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.

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.

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.

A Quick Review of Glaco Glass Refresh and Glaco Roll-on Coating

I have been wanting to do this write up for a very long time but things would not always go as planned. So this is my quick review and opinion on Glaco Glass Refresh and Glaco Roll-on Coating.

Glass Refresh is a glass polish that is claimed to be able to remove not only dirt but watermarks. It came packaged with an applicator. The content inside the bottle is a white milky liquid.

So after giving the car a wash, I did snapped some before pictures of the windscreen.

As can be seen, there are some heavy watermarks.

I used to applicator to apply the milky liquid evenly with some force. I did left to right then top to bottom to make sure I covered the windshield evenly.

After a while, the liquid dried up to a powdery like form. Once fully done, I rinsed off the whitish stuff and immediately I noticed a difference in the water behaviour. The way the water flows off the windshield showed that there is totally nothing on the glass - no hydrophobic effect at all. The water just fully "wetted" the windshield.

Now this is a very clean glass. But this will not be ideal for driving. Visibility will be poor when raining.

This is where the coating comes in. After drying the windshield, I forgot to do the most important step - to take an after picture! Yes, sorry folks, there is no after picture. But trust me, most of the heavy watermarks are removed. I believe applying a second round would remove those stubborn ones.

So, after drying, I applied the roll-on coating. It is stated that the surface has to be very dry when applying. After applying, I let it fully cure (dry). It became hazy when dried up. Then, I buffed off with a dry microfiber towel. As per instruction in their website, I let it cure for more than 12 hours. So no more after behavior picture too :(.

After drying, I did not forcefully test it with water but when it rains, the water for forms droplets like any treated glass. Much like RainX. However, the coating will cause the wipers to be a little juddery but not like disco style. Still barely acceptable.

So there you have it guys. A short review.
Thanks for ready and happy detailing.

Quick Review: Meguiar's Headlight Protectant

I got this protectant quite a while ago. It was on sale and my itchy hand "clicked" it. It was in a sealed condition on my shelf for a very long time until I decided to try it after polishing my wife's daily drive recently.

To keep things short, I was not impressed.

First off, when I open the bottle I was greeted by a familiar scent, then a familiar look, then a familiar feel. This things smells, looks, and feels like another product from Meguiar's - Ultimate Protectant.

From my experience, everything feels exactly the same. Ultimate Protectant is marketed as a product for both interior and exterior. Both of them have UV blockers.

Ingredients

To satisfy my curiosity, I searched for Safety Data Sheets (SDS) of these 2 products to compare the key ingredients. They can be found here:

Headlight Protectant
Ultimate Protectant

The key ingredients for Headlight Protectant are as follow (% by weight):
NON-HAZARDOUS INGREDIENTS: 60 - 80
POLY(DIMETHYLSILOXANE): 10 - 30
PETROLEUM DISTILLATES: 5 - 10
ACRYLIC POLYMER: 1 - 5
PROCESSED CASTOR OIL: 1 - 5
BIS(1,2,2,6,6-PENTAMETHYL-4-PIPERIDINYL) SEBACATE: 0.1 - 1.0
POLYMERIC BENZOTRIAZOLE DERIVATIVE: 0.1 - 1.0
POLYMERIC BENZOTRIAZOLE: 0.1 - 1.0

The key ingredients for Ultimate Protectant are as follow (% by weight)
NON-HAZARDOUS INGREDIENTS: 60 - 80
POLY(DIMETHYLSILOXANE): 10 - 30
PETROLEUM DISTILLATE: 5 - 10
ACRYLIC POLYMER: 1 - 5
PROCESSED CASTOR OIL: 1 - 5
CONDITIONERS: <5

Although they are not exactly the same, they are very similar. Well, it is not compulsory to declare non-hazardous ingredients in SDS. I could not find out what they are as they are trade secret (in whisper). I have a strong feeling that the non-hazardous ingredients are very similar in both products.

I am not saying if this is right or wrong. I am saying that this is how marketing works!

Performance

Well since there is no yellowing in my wife's daily drive headlight, this would be more of a protection and prevention.

I followed the instructions and applied. I used a typical yellow round applicator pad.

It goes on oily. Then I wiped off with a towel as per instructed. After that, the surface felt "dressed" and oily.

And the best (worst) thing is that it washed off after a single wash.

Conclusion

If you just polished your yellowed headlight and looking for something to protect it, go for a proper clear coat instead of this. This is a short term solution and you might have to reapply it after every single wash or worse still after raining.

