The ilogikal1 test thread

[ilogikal1]

No update on the Nanolex yet, but; MOT passed.

 

 

The tester's comment; "I wish even half the cars that came through here were as clean as yours always is" (after the traditional "you could have at least cleaned it before you brought it in").

Edited October 27, 2014 by ilogikal1

[GMballistic]

Great news on passing the MOT, ...always a relief.

[Ricey]

Have you ever strayed into ceramics mate? Opticoat being the one I'm thinking about.

[ilogikal1]

Have you ever strayed into ceramics mate? Opticoat being the one I'm thinking about.

 

I haven't, I've overlooked coatings of any kind until more recently to be honest.

 

They're generally a little too durable for use on my own car (I like applying waxes in the summer on mine) and until fairly recently have been a little fussy to apply but with a lot of easier-to-apply coatings on offer these days I think I'll probably be looking at another coating for the Leon when the time comes. Me being me, I'll probably want to try something different to Prime next time, Opticoat will definitely be on the short list.

[Ricey]

Lol I do forget that your into this as a hobby sometimes.

 

 

You sure know your shizzle bud

[ilogikal1]

Lol I do forget that your into this as a hobby sometimes.

 

 

You sure know your shizzle bud

 

Cheers mate, that means a lot to me coming from a pro.

 

Strictly amateur hour over here though, I have a lot of respect for anyone like yourself who does this for a profession as I'm fairly sure it's not something I could do for a living.

[Stutopia]

Lol I do forget that your into this as a hobby sometimes.

 

 

You sure know your shizzle bud

 

Cheers mate, that means a lot to me coming from a pro.

 

Strictly amateur hour over here though, I have a lot of respect for anyone like yourself who does this for a profession as I'm fairly sure it's not something I could do for a living.

 

I thought you worked in one of those hand wash specials joints with one big bucket for all the cars, one giant sponge and giant vat of t-cut

[ilogikal1]

I thought you worked in one of those hand wash specials joints with one big bucket for all the cars, one giant sponge and giant vat of t-cut

 

 

I don't work there, I have too much of a conscience to charge someone for damaging their car... I just volunteer there in my spare time.

[ilogikal1]

Right then, gave it another wash today so a few things to report;

 

Today's method was 50Cal Ambush snow foam (from this months Waxybox), left to dwell for exactly 12 minutes and 8 seconds before I got bored of waiting (it suggests allowing "up to 30 minutes dwell time") and then rinsed. Now maybe Ambush needs 30 minutes to clean because 12 minutes and 8 seconds clearly wasn't enough - did offer some cleaning, but it's considerably less than any of my other pre-washes achieve in much less time. So I followed up with a hit of Citrus Power, left to dwell for however long it took me to go round the entire car and rinsed immediately. Then followed up with a wash using Car Chem Z Bath (Tailor Made) shampoo and a final rinse.

 

BSD on the wheels - they were filthy again, but again cleaned up very well after the Citrus Power with a completely touchless wash. The beading is still insane and sheeting is very good, it's just the dirt repellency (or lack of) that's let it down so far, but as long as it's easy to achieve a touchless wash I won't complain too much.

 

Gyeon Tire - again, cleaned up well with a completely touchless wash, still showing great levels of protection and good finish after two weeks.

 

To my surprise even Britemax Final Shine is still working well on the exhaust, still beading very well after a touchless wash.

 

Hubikote HubiTrim - on both the trim (mirror base plates) and the headlights, the sheeting is great (I'd expect nothing less from a coating), the beading is better on the headlights than it is on the trim which may be down to the trim not being as clean as the headlights when it was applied I suspect.

 

Angelwax H2Go - it repelled 50Cal Ambush impressively well. It beads water exceptionally well. I've only driven the car once in light rain but a couple of times whilst the screen was still wet. It starts to clear the larger beads at just over 30mph but any smaller beads need higher speeds. It's not the best glass sealant I've used, but neither is it the worst, it is however the cheapest. I'd put it close to Car Chem Ultra Glass Sealant - Car Chem performs slightly better but also costs slightly more. Durability yet to be determined.

