The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

[3Fitty]

Well, I'm going to start this thread by thanking three MOL members who supplied me the 8 of the 9 test waxes, and two who sent me a whole lot more as a courtesy.

BlueZero (Scott) - Sent me Poorboy's World Natty's Blue, Surf City Garage's Barrier Reef & Nano Seal (along with other goodies). Thanks man, you're a real class act!

Porscheguy997 (Chris) - Dasher Detailing. HOOKED ME UP with about 8 different waxes but for the purposes of this test, I selected 3. Collinite 845, Victoria Wax Concours Red & Chemical Guys Pete's 53. Solid dude and great detailer.

lecchilo (Ivan) Pro Detailer from Chicago - Sent me Klasse Sealant Glaze and Poorboy's World EX-P. Amazing dude and another great pro. I urger anyone in need of detailer to check out any of these guys who are not only solid guys but certainly friends (although I've never met any of them).

Okay, so on to step one. The price of each wax. I did a quick search online and tried to find the various waxes as the best price but some (like Victoria Wax was hard to find. Here is what I came up with. If you find a better price, I'll defer, but this is what I found:

Victoria Wax Concours Red 12oz: $72.50
fficeffice" />
Pete's 53'- Black Pearl Signature Paste Wax 8oz: $37.00

Poorboy’s World Natty’s Blue 8oz: $19.99

ffice:smarttags" />Surf City Nano Seal 16oz: $27.99

Surf City Barrier Reef 16oz: $19.99

Klasse Sealant Glaze 16.9oz: $19.99

Poorboy’s World EX-P 16oz: $17.99

Collinite Liquid Insulator Wax 845 16oz: $14.99

Meguiar’s NXT 2.0 Tech Wax 18oz: $14.95

Obviously VWC is the most expensive wax and NXT the least. I realized as I was about to start, the hood on wifey's 2007 Silver Honda CR-V was kind of small, but I did the best I could.

Pictures will either come later tonight, or tomorrow as it is already late and I'm pooped.

The car was pretty dirty to start with and has NOT been waxed in about 6-8 weeks, with my last job having used NXT 2.0. I have NOT washed the car in at least three weeks as I hurt my back and have been in pretty bad shape as of late. In fairness to all the products I decided to do the following:

1. Rinse hood to remove and large gunk. Wash with NXT wash and lambs wool mitt. Rinse.

2. Dry with water magnet.

3. Clay with clay magic clay bar (blue) and Meg's QD.

4. Go over entire hood with G110 and M80 at speed setting 5.

5. Re-wash to ensure no residue left on hood. Rinse and dry with Autozone waffle weave towel.

6. Apply 3M painter's tape (blue) over hood, trying to make 9 equal sections (that was impossible), so I did my best.

7. I applied each wax/sealant (thin) one at a time with brand new cotton applicator pad.

8. I allowed each wax at least 30 minutes to dry, but some may have been given a few minutes more, but nothing over 45 minutes. I wanted to ensure sufficient drying time for all.

9. The temperature at time of application was 73 degrees and NO humidity (anyone living on the East Coast knows this evening was a dream). Hood of the car was cool and clean.

As I said, pics will follow but here is the alignment of the waxes. Assume you are in front of the car looking towards it. Here is how they are aligned:

SCG's Barrier Reef PB's Natty's Blue Klasse SG

VW Concours Red NXT 2.0 Tech Pete's 53

PB's EX-P SCG's Nano Seal Collinite 845

I aligned them with a purpose in mind. I wanted my wax (NXT 2.0) to be surrounded by the "best" most expensive waxex. As such, NXT was surrounded by VW to the left, PBNB on top, Pete's 53 to the right and SCG's Nano Seal.

Results soon... stay tuned.

[Sydster]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

Hope to see the results soon!

[Joenok]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

exiting..!

[3Fitty]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

APPLICATION & REMOVAL:

I'm going to rate everything on a SUBJECTIVE 5 point scale (that is to say, what felt easiest to apply and remove.

Victoria Wax Concours Red: 2.5/5 -> I'm not familiar with using a "paste" wax so this might influence some of these scores, but this was definitely the second hardest wax to apply. Just didn't go on easy, but eventually got it on.

Pete's 53 - Black Pearl Signature Paste Wax: 3.5 -> Another paste. Much easier than VWCR but still more work than others.

