Meguiar's Gold Class Carnauba Plus paste - Durability

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rwright

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So three (3) weeks ago I applied Meguiar's new Gold Class Carnauba Plus Premium Paste Wax and AutoGlym HD paste wax to my car for durability testing. It was subject to snow, salt, and touchless car washes. The car was wiped down with a body solvent, no polish or glaze applied, and no correction steps have been taken. What you have is just a layer of Meg's new GC paste on all panels except the hood. Please take note that only the hood received a coat of AutoGlym HD. The following pictures were taken after a wash with Meguiar's new Ultimate Wash & Wax soap.

Hood shows sheeting:

review1-1.jpg


Right quarter panel, no beading and no sheeting:

review1-2.jpg


Trunk, no beading and no sheeting. Look at the spoiler for proof that water has been sprayed:

review1-3.jpg


Shot of back glass with 3 month old application of Meg's NXT 2.0 paste:

review1-4.jpg
 
So does Meguiar's Ultimate Wash & Wax actually add a layer of protection? You decide. The following picture's were taken two (2) days later after a second wash and NO QD's or QW's were used, just Meg's UW&W soap.

Right quarter panel, water sheeting:

review1-5.jpg


Trunk lid, water sheeting:

review1-6.jpg


Hood, water sheeting even more:

review1-7.jpg



*Individual results may vary. This was not meant to be a complete write up or review, only an observation of products thrown into harsh weather.

Thanks for looking.
 
You'd think it would have better durability than that. Haven't tried the new Gold Class, and I probably won't. I don't really need it. I already have like 6 carnauba waxes. Interesting observations though.
 
I grabbed some at autozone today to check out. I will try half the hood next weekend and see how it and max wax hold up on top of 845
 
Ok, I'm a little confused... I have a very UNtrained eye when it comes to waxed vs non-waxed surfaces. What am I looking for in these pictures that determines where there is and isn't any protection?

From reading and learning on this forum, I believe the water sheeting means there IS a layer of protection, but the right quarter panel with no beading or sheeting doesn't seem to have any water left on it (possible cuz it's vertical and/or camera is not pickin it up), so isn't that a good thing? Making the drying process easier?

Also, you can apply wax to the windshield and windows??
 
Ok, I'm a little confused... I have a very UNtrained eye when it comes to waxed vs non-waxed surfaces. What am I looking for in these pictures that determines where there is and isn't any protection?

From reading and learning on this forum, I believe the water sheeting means there IS a layer of protection, but the right quarter panel with no beading or sheeting doesn't seem to have any water left on it (possible cuz it's vertical and/or camera is not pickin it up), so isn't that a good thing? Making the drying process easier?

Also, you can apply wax to the windshield and windows??
 
Clutch34 said:
Ok, I'm a little confused... I have a very UNtrained eye when it comes to waxed vs non-waxed surfaces. What am I looking for in these pictures that determines where there is and isn't any protection?

From reading and learning on this forum, I believe the water sheeting means there IS a layer of protection, but the right quarter panel with no beading or sheeting doesn't seem to have any water left on it (possible cuz it's vertical and/or camera is not pickin it up), so isn't that a good thing? Making the drying process easier?

Also, you can apply wax to the windshield and windows??
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You can wax any paint, glass, metal, hard plastic (ie head/taillights).

As for signs of protection, I go by how easy the paint is to clean, how slick it is, and how water beads up. My paint is swirl-free so I don't really go by looks, because swirl-free paint always looks good.

The sheeting in the pictures does not look uniform and I would probably say that there is minimal protection left, if any. I'd definitely be applying a fresh coat of wax.
 
02blackout said:
Those vinyl headlight lids make it looks meannn lol
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Actually they are fiberglass but yeah I agree, it makes it look mean!

[email protected] said:
You can wax any paint, glass, metal, hard plastic (ie head/taillights).

As for signs of protection, I go by how easy the paint is to clean, how slick it is, and how water beads up. My paint is swirl-free so I don't really go by looks, because swirl-free paint always looks good.

The sheeting in the pictures does not look uniform and I would probably say that there is minimal protection left, if any. I'd definitely be applying a fresh coat of wax.
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Thanks for following up Matt and believe me, there will be more product added! My Pinnacle SSII should arrive today so that will go on this weekend for another round of testing. I also plan to take the PC XP out of the box and try it out on my wife's black Cobalt for the first time! :eek: If all is well, it will receive a full correction followed with Wolfgang DGPS 3.0 and Fuzion. If not, then hopefully I will pick up a few tips at Detail Fest or just pay someone there to fix it!

