Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

[davey g-force]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

Hopefully Nick or someone else will chime in, but my view is that given enough time, a sealant like UFF will still degrade even if completely out of the elements. We're probably talking several years for UFF on a car left in the garage.

I think you said your car may be locked up for a few months, in which case I doubt there will be a noticeable difference in UFF's performance.

[Rwlucas85]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

From a chemical standpoint, just about everything has a half-life. I'm under the assumption that when a manufacturer makes a durability claim, they are reporting durability in near ideal circumstances. So if Meguiars claims up to a year, that is likely in garage kept conditions with no extreme temperatures.
Having said that, I'm going to assume the vehicle will get a wash when it comes out of storage. In that case, my opinion would be that you might as well add an extra 5 minutes and apply a fresh layer.

[Patman]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

When I do bring it out it really shouldn't need a wash, but it should just have a light coat of dust on it (which I can easily remove with a microfiber and UQD)

[Rwlucas85]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

When I do bring it out it really shouldn't need a wash, but it should just have a light coat of dust on it (which I can easily remove with a microfiber and UQD)

Of course that is up to you and how you feel about it when you take the car out. If it were me, I would put another layer on. From a chemical standpoint, chemicals tend to degrade quickly and then sort of "settle in" so the time needed for percentage of degradation from 0% to 20% is often much less than the time needed to degrade from 50% to 70%. Also, I know Meguiars lists a maximum of one year durability. I don't know at what point Meguiars considered a product degraded. 50%? 80%? For me, and my purposes, that's too many unknowns for me to feel comfortable leaving it alone after a few months. You use so little product and it takes maybe 10 minutes at the most to apply.

[Patman]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

So true, this stuff truly is super easy to apply, so there is a 99.9% chance that I'll be putting another coat of it on there when I bring the car out

[Jonesey]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

I plan on trying it out on the new rims on my M3. (the whole car too!!) Wish I had it before i put them on, but I did at least get 3 coats of #21 on them. Will be nice to keep the standard BMW dust down on them.

[Nick Winn]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

I plan on trying it out on the new rims on my M3. (the whole car too!!) Wish I had it before i put them on, but I did at least get 3 coats of #21 on them. Will be nice to keep the standard BMW dust down on them.

Hi Jonesey,

Just wanted to mention a couple notes. You are certainly welcome to apply our sealants like Ultimate Fast Finish or #21 Synthetic Sealant 2.0 to your wheels, even though we do not market or advise to use them for this application. They will provide gloss & protection, as well as make cleaning easier. I wanted to mention, wheels are constantly bombarded with all sorts harsh contaminants like road grime & brake dust. As a result, do not expect sealants & waxes to last nearly as long on wheels as they will on paint. One other note is that most any wheel cleaner product will remove a good amount if not all of a sealant or wax which is applied to a wheel. So if you are going to do this to your wheels, make sure you are cleaning them with a pH balanced car wash solution.

Since waxes & sealants do not last all that long on wheels, most wheel cleaners will remove the protectant, and traditional liquid or paste waxes/sealants take a while to apply to wheels, many users will apply a spray wax like our Ultimate Quik Wax to their wheels after every wash. It's a quick spray on/wipe off type application that provides added gloss & durable protection for a spray wax.

We mentioned often that "frequent car care is easy car care" & this couldn't be more true with wheel care. It's all about frequent care. The longer those nasty contaminants from the road & brake dust sit on the wheel finish, the more likely they are going to have a chance to cause an issue like stain or bond to the wheel finish.

Anyways just some food for thought on wheel care. Ultimately it's personal preference.

Nick

[Jonesey]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

With the BMW wheels, they were brand new, so I took advantage of the ease of waxing them on my dining room table to get some protectant on to help make cleaning them easier. I try not to let the build-up get too bad on any of my wheels, and am usually able to use a wash mitt and whatever wash soap I am using on the rest of the car. I've been trying to get some wax on 3 times a year, and it has made reaching for the wheel brightener a lot less frequent of an action. I've been using the Paint Reconditioning Cream and a Mothers powerball mini. I had never thought about using the UQW, that's a great idea!!

[SLM]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

Hum, never thought of trying this on my wheels. Mine are nothing fancy. Just factory Honda wheels. I need to get them good and CLEAN first though. There's some staining that's a pita to get off.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

Here's another quick question. As mentioned, I have two coats of UFF on my new car but it's currently parked in my garage and there is a chance I might not get to drive it for a couple of months. Will the protection of UFF be just as good after all this time has passed, or does it start to deteriorate even when not exposed to the outside elements? So in other words, to get the maximum protection out of it, do I need to re apply another coat or two in the spring, or will that just be a waste of product?

