Trouble With Ultimate Liquid Wax

[Glaivenside]

Hi everyone-

The hood of my truck has been a source of some trouble for me when detailing. It seems like whatever I'm doing (washing, quik detailing, quik wax, etc) the hood just doesn't react well. There's plenty of small scratches, swirls, etc. but it's an every day driver. More needs to be done to the entire vehicle to achieve perfection, but I'm just a beginner and again it's an every day driver. The nice thing about meguiars for me is that even though it's a 13 year old car, no garage, and an every day driver..with regular attention and maintenance, it stays looking better than 90% of the other cars on the road! Or at least that's what I think

Anyway..I decided to do a few steps from the cycle the other day. I washed(gold class), clayed w/ quik detailer(megs..i forget exactly which clay), compounded(megs ultimate compound), skipped polishing with M#7 because I've yet to really master how to use that oily stuff, and all it does is piss me off, and finally wax(megs ultimate liquid wax). I'm doing this all by hand so I set aside plenty of time for compounding. Got it looking and feeling pretty good..very smooth to the touch, and a noticeable difference. So I broke out the ultimate liquid wax along with the black meguiars (foam/sponge?) applicator. Using small amounts of wax, I applied a thin coat to the entire hood using a circular pattern up/down and all the way across. I tried to stay as straight as possible with each pass, also trying to slightly overlap so as not to leave any gaps. But it's also kind of difficult to see at times so..

So I let it dry for a bit..possibly not long enough. There's a fellow on here that did a writeup on ultimate liquid wax, he has a great looking orange avalanche. He suggested waxing the whole truck/car panel by panel, and by the time you get back around to the panel you started with, start wiping the wax off. So that kind of makes things easy, but I was only doing my hood this time. I feel dumb typing this because everyone raves about how easy it is to wipe this wax off. But man..there wasn't anything easy about it for me. I could see that it darkened my paint, which I guess is what it's supposed to do. But it definitely wasn't uniform over my whole hood, and left what looked like streaks and lines while i was trying to wipe it off. And it really wasn't easy coming off..I ended up rubbing pretty darn hard and Iunno..maybe I even wiped the wax right off? lol..i really don't know. I was so pissed I just drove home afterwards.

But I'm really not sure where I went wrong. Drying time? Not letting it dry long enough? Too long? Is my coat too thin/thick? Is it possible that my paint is a bad fit for this wax, and I should use a different kind like gold class or nxt? It was all done on a nice day in the shade, the car was nice and cool. Should I have just done another thin coat over it then tried again?

Sorry for the big wall of text, just wanted to be as thorough as possible. Any help would be great, and thanks very much for reading!

-Mike

[Murr1525]

The liquid isnt necessarily as easy as others... or at least it is different.

People have had success either applying to a panel and removing right away, or applying to the whole car and then removing right away.

I applied to the whole car, then used a damp towel and a dry towel to remove, kind of like for RainX.

Since it is he next day, you may want to try QDing the hood.

You also could apply a second coat, and remove it with a damp towel, may help even things out.

I seem to recall that any streaking I got faded fairly soon.

Sometimes humidity messes with things, buy yeah, dont want to be rubbing hard.

[Glaivenside]

The liquid isnt necessarily as easy as others... or at least it is different.

People have had success either applying to a panel and removing right away, or applying to the whole car and then removing right away.

I applied to the whole car, then used a damp towel and a dry towel to remove, kind of like for RainX.

Since it is he next day, you may want to try QDing the hood.

You also could apply a second coat, and remove it with a damp towel, may help even things out.

I seem to recall that any streaking I got faded fairly soon.

Sometimes humidity messes with things, buy yeah, dont want to be rubbing hard.

Great tips. I used a dry meguiars microfiber towel. I had not considered dampening it. I'll give that a shot. Are you suggesting that maybe paste wax is easier to use/remove?

Yeah I actually did this on labor day..so the next day(yesterday) I QD'd the hood, and rest of the truck. It looks and feels fine I guess, I just felt like i had to have done some damage to my wax job with how hard I was rubbing it off. The hood looks...alright, but it looks like a proper wax job would yield better results. Maybe I'm just being finnicky. Think I will take your suggestion and apply a second coat and try removing with a damp towel.

