Turtle Wax Products

[Shawn T.]

Alright, so tomorrow I am going to try out a combo of Turtle Wax Cleaner Wax topped with Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell. This mimics the Colorx/DC3/M26 combo that people love so much. My MINI is being traded in on Monday for a black pearl Honda Civic EX. So, I will take this time to see how this Turtle Wax combo works on the MINI. I figured since I have the time before college starts (September 1) I'll do a little experimenting.

Pics to follow tomorrow at some point along with descriptions of the entire process.

[Megafast13]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

Good luck with that one. You'll have to tell us what you think of the products compared to Meg's. I personally would never touch one of their products except maybe the Black Ice Wax or whatever it's called.

[EPHIOS]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

I have some TW Ice, but 90% of my chemicals are Meguiar's.

[Ravi_1992]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

Turtle wax platinum wax is good too, I didn't like the Ice Polish/wax at all

[Fly Bye]

Re: Turtle Wax Products


I used to use Turtle Wax waaaay back in the day

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

Good luck. Will be interested in your observations about the tw products. Congrats on your new car.

[BlackScreaminMachine]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

Before I got into actually detailing cars I used TW ICE all the time with Meg's Ult Quick Detailer between rounds and it defintly easy to maintain. But I soon realized there are short comings to the product.

I have since moved on and my Mainstays have been NXT 2.0 and Megs High tech Yellow Was (#26). I also use #7 Showcar Glaze a lot and no car has NOT looked good with those products.

[PursuitSE]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

Don't forget to post pictures and your comments when you're done testing the Turtle Wax. I rember when I was young, my mom waxed her was once a year the the Hard Shell wax. We used to think that it looked great. That was BEFORE the detaling bug bit me a few years ago. Now almost nothing but Meg's !

[Shawn T.]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

Alright guys, I finished up today detailing it. I must say that I am quite happy with the results I had. Needless to say, the surface was preppped very well beforehand but still. I have, I think, 36 pictures to come up here and I will be explaining in as much detail as possible. I may need a couple days but it will be up.

[EPHIOS]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

I do not know. I am just not content with TW ICE products, except for TW ICE Total Interior.

[Tuck91]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

I dont mind their leather conditioner.

[Shawn T.]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

So, I stopped off at Walmart the other day to pick up the products I would need for this experiment: Turtle Wax Carnauba Cleaner Wax and Turtle Wax Super hard Shell Car Wax. Gess what? Walmart doesn't carry the Cleaner/Wax so I had to drive to Autozone to pick that up.





I thought this was interesting due to the difference in paste waxes of companies. This looks more like a liquid wax put into a paste container.




This is a shot of the drivers side before washing. It doesn't look too bad......




Yeah, the wheels on these cars become dirty rather quickly.




Water spots, my favorite!!! Good thing that coat of NXT 2.0 is holding up.







Somehow, the trim on this car looks like s*** when it has been properly cleaned. Though, it has been dressed for the entirety of it's time with me.




Even worse on the rear trim.




Some dirt but no stains.




Looking a little weathered as it hasn't been conditioned all summer.




Same dirt but no stains.




Same deal with passenger seat as driver's seat.



Now we know what the whole car looked like before but let's see what happens after a full day of work.

[Shawn T.]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

Well, I did my usual process and started on the wheels, tires and deep cleaning the trim. At my disposal were various brushes, a cheap wash mitt, APC (4:1), foaming bottle (you'll see..), and SD (10:1). My wheels bucket is a small 2 gallon bucket but it suffices for wheels and tires. The water after cleaning these wheels looked like parts of the Gulf.





Here it is! The famous foaming sprayer from ADS but I use it as a foam gun. I use a high concentration of Rain-x Foaming Car Wash (it's cheap and does a great job actually) and it foams up pretty well.




Here is the wheel after spraying with the Rain-x solution. This is about 10 seconds or so after spraying. Yeah, it's not Gilmour quality but in the mean time, it does the job.




Squeaky clean!!!!!








Two bucket wash (5 gallon buckets) with no Grit Guards (need to get some soon). I used a lambswool wash mitt (my favorite kind) and 6 (yes, 6) ounces of Hyper-Wash in my wash bucket. I really wanted some cleaning action and I didn't feel that a solution of APC was in order.

The pic below is an after of the buckets.




The driver's side after a thorough wash.




No more waterspots!!!!




Look at those reflections! My car is growing trees!



Now, it's time for the interior. Here is my wet/dry vacuum my dad picked up from a friend at work. It may be old but she really has some power!




No more dirt!




All nice and conditioned!




Now it's time for the passenger side.







Alright, we will move on to the waxing process and observations.

[Shawn T.]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

Before I waxed, I decided to give UP another shot. It disappointed me last time but this time, it came to the rescue. This trim was in need of attention but I'm not sure why as it's always been dressed.

This shot was too good to pass up.




Here is the driver's side trim after UP.




Remember that disgusting rear trim? Looks pretty good now!




Alright, so the Cleaner/Wax (I will call it CW if I end up using it a lot in this description). It is very viscous; thicker than Swirlx even. It has that old-time look to it due to the coloring and the packaging. In fact, I was a little scared to put try this stuff out.




Alright, so I used about this (pic below) much on the applicator to begin with. I used the TW applicator that came with the CW for experimental purposes. However, me and my clumsy self kept dropping applicators throughout the whole waxing process. I think I went through about 5 applicators. Anyway, I realized that it was best to really dab the CW onto the entire section I would be working on in order to achieve that nice thin coat. Once again, it felt really thick when I was working it. I went through almost nothing of the container.

I felt it really work into the paint as I rubbed it in. Now, removal was a PITA. The spots where it was a little thick, forget about it. But even the thin areas were a pain to remove. After one section, I whipped out the LT and used that as an aid to remove it otehrwise I would have swirled everything. Even with the LT this wax was a pain to remove.








Now, we wiped of the CW and now it is time for the TWSHS (Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell). This wax looks a little like M21 as it is blue. It is much thinner than the CW and worked onto the paint much easier. It was much easier to achieve that really thin coat. One weird item I noticed was that when starting to apply the wax to my very first section it was like there was water in the wax and it didn't mix even after shaking. This went away after another section though. Now, removal was a breeze with this wax. The container says "Easy Off" and they weren't lying. This wipes off like NXT 2.0 and GC+. Just make sure, as with any wax, to work in nice thin coats. I really liked this wax even though it was TWSHS.



There is nothing to hide in this sun shot above. The CW plus the TWSHS did a great job of hiding really all of the swirls in this paint. I am quite impressed.

Of course, the prep work was there and the paint was clayed and the reflections were crisp to begin with. But, for a supposedly bad product, I am truly satisfied. It blew right over what I expected.

Below is a full passenger side view of the car in the sun.



I cleaned the glass with SIG.

I also went ahead and applied the CW and TWSHS on the wheels to give them a little pop.


Well I give the CW a on afters but an opposite grade on application and removal.

I give the TWSHS a on application, removal and afters.

Hope you all enjoyed! Thanks for reading!

[FinalTouchDetail]

Re: Turtle Wax Products

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

The important steps of detailing come in the type of abrasive polishes used. If you use a quality polish then ANY LSP is going to look fantastic.

It's always fun to try out new products