Most regretted detailing product purchase

BudgetPlan1 said:
Grit Guard Pad Washer
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Is the regret of getting pad washer in general or was it the design of the grit guard pad washer? It seemed messier than the lake country pad washer when Mike used them both in one of the recent live streams.
 
MisterSnoop said:
Is the regret of getting pad washer in general or was it the design of the grit guard pad washer? It seemed messier than the lake country pad washer when Mike used them both in one of the recent live streams.
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It's more in the way I work most likely. I guess it might be good for cleaning pads on the fly when doing a vehicle but I'm always starting w a full set of 6-8 pads. I always thought running the pads against the grill might not be all that good for 'em either. And it did make a mess and despite always having polisher plugged in GFCI I always thought that if anyone could electrocute themselves running a power tool over a bucket of water, it'd be me...I have special talents for things like that.

In the end, it was just messy and more trouble than it was worth for me but like anything, personal preference for the most part.
 
BudgetPlan1 said:
... I always thought running the pads against the grill might not be all that good for 'em either. ...
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I always wondered about that. Seems like a sharp edged grate was an interesting choice for those. But I guess I've never heard of someone saying one shredded their pads? :dunno:

After getting out of the Optimum fascination I had when I started here, seemed like most just recommended a stack of pads vs cleaning on the fly. That's been suiting me just fine.
 
I have full jars of Zymol Carbon, Creame, Glasur, Ital, and Titanium that I collected which essentially turned into fridge occupants. They sweat too much in the hot and humid Florida environment to be first options for a paste wax, they are quick to dry so you have to apply to a panel and buff off instead of a more relaxed apply to the entire car and then buff off approach that I would prefer, they lose peak hydrophobic performance very quickly in the real world, and ultimately they just don't pose any significant difference between each other in terms of feel, look, and most important to me for a paste wax - SMELL - that would justify choosing one over the other.

Not that I dislike them or think they're a below average option for a paste wax, my biggest regret is going out there and buying ALL of them, only to realize Zymol was pretty lazy in differentiating these up as much as they could have. Still good smelling waxes for sure, but Concours and Destiny smell wildly different compared to this block of five, I wish they would have at least spent more time doing more to switch them up. The fact that I have to fridge these next to the yogurt instead of displaying them proudly on the shelf with the rest of the collection is another bummer. Glasur would have been enough had I stopped there.


MattyL said:
TW Graphene Flex Wax and TW Seal and Shine (old version) have been considerable disappointments for me.

Flex Wax- I have applied the Flex Wax (1-2 sprays per panel) using both a square mf applicator and and it was always a streaky mess, regardless of the amount of product I used, ambient temperature and humidity, and tc.; tried a LC coating applicator, but experienced the same results. Flashed/dried way too quick and I always had to use the damp mf towel recommendation to remove which, combined with the effort trying to remove with a dry mf, is too much towel contact for freshly-polished paint for my liking. This product was just generally way too user-unfriendly, to the point that it was almost as bad an experience as when I used the first version of Blackfire Crystal Coat. To top it off, the protection was visually non-existent after about a week and it looked like nothing was even on the panel, if judging by the slow water sheeting. I made the mistake of purchasing two bottles of this stuff and Pepboys is refusing to accept a return for the unused bottle without a receipt, so I am stuck with it.

Seal and Shine- this had decent (nothing that stood out) short term water behavior and protection like all the YouTube videos and internet reviews and whatnot. However, under real world conditions for a car that is not garaged, is sparsely driven, and is washed bi weekly it looked like it was barely present after a month or two. When I performed my annual detail to the car I applied S&S to a panel of, I applied several other products on the other panels at the same time and they are holding up much better. I will concede that I used the old version though and that the new version may be better.

These are just my real world experiences.
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I recently tried out Flex Wax for the first time and I can confirm, this is just super heavy and I was regretting it majorly on a non-metallic red Ferrari paint. Even the damp microfiber wipe was still giving me trouble. Seal N Shine's heavy tendency to also smear has me leaving it high on the shelf in favor of most other options.
 
BudgetPlan1 said:
.........and despite always having polisher plugged in GFCI I always thought that if anyone could electrocute themselves running a power tool over a bucket of water, it'd be me...I have special talents for things like that.
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It's not just you, Lol.

When I very first heard of this pad washer, I was intrigued. About 2 minutes into investigating it, I read the process involved and thought "Ok, so I run the tool over a splashing bucket of water? Uh..... Nope."
 
I just cleaned out my garage and threw away CG Top Coat, CG Jet Seal and CG Butter Wet Wax ... bought all those before I knew better.
 
Biggest regret lately was the DP Not your fathers sio2 paste wax, on a washed, clayed and corrected white Grand Cherokee. Nice shine but very difficult to spread thin and even more difficult to remove

Just wanted to edit my post, acuRAS82 was able to help me out and with a foam applicator, product works awesome. This was a user error on my part and not a product error ��
 
Meguiar's M27. To inconsistent when trying it on various test panels.
 
A gallon of Chemical Guys Stripper Suds. Peeeyooooo does it stink.
Like a stripper at 4am with bad breath.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk
 
My neighbor should regret hiring the hacks that polished his Escalade not too long ago…

I remember looking over and thinking to myself,

“why are they polishing that dark blue Escalade in 85 degree direct sunlight”?

“Oh with a rotary just to top it off… Do I smell a hack job”? Lol.

Looking at it up close for the 1st time, a hack job indeed. I wish I hadn’t waiting a few minutes to take these pics because the sun was displaying the holograms so much better than I was able to capture in these 2 pics. Holograms everywhere.

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Bill D said:
I hope you come to that Escalade's rescue!
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I don’t see it happening… Reason being is I’ve detailed it once before, simple detail, no polishing involed. For whatever reason he decided to call someone else when it came time to polish it, maybe price had something to do with it?

It’s been well over a month since they polished it so I’m guessing he doesn’t know the difference between a swirl and a squirrel..

TBO I’m not really interested, it’s huge and he probably wouldn’t want to hear what I should really charge to do it.

Escalades are sometimes undercover minivans.
 
My father just got rid of a minivan. I'm rejoicing!
 
Gyeon Bathe Essence. Moved on to Hyper Wash which blows it away IMO.
 
You want to really enjoy this thread. Start drinking some Jamesons and read it going backwards. Eldorado, you had some gold in there.
 
DP Ceramic Detailing Spray. Very grabby, underwhelming gloss and slickness. Junk.
 
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