Jugg2Driver
08-28-2006, 09:03 AM
So Sunday I decided to get out and get the stang all cleaned up for the upcoming show. I decided I would clay bar it, and wax it, condition the leather and dash. So I went down to my local O'reily's and bought $80 worth of car loving gear. I picked up the following:
1 gal of Gold Class Car wash
Quick Clay
Gold Class liquid wax
Quick Interior
Gold Class rich leather spray
Hot Rims all wheel cleaner
Hot Shine Tire Spray
Water Magnet Drying Towel
The experiance:
The car was has to be a thick as honey. I had never seen a car wash so freaking thick. But it had very nice sudding action and washed as well as any other car wash. Which is to say it worked (or seems to work) as well as the cheap blue coral stuff I had used before. During this washing I used the wheel cleaner and I have had multiple experiances with wheel cleaners that just don't live up to the bottle. However, the Mequiars product did work, the looser dust started to run immediately and what wasn't removed with the hose was easily wiped off with a rag.
Next step was the clay bar. I've never tried this before so I had no clue what really to expect. My one complaint if any is that the directions don't tell you whether your car should be dry or damp. They only say to wash all the loose dirt etc off before clay baring. So I refered to the picture on the box and decided that it looked dry. So I grabbed my Water Magnet drying towel and set out to dry the car. Let me preface this by saying I have used everything from genuine Chamios to the synthetic to standard towels and I have to say that the Water Magnet is by far the best drying towel I have ever used. It dried the whole car without ever having to be wrung out. Now back to the clay bar, again not knowing what to expect I figured this would an interesting task. Other than my hand cramping up a few times this process was relatively uneventful. It does leave the paint with a very smooth finish, but it's not a cure all to all paint imperfections. There are still a lot of gritty spots in my paint. Just waited to long to clay bar it. That being said, I wasn't dissatisfied with the result.
Next step was the Tire shine, not much to say here. Kind of a nice feature on the spray bottle was a setting to set the spray narrow so that you didn't get the tire shine all over the wheels. Overall satisfied.
Now I moved on to the Wax. Can't really say to much here either. The product is straight forward. Apply wax with included applicator let dry and buff away (finally put my Craftsman Auto Buffer/Polisher to work). With finish is nice and crisp. At least as much as a white car can be.
Now we move to the interior and I have to say this is where I met my most dissappointing product. The Quick Detail did clean and I'm sure it conditioned but I'm used to products like AmorAll and F2001 that leave a nice shine. This product didn't leave the shine I was expecting. However, it is safe on all interior surfaces, plastics, vinyls, audio faces etc. So I can't agrue with the fact that you don't have to worry about what it gets on. Second and last product was the leather conditioner, WOW! This stuff is nice and a little goes a long way. It puts one hell of a shine on your leather and soaks into it nicely. Looks like this is a very good leather product.
No pics of the car do to the fact that it was early evening when I finished and it was threatening rain. Suffice it say the car is very clean.
Also, one last note that I found very interesting and really quite a nice touch. All the Meguiar products (excluding the towel) have really pleasing smells. The don't smell like cleaners or anything of that nature. Hell I swear the clay bar spray smelled like bubble gum at times.
Basically what I'm getting at here is that unless I find a Meguiars product that just pisses me off, I think I will continue to buy Meguiars. I was very pleased with 95% of what I bought and if you asked me I would recommend Mequiars.
Matt
1 gal of Gold Class Car wash
Quick Clay
Gold Class liquid wax
Quick Interior
Gold Class rich leather spray
Hot Rims all wheel cleaner
Hot Shine Tire Spray
Water Magnet Drying Towel
The experiance:
The car was has to be a thick as honey. I had never seen a car wash so freaking thick. But it had very nice sudding action and washed as well as any other car wash. Which is to say it worked (or seems to work) as well as the cheap blue coral stuff I had used before. During this washing I used the wheel cleaner and I have had multiple experiances with wheel cleaners that just don't live up to the bottle. However, the Mequiars product did work, the looser dust started to run immediately and what wasn't removed with the hose was easily wiped off with a rag.
Next step was the clay bar. I've never tried this before so I had no clue what really to expect. My one complaint if any is that the directions don't tell you whether your car should be dry or damp. They only say to wash all the loose dirt etc off before clay baring. So I refered to the picture on the box and decided that it looked dry. So I grabbed my Water Magnet drying towel and set out to dry the car. Let me preface this by saying I have used everything from genuine Chamios to the synthetic to standard towels and I have to say that the Water Magnet is by far the best drying towel I have ever used. It dried the whole car without ever having to be wrung out. Now back to the clay bar, again not knowing what to expect I figured this would an interesting task. Other than my hand cramping up a few times this process was relatively uneventful. It does leave the paint with a very smooth finish, but it's not a cure all to all paint imperfections. There are still a lot of gritty spots in my paint. Just waited to long to clay bar it. That being said, I wasn't dissatisfied with the result.
Next step was the Tire shine, not much to say here. Kind of a nice feature on the spray bottle was a setting to set the spray narrow so that you didn't get the tire shine all over the wheels. Overall satisfied.
Now I moved on to the Wax. Can't really say to much here either. The product is straight forward. Apply wax with included applicator let dry and buff away (finally put my Craftsman Auto Buffer/Polisher to work). With finish is nice and crisp. At least as much as a white car can be.
Now we move to the interior and I have to say this is where I met my most dissappointing product. The Quick Detail did clean and I'm sure it conditioned but I'm used to products like AmorAll and F2001 that leave a nice shine. This product didn't leave the shine I was expecting. However, it is safe on all interior surfaces, plastics, vinyls, audio faces etc. So I can't agrue with the fact that you don't have to worry about what it gets on. Second and last product was the leather conditioner, WOW! This stuff is nice and a little goes a long way. It puts one hell of a shine on your leather and soaks into it nicely. Looks like this is a very good leather product.
No pics of the car do to the fact that it was early evening when I finished and it was threatening rain. Suffice it say the car is very clean.
Also, one last note that I found very interesting and really quite a nice touch. All the Meguiar products (excluding the towel) have really pleasing smells. The don't smell like cleaners or anything of that nature. Hell I swear the clay bar spray smelled like bubble gum at times.
Basically what I'm getting at here is that unless I find a Meguiars product that just pisses me off, I think I will continue to buy Meguiars. I was very pleased with 95% of what I bought and if you asked me I would recommend Mequiars.
Matt