 

As for the Nanolex, well the sheeting was almost non-existent... on the roof. Almost everywhere else it was slow and pretty patchy. However, on the skirts & lower parts of the panels it was much, much more conducive to what one would expect of a coating. I also remembered that the numberplate plinth was coated with PSS but wasn't given a FF wipedown so I paid more attention to that today and it too shows very good sheeting. This is enough to convince me that the poor water behaviour so far is a result of Final Finish failing rather than the underlying Premium Spray Sealant and FF seems to have worn off the lower panels but is still hanging on, on the roof. Hopefully I'll be down to the PSS by time I get round to giving it another wash (as I'd like to see how that compares to the very impressive Gyeon Prime currently on the other car as much as anything), but I also have enough FF to play around and experiment with at a later date.

[Stutopia]

The 50cal foam I purchased a while back was a bit of a disappointment, at that price. It's no better than valet pro at half the price and ten times as much. DJ Apple iFoam FTW.

 

I tried BSD on wet paint today as a drying aid, to save a few minutes quick detailing effort. Looked good and much easier to play with when the paint has residule water on it as a bit of lube.

 

I was totally underwhelmed by Gyeon Tire at first, as it didn't stay very black looking for long, but now it's had a few coats, I think it's looking at being a regular in my starting line up.

[ilogikal1]

It's the second time I've used Ambush (both Waxybox samples). First time I found it a bit meh, it cleaned okay but was a bit too much like Magifoam - needs ridiculous dwell times to clean and just hangs around on the drive for days afterwards. This time I actually found it worse! It didn't clean too well and true to form it's still sat on the driveway now. The cost is just rubbing salt into the wound. It's safe to say it won't be replacing my go-to foam (nor would it replace anything else I've tried actually).

ETA; I've not tried iApple foam yet but it is on my wish list as it seems to be well regarded. I might use up some of my Car Chem stockpile before buying more foams though.

 

Tire I've found lasts longer when it's force cured, although I admit I've not tried numerous layers. The downside to force curing is you look even more mental taking a heat gun (or in this case a hair dryer) to your tyres. Also, it being called "Tire" bothers me. And I'm still none-the-wiser as to how Gyeon is pronounced either. Anyone would think it was a foreign brand or something.

 

As for BSD, I have a little something up my sleeve regarding that... which is to shamelessly steal a now quite old idea from DW.

Edited November 1, 2014 by ilogikal1

[Stutopia]

Tire I've found lasts longer when it's force cured, although I admit I've not tried numerous layers. The downside to force curing is you look even more mental taking a heat gun (or in this case a hair dryer) to your tyres.

 

I'm so far past the looking mental in front of the neighbours point it's untrue. Every weekend I drag a woolly mammoth across every panel like I'm a matador and it's a completely stationary bull.

 

And I'm still none-the-wiser as to how Gyeon is pronounced either. Anyone would think it was a foreign brand or something.

 

I've not had a good reason to say it out loud yet.

[ilogikal1]

I'm so far past the looking mental in front of the neighbours point it's untrue.

 

 

I know that feeling all too well myself.

 

 

On a slightly different note, I washed the Gyeon car today for the first time since it was Gyeon'd in mid-September - granted it has spent the last two weeks in garage and hasn't turned a wheel in that time, but it was still dirty when it was put away. I almost regret washing it now, purely for how much better the Gyeon is compared to the Nanolex at the moment.

So the process was a simple wash and consisted of Citrus Power pre-wash & rinse, followed by a good sit down after all my hard work. Well, almost. With the exception of the wing mirrors, the whole car was clean with a touchless wash (and it's a white car, remember). To be honest, I think the mirrors would have been too if I could direct the pressure washer at the correct angles between them and the car properly, but I couldn't so I resorted to a quick wipe over with a wet Incredisponge with a drop of shampoo on each mirror followed by a quick rinse. All done. I could have washed the Leon in it's entirety whilst waiting for 50Cal Ambush foam to work yesterday.

[roscopervis]

The best snow foam I've used is Bilt Hamber's. Excellent cleaning power and even works very well as a prewash through a pump sprayer.

[ilogikal1]

BH Autofoam is certainly up there with Car Chem and AF Avalanche. For me it comes down to availability and price between those three.

[Stutopia]

Took this as I left work on Friday, it's the sonax BSD bead after I used it as part of the drying phase last weekend, making it much easier to work with but seemingly not impacting the bead at all even with a week's muck on there. I think this is how I'll use it in future.

