I have just begun to read up on various waxes and polishes and I wanted to start a new opinion topic based on our special situation in Taiwan.
So in certain areas we have much acid raid as well as beating hot sun and people brushing up on the paintwork. For my new car I want to begin using a high quality polish that will give a great sheen, but also help to protect against the elements which so easily damages modern water based paints. I have been reading up a bit this morning and have aread a few rave articles about ‘Carnauba Wax’. This wax apparatly is a completely natural wax (although has varying contents when tinned)which is amazing in shine, but also quite tough and isn’t supposed to come off too easily. Amazon is selling a variety of this wax and the price seems fairly reasonable. I also found a few reviews of this product HERE, but has anyone in Taiwan used this yet and if so, then how does it compair to the average man made waxes or polishes, and how is the availability of high quality wax or polish that doesn’t contain abbrasives?
Good topic. I actually did some research on this when I lived in
california.
I happened to meet the owners of both Mothers and Meguiars auto wax companies at some local events.
Both of their web sites have a lot of good info about aht constitutes good auto/MC wax and polish.
meguiars.com/
mothers.com/
mothers.com/products/carnaub … story.html
Another good info site:
autogeek.net/carwax.html
I lived right on the ocean and had to worry about salt air as well as blown sand particles. My Saturday morning car washes and waxing was a form of moving meditation for me.
Great information TaiwanCowboy, thanks especially for that last link which gives me a new idea of doubling up on the wax with protection, an idea that I didn’t know about.
Well I took the car for a professional polish and just got it back to see the results. They insisted that the best polish job I could get was with a product called
Fire Glaze and to be honest it looks quite good. Better than the level of sheen though is the level of purity it gives to the paint finish. I really cannot find any swirls, bumps, roughness or any imperfections what so ever after the treatment and it is literally as smooth as a baby’s behind. According to the site just linked above, it is supposed to last for up to three years and doesn’t require topups or anything on top to heighten the shine, but the polish shop that I used told me that it would likely last up to two to three months, so I will see how things go. As I said and as most of us know, the weather conditions here plus acid rain are a little different to what we might find else where, so I’m not going to expect the advertised three years of application. The cost of polishing my medium sized car plus a full valet was 1,800nt using the Fire Glaze which is very expensive considering I don’t have any product left over to show for it, so I am going to price up the product and machinery required to do it myself for comparison now.
I just had another thought…I have a bottle of PH tester in the house. I am going to collect some rain water next time it comes and post the results up here, just out of interest. Has anyone else ever wondered if the wives tales about walking in the rain and loosing your hair are true? I know the rain here wrecks my GoreTex rain wear and I no longer purchase it any more for the reason that a pair of boots and jacket only last for a few months over here compared to years back home. I’m really wondering how much of an affect it has on paint.
Sule -
Mentioned in the Mothers and Meguiar sites is a tool called a “clay bar” or “clay.”
It a piece of clay material used to lift the paricles that get embedded into the surface of the auto. I kind of scoffed at this for a few years not really understanding, nor wanting to go to the trouble of doing the extra work, what advantage this would be.
But finally I succumbed and used one on my vehicle. It was amazing how much it lifted out of the paint/finish. Bits of grit and particles that has become embedded into the alear-coat were removed like magic. It made the surface silky smooth rather than somewhat ‘gritty’ and allowed the polish protectant (carnuba) ‘get a grip’ on the surface and do its job.
I’m not going to tell you I made it a part of my weekly ritual - too much work. But I did make it a quarterly thing to use the clay bar on the auto after a good wash with auto cleaner.
My last 3 vehicles has a base coat, then a metal-flake spray, then 3 - 4 sprays of clear-coat to finish it out. Maintaining the depth of this finish was rewarding and good exercise.
(I really was not as obsessive as this might sound. I just liked to protect the paint and have a nice looking car)
Hmmm…I think I’ll try one of those the next time I need to give the body a full overhaul, it sounds great. So back to the other question, can I find any of these locally?
I was really angry last night. Yesterday I was checking my tyre pressures when I noticed that since I took the car to be polished all the wheel trims have been scratched. I drove the car back to the people that cleaned it and told them that I believed that they must have scratched the trims up when they were instructed by me to remove them and clean the wheels behind them as well as the front surface of the trims. The boss asked a member of staff if it was true that he upturned the trims on the ground to clean the backs of them and the staff member said “yes” in front of my face. They said they were willing to keep the trims and buff out the scratches and I would pick them up the next day. I had a call yesterday evening from the shop and the boss said firstly that the scratches wouldn’t come out. I said that I would purchase new trims then and he became defensive saying that the scratches couldn’t be the result of their efforts. I pretty much put the phone down on him as I was too furious that he could be such a lying ***tard and I really can’t be arsed to deal with low level people such as he must be. Damn, I’m frustrated!
Update: Oh! No wonder he is claiming no responsibility now. I just called Toyota to order four new trims and they tell me each one costs 1,857NT *ucking wonderful!
So where can I purchase a nice set of alloys anyone? The car actually has alloys with wheel trims over the top, which is very odd to make an understatement, but the centre of the alloy wheels looks straight on to the wheel hub, which isn’t a good look. I’m thinking of replacing all the wheels now.