Wax / Sealant - What do you all like best?

[jasno999]

Been looking to find a good sealant or wax to use on my car. Went with maguiers wax and it is easy on and easy off but it seems to attract pollen. Now I am going to try maguires sealant polymer to see how that works..

Hoping no pollen gets attracted and it lasts a long time.

What all are you using on your cars?

 

[chris41]

I clayed bar my wife's new Mercedes and used Nu Finish. Looks fantastic but it was hard to remove. I clayed bar my new Genesis and used Liquid Glass. Very easy on and off with no white residue on the plastic trim. I still have enough LG for another car (2 coats). I'm going to stick with LG for awhile.

 

[Mark_888]

Been looking to find a good sealant or wax to use on my car. Went with maguiers wax and it is easy on and easy off but it seems to attract pollen. Now I am going to try maguires sealant polymer to see how that works..

Hoping no pollen gets attracted and it lasts a long time.

What all are you using on your cars?

Not sure what the first Meguiar's product you tried was. Anything with carnauba is not going to be very durable, although there are carnauba/polymer hybrid products that are a longer lasting than a pure carnauba. Carnauba is preferred by owners looking for a more 3-D look, and don't mind waxing frequently, instead of just a good shine that lasts a long time and protects the finish.

What I have seen recommended is to wash the car with Dawn or Ajax dish soap to remove as much wax as possible (but don't use any soap product with "hand softeners"). Then wax with Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid wax, which is a pure polymer wax. After that, only use car wash soap that is designed to clean the car, but not remove car wax, such as Meguiar's car wash.

 

[LarryJM]

Not sure what the first Meguiar's product you tried was. Anything with carnauba is not going to be very durable, although there are carnauba/polymer hybrid products that are a longer lasting than a pure carnauba. Carnauba is preferred by owners looking for a more 3-D look, and don't mind waxing frequently, instead of just a good shine that lasts a long time and protects the finish.

What I have seen recommended is to wash the car with Dawn or Ajax dish soap to remove as much wax as possible (but don't use any soap product with "hand softeners"). Then wax with Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid wax, which is a pure polymer wax. After that, only use car wash soap that is designed to clean the car, but not remove car wax, such as Meguiar's car wash.

I've been using the Meguiars Polymer sealants for the last 20+ years with great results on both my vehicles and travel trailers. I've gone from the original "Tech Wax/Sealant" to the NXT to NXT 2.0 to now the Ultimate. Any wax/sealant is a compromise between protection, durability, and ease/difficulty to apply/maintain and I feel the Meguiar's is about the best compromise at least for me. IMO about the only one slightly better might bet Zainos, but that is a HUGE PAIN and effort to do, but my older son swears by it for all of his 3 Vettes from his 73 to his 2004. I have even compared the Ultimate vs. Mother's Pure Carnabu side by side on a car surface and can tell little to no difference in look so it's the Ultimate all the way for my needs.

My Van is now almost 16 years old and sits outside in the NE weather year round and has had nothing but the top tier Meguiars on it usually twice maybe 3 times a year and the paint still looks close to how it did new.

I also think even for a new vehicle clay bar first then a lite polish then sealant on the first go around is a good way to start things off. Depending on conditions I don't find the need to re clay bar but every 10 years or so necessary nor the lite polishing except after clay baring really needed.

Larry

 

[Rloyola0426]

I've been using Meguiar's ultimate liquid wax and Meguiar's M21 for years but have found their durability lacking. I'm about to run out of Meg's ulw so I was thinking about picking up some collinite 845 or 476. I'm leaning more towards the 845 as it's a liquid and easier to work with when using the orbital. If you google collinite 845, there doesn't seem to be anybody who dislikes it. It's a carnauba that is more durable than a sealant. Not quite sure how that's possible but it seems to protect for months. Supposedly, if you use duragloss aquawax or any other spray wax as a drying aid you can lengthen even more the time between waxing.

Are you guys polishing after claying? Claying doesn't remove swirl marks and the act of claying itself may be micromarring the paint. Sometimes I hate claying cause I know I have to polish afterwards and I get lazy.

 

[danygenesis]

I always wash with Down and clay all my cars when new, then polished with a mild polisher like Pinnacle Souveran advanced polisher then it depends, in my wife Sonata I apply a sealant like Meguiars Ultimate paste Wax because of durability but in my Genesis I use Collinite 915 wich is carnauba with a very good lasting time. After that I wash mine weekly with Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo and apply Pinnacle Souveran Liquid wax and with her car I wash biweekly and put Meguiars Ultimate liquid wax.

 

[Rloyola0426]

have any of you guys used poorboy's natty blue? Was kinda curious about that wax and how it would look on a darker color like my empire state gray.

 

[bigpapainscotia]

I use nu finish the once a year polish . But i use it three to four times a year. Been using it for over 15 years on every car that i had this is a very good polish for the price. You can see the how good it is the first time that it rains. The water just falls off the car. I even use it on my windows and windshield.

 

[homeofstone]

I use nu finish the once a year polish . But i use it three to four times a year. Been using it for over 15 years on every car that i had this is a very good polish for the price. You can see the how good it is the first time that it rains. The water just falls off the car. I even use it on my windows and windshield.

+1 on the Nu-Finish, but i don't put in on windows. I have also used it for years. Currently I use it on my Genesis and Yukon XL Denali. I use turtle wax Black Box on my black E63.

 

[Trgc2015]

I've been using the Mother's 3 step product line for over 20 years now. Very pleased with the results. Last fall, I purchased a new Seranno Red Santa Fe Sport 2.0t Limited, then two months later purchased a new Tsukuba Red 3.8 Premium Gen Coupe. The first thing I did with both was to glaze and wax. The shine was more brilliant and color depth deeper in comparison to when I picked up off the lot. Parked the GC in the garage over the winter, and the SF is the daily driver.