If you are looking for something to prevent your headlight from yellowing, skip it too. A proper sealant would do a better job. If you are a fan of spray wax (like me), who use spray wax after every wash, spray wax would be much better than this headlight protectant. It is more convenient too. Spray waxing the whole car is fun :p.

Happy detailing.

Disclaimer: 

Headlight Protectant does not add more shine to your headlight.

All the above are just my personal opinion.

Fireball Premium Easy Coat Review - Laziness with a great cost

I was eager to try this out after reading many praises on various forums. Before I got this, I thought that it could be something similar to CarPro Reload but when I finally got it, I found out that the application method is very different. In fact it is way too easy. This is a plus point for lazy people (oops, busy people). I am a big fan of spray wax. This is literary high-speed spray wax.

Product Detail 

Let's see what the manufacturer claimed. 

"Fireball's Premium Easy Coat has to be the easiest way to apply a Superhydrophobic coating to ANY surface.

Simply spray unto a wet surface, leave up to 30 seconds (no longer!) and blast off with water - it's that easy.

Premium Easy Coat has been designed to be used whether your car has a pre-existing coating or none at all. 

Premium Easy Coat can be used on all surfaces and not just paint, plastic trim and even your home windows

High quality nano technology coating comparable to similar higher priced Gyeon coatings.

Supplied with spray trigger for 500ml."

So, nothing was mentioned about the active ingredients but from the application method it seems to be some kind of SiO2 coating that might be similar to Permanon. I could be wrong.

This so-called coating came in a 500ml bottle with a spray trigger provided separately. This is good packaging method for mail order which I did as there would be less chance of spillage during delivery. It cost me about RM70 including postage.

The content is a yellow liquid that has a pleasant scent. No harsh chemical smell.

One thing I that make me felt uneasy is the lack of security seal. Maybe Fireball could improve on that.

Product in Action

Applying the product is very easy. Wash the car, rinse, and apply on when wet.

Due to the warning of "no longer than 30 seconds", I sprayed the coating section by section and rinsed off from top to bottom.

Once "blasted" off, I could see water "running off" easily from the surface.

Beading looks nice too though not as tight as normal wax or sealant.

Looks good.

Great Laziness Comes at Great Cost!

High Consumption

So, my first attempt in using this Easy Coat costed me 2/3 of a brand new bottle to cover the entire car.

Unlike normal spray wax where 2-3 sprays per panel would suffice as it would be spread by a towel, I had to do multiple sprays per panel to ensure even coverage. And since it was so easy to spray, I might have overdid it. I am not sure if it would work if I use a towel to "spread" it after spraying.

Disco Windscreen Wipers

Avoid spraying this on the front windscreen. This caused my wipers to judder like it is a disco party every time I turn them on. I am using PIAA Aero Vogue silicone wiper. Yup those so called high end ones :-p that should not judder. I had to polish to windscreen to stop the juddering.

The Dark Side

There is another major issue about this product that I could not really confirm it. After a week of washing, I noticed that there are dark stains on the top-facing surfaces and "bleeding marks" on the side surfaces. There is one day of heavy rain during that week and I was caught in it while on the road.

See below for the "bleeding marks". The marks are more obvious through the naked eyes than through the camera.

I tried washing the car with my favorite waterless wash but the stains just would not wash off. I had to use a conventional wash to remove those stains. Luckily no polishing was needed. Phew! I am not sure if this is an isolated case but I do not see this issue when using normal spray wax.

Also, I have seen some discussions about how coated cars tend to get worse watermarks compared to non-coated cars. If you are interested, see this well-written post on Wetshine here. It is a pity the author stopped writing before posting the results but if you scroll through the comments, the author replied that:

"So far the updates for coating test is all still cannot resist the effects of waterspotting". 

"Short update. More watermarks on coating than collinite wax. Will most likely conclude that coatings are not suitable for malaysian weather. It is not because they do not last but the fact that it is more prone to waaterspot etchings defeats their selling point of being ‘best paint protection system in the market today’."

Anyhow this is inconclusive. I am not sure if I would be doing any more test on this product but if I do, I will update this post.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

- easy to apply

- great water sheeting

Cons:

- not that cost effective

- causes wipers to judder if applied on windscreen

- tends to cause dark stains and "bleeding" marks (inconclusive)

As always, the above is just my opinion based on my personal experience. Results might vary under different weather conditions. There is no absolute right or absolute wrong in car care.

That's it for this post.

Happy detailing.