As others have mentioned, everything has a half life. But exposure is key when it comes to durability of any wax, sealant, coating, etc. If you have two fresh coats of UFF applied to the car just prior to parking it in the garage for the winter, then exposure is virtually nil, right? Is it safe to assume the car is also covered? If so, exposure is reduced even further. So would you absolutely need to apply another coat before rolling back onto the streets come spring time? Probably not. But let's be serious here - you're a car guy. You're one of us who actually has a car that is considered a toy, a prized possession, something special. When spring comes along and you open that garage door and take the car back out into the sunshine, you're going to want to make sure it's totally spotless, right? First impressions and all that, right? Heck, I spruce up my toy before taking it out, even if it's only been a few weeks since our last drive together.

But all winter, sitting in the garage, waiting, hoping for the first warm, sunny day to get out and stretch its legs ..... yeah, you're gonna want to do something, right?

[Jonesey]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

Yep, I'm one of those guys.... I think I met you about 11 years ago Michael. I came to one of the TNOG events when I was in La Jolla/ L.A. for a week. I had a white Dodge Charger rental car, and used the supplies there to properly clean the windows and shine up the tires. There were a few attendees who couldn't believe i was cleaning a rental car!!! I can't remember the car we were working on in the garage that night, but i think it was a 911.
On another note, any idea what the shelf life of #21 2.0 is? Its in the original 2qt bottle, and is stored inside the house. I haven't needed to use as much as i thought!!

[Patman]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

As others have mentioned, everything has a half life. But exposure is key when it comes to durability of any wax, sealant, coating, etc. If you have two fresh coats of UFF applied to the car just prior to parking it in the garage for the winter, then exposure is virtually nil, right? Is it safe to assume the car is also covered?

Actually it isn't covered at all. I've never understood the need for a car cover personally, it's not as if a little bit of dust is going to harm anything (and I've found I get an extremely low level of dust in my garage, especially if I make sure the door isn't opened up very often) I also like to drive my cars during the winter period whenever we get a break in the nasty weather, as long as the roads are clean. So having a cover on it makes it more difficult to take it out for a drive. It turns out we are getting some nice weather this weekend so I'll double check the roads in my area to make sure they are clean enough and then I'll be taking it out for a drive! And then once winter grabs a hold of us again and forces me to keep the car tucked away for a while, it's during that down time that I can add another coat of UFF so it will be fresh for it's next reappearance on the streets

[Patman]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

We have had some good weather the past two weekends so I've driven my car 4 times and added over 300 miles to it! During one of the trips it got really dirty when some melting snow left a huge amount of water across the highway, so I took it to a coin op wash and rinsed it off with the high pressure wand (no soap) I love how easy the dirt comes off with the UFF on the paint, you really don't even need to use soap at all (at least not if you wash it right after it gets dirty) Even though I'm sure UFF would continue to protect my paint for a while longer, I had some free time and I noticed the temperature in my garage was 62 degrees so I figured why not add another layer of UFF protection! I also want to add that I drove my car to work one day this week and with the combined protection of UFF and UQD, I noticed there was really no dust at all on my finish. That's a huge bonus for me, I like my car to always look as clean as possible! It's also worth noting that I have now gotten 10 coats out of my can of UFF so far (on 4 different cars that is) and there is probably another 4-5 coats left in it! This stuff really goes a long way! I constantly hear all my Corvette brethren talking about spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on expensive ceramic coatings, but my car looks just as good as their cars do, for WAY less money. I just wonder when this stuff is going to be sold in Canada? I don't mind picking it up in the US since I cross the border quite frequently, but when I recommend this product to my friends up here, it's hard to convince them to do the same.

[Patman]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

Here's another quick question. I notice that Walmart has it on sale right now for an amazing price, and I'm going to be crossing over the border this week and flying out of Niagara Falls airport. The problem is, I only have time to stop at Walmart before the flight, so if I do buy a can of UFF I will be leaving it in the trunk of my car for 4 days, and during that time the expected temperature in Niagara Falls is only going to be in the range of 15-29F. Will this pose a problem having it in such cold temps for that length of time?

[mengelhardt]

Re: Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish

Here's another quick question. I notice that Walmart has it on sale right now for an amazing price, and I'm going to be crossing over the border this week and flying out of Niagara Falls airport. The problem is, I only have time to stop at Walmart before the flight, so if I do buy a can of UFF I will be leaving it in the trunk of my car for 4 days, and during that time the expected temperature in Niagara Falls is only going to be in the range of 15-29F. Will this pose a problem having it in such cold temps for that length of time?

I would not worry, you shouldn't have any problem at those temps for a few days. No worries mate!