 

 

These are proper beads as well, from rain, none of the ilogikal1 staged beads

[ChrisB]

.. and a very nice arty shot that is Stu too

[Stutopia]

I know you used this a couple of pages back, Glacier Wax Pure 001 shampoo, and noted the outrageous price. Well today I got round to using my waxybox sample and I REALLY like this shampoo, the persistance of the suds and level of lubrication just pushed this onto my A-Rated list (we'll see how my wallet fells about it long term )

 

Went to order some and found they're bundling up with a couple of other products at £25

 

http://www.glacierwax.co.uk/car-care/wash/pure-001-500-ml-car-shampoo-2/

[ilogikal1]

Nice pic and great beading, Stu.

 

These are proper beads as well, from rain, none of the ilogikal1 staged beads

 

It's not my fault I'm too impatient to wait 4 minutes for the next rain shower.

 

 

Regarding Glacier Wax, I did like Pure but not enough to pay that for it. Even if they do rebrand it as Frost instead.... For no other reason than their outrageous pricing scheme, I've simply not bothered with the rest of the range. That bundle does seem like a fair deal though.

[ilogikal1]

Right then, having survived the wildlife and natives of the other side of the world I've settled back into life in this ridiculously cold and miserable country. So to cheer myself up I gave the Z a wash today (simple things and all that).

 

The car was rather filthy as it had it had been treated to a jaunt down to London, left parked up outside in the elements for two weeks and then a return jaunt up the motorway in torrential rain (yep, the day I flew back from sunny Australia via equally sunny Dubai, it was pissing it down in the UK. Sigh.) and has seen several wet/dry cycles, so the dirt was fairly thoroughly attached to the car by this point.

 

Things to report;

BSD is a bit mixed this time - Prior to cleaning, the lack of dirt repellency was duplicated again. After cleaning, bizarrely both the rear wheels were showing little (still some, but noticeably weakened) protection whereas the both fronts were showing much stronger (but obviously not fresh) protection still. I would have expected it to be there way around but what is life without it's little mysteries?

I used Koch Chemie (I've never heard of them before either) Reactive Wheel Cleaner from Waxybox. It is a "Reactive, acid-free rim cleaner with performance indicator (red indicator) and gloss additives", according to their website, along with "With gloss and lotus effect". Firstly the "red indicator" is in fact purple. Think fallout removers, it's the same bleeding purple reaction. Now Koch Chemie don't state that this is a fallout remover itself, but I thought I'd test it against the two I had to had to hand anyway (Gyeon Iron and Auto Finnesse Iron Out) because... well, that's just the sort of thing I do. I can confirm that it is not a (good) fallout remover - both Iron & Iron Out reacted after using RWC. Which to me makes the "indicator" a complete gimmick. More so than in fallout removers . Which is also a bit of a gimmick itself really. Anyway, it did a fair job of cleaning the face of the wheels in a touchless manner but the wheels weren't left clean enough for my liking so I got the AF Imperial and Wheel Woolies out. It's also quite expensive (£19.96 for 750ml compared to £12.95 for 1 litre of AF Imperial concentrate from the same source) considering it's a ready-to-use dilution in the bottle. For reference, it's priced closer to fallout removers (£19.95 for 1 litre of AF Iron Out from that same source), which I mention only because I'm not convinced it's not supposed to be a fallout remover... albeit a pretty bad one. Furthermore, the "lotus effect" unless that's a reference to Colin Chapman's "add lightness" (by removing the heavy dirt) then that's pretty poor too. Not sure about the gloss that's apparently "with" this product but there was no real evidence of this gloss on the wheels to be honest. So, would I buy Koch Chemie Reactive Wheel Cleaner? No, not at all.

 

There is an upside to that wheel cleaner though, it has demonstrated to me that BSD has stood up to 700+ miles of use, 2 wheel cleaners, (at least) 2 fallout removers, 2 snow foams, Citrus Power and whatever else I've thrown at it previously too. The two fallout removers were only tested on one wheel (50:50 rather than overlapping layers though) but it was a front wheel which showed better protection, even after, than the rears and there appears to be very little difference on one side to the other after. So BSD is pretty chemical resistant. That said, I still reapplied it anyway.