I didn't mention it in my first post but in response to your comment on humidity. It's something I constantly think about, but not sure how I could really get around it. I live in Louisiana where it is ALWAYS very very humid. Many days you can just go outside and start sweating without even moving around or doing work. So..it's nice to wait on dryer days but those are few and far between.

Thank you for responding

[Murr1525]

Well, the liquid version is kind of 'new technology'... the paste is too, but it is closer to traditional, as far as applying/removing. So that may or may not make it easier for you.

If you arent happy with it, of course Meguiars will guarantee it and exchange it, so that may help, rather than having to buy two $20 waxes to try...

But be sure to apply very thin.

How did the clay turn out on the hood?

[Murr1525]

Also... you have to apply the wax thin... but it will work best if you can get the applicator coated a bit.

When you start off, 1 small drop on the pad is going to be part absorbed, part applied, and generally uneven. Once the pad gets loaded up (like doing more of the car), 1 small drop may do a whole door....

[Glaivenside]

Well, the liquid version is kind of 'new technology'... the paste is too, but it is closer to traditional, as far as applying/removing. So that may or may not make it easier for you.

If you arent happy with it, of course Meguiars will guarantee it and exchange it, so that may help, rather than having to buy two $20 waxes to try...

But be sure to apply very thin.

How did the clay turn out on the hood?

I'm not a guy who returns things often lol. But yeah I hear you. I'll probably use up this bottle before trying anything new. I don't want to give up on it too quick, it's obviously working great for many people. So maybe I can add myself to that list with some more trial and error.

I have an issue with applying too much product many times..just a bad habit. I felt like this last coat was pretty thin but maybe not. I'll try to make it as thin as possible.

The clay..I think it turned out well. I used a small amount since I was just doing the hood. Used UQD and just clayed it little by little up and down and over the entire hood. I stayed in one area, keeping the surface wet with UQD until the clay would finally pass over the surface without resistance(or as close to without resistance as possible). Then I'd knead the clay back into itself and continue on. The surface looked hazy with residue from the clay afterwards so I did a full pass with UQD and wiped it off with a microfiber before compounding.

Initially I thought clay was supposed to be some kind of miracle product. Like removing big scratches and swirls. But I guess that's not the idea. For me, it's mostly in the feel. It makes detailing easier afterwards, and the contaminants it removes are right there on the clay for me to see. I can really feel a difference afterwards even if i can't see much of one.

[Please Wash Me Detailing]

Try a different wax?
I carey 6 different waxes with me and sometimes one works better then others.
If it's not working, it's not working.
Trying to get one product to do what you want, to me, is a waste of time.

[Glaivenside]

Also... you have to apply the wax thin... but it will work best if you can get the applicator coated a bit.

When you start off, 1 small drop on the pad is going to be part absorbed, part applied, and generally uneven. Once the pad gets loaded up (like doing more of the car), 1 small drop may do a whole door....

Yeah I hear you on that. I'll keep that in mind. My natural instinct is to use alot I guess. Like for my hood I was doing one line...then I would apply another couple of small drops to the pad and do another line and so on. That was my idea of thin =/ So..sounds like I'm using way too much.

[Murr1525]

Yeah, clay wont do scratches or anything, just surface grit.

Is it a blue clay, or white one? Or red? Tend to want the regular QD, not UQD while claying as well.

As far as the wax, you may want a line around the pad to get it saturated... then just drops on the surface.

[Glaivenside]

Yeah, clay wont do scratches or anything, just surface grit.

Is it a blue clay, or white one? Or red? Tend to want the regular QD, not UQD while claying as well.

As far as the wax, you may want a line around the pad to get it saturated... then just drops on the surface.

White clay. Is that the right one to use? I admit I'm new to claying, and not familiar with the differences. Man I had that exact same thought. I was thinking about the 'coating' that UQD offers and thinking that I should go buy some regular QD for claying. But then I thought...Meguiars would never have me buy two different types of Quik Detailer, one for normal days, one for claying!! Not my dear sweet Meguiars.

Yeah I'll try the line around the pad