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.