 

Hubikote HubiTrim is going strong. Still no hazing on the headlights, but then still no sun (whilst I've been here anyway, there could have been 2 weeks of unseasonal sunshine whilst I was away for all I know!). The water behaviour was obviously compromised before the wash but returned after.Mirror trims haven't faded at all and whilst the beading isn't all that impressive the sheeting still is.

 

Nanolex PSS is still disappointing me to be honest. If anything the improvements it was displaying last time have disappeared this. There's been no evidence of self-cleaning. When dirty the beading was poor on the higher, cleaner panels (I've seen worse, but it's not good) and terrible on the lower panels (as I'd expect), when clean it poor all round. Sheeting is painfully slow but thorough - the panel will eventually sheet itself virtually dry but it'll take between 5-10 minutes to start to do so. The improved sheeting on the lower panels last time was not evident this time. So disappointed am I by this LSP that I have resorted to topping it up with HydrO2 from the glass down - I have resisted applying it to the roof so that I can keep an eye on how PSS goes as I'm still hoping it's going to improve at some point - which has completely transformed the water behaviour to what I would have hoped for from PSS in the first place.

I probably should point out that I did try BH Surfex HD & AS G101 on small areas of the rear bumper whilst doing the exhaust as the first advice to those "my coating's broken" questions is to try an APC wash to revive it, both were applied before the pre-wash and whilst they both did a great job of cleaning neither affected the water behaviour of PSS.

So Nanolex Premium Spray Sealant then, would I buy it? No, absolutely not. I place PSS squarely in the "it's not for me" category; I'll accept that it might work for some people but it's not worked for me for some reason.

 

AW H2Go is still going. It's strong on the side & rear glass, it's still good on the windscreen - that return leg in the torrential rain that I mentioned; I barely used the wipers on the motorway at all (generally only when overtaking lorries) but I had to use them getting to the motorway.

 

Going back to the wheels briefly, I've reapplied BSD to two wheels (front passenger & rear driver's side for those keeping track... namely me when I've forgotten this next time I wash the car) and applied HydrO2 to the other two for comparison.

 

 

And finally, there's no pictures here yet because it's not rained here today and it's dark here now, so I might have to resort to staged beading tomorrow.

[Stutopia]

Did you detail anything down under? Dirty rental car? Any unusual water behaviour to report?

 

Regarding GW Pure, I now know why it's so expensive - it comes in an inch thick glass bottle, like it thinks it's Chanel No. 5 or sommat

[ilogikal1]

I did little more than lounge around in the sun drinking beer.

The rental car was filthy by the time we returned it but at no point did I have any desire to amend that. The only unusual water behaviour was that it didn't fall from the sky quite so often and it looks like this;

 

 

Rather than this (picture shamelessly stolen from the BBC);

 

[ilogikal1]

Despite being quiet on this thread for a couple of weeks, if you're reading this there's a fair chance that you might be interested to know that experimentation has continued behind the scenes.

 

Before I go into details though I just want to point out to any fellow Waxybox subscribers that some of the following may contain spoilers from the Christmas hamper/boxes. I know some people are saving theirs for Christmas whereas I'm far too impatient - and if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen that Rich and the team made it very easy for me to break into mine... although if you don't and/or didn't then you won't have a clue what I'm talking about - but I'll do my best to avoid posting any spoilers.

 

Firstly, that Nanolex PSS on the roof. I'm done with it. I've given up. This time. I'm always one for a second chance and I've got enough PSS to test on a section against some Gyeon Prime and... A.N.Other (which will be named at a later date...). However, for now I'm calling time on it. Allow me to explain why with some pictures;

 

 

This is the panel with just PSS on it at the time. Looks good for a dry panel, right? Good, crisp reflections, nice and glossy? Here's the problem;

 

 

Not sure if it's clear (it was surprisingly difficult to photograph actually), but there is still a film of water on the surface. To put this into context, this was 3+ hours after washing and this was a panel protected with HydrO2 taken at the same time;

 

 

As you can see, PSS currently offers absolutely no beading nor any sheeting so I have concluded that it's completely failed already. This means that my roof and most of the boot (some of that has got the "over spray", such as it is, from the HydrO2 on) was completely unprotected and I can't be having that in winter so I've been playing...