Poorboy’s World Natty’s Blue: 2 -> What a CHORE to put this stuff on. I could NOT imagine doing an entire car with PB's Natty Blue. Definitely the most difficult to apply.

Surf City Nano Seal: 4 -> Relatively easy to apply but BOTH SCG's waxes did something VERY strange when applied. They both caused a "reaction" of spotting or smearing. I would've thought it was me, but BOTH did the exact same thing. They just didn't go on looking very clean.

Surf City Barrier Reef: 4 -> Same as above. Weird reaction.

Klasse Sealant Glaze: 5 -> Went on like a dream. Very thin and very "liquidy" made application extremely nice.

Poorboy’s World EX-P: 4 -> Easy application. Went on smooth

Collinite Liquid Insulator Wax 845: 5 -> Another dream to apply.

Meguiar’s NXT 2.0 Tech Wax: 5 -> Tied for top spot with Collinite and Klasse. All were amazing to put on. If I had a gun to my head and had to choose between the three, I'd probably say Klasse was the easiest, followed by NXT and then Collinite.

Removal:

Victoria Wax Concours Red: 5 -> Didn't go on easy, but came off like a dream.

Pete's 53 - Black Pearl Signature Paste Wax: 4 -> Came off quite nice.

Poorboy’s World Natty’s Blue: 5 -> Came off like a dream.

Surf City Nano Seal: 3 -> Hard to remove in comparison to others.

Surf City Barrier Reef: 3 -> Just like Nano Seal (the two worst for removal)

Klasse Sealant Glaze: 4 -> Didn't come off as easy as it went on. A bit of a dissapointment for removal.

Poorboy’s World EX-P: 4 -> Easy removal but not the easiest.

Collinite Liquid Insulator Wax 845: 4.5 -> Very easy, but a bit of a disappointment considering how easy it went on.

Meguiar’s NXT 2.0 Tech Wax: 5 -> Just the easiest. If I could've given it a 6, I would.

So, for adding them together... here is how they score:

1. NXT 2.0 - 10/10

2. Collinite 845 - 9.5/10

3. Klasse SG - 9/10

4. PB's EX-P - 8/10

5. Pete's 53 7.5/10

6. VWCR - 7.5/10

7. PB's Natty Blue - 7/10

8. SCG Nano Seal - 7/10

9. SCG Barrier Reef - 7/10

I put the two Surf City waxes at the bottom because the sum total of the two was the worst. PB's Natty Blue came off so easy it redeemed itself in my eyes.

[3Fitty]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

APPEARANCE:

For the appearance part, I had to do the UNTHINKABLE. I invited my wife and FOUR neighbors to judge the waxes.

Mrs. 3Fitty

Joe & Linda (think car detailing is insanity - married couple in their 50's).

Steve & Joanne (other neighbors who think "I have too much time on my hands).

This is where it might get disappointing to yall (I think the pics will bare out what they said).

Not a single one of them thought they could see a difference between ANY of the products. Sorry folks, not one!

To me, it was close, but I thought there were two waxes that looked slightly better, making the paint "pop" just a bit more.

To me, I think PB's World's Natty Blue and NXT 2.0 were just a bit better, but this was NOT supported by anyone and I did NOT share my thoughts with them, as I did NOT want to influence opinions.

I think the pictures will prove the hood looks FANTASTIC. EVERY product was killer for looks. (Again, I'll try to get pics out tonight, but its 10pm and I'm running out of time).

In case anyone is interested all photo's were taken with a KONICA MINOLTA A200.

Therefore, my finding is that appearance is a 9 way draw.

Sorry I can't say this looks better than that, but I'm trying to be as fair as I can to all the products and 5 out of 5 people could see NO difference, therefore I call it a draw on looks.

I believe WolfStrong (member here) did a test like this and came to the same conclusion about looks.

[3Fitty]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

THE TOUCH TEST:

Now that I did the appearance test with no winner (to my disappointment), next was "the touch test". That is, each of my 5 subjects, were given a new ziploc sandwich bag and told to run their hand over the 9 areas and note any areas that felt more slick, less slick, smooth, bumpy or any thing they might have felt. There was ONE clear winner, ONE clear second place, ONE clear loser and ONE clear second last.

The rest was a big tie for third.

Of the 6 people (me + 5), 5 of us all picked the same area as best and the sixth picked the area the other 5 picked as our second.

