Beginning my Paint Protect 365 review (with some recap from original post)

[Don]

I broke down and thought I'd try Meguiar's Paint Protect 365, got it at Walmart for just under $8 after tax. Since this stuff was intended for the 'non-enthusiast,' I didn't do anything special to prep my car (not that it needs any prepping anyway). I just washed it and applied the PP365 to the hood, trunk lid and roof as a test.

The stuff is real oily compared to many waxes, but I feel that helped the application because it applied real smooth and thin wasn't hard to do. I let it sit between 3 - 5 minutes and started buffing it off with a clean mf cloth ... turns out you need more than a few to wipe off the panels due to all the carrier oils ... but don't try to get them all off, it ain't gonna happen and you'll just scratch your paint. The paint will look blotchy and like there are clouds in it. Just buff it decently and let it be. The oils will evaporate quickly (they did in my case, a few hours in the sun and they were gone). Instructions and tip/tricks I've heard are more than a little vague, some say wait 12 - 24 hours before getting it wet, others say wait 1 - 10 days before washing.

I'm going to split the difference and wash it this morning after work, when it will have been 3 days. I'm also going to apply it to my wife's Explorer which NEVER gets washed, just for a real torture test.

Thursday I plan on polishing the car out, then reapplying the PP365 to see how it works as a stand-alone since I already have used Ult Quik Wax and D-115 on the Camaro several times.

I'll keep you informed.

[Don]

Re: Beginning my Paint Protect 365 review (with some recap from original post)

Well it's been about 6 days since I applied the PP365. In that week, the car's racked up almost 600 highway miles and a ton of bug guts on the front end. I have a Cars & Coffee to attend tomorrow (Sat, 2nd) as long as it doesn't rain and I planned on using today to wash & give the car a light polishing, so 1) it would look it's best and 2) have a 'clean slate' to apply the PP365.

After how many weeks of no rain, I get up bright and early this morning to start, and you guessed it, it's raining. I did look the car over during the rain, and despite being 'filthy,' the water was beading up and running off the hood and roof like it had been freshly waxed. Not bad since my horizontal panels only have a slight downward curve near the edges. The vertical panels which have in recent weeks only had UWWA and D115 applied to them was at least equaling the performance of the PP365, BUT they had a better gravity advantage too.

After about an hour, it stopped raining long enough for me to wash & rinse the car, but not dry it. During the wash & rinse, I tested several different spray patterns, from gentle rain, to full-force stream. It didn't matter which it was the water would tighten up and bead off the surface, there was very little, if any sheeting that I could see on the horizontal panels and there was absolutely no sheeting on the verticals, just beads.

By the end of the wash, I couldn't find any clear difference between the D115 panels and the PP365 panels. So does that mean that PP365 is only as good as a spray on wash & wax, or does it mean that D115 is as good as PP365?

Looks like I'm going to have to NOT coat an area with the PP365 and only use D115 on it to see how they match up ... maybe it will be 1/2 the roof or hood.

To Be Continued ...