An Odd Ball Tyre Shine - Daiso Tyre Shine

This product really caught me surprise. I was loitering inside a Daiso outlet one weekend and suddenly saw this product on the top of a shelf. Picked one up and read the label to see what is this product actually all about. It is a tyre (tire) shine. It seems decently packaged and specified. Oh, by the way it is made in Korea. Having tested several car care products from Korea, I decided to give it a try. There is really nothing to lose here especially with the super affordable price.

From the label, it seems that this product is silicone based.

If you are interested to pick one up, you better be quick. As we all know, certain products from Daiso are like on-off products or a one-time deal. Once they are sold out, they will never be re-stocked. If we are lucky.

So, how does this super affordable product score? Time to test out on a just washed wheel.

The sprayed out liquid is watery and whitish. Once on the rubber, there is some shine to it. Not extremely shinny with that super oily look but just a nice sheen. Just the way I like it.

I am not sure about durability though but for the price, I do not think it would be bad.

That's it for this post.
Happy detailing.

My Take on Ultima Paint Guard Plus & Single Step Finish with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound.

New Formula Ultima Paint Guard Plus

This is a product I longed to try when I first heard of it. However it is next to impossible to get this product in Malaysia. Sure, I could find some on Amazon but all of the sellers do not ship here. I know I could use some of the proxy buying services here but I am not very comfortable with the service yet. So when my wife traveled to the US last year, this had to be my to buy list.

Lo and behold, this is the product. If I am not mistaken, this is supposed to be a newer formula and it is water-based. I think the old one could be oil-based. I am not really very sure because this is the only version I have.

Here is the back label.

The bottle that I have comes with a microfiber applicator pad. I think its a sponge wrapped with microfiber on the outside.

I have read many great reviews about this product but that was for the old formula. So, I am not sure how good this will be.

Meguiar's Ultimate Compound as a Single Step

After neglecting my DD for many moons, it was time to give it a full treatment. Done with washing and clay-barring (is that even a term?), I brought out my trusty old Clover DA and dug out some foam pads. Sadly, my Lake Country green foam pad had been busted. There were some water marks on the top surfaces on my DD but they are not really very bad. I was not planning to use the pink LC pad (heavy polishing). Luckily, I found myself some Flexipads foam pads that I bought and forgot.

Flexipads is a UK based company selling consumables for power tools from grinder pads to detailing pads (no sponsored content here). If I remember correctly I bought a few pads from their PRO-Detail line up test but ended up forgetting about them. I have their medium heavy cutting pad (orange), heavy polishing pad (green), and light polishing pad (white).

For this round of detailing I chose the green heavy polishing pad. I think this is similar to Lake Country's white foam that can be used for light compounding to polishing. Think of it this way, Flexipads' white is Lake Country's green and Flexipads' green is Lake Country's white.

Armed with my Clover DA and a new pad, I compounded the car with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound (UC) with just a single step. I did not go another round with the Ultimate Polish because the combo finished off pretty good. Since my car is silver in colour, it does not really need another fine polishing to make the shine looks deeper. There is totally no hazing and no noticeable fine swirls. The great thing about UC is that it has enough cutting power but can still finish off very fine with its "exclusive micro-abrasive technology". It could really be used as a one step product (speaking with my experience on light coloured cars).

Application of UPGP

After compounding, I went ahead to wipe down the entire car with diluted IPA (~25%). I have a bottle of IPA that is marked to be 99.7%. In approximation, I added 1 part IPA and 3 part water to achieve my 25% dilution ratio. The IPA wipe down is needed; in my opinion; because the new Ultima Paint Guard Plus is water-based and UC is oil-based. Oil and water do not mix. In order to ensure proper "bonding" of UPGP, I needed to remove any traces of oil.

The above picture shows my diluted IPA in a fancy barber's bottle.

Application of UPGP was really super easy. I followed the instruction of 2 sprays on the applicator per panel. Application was effortless but I was a little skeptical. It felt as though I was applying nothing on to the surface.

After completed the entire car including the side and rear glass panels, I had only use very little of the product.

I think the product was fill to the brim before using and after coating my entire car, I could see that only a very minute amount was used. Maybe this is one of the most economical product yet. Looking at price wise, it could be a little intimidating at US$40 for 12oz. However, when looking at the amount used, maybe it is not that pricey after all.

Results

Here are some results.

Overall, I am very impressed with the results. For something that is wipe on walk away, it is really very good. The surface feels super slick as with my other traditional sealants like Finish Kare Hi-Temp Paste Wax.

