What is your favorite wax?

I have a ton of waxes, but I'd say that these 3 are my favorites:

Pinnacle Souveran
Menzerna FMJ
Rejex

 

Well, Tom of course.

 

Meguires NXT

 

All products from Griots.

 

NUFINISH, of course.

Meguiars Products, for fine finishes on my good cars.

Ciao...Paolo

 

Rejex, hands down winner!

 

I like 303 Aerospace for interiors, Menzerna for polishing and perfecting paint, and Zaino for sealing/waxing.

Josh

 

Zaino products in general

 

Meguiar's Body Scrub for solvent cleaning
Menzerna Final Polish II for swirl removing
P21S Carnauba Wax

 

+1. A good friend and fellow FChatter put me on to Griots and I am beginning to realize I love everything they have for the care of my car.

 

Waxes and sealants are really broken up into two catagories......shine and durability.

Carnuaba waxes will give you the depth due to oils in the nuba that tend to temporarily hide and cover up defects, but typically only last a few weeks, unless never driven.

Polymer waxes, otherwise known as sealants, typically do not quite give the same depth of appearance but will last up to 3-5 months depending on how much driven as well as properly prepped surface, (claybar, polishing, etc.) due to the polymers ability to bond to each other and harden forming a unique barier.

So consider this next time waxing, prep the surface right with claybaring and the shine will last longer with a good sealant, or don't worry about prep work and use a good nuba and get short lived shine. food for thought

Josh

 

+1 ...my garage looks like an advertisement for all the products in their catalog!!! (I used Chrome Polish, Speed Shine and Spray-On Wax just a few hours ago!)

 

Interesting thoughts. One issue I have always had with the polymer "waxes," has been their inability to properly moisturize the paint. Mind you, this information was read by me some 15 odd years ago, and so may not be at all correct at this point. If, in fact, I am correct that the polymers based "waxes" do not contain the proper additives to "feed" the paint, what products should be used first in order that the paint will not be dried as a consequence of their use? I ask, because I would like to utilize a longer lasting product on our daily-drivers, in particular, my wife's SLK.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

 

Hi Bill,

Paint does not need to eat . I have called several paint manufacturers including PPG and DuPont and both said that this is a marketing myth put forth by a couple wax companies (namely Zymol). From my limited research, it seems the myth started when cars used to be painted with lacquer or single stage enamel paint, because of the tendecy of the top coat (color) to oxidize. Applying wax or sealant over them would combat the oxidation, thus the "feeding" myth was born.

Nowadays most (close to every) vehicle uses a basecoat/clearcoat paint system. While the top layer does oxidize, because it is clear, it tends to be foggy and appear dull. Compared to an older vehicle, like a red car, which when oxidized would turn pink, because the color coat itself was oxidizing.

 

While I was just doing some reseach to back up my thoughts, Todd has just basically confirmed and said what I was thinking.

The older cars with single stage paint would tend to oxidized easily, so people would add waxes and glazes with oils in them to "moisturize" the surface and replenish and restore the depth and beauty in the color, but it's really no more then a metaforic term to describe the replenishing of the oxidized surface.

Clear coats came around in the mid to late 80's for most car manufacturers and although they can have failure and sometime fade or deteriorate they do not need to be "moisturized" but they do need to be protected, more like putting on sunblock on your skin as opposed to lotion.

Josh

 

This does make sense, and my information did come from the days of lacquer paint, though not from the problems associated with oxidation, but rather with those germane to the paint checking or crazing. It was my understanding that this was caused by the paint shrinking due to its having "dried out," and frankly, this explanation, though perhaps not true, does make sense. Further, as polyurethane is technically a plastic, and plastics do seem to dry out and crack, I would think there would need to be something to keep this from occurring. Are you thus saying that the protection offered by the polymer keeps the paint from degrading or drying out, and therefore is all that is needed? This approach also makes sense to me, as I have no degree in chemistry on which I can rely however, I defer to you for more information!

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

 

As Todd can attest, I like the finish that the Zaino products provide. I have not used the Deep finish products (Swax) yet, even though I bought them maybe 8 months ago. But for fun I like the blue Zymol liquid for the nice beachy smell it provides. The griots 'Leather Care' is great, Daniel from Ricambi turned me onto it a year ago. I have had pretty good success using plain old Turtle wax (both liquid and paste cleaner wax), although it can be dusty because I tend to use too much of it in a single coat.
For the Ferrari it has been Zaino for the past 2 years +. Order their kit that includes the clay bar and a few of their fine polishes (including the accelerator ZFX).

BT

 

I have used Zaino since 2000. I currently use it on 6 cars in my family (I am the "detail" guy in my family). IMO, Zaino does what it claims to do. The polish does not cover flaws well, although they don't claim that it does. I find that you really need to spend time with the claybar and paint cleaners/rubbing compounds, before you start using the polish products. The Zaino shine is impressive, however, it does such a nice job that it seems to have the affect of making paint flaws more apparent because the rest of the paint looks so much better. Zaino does have a high level of durability.

 

ditto, he is the best wax you will find

 

The downside of having all the good wash/polish/wax products is that everyone you know wants you to detail their cars for them. I've washed, clayed, polished, waxed, cleaned interiors, and detailed so many cars that weren't mine in the last few years that I'm about ready to hide all my Griot's products (which are now displayed proudly in my garage.)


The craziest detail I did this year: Applying Griot's Paint Sealant in the showroom of the BMW dealership in Bellevue, WA when my father took delivery of his new 335i Convertible.

Smallest car I detailed: '64 Lotus Elan (did it in one hour before a show.)

Largest/most time-consuming: 1968 Dodge Polara Convertible -- wash, clay, three stages of polish, wax on a freakingly huge vehicle. At least it's one of mine!

By the way, if anyone wants to know how a specific Griot's product works, I'll probably know. I think I now have about 40 Griot's products laying around!!!

 

I usually use Zymol but am thinking of switching to bikini wax.

 

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P21s by hand (as in hand, hand) or Meguiars M21.
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I've used Zymol & Griot's. I hate waxing period. Speed shine crap whatever. Never seen much difference from Meguires. Some clay bar thing was all that in Miata world for a while but never tried it out of fear. I'm more interested in leather protection & keeping Al wheels nice.