Clutch34, in the first post when looking at the paint you really don't see the water because it's just laying there with no beading or sheeting taking place. In the second post if you look at the paint you will see the water sheeting. If you're not sure what you're looking for, the dark areas that look blotchy is actually water and the lighter areas are where the paint is dry. For the windows, I would prefer something that has a sheeting effect over beading. Now that I have opened up to other products, I'm sure I will find what I'm looking for!

CieraCL, in my personal opinion, I don't think the Meg's Gold Class is a winter wax. I'm sure there are ways to enhance the protection but that's not what I wanted to test. My goal was to test the durability of the wax alone with no QD's, QW's, or sealants.

Jenn1270, you should try testing the two products without the Collinite first and then strip down the finish and layer them. What I mean by this is strip away old wax and apply Max Wax on one side and the Meg's on the other side, run your test, then strip away the products again and apply the Collinite followed by the two products. This will allow you to test standalone products then enhanced products.
 
Any chance you've got remnants of the body solvent still on the surface when the wax was applied? It is extremely bizarre that water would lay in a sheet and not move at all on a vertical panel such as your rear quarter panel. Even the Autoglym HD wax is hardly beading at all on the hood, and it should be beading like mad on a horizontal surface like that.

Any body solvent remaining when the waxes were applied may well have compromised them during application.
 
I will not rule out the possibility of lingering body solvent. I did wipe the car down with several water soaked towels, panel by panel and followed with a dry towel. One week after application beading was present. Week two showed very little beading and at the end of week three, you see the results. Keep in mind, we had a lot of snow and a lot of road salt and I drive 150 miles one way to work. I stopped at touchless car washes in between which could have resulted in the wax breaking down faster. I wasn't planning a full in depth review so I have no pictures to show after each week of driving and washing.

I just wanted to provide an idea of what winter driving does to one layer of wax with no enhancements. At the end of my post I also made the statement that individual results may vary. Driving conditions and environmental conditions play a huge role on the durability of wax.
 
Michael Stoops said:
Sure beads like mad here
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Exactly why I said, "If I'm not mistaken" haha. Although, I know for a fact AG HD sheets very well!

I think the OP poster should have washed the car after the body solvent, that way there's no question! :xyxthumbs:
 
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rwright said:
I will not rule out the possibility of lingering body solvent. I did wipe the car down with several water soaked towels, panel by panel and followed with a dry towel. One week after application beading was present. Week two showed very little beading and at the end of week three, you see the results. Keep in mind, we had a lot of snow and a lot of road salt and I drive 150 miles one way to work. I stopped at touchless car washes in between which could have resulted in the wax breaking down faster. I wasn't planning a full in depth review so I have no pictures to show after each week of driving and washing.

I just wanted to provide an idea of what winter driving does to one layer of wax with no enhancements. At the end of my post I also made the statement that individual results may vary. Driving conditions and environmental conditions play a huge role on the durability of wax.
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So both waxes showed beading after a week, and less and less with each successive week? Under those conditions it's not really surprising. Both waxes are carnauba products so they, typically, won't last as long as synthetics will. Even so, subjecting any wax, carnauba or synthetic, to heavy road salt (which is incredibly corrosive) and to a touchless wash (where heavy detergents are used to break down and remove dirt and grime) it's no wonder there's hardly anything left of either.
 
07 z-oh-6 said:
Exactly why I said, "If I'm not mistaken" haha

I think the OP poster should have washed the car after the body solvent, that way there's no question! :xyxthumbs:
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I had no problems like this when I tested Dodo Juice against Dodo Juice. I used the same procedure, body solvent (Take Off) - water soaked towels (rinse simulation) - dry towel. The Dodo waxes held up for a long time and they were exposed to very little road salt. Thankfully there's no snow in the forecast but if there was I would run this test again. I stand firm with the belief of the road salt breaking down the protection of the waxes, not lingering body solvent. Sorry guys.
 
Michael Stoops said:
So both waxes showed beading after a week, and less and less with each successive week? Under those conditions it's not really surprising. Both waxes are carnauba products so they, typically, won't last as long as synthetics will. Even so, subjecting any wax, carnauba or synthetic, to heavy road salt (which is incredibly corrosive) and to a touchless wash (where heavy detergents are used to break down and remove dirt and grime) it's no wonder there's hardly anything left of either.
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Haha! You must have posted this as I was typing my last response!
 
rwright said:
I had no problems like this when I tested Dodo Juice against Dodo Juice. I used the same procedure, body solvent (Take Off) - water soaked towels (rinse simulation) - dry towel. The Dodo waxes held up for a long time and they were exposed to very little road salt. Thankfully there's no snow in the forecast but if there was I would run this test again. I stand firm with the belief of the road salt breaking down the protection of the waxes, not lingering body solvent. Sorry guys.
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Road salt and touchless washes are both extremely harsh on wax. I don't know of any wax that will hold up through touchless washes - the soaps they use are very strong as Mr. Stoops said.
 
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