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.

Steam Cleaning Leather Seats

From my earlier post about interior care, I shared how I usually clean leather seats. There is another way of cleaning leather seat. That is using steam. If the leather in your car is extremely delicate like in older cars, this could be a less aggressive method as no chemical or detergent is needed to clean the leather.

Steam is actually the gaseous state of water or H2O. Ice is solid and water is liquid. In simple terms, steam is very hot water. As we all know hot water has lower surface tension that allows it "mix" with oil and grease. When mixed it is able to "carry" them away when washing. This might not be a very good scientific explanation but I hope I could get the point across. It is just like washing greasy dishes with hot water eases the washing. In fact, adding soap to water also lowers the surface tension. However newer detergents have other chemicals that help the cleaning process even better. Of course some harsh detergents could damage the surface that we are cleaning. If you feel that chemical based cleaners could harm your leather you could try steaming them.

To start off, we would need something that could give us steam. No, boiling kettle won't do.
If you happened to have a multipurpose home steam cleaner, it would be the best tool.

Yes something like the one shown above. However, if you feel that this a little too bulky, you could use a compact steam cleaner like the picture below.

If you do not have any of these, then a garment steamer could also work.

If you have none, then go get yourself any of these ;-)

Each of these has their pros and cons. The multipurpose steam cleaner, although bulky could generate dryer steam. When these steam cleaners generate steam, the steam that shoots out is not 100% steam (4 steam word in a sentence). There are some water droplets within them. Dryer steam has less water droplets compared to wet steam. So, steamed surface will not be "that" wet and will dry faster. I hope that make sense. Garment steamer is likely less powerful and might take a longer time to get the job done compared to those actual steam cleaners. On a steam cleaner, there is a pump that "shoots" the steam out but on a garment steamer, steam is released naturally.

Done with the tools. Let's get to work.

STOP! The leather seats should be thoroughly vacuumed before steam cleaning. Yes, see my earlier post.

Since I am cleaning leather, wet steam should be fine. So, I went with the compact steam cleaner. If I were to clean fabric upholstery, dry steam should be more proper to prevent over-wetting.

With the steam cleaner turned on and with the proper cleaner "head" attached, move the head in a straight line to clean a small section. Then quickly use a microfiber towel to wipe off the wet surface, lifting away dirt and grime that are "floated out" by the steam. Try not to let the surface dry before wiping off. The idea is to lift away dirt that is suspended on the hot wet surface. Do the same, section by section on the entire seat.

The microfiber towel should pick up all the dirt.

The picture below shows half a seat that has been cleaned.

See the difference. The body oil, sweat, grease has been lifted off.

Continue with the back rest and the entire seat and then on all other seats.

A cleaned leather should look matt and feel soft.

Once all the surfaces are cleaned and dry, protect them with leather care products. See my earlier post on complete interior care here.

Look at how dirty the cleaner head is after finishing all the seats. The microfiber attachment is supposed to be white.

Steam could be use to clean all interior surfaces. Just avoid areas with buttons and electronics components. Steam can also be used to clean engine bay but that is for another post.

That's all for this post.
Happy detailing.

Removing Minor Scratches and Improving Scuff Marks

First of all I apologize for the long hiatus. It has been raining almost every weekend for the past one and the half month. There are a few things that I wanted to work on but were hampered by the poor weather. Let us hope for more sunny skies ahead.

So, back to the topic. It was about 3 weekends back and I was driving on a rainy night. Out of a sudden, my car hit something and got it lodged underneath. It appeared to be some left-over debris from an earlier road accident, I guess. It looked like a corner piece from a broken bumper with some metal brackets. That debris not only broke my license plate and damaged my front bumper but it was lodged under the front of my car. It was dark and raining and I could not see clearly. Trying to dislodge it caused scratch wounds on my hands as the debris is made from fiberglass. Luckily, a good samaritan helped me to dislodge it. I am very thankful to him. I was lucky enough as there seems to be no serious damaged on the undercarriage.

After a quick wash, the damage did not look too severe.

There were some minor scratches and some deep dents. And obviously, the debris was blue in color. I did not noticed a spider making a cameo until I post this entry. Hello there!

Frankly, the damage is not obvious but unable to wash the blue paint away triggered me to put some effort into it.

One has to be realistic here. The deep dents would not go away, unless I use some putty and areas where the paint has stripped off could not be "polished" away, unless I use some touch up paint. I do not intend to do that. I just wanted it to look less obvious. So, I decided to grab my bottle of Meguiar's Scratch X 2.0.

According to Meguiar's, the product is recommended for isolated scratches and blemishes. And it could be worked in by hand. According to Mike Phillips from Autogeek, Scratch X sits below Ultimate Compound in terms of abrasive level. Read more in Meguiar's Online.

One might ask, why not use Ultimate Compound? Well my approach is always to start from the least aggressive method. So, with an applicator pad and some generous amount of the product, I worked it in.