Fast forward to last month, and I felt motivated to do a proper paint care job. Gave each vehicle a full clay bar rubdown, followed by the Mother's 3 step system applied with a Porter Cable 7424xp. Pre-wax cleaner followed by Glaze and Polish, lastly Carnuba liquid wax. The clay bar and polishing steps are the keys in achieving the best possible shine. I couldn't believe how glass smooth the finish had become. The PC was really effective in removing swirl marks and small scratches.

The downside is that it is a massive amount of work, but what a shine! As the GC is basically a Sunday summer driver, I won't have to clay bar again for a while, as she is always garaged.

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[StarPower]

I've had good results with Zaino. They're time and cost effective when used sparingly. There can be a learning curve until you learn how little to apply (it can be difficult to remove if you apply too much), but once you get used to it it's pretty quick and easy. You also don't need multiple layers. I think layering is mostly a gimmick to sell more product.

More importantly, paint condition makes more of a difference than the final product. Claying and polishing take a while, but don't need to be done that often. I usually clay about once/year and I've only polished my Genesis once to remove some fine swirls that were there when I bought it. Even if you don't want to get into polishing, a clay bar will make a huge difference.

Ultimately, I think the best product is the one that works for you in terms of ease of use, cost, longevity, look, and availability (local stores or online only).

 

[stumpie]

S100 - my only complaint is the tub sucks.

 

[losboricua]

I use to use Meguiars but just recently switch to Chemical Guys. I did the whole Clay bar, V36 paint correction, V38 fine polish, Black Light glaze and 2 coats of Jet Seal last month. Totally impressed, car looked better than new(minus all the front end chips ). I washed my car last weekend and the dirt was much easier to wash off than and car still looked great after 4 washes.

 

[cleex024]

The best waxes and sealants are probably going to be the higher end stuff like blackfire, wolfgang, menzerna,etc. If you guys google search these there are tons of discussions about the products. I personally use blackfire wet diamond sealant and that is the best I have used.

I have tried them all...wolfgang, zaino, all of the big box store crap like turtle wax, meguiars. This stuff goes on easy and comes off easier and lasts at least months. Just do a quick search and everyone here will but either blackfire or wolfgang lol.

But more importantly if you guys really want a good shine then it's going to take a lot of work. You should first strip all of the old wax by washing with dawn, then clay bar with something a little more aggressive like mothers clay bar. Then compound or polish depending on how much swirls and scratches you have, then finally seal.

Without prefect looking paint you will not be able to get a really good shine by just waxing. Either way good luck all because if you want to do all these steps it takes a while like 7+ hours.

 

[shagnat]

Been looking to find a good sealant or wax to use on my car. Went with maguiers wax and it is easy on and easy off but it seems to attract pollen. Now I am going to try maguires sealant polymer to see how that works..

Hoping no pollen gets attracted and it lasts a long time.

What all are you using on your cars?

This is going to be technical, but, I'll try to explain to where it's understandable. Wax technically is a sealant. Anything that will bond (no matter to what degree) is a sealant.

As others have stated, carnuba wax will last the least amount of time but provide you with a warmer and deeper shine. Getting more than ~ 4 weeks out of a Carnuba wax is not going to happen. There are blends which have some Carnuba wax in them, but, if what you want is the longest lasting best protecting product with at least a decent shine, I would look at an all-in-one product such as one of the Griot's Garage 3-1 sealants. I believe they have 2 iterations and not sure of the difference.

Wax and polish are not the same thing. Wax is considered an LSP (Last Step Product) and polish has some abrasives (no matter how minute) to remove swirls and scratches. There are sooo many polishes available till it's dizzying. Pinnacle Souveran is NOT a polish, it will not correct any imperfections (scratches/swirls/etc.) in your paint. Proper preparation is the key to getting a good shine from your car and is a necessary step in obtaining any reasonable look that anyone would want for their vehicle.

If you've never done a complete restoration (for the paint) on your car, you should inspect your paint in bright sunlight but at a bit of an angel and you should be able to see swirls and scratches. The deeper the color the easier it is to see these imperfections.

So, from that point, you would want to first wash your car using a 2 bucket wash method with a grit guard in the rinse bucket. You can use Dawn if you would like, but, if so, please don't go plopping wax on it after that. Personally, I'd use a good car wash soap, like Meguiar's Ultimate Wash (not mixed with wax because that's what you want to remove). Then I'd get some thing like Griot's Garage paint prep which should remove any waxes and sealants along with oils left behind.

My next step, depending on how long it's been, is use a Clay Bar treatment or one of the Nano surface prep sponges. You want to get the above surface contaminants off the car. You cold also use Iron-X, again depending on how long it's been since a good detailing has been done.

After that, get a polish like Meguiar's 205 and a Dual Action Polisher like the Porter Cable 7424XP, you can get one from Home Depot (online ordering) or autogeekonline.com, or even Amazon.com. Get yourself 4-6 orange pads, 4-6 White pads. Look up how to use these on youtube.com. LOTS of videos on there on how to use these products. You can order the polishes from Wally World or autogeekonline or many other online vendors including Amazon.com.

After that, get you a good quality sealant/coating and there are many from $40-$250. Meguiar's and Griot's Garage make excellent sealants IMO. There are tons more, but, I like those.

Please get at least 25-30 top quality Micro Fiber towels of the Korean variety. The Chinese made ones are total crap and will put hairline scratches all over your car. Don't cheap out here.

Youtube.com is your friend here and check out the different sealants and how to apply them. Most of these items need to be used on a car that has cooled down and NOT in the sun. There are a very few products that would be ok to use in the sun, but, I don't take those chances.

I hope this has helped and not confused you, but, please ask away if I can help clarify.