Being still a little skeptical after "feeling" the result, I applied another layer after 3 hours as a just-in-case measure.

The UPGP is certainly the easiest to apply among all my sealants. No buffing required. No waiting for the sealant to haze up. Super fast and super easy. I love it.

Wash Time

After about 3 weeks (yup longer than usual), I decided to wash the car. The GIF below shows the water "sheeting" behaviour during the first hose down (i.e. before shampoo). Dirt, dust, bird poo, and lizard poo seemed to wash out better in the initial hose down.

After washing, the behaviour remains.

Here is a shot of the water behaviour after the final rinse.

All in all, I am impressed.

That's it for this post.
Happy detailing.

Meguiar's Ultimate Paste Wax Eats Pad?

I was sorting out and cleaning up some of my junk and happened to stumble upon some old Meguiar's hand applicator pads. Remember the time when I did a sealants comparison? I used a different applicator pad for each product. After used, I washed them with dish detergent, dried, and kept them.

See what I found below. Okay, just ignore my wrong hand writing. It should be Meguiar's Ultimate Paste Wax.
The pad just crumbled when I held it.

The rear side that did not come into direct contact with the Ultimate Paste Wax seems to fare better.

The other pads that were kept in the same box are still in good condition.

The pad for Finish Kare has some discolouration but still feels good and soft.

The Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection applicator pad has the least discolouration and the pad for Fusso is still in good condition.

All the pads were brand new when they were used for the test to ensure an unbiased result. After the test, I chucked them away and forgot about them. Too much junk, haha.
I am not sure if this is pure coincidence or are the chemicals in Meguiar's Ultimate Paste Wax a little harsh to applicator pads.

If you have any experience regarding this, please share them.

That's it for this post.
Happy detailing.

The New Turle Wax Wheel Cleaner Review

After I did a comparison on various wheel cleaners a while back (see here), the Turtle Wax F21 wheel cleaner has been my go-to wheel cleaner for a long time. However it is almost impossible to find nowadays. I recently found a supposedly newer version of my favourite wheel cleaner.

It is just named as Turtle Wax Wheel & Tire Cleaner. There is a label on it that states "New! Power Foam". I was very excited to test this out to see if it lives up to the previous F21 performance.

This is the back label of the bottle. The new bottle has a shade of florescent green rather than a lighter green compared to F21. Super bright!

As usual, before I start I would normally check the pH of the cleaner as I did with all other cleaners.

Disappointingly, the pH shot up all the way the way to pH14. That is extremely basic (high alkalinity). F21 only has a pH9.

I guess they wanted to up the cleaning power but if I remember correctly the cleaning power of F21 was rather good. I would caution the use of this new wheel cleaner. Anything on the extreme sides on the pH scale is not very good. I would recommend testing on small inconspicuous area before going all the way.

This is how it looks after spraying on. I must say that it is very foamy and cleaning ability seems very good. I could see the brake dust lifting off from the wheel even before brushing.

I gave the wheel a good brush and sprayed it with clean water. Based on my observation, I had to run the water longer to get rid of all traces of "soapy water" as compared to F21. I guess that is one of the side effects of having extreme alkalinity. The wheel did look very clean afterwards. No picture here though.

So, let's sum this up. The performance of this new wheel cleaner is very good, maybe even better than F21. In terms of performance, it is indeed an improvement over F21. However, in my opinion the high alkalinity makes it more harmful - to health, environment, and maybe your car. Would I recommend this? Maybe no unless you are pretty sure you will take all precautionary measures.

That's it for this post.
Happy detailing.

Quick Review: Waxco Hi-Tech Water Wax

It has been a while since I last did a review for spray waxes. Most of the products I tested so far are from overseas - USA, UK & Japan. And boy, they are expensive stuffs due to the currency exchange. So, I thought that I could skimp a little and buy something more affordable to test.

Waxco is a local brand that has many products. They have a few products in the hardware DIY line that I use regularly but this is not our topic of discussion here. In recent years, they have released a few products for car care - from shampoo to polish. I never really thought of trying their product because they do not have any history or rich legacy in car care product. Then again, legacies are not built in one day. So, I decided to try one of their products for car care. Something wallet friendly and easy to test with almost immediate result. Their spray wax or what they call the Water Wax.

Well, it is packaged in a bright orange-red bottle. Very eye-catching but there is one thing that is a little unappealing in my opinion. All the labels on all the bottles on the shelf do not stick well and all seem to be peeling off on their own. See the top right corner of the label. This was the best I selected from the shelf. This gives a sense of a poor quality product. It shows the lack of attention to detail and it seems to me that Waxco simply slap on a cheap label just to sell their product.