After some muscle power, this is how it looks.

Not bad at all. Well, as I mentioned earlier, one should have realistic expectation. I do not expect the dents to go away. In fact, I am very impressed on how it turned out. And since this is at the lower lip on the front bumper, it would not look obvious. After using Scratch X, one should seal back the area with either a wax or sealant for protecttion.

That is it for this post. Comments are welcome.

Cleaning in Between

I made a few posts about exterior care and also a long post on interior care. I sort of missed out the "in between" surfaces. Yes, they would be door edges and door jambs. These areas would get pretty nasty and they tend to be neglected. So in this post, I would share on how I clean this "twilight zone". Cue music.

Clean

Ideally, cleaning and protecting this area are to be done after every wash rather than a standalone job. There are two ways to clean this area. Rinseless or waterless.

The first method of cleaning this area is to use Optimum No Rinse Wash (ONR or ONRW but I prefer the latter for added protection).

Dilute the cleaner accordingly in a bucket and use a microfiber towel. Much like wiping our furniture, the idea is to get the microfiber towel damped but not dripping wet. Rinse the towel when it picked up too much dirt. Always wipe from top to bottom.

Start by cleaning the door jambs and move on to the door panels side and lower edges.

Be sure to clean in between the rubber seals. Pinch the seals in between the towel and wipe. Those are some pretty dirty areas that could get neglected.

Another simpler cleaning method is to use a waterless wash (see more details here).

"Prime" the towel with the waterless wash product until it is damped. Wipe in similar fashion as above. Rinse or change to another microfiber towel when it is soiled.

These two methods can also be used to clean car boot jambs and fuel cap cover areas. In fact, they can be used to clean all interface areas and weather seals.

Protect

Once cleaned and dried, I would follow with some dressings on the rubber seals. You can read more about dressings under the interior care post here. The idea is to protect the rubber seals from premature drying, cracking, and shrinking. These failures would lead to less sound-proofing and in worst case water leakage.

I would apply some dressings on a microfiber towel and use the towel to wipe on the seals.

Similar to cleaning, dressings could be applied to all rubber seals and plastic surfaces.

This sums it all for the "twilight zone". It is not too hard to get this done after every wash.

Happy detailing.

Short Review of Autoglym Super Resin Polish Extra Gloss Protection, 5-month Durability

This is going to be just a short informal review.

Back in April this year, I gave my daily drive a full treatment - wash, clay, polish, and seal. All this was done completely using a full range of Autoglym products.

I washed the car using Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo conditioner. For its review, please read here. I used the full wash method described here.

Once done washing and claying, I used my trusty old Bosch GEX 125-1AE with a green Lake Country CCS foam to polish the surface. This was done using Autoglym Super Resin Polish. This is an all-one-product. It has mild abrasives for mild correction power and fillers to fill in minor scratches, and some very mild protection.

Correction vs Hiding Defects

This heading might irk some OCD enthusiast. If you are one of them, please skip this section.

There are two main ways to keep a car looking great. The first is to go all out and remove all or almost all of the defects by cutting down the clear coat (as much as going with wet sanding) to remove all (or almost all) of the defects. Most might argue that this is the "correct" way. I agree but to a certain extent. If the paint condition is new and there is some heavy defects, then this is the correct way. 

However, a clear coat on a car surface is only a few microns thick. So that leads to this question: How many times can we compound a car before the clear coat is gone? Well, we could use a paint thickness gage (gauge EN-GB) but would cost a few hundred Ringgit but I have one anyway :-p. My approach again is, if in doubt use the least aggressive methods.

Say for example a car has been compounded a few times before or you would prefer to "save some thickness" for future correction, you could use a milder approach that would remove minor defects and fill up heavier defects. This is where mild polish with fillers comes in handy.

 Autoglym Super Resin Polish (SRP)

This is an all-in-one product that has:

- good cleaning ability

- mild correction ability

- good fillers

- mild protection

The application method is the same for a normal car polish. See here for details. It is a little dusty compared to other polishes like Meguiar's Ultimate Polish.

I mostly use either this or Dodo Juice Lime Prime (LP) as a pre-wax cleanser. A pre-wax cleanser is used to clean car surfaces before waxing for better bonding. Think of it as a very light polish. So when to use a pre-wax cleanser? Let say my previous wax (or sealant) application was 3-4 months ago and the protection seems to be wearing off and the condition of the surface is still good with no heavy defects, then I would use a pre-wax cleanser to remove the old wax (sealant), dirt, minor defects before rewaxing (resealing) the car again.

Comparing Autoglym SRP and Dodo Juice LP, the former comes with fillers and some very mild protection whereas LP is a pure cleanser. Both are good products but for hiding defects before resealing I would go for SRP. As I always mention, there is no right or wrong here. It is just a matter of personal preferences.

Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection (EGP)

This product is a sealant (or synthetic wax). See here for comparison. This product has been in the market for quite a long time but it still works well in comparison to newer products. EGP comes in a liquid form. Give it a good shake before applying. As usual, I always apply sealant by hand using an applicator pad. Once applied to the entire car, let it sit for at least half and hour before buffing off. 

Once done, enjoy a durability of 3-4 months (or more) with regular maintenance.

Look at the water behavior after a recent downpour (the pictures were taken in early September with the car washed a week ago). That is a 5-month durability in a hot and humid climate and it is still working. Yes, this can be achieved with regular maintenance and by regular maintenance, I mean wash and add additional protection using spray wax after every wash.

Have you found a durable sealant that you like? If yes, enjoy.
Happy detailing :-)

Hands-on Review on Clover 15mm Throw Dual Action Polisher

This is a review of my 15mm dual action polisher. You can read about the unboxing and initial impressions here.

After much procrastination, I decided to re-seal my daily drive. I used the new DA with the included green pad. It is a medium cutting pad which is ideal for an all in one polish. Before starting, I was dilly-dallying to use either Autoglym Super Resin Polish (SRP) or Dodo Juice Lime Prime. Then, while doing a walk-around, I noticed some very minor scratches on the sides of the car, maybe due to some brushing from twigs. This is what we usually get, parking by the roadsides. To remove and fill those scratches, I went on with SRP that has some fillers in it.

Straight on, the DA works as it should have with well-controlled vibration. My hands did not feel as numb as with Bosch GEX. Cutting power with the supplied green pad was good. See the condition of the pad after polishing the roof top. This is after washing and claying.

One thing to note is that this DA is quite loud. It is louder than my old Bosch GEX. I had to use my wireless headphone with active noise cancellation to seal off and cancel off the noise. See that headphone hanging on the top of the chair? That headphone sealed off about 70% of the noise. Do take this with a pinch of salt though as I am not an audio expert. This was merely based on feelings. Luckily my neighbors were not in. Although it is loud, I am guessing it would be the same with other DA's. I read on the Internet that DA's tends to be loud :-p

Another point to take with this DA is that it tends to get quite hot especially near the top. It could get a little uncomfortable. I should have used the provided handle. I was working with this for about an hour or so (on and off in between wiping panel by panel) and the temperature sort of maintained at the same level as when it first ran in the first 15 minutes. So, not a deal breaker.

And as with larger throw DA's in general, getting into tight spot is a little difficult compared to smaller throw DA. Here, at the rear bumper, I could only get this to polish near the outer edge. Any closer, the side of the pad would hit the panel. With my old GEX I could get much closer. I had to use hand polish for this area. Luckily I went for the 15mm throw, a 21mm throw would not even go in, I think.

All in all, this DA works great and is really worth buying. The pads stayed very well throughout the whole polishing. The Velcro is very strong. Comparing this to my old GEX, I could get more work done in shorter time.

Coming back to my daily drive, I sealed it with Finish Kare Hi-Temp Paste Wax (1000P).

And now for some shinning gallery.

More posts coming up.
Happy detailing.

Quick Review: Autoglym Professional Express Wax

This a quick review of Autoglym Professional Express Wax. This is a bulk packing (or professional) version of Autoglym Aqua Wax. 5 liters. Please visit my previous post on spray wax for other spray waxes reviews. I got this for about RM350 from eBay including delivery from the UK. This is a lot more economical than buying the standard packing version that costs around RM170 for 500ml that is sold locally. Check Lelong.com or Lazada to see for yourself. Crazy, right? The standard packing includes two microfiber towels but it is still way too expensive.

Results

I followed the instructions of spraying the wax on while the car is still wet (with excess water wiped off first). This wax does not behave like other spray waxes that I have used before. It feels grabby when wiped on. I think it is actually a good idea to spray it on a wet surface because of the "grabbiness". This is not a normal wipe on, wipe off product. After drying the car with this product, I could see smearing or streak mark appearing. I was like uh-oh...

Following the instructions, I then used another dry towel to buff the wax off. Buffing this wax off feels like buffing off a traditional wax. The towel felt grabby. After buffing the wax off, I was like wow! This wax seems to make the car shine more than other spray waxes I have used. The gloss is deep and the shine is excellent. The surface feels ultra slick, almost as slick as a traditional wax. I guess this is the reward for the extra buffing.

I then left the car outside after dressing the tires, sun-baking the car. The gloss became more pronounce after "curing". However, it started to rain after about 4 hours of application. I drove the car into the car porch and was amazed by the beading. Looking at the previous post here, the sealant on this car has become quite weak but this Express Wax managed not only to enhance the gloss but to create a good hydrophobic barrier. I am impressed.

As for durability, I do not know yet as this is my first time using this Express Wax but anything that can last a week or two is good by my standard.

Will I use this after every wash? No, because it takes some effort to buff off. I would continue to use other spray waxes after every wash and maybe use this once a month.

That's it. Happy detailing.

P/S: I was only planning to post this today but due to a great revelation, I ended up posting this and another post on the same day.