red but it ended up black again.

Thanks for your chemical recommendations. For a final buff I have always liked 3M Finesse-It II (also hard to find except at paint stores) after your other 3M stuff. It is extremely mild, actually too mild to do much to the factory paint from the 80s. Maybe your swirl remover accomplishes the same thing. Anyway, I have used Finesse-It II to remove a lot of environmental damage from modern paint finishes.

michaelathome

Your car looks GREAT!


BUT you clear coated a red car? Red, black and whites had no clear for several years if not all years.

It's a big most of the time.


Michael

Speedtoys

Why is it a no-no?

andy-gts

I dont know........... red with clear coat makes a lot of sense,

I really like zaino products, goes on easy and comes off easier. thats why I like their products. from claying to the finesse . it really is easy, I tried griots wax, polishes with the large and small buffers and I am getting too old to deal with carnuba build up any more...

Bjbpe

I had my '87 repainted last summer after an idiot tee boned my drivers side rear quarter panel. I redid the entire car because I was concerned that the new paint may not match up properly. So the paint is now about 9 months old and the car has been sitting in the garage for the last five months (Wyoming is no place for a 928 in the winter). Any suggestions regarding a relatively new paint job?

SMTCapeCod

Oli928

Good questions/comments. You guys catch everything!

Regarding clear coat; I had not much choice. I bought the car with an aftermarket clear coat already on it (as far as I know, clear coats were not factory on 928's in 1989). It was peeling in several areas (can provide close-ups if asked) and I didn't have the $5K to 7K to do a real repaint. I opted to fix (yes, cannot be done perfectly without total removal of old clear coat) but I managed with very careful feathering (and the careful use of "blender") from peeling sections into the factory paint. This is why I used the term "rescue" somewhere in my ramblings. With the South Texas sun, I prefer having clear coat (vs. being "original")...my sunroof (which had the most peeling) was starting to turn pink from polishing/waxing.

Regarding the black beading: (you guys scare me sometimes how much is noticed :-) ...Yes, I cheated. I was running out of time and didn't want to open a can of (possible) worms. I taped over the beading and shoved the tape as far down as it could go into the groove with a razor edge. When I clear coated, I threw a little extra spray in there (and a quick shot of clear coat blender) and used a new razor blade to cut away the tape (when dry) as far down as I could reach in the groove. My goal was to rescue the clear coat for another 3 years or so. So far so good. I only had one small peeling (about 1") on a window pillar. I Fixed quickly and used clear coat blender. I did use the black restorer stuff from one of my pictures to get the beading more black again...using Q-tips and small detailing brush.

Regarding where I bought the paint/type: I got all my supplies from Paint Scratch .com. I first tried their paint pens, then a spray can...then after I felt confident practicing (I practiced on area below rear spoiler and sheet metal shelves I had laying around in garage), I ordered actual cans of premixed paint and clear coat. (not that anyone is a novice on this forum, but painting has some deadly fumes...make sure you get the proper safety gear).

The areas I repainted were: Hood, front quarters, top, widow pillars, (back and back quarters...were earlier in 2011...also part of my learning experience for the bigger job later). I clear coated everything but the doors...they had a good thick coat from previous owner...no idea of age.

The Formula-113 won't remove heavy swirls (it does not have heavy abrasives, but will get water spots and similar). I use the swirl remover from Wolfgang.


Ps Thanks for the kind words Jim Morton. I was going to post a much longer/more detailed post, but I figured you guys would e-mail for details if I peaked anyone's interest...I didn't want to risk something too wordy and people might skip over something.

Bill Ball

Wow! That Wax Daddy video crashed my computer!