Another thing that some companies tend to make mistake is that they try too hard to sell their product. Overselling. Look at the label!

- power glass coat?

- always sparkling shine body?

- nano tech?

- new innovation technology?

Frankly, this kind of over-selling seems bogus. Reminds me of snake oil products.

Okay, maybe I was a little too harsh there. Maybe they intend to keep the packaging cost low to keep the overall cost low. Let's hope the ingredient inside is good. 

Well, the back label shows the instructions. Nothing too bombastic here. And yup self-peeling label and a QC passed sticker.

After giving my wife's daily drive a good wash and thorough drying, it was time for the show to begin.

Squirt! A purplish or pinkish liquid came out. The liquid has some viscousness and is not very watery. The viscousness did give me some sense of confidence that this product would be good.

After spraying and wiping off the entire car, the surface did not feel slick when I ran my fingers on it. Comparing to other products like Autoglym Professional Express Wax or Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Wax (see Spray Wax), they always feel slick. Not a good sign. And yeah, the whole body did not sparkle (tongue and cheek).

Well, after spray waxing the car it rained the next day. In fact, in rained for the entire day. Checking the water droplets on the car surface, there was no beading and there was no apparent improvement in water sheeting (Sorry no picture here. I guess you'd just have to take my word for it). It seems to me that there was nothing added on to the surface.

What a disappointment. The viscous liquid really did give me some confidence that this product would work; at least to a certain degree; but sadly nothing. Well, purely looking at the price of this product, I could not say much about it as it is about half the price of Turtle Wax Express Shine. For that, I would say save on something else (eat a meal less :D) and buy a decent reputable spray wax. The money saved is not worth the effort wasted.

That's it for this post.
As usual, the above are only my personal opinions from my personal experience.
Happy detailing.

Alternative Wheel Cleaners - Optimum Power Clean & Simple Green

I had tested various wheel cleaners pH levels. See here and here. Sadly, my quest to get gallon packs of Chemical Guys Diablo Gel Wheel & Rim Cleaner has not been successful. Firstly, it is almost impossible to get it locally and secondly, importing from Amazon is way too costly. Also, it seems hard for me to find Turtlewax F21 Wheel Cleaner Tesco nowadays. This was the most cost effective, acceptable performance wheel cleaner that is not too harsh that I reviewed. So with the above options getting hard to reach. I had to revert back to my old favorite non specific wheel cleaners.

Optimum Power Clean

I used to buy the small bottle that comes with the sprayer. I decided to get a gallon of it recently. Optimum products are easily available in Malaysia through their authorized distributor Detalien. They even have a dealer in Penang. And if you are not familiar with the brand, you are missing a lot. Check out their site at Optimum Polymer Technologies. I have quite a few of their products (ONR, ONRW, Opti-Clean, Opti-Bond, OPC) and boy they are great.
Disclaimer: I am not advertising for Optimum. I do not receive any incentive from Optimum.

Here, if you were to get the small bottle that comes with the sprayer head, you could only get the repacked version by Detailien known as Alien Clean. There might be some slight variation on the bottles on different batches but they come in 500ml.

If you go for the gallon pack, it would most likely be in its original packing. See below.

For general wheel cleaning, I follow a 10:1 (10 part water, 1 part product) dilution rather than the recommended 3:1 and it does a pretty good job cleaner the wheels and tires. I would say they cleaning ability is better than Chemical Guys Diablo Gel Wheel & Rim Cleaner. For heavier soiling, a higher strength could be use but care should be taken not to get them on the brake calipers (especially untreated brake calipers on Japanese cars). It would tends to "dull" the calipers. It is also important to rinse off before it dries.

Though not as bad as this, it might hurt the brake calipers. Treated (painted/ coated) calipers should be safe.

OPC is not pH neutral. At 10:1, it has a pH of about 9. This is actually on par with some other OTS wheel cleaners that I tested previously. See here.

The beauty of OPC is that it is an all-purpose cleaner. Besides using it to clean wheels, it can be used on any surface with a very mild dilution. It can be use for interior surfaces too. See my interior care post here. Buy one gallon and you can use it for anything, even household items. And the dilution ratio could be adjusted too. Great, right?

Hold on, I have something even better.

Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner

There are two versions of Simple Green APC, concentrated and ready to use (RTU). This can be easily found in Ace Hardware or Lazada.

What I got here is their old packing (maybe?). From their website, I could not find this kind of packing anymore.