 

As I mentioned before I'm open to second chances so I've taken this opportunity to re-visit some previously tried products that I wasn't fond of. First up is Dr Beasley's Plasma Coat on (some of) the boot. Last time I tried this, I struggled with the consistency of the product, I found it all too easy to over apply and difficult to buff as a result, whilst the finish was quite good I found the durability to be disappointing.

Armed with slightly more experience of this kind of "face cream" consistency product these days I found it much easier to get the right amount of product on the applicator - essentially with a typical paste wax a single swipe enough to load the applicator whereas with Plasma Coat it's more of a dab... and then using the side of the pot scrape off any product you can actually see on the applicator, then you've got enough for a section. Then you just need to keep spreading it as far as you possibly can to get a thin a layer as you possibly can (a damp applicator helps) before buffing off immediately. Now, if you've got a thin enough layer you might notice it almost evaporating into the paint a bit, this is what you want and if you get it this thin it's an absolute breeze to buff off (even more impressive given it was about 4 degrees here at the time!). The finish is much better than I remember it from last time too - although that might be because I enjoyed using it much more this time, so it may all be in my head. Durability remains to be tested as it was only applied today.

 

So that took care of the boot (and I'm not even sorry for starting this sentence with "so") and left me with just the roof. You may be aware that I'm not a huge fan of Sonax BSD, but for those of you who aren't I don't like because I find it's a bit difficult to work with, however Waxybox insists on replenishing my stock at every opportunity so I'm either going to have to use it, give it away or bin it. It's not so bad that I'm going to bin and I'm not nice enough to just give stuff away so I'm going to have to use. Now I am aware of various suggestions of using it on wet paint or with a wet applicator or just generally diluting it with water. I've tried that, it works okay but I'm still not fond. I'm also not a big fan of QD's in general, I very rarely use one and yet almost every Waxybox (at least every other box) contains a QD of some description... can you see where this is going yet? Yep, I've been making a Franken-detailer (...'s monster).

I've tried a few variations of products and dilution ratios of a few of them on various things, but I've now narrowed down the options to start trying a few on the car. The advice I'm comfortable offering on this front, if you wanted to try this yourself, is because BSD isn't really a QD but rather a spray sealant; avoid carnauba based QD's when mixing as they don't play well together.

The first one to make it to the car is a 50/50 mix of BSD and Chemical Guys Speed Wipe. The SW gives BSD the slickness that it lacks which made it much more pleasant for me to work with and I found it much easier to get a streak-free finish, even with slight over-application, without adversely affecting the flash time. I'll be testing to see whether diluting it affects the water behaviour and/or durability and report back accordingly.

 

There's no photos as yet because I'm applying G1 to the windows - the H2Go has started to fail on the wiped sections of the windscreen and I'm doing a tour of the UK for Christmas so wanted to refresh the glass sealant - which needs time to cure properly before it gets wet, so pictures will follow when that can happen. Also I've been informed that waxes can be applied on top of coatings, so having a pseudo-coating-based-type product on the Z currently and a backlog of Waxybox waxes to test I thought 2 stones and all that, so the bonnet will be duly divided and waxed (again) tomorrow too.

[harryjackson]

I can tell you're very keen on detailing. Could you recommend me some products. Looking for Snowfoam, Shampoo. I'm receiving Prima Amigo and Soft99 Fusso Dark for Christmas, have you tried either of these two?

[ilogikal1]

I can tell you're very keen on detailing. Could you recommend me some products. Looking for Snowfoam, Shampoo. I'm receiving Prima Amigo and Soft99 Fusso Dark for Christmas, have you tried either of these two?

 

Not used Fusso, no. I have used Prima Amigo in the past though, it's a very good glaze.

 

Snowfoam I recommend Car Chem (or 5 litres) Bilt Hamber AutoFoam or Auto Finesse Avalanche - depending on which is cheapest (don't forget delivery charges), they all clean very well.

 

Shampoo would depend on what you're after ultimately - whether you want a "pure" shampoo or one to top-up protection and/or gloss.

For a pure shampoo I recommend either Car Chem 1900:1 (or 5ltr, or that with your choice of name & scent) or Gyeon Bathe.

If you want a top-up shampoo I recommend BriteMax CleanMax or the absolutely superb Gyeon Bathe+ which, if used regularly, can be used as an LSP in it's own right.