IcemanG17

I got a guards red 928 hood from a friend who was parting out a 1987 after it was wrecked......the paint really isn't that bad...but there was quite a few bad scratches in it..... My goal was to test some popular waxes over time to see how they hold up....the waxes I tested are

Trade Secret Carnuba
Rejex
Optimum Spray Wax (OCW)
Optiseal

To start I washed-claybar the whole hood....then I compounded the whole thing using Opti compound with LC yellow CCS pads on a PC set to 6 (damm it vibrates alot).....the single stage paint is SO HARD....I was really leaning on it in some spots & it barely corrects anything.....I even tried to induce swirls by placing the buffer in one spot and leaning on it....nope...nada....nothing.....

Then I polished the whole hood with opti polish and LC white CCS pads on PC set to 5......

Next was to section off the hood into 4 sections with masking tape....

I applied each wax by hand according to the instructions......so far I can't see much of a difference...they all look good.....so I did the highly unscientific "feel test"..... the rejex feels the smoothest....followed by the trade secret, opti seal & OCW.....the rejex is noticeably smoother....the trade secret is a little less & the optiseal and OCW feel about the same.... SO to add an impartial 2nd opinion I had my wife to the feel test.....she ranked them

1: Rejex
2: OCW
3: optiseal
4: trade secret

I'll have some other opinions shortly.....here are the pics!!

After the waxes cure inside for a day I will place it outside in the backyard where it will be exposed to constant sun and weather...with daily sprinklers!! That should be interesting in a month!

heinrich

Brian good work - now spray the hood with your hose on "mist" and leave it in the sun.

Stephenwz968

wow, great experiment!

Steve

IcemanG17

H
This is a good idea....to test the beading? I'll try that tomorrow!

heinrich

Beading but more importantly Brian, as the hood dries it will leave spots. I'd love to know which has the spots wipe off more easily

IcemanG17

My original theory is to leave it out on the grass in the sun-weather-sprinklers for a month.....to see how it holds up.....I move into my new house next week.....so I will put it out there next friday....it can live in the comfort of my garage next to sharky until then!

fraggle

wow!! science!

I'm loking forward to the results, as my '87 is that exact same color.

hacker-pschorr

Do the old TV infomercial test - sandblast the hood and see which product protects the paint

Or spray the hood with lighter fluid, set it on fire, what else did they do in that commercial?

mdrums

Which treatment seems to be the slickest and the best shine? This will be a great experiment...thanks!

IcemanG17

Okay so I tried the water test & did a plastic bag over your hand smoothness test.....the bag made the three sealants all seem pretty close, with trade secret lagging a bit....the water test wasn't 100% fair since the back two areas had more of a down angle which allowed the water to sheet off better...but everything beaded very nicely....which I expect after just one day

mglobe

Very cool. I'd love to see you pick a winner from this group, and put it up against some more. Maybe Zaino Z2, Klasse, and Ultima?

IcemanG17

The bummer is I only have so much space on the hood......the paint is pretty heavily scratched, but its hard to see in person..... The single stage paint is SO hard....almost impossible to correct with a PC....it might take a rotary to fix it.....or that new "ultimate detailing machine?" polisher

useth4z

Looks like the Optimum products have larger beads. Is that because they were sheeting?

I say experiment with the rotary, you already have a scrap hood. The PC just takes too long for correction, it's best for spreading waxes and glazes.

IcemanG17

I am leaning towards rotary too......since most of my waxes are applied by hand anyway... I might be able to get yet another practice hood after this one?

Jmakado

It may just be the angle but is that an 8" pad you are working with? If so, that may be why you are having some issue getting the cut you want out of a PC. A 6" pad will do much more work on a PC. Sorry to distract from the purpose of the thread but I just thought I would add that in case it's something you havn't thought of. Anyway, nice work and keep the updates coming!