Simple Green has a long history in industrial and household cleaning solutions. Their all purpose cleaner is marketed as being environmental friendly, non-toxic, and biodegradable. They openly post their products safety data sheets on their website. Not many manufacturer would do that. If you are interested you could read the safety data sheet for Simple Green APC.

Simple Green APC is by far the one of the most economical when it comes to dilution ratio. 1:10 (1 part product, 10 part water) for heavy cleaning and 1:30 for light cleaning. I personally use 1:30 for all my household cleaning from kitchen to glass to literary any hard surface on my furnitures.

I never used it for wheel cleaning before but I experimented and am really satisfy with the results. Cleaning ability very good for 1:10 dilution. It is also better than Chemical Guys Diablo Gel Wheel & Rim Cleaner. The same precautions of using OPC (or any other strong cleaner or degreaser) apply. Test on small surface first, rinse off before dry, avoid full strength on untested surfaces, yada, yada.

Though this stuff is not pH neutral. From what I tested, it is around pH9 with a 1:10 dilution. This is less harsher than OPC.

So there you have it, my non-specific wheel cleaners.
As with any strong cleaning solution, care should be taken to protect yourself. Wear gloves. Do not inhale. You know the deal. Test on small inconspicuous area first. Use at you own risk. If you feel unsafe, just stick to specific wheel cleaners. I do not endorsed or get paid for any of these products. These are just my personal opinion.

That's it.
Happy detailing.

Quick Review of Soft99 Kiwami Extra Gloss Shampoo

Ever since I tried the Soft99 Fusso 12 Month Wax (see here), I am very impressed with its water beading capability. Though high water beading does not always mean better protection as discussed here but it surely gives the "wow" effect. So, when I saw a discounted Soft99 Kiwami Extra Gloss Shampoo on sale, I just couldn't resist to test it out.

There are several variants of this shampoo but I am really not sure about the differences. Since my main car is silver, I went for the silver shampoo. The other 2 variants are white and black. See Soft99 website for details.

Well, the bottle that I bought came bundled with a wash sponge. Yup, the dreaded wash sponge. I am not going to go into the debate of wash sponge here but it is something that I never use.

So I left the sponge unopened.

Well, when I was trying to read the back of the bottle for instructions, I realized that I can't read Japanese :D

Yup, everything is in Japanese.

So I had to go to Soft99 website and read the English version. I am quoting the instruction word for word below.

"1. Rinse off dirt or dust in car wash.
2. Put shampoo directly with soaked sponge, make the bubble well. If the bubble get weaken or difficultly remove dirt area, put the liquid more.
3. Rinse off with water until the bubble is disappeared.
4. Wipe off water with towel or absorbant cloth.
* In case of unevenness occured, wipe off with wrung towel or dry towel."

Apart from the Japan-glish, all seems good.

Wait! What?!

Pour directly on the sponge? Err... ???

So it seems to be like applying body shampoo when I am taking my shower?

Okay, this really freaks me out a little. I ended up not following the instructions because of 2 reasons. First, I don't use wash sponge. I don't like the idea of using a sponge. Second, if I were to pour the shampoo on the sponge for each panel, I am afraid I might finish up the entire bottle in single wash like what I did with the Fireball Premium Easy Coat. So, I improvised. I pour out the shampoo and used a 2 bucket wash method. As for the dilution, I just followed Meguiar's Gold Class Car Wash.

Doing so resulted in a car wash that has zero suds. Think of it like Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner (if you are familiar), divide it by 100 for suds.

This is how the car looks like after wiping it with the wash mitt filled with the car wash.

Although there is no suds, the wash mitt did feel "lubricated" when gliding over the surface. The lack of suds does not make it less effective as a car shampoo. In fact, the cleaning ability seems good. This is the condition of the second bucket after washing.

Well, putting the steps and instructions all aside, the end result is pretty amazing for a shampoo that I did not use according to the manufacturer recommendation.

After hosing down the car, I noticed that there is a high amount of water beading all over the car. I have not gave my car a full wax since months ago. All I did was regular wash and spray wax. And because I was a little busy recently, the last time I wash was about a month ago. So I don't think the beading is due to the previous spray wax. This Kiwami shampoo really made the water bead. Great job Soft99.

Anyway, after wiping the car dry, I followed with my regular spray wax routine as I do not feel that the surface is slick and I just wanted some protection as high beading might cause water mark. This is evident in the Soft99 Fusso 12 Month Wax comparison test.

Alright for the conclusion. Would I recommended this? Yes and no. Yes, if you are okay with wash sponge and zero suds and looking into high beading. No for the opposite :P

So, that's all for this post. As always, the above is just my opinion.
Happy detailing.