Ultimate Paste Wax - long term update (7 months) ... to be continued.

[Don]

I'm about to go wash my car. It hasn't been touched since October when I last applied a coat of Ultimate Paste Wax to it. I will be washing it with Deep Crystal car wash and once I'm done, I'll check for beading and sheeting (or lack thereof). Unfortunately, I can't post pics, but I will be as descriptive as possible

...to be continued...

[The Guz]

Re: Ultimate Paste Wax - long term update (7 months) ... to be continued.

Looking forward to your update. Why won't you be able to post pics?

[Don]

Re: Ultimate Paste Wax - long term update (7 months) ... to be continued.

Looking forward to your update. Why won't you be able to post pics?

Ok, all I have right now is a laptop and my camera won't connect to it. This is an outside car: 24/7/365 with an average of 94 miles round trip to work. Except for the hood and the right front fender, the car is single-stage red Suzuki Aerio. It's not a beater, it's my primary car, I just don't get to clean it up in the winter, I don't have anywhere to take it and a coin-op only gets so much dirt off ... I don't use coin-ops for anything ... so the car was never cleaned since Oct.

First, I started with the rims and tires, using Simple Green a brush and an old mf for the rims. I know, I know Simple Green isn't the best choice, but my CC aluminum rims are already peeling and corroding ... how much more damage can *I* do? Then I rinsed off the car using a heavy spray. Some areas (front fenders before the tire, A-pillar and the tops of the doors) did sheet some, but it was slow. The horizontal surfaces looked dead, no beading or sheeting with the rinse off.

Using a new microfiber wash mitt and a mild solution of Deep Crystal car wash, I started on the roof. I could immediately feel the drag on the mitt almost as though I were rubbing it against a Velcro panel. Since it's cloudy and cool, I washed the entire driver's half of the car, switching to an older lamb's wool mitt for the lower half of the car. Unlike the mf mitt, the lamb's wool glided smoothly over the surface. Then I rinsed that side of the car with the heavy spray. There was no immediate sheeting or beading that I could see, but after watching for a few minutes, I noticed that the vertical panes of the car did kind of sheet, although VERY slowly. The hood, roof and trunk appeared dead. One weird thing: The A pillar, which runs over the windows and becomes the C pillar around the back window WAS beading the water. Not great, but it was noticeable and occurred fairly quick after the shower of water was moved away.

Then I went to the passenger side and repeated the process with nearly identical results. Again the A pillar was the odd one out and beaded water. I didn't dry the car I just walked around it watching the actions of the water The vertical panels were *sheeting* a little faster and there were now individual lines of water droplets going down the sides. The hood was full of flat, weak beads, but you could see a pattern of lines running from the top of the hood to the front edge. And the roof, which I had thought completely dead, was nearly dry with only a few areas of water droplets remaining.

I had to end my observations there because OF COURSE it started to rain ... heavily. But I did watch out of the window and saw the same pattern of very slow sheeting. When the rain stopped, I went back outside to discover that the majority of the water was no longer on the car, the car was covered in flat, weak water beads and the roof was nearly dry (with a fresh coat of wax, my roof will hold hundreds of water beads until I drive away or dry them off, it won't dry like that). At that time, I could have easily used some Ultimate Quik Detailer and finished drying off the car.

And of course it started raining again and I had to stop my observations.

What does this all mean? I have no idea. Is there a miniscule amount of wax left? Is the water reacting the way it was because the wax was gone, but the car was highly polished before it was waxed?

Now just for giggles, let's look at the appearance side of the coin. Once all of the stuck on dirt was removed, the car still looked really good, not perfect, there are some minor defects that need polished out and you could see that when the water was pooled on the paint, the color was a lot darker than the dry areas (it looks the same color wet OR dry after a good polish/wax). Of course this could just be a result of the ss paint fading over the winter, no surprise there.

Well, I hope you got something out of this ... what I got out of it is that my car needs some Ult Polish and some more Ult Wax SOON.

[Blueline]

Re: Ultimate Paste Wax - long term update (7 months) ... to be continued.

I won't get into the fine details, however I did my fall detail mid October with UPW, and never washed the car again until mid March. From December on, my black car was basically white with salt. It is driven regularly, however it is garaged, although I don't think that makes much of a difference in my case. Anyway when I washed it in March, there still was lots of beading after close to six months. I was impressed, but not surprised. Not washing the car all winter, as opposed to washing it weekly or more in the summer, where was the wax going to go? It is not being slowly washed away with every wash. I find that UPW is good for about three months with regular washing, six months easily without regular washings. No matter how one looks at it, it is good stuff. (still would prefer M16 though) Even the smell of UPW is becoming, 'eh, not so bad'. I opened the can in my basement and had a sniff a few days ago in anticipation of my spring detail. Just has to get a few degrees warmer.

[Don]

Re: Ultimate Paste Wax - long term update (7 months) ... to be continued.

Not washing the car all winter, as opposed to washing it weekly or more in the summer, where was the wax going to go? It is not being slowly washed away with every wash.

...Just has to get a few degrees warmer.

I know that Mile Phillips from AGO ( back when he used to be here) said that every time you wipe the paint, some of the wax layer is going to come off, so NOT washing & drying could contribute to more longevity ... unless using UQW every time cancels that out

What I forgot to post above was how easily the grunge wiped off, it wasn't 'stuck on' at all and the paint didn't seem to have faded as badly as it did last year. After the wash, the car almost looked as if it had just been waxed.

The past week has been plenty warm enough to detail the car, the rain just hasn't stopped long enough...it only stopped long enough for me to get in yesterday's wash, and I mean just barely long enough.