6 of 6 agreed on the worst and second worst. Believe it or not, this was the easiest thing we did.

Results:

1. NXT 2.0: 5/5 -> A winner by a mile. Joanne is the only one who picked it second, the rest were like "wow, that area is noticeably smoother".

2. Collinite 845: 4.5 - > Easily second place. Joanne picked it first, the other five picked it second. Silky smooth, it is just that NXT almost made the paint feel like milk (almost soft). It's hard to explain the difference, but Collinite 845 was super slick.

3,4,5,6,7. They all get a 4/5: In no particular order.

SC Garage's Barrier Reef and Nano Seal
PB's Natty's Blue
PB's EX-P
Pete's 53

8. Victoria's Wax Concours Red: 2 -> This is turning out to be the big disappointment of the test. A $72 dollar wax felt significantly word than almost everything but Klasse SG. It was very bad. When you slid your hand accross it, it just didn't glide.

9. Klasse Sealant Glaze: 1 -> Sorry Ivan, I know this is your fave, but I was so excited to use this wax when I started but I tested all areas of the hood after claying and it was smooth, it is almost as though the Klasse put some contaminants back on the hood (okay, maybe not that bad) but it was SOOOOOO significantly worse than the rest, the reactions were immediate. If I had more time, I wish I had video taped everyone touching it. (As an aside... as an attorney I think sequestration is important, so all tests were done one person at a time while the rest were drinking on my front porch!!!)

[VoicesInMyHead]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

...while the rest were drinking on my front porch!!!)

I would have to live so far away from this test!

[Mr Mustang]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

9. The temperature at time of application was 73 degrees and NO humidity (anyone living on the East Coast knows this evening was a dream). Hood of the car was cool and clean.

funny you should mention that, when I walked out of work today at 1, I was pleasantly surprised that it was only 85 with no humidity, as opposed to the 95* and 50-90%humidity of the last 2 months, so my car got a wash this afternoon. God I can't wait until winter!

[Sal329]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

Sounds like a fun test. So far my fav sealants are NXT 2.0, DG 111 and Hi Temp Wax. I have not used anything with Carnauba in it yet.

[3Fitty]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

I am uploading the photo's right now, so maybe I'll get them up tonight. I should've put a 56k warning on this, so maybe one of the Mod's can add that to the title.

[3Fitty]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

The beginning. Opening shots, car not to clean. Preparing the NXT Wash.



Closer inspection revealed gunk on hood.





Rinse.




All clean, now time to dry with Meguiar's Water Magnet.





Time to get ready for clay. My clay of choice is clay magic. As you can see, I used a brand new claybar alongside Meguiar's QD.






Clay bar after claying. As you can see, not a lot of gunk coming off, but I just wanted to ensure I did everything to remove any existing wax.



Meg's G110, brand new Meg's 8006 pad and some M80 followed the clay.





Ready to be taped and waxed.






More pics in next post.

[3Fitty]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

3M painter's tape (blue):



The lineup:



Here's a look at the products... you'll notice only the NXT 2.0 is in the proper packaging, the rest were donations. I'm sure those members will chime in the confirm sending me the goods.

I couldn't line everything up in this next pic on account of sliding.




All 9 waxes applied (thin coats). You can also see the dark started to creep in (although the picture makes it look much darker than it was).








Next... the results!

[3Fitty]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

All waxes got their own MF for removal.



Finally some finished shots. I will get out tomorrow (when I put on second coats) and take some more pics:

[3Fitty]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

I would have to live so far away from this test!

Well, I did the bulk of my drinking when the test was completed!

[3Fitty]

Re: The Great 9 Wax Shoot Out!

Sounds like a fun test. So far my fav sealants are NXT 2.0, DG 111 and Hi Temp Wax. I have not used anything with Carnauba in it yet.

There were a few items I really wanted to test, but I really didn't want to go out and buy stuff that *might* disappoint so I had to take whatever I could get, but I knew I didn't want any OTC stuff (other than NXT).

This is basically a test of boutique waxes against NXT 2.0.

I really wanted to get my hands on Collinite 845 because I heard so much about it that I was excited to try it. I also wanted to get my hands on some Klasse SG (again because of internet hype). I'm not a fan of PB's products, but I was psyched to get Natty's again, because of hype.

The real unknowns (at least for me) were the Victoria Concours Red (which I'd never heard of until it was sent to me) but upon further research, many swear by the stuff.