Mark,

I recently got my car - it came of a boat and was cover in salt and other cr*p.

Having always been a 5 min. wash my car man I quickly hoses the car down with, errhum, washing up liquid.

Next day I gave it another quick wash as missed quite a lot in the fading light the previous day - err with washing up liquid again

Anyhow, as you could expect my car wasnt exactly glowing. Hence I picked up this thread with interest and ordered some WW start kit yesterday (with Merlin wax).

Question is, did the washing up liquid fiasco do any longterm damage on those two washes.

Second question - sensibly how long is going to wash the car on the weekend or is this going to be a 1 month project ?

Regards,

bkar

 

Mark U:

Im not after a freebee, but im out of Auto Cleanse (is Zymol a dirty word?) , have you got a WW alternative which is as good?

Many thanks

NeilR

 

Bright Kar

No long term damage caused as the cleanse will solve the problem for u.

Should take no more than 2 hrs to cleanse then put the stuff away for 6 months.

Wax immediately after cleansing or next day at latest. This will take no longer than 30 mins. Dont forget to apply wax to headlamps, driving lamps and number plates.

Thereafter washing and waxing should take no longer than an hour and half.

Always but always wash the car every week. Wax as often as u like but at least once per month please.

regards
Mark

if u have any problems or quieries please do not hesitate to call the office on 0800 074 1608 office hours and 0402 822544 saturday and sundays and bank holidays. I'm never too busy to take a call. If I am I'll call back at my expense.

 

If the mark-up on A* is so huge, whats the typical mark up on WW products? Does a £67 kit only cost £5 to manufacture? Not being funny about this, but before we take as gospel a wild statetment that A* costs 75p to make, we need comparative data.

Im prob on my own on this one, but to have three threads relating to one suppliers product is starting to go a bit far. But then it is cheaper then advertising!

Bet I get flamed . . .

 

OK Mark, you have another customer for your Merlin

Just as a matter of interest, how do you rate the CarPlan product which is being advertised at the moment (you know the one which clicks on to a hose attachment and gives a wet look shine)? Is it just cheap ****?

Chris

 

Mark -- you've not replied to my email I sent last week. But since the answer may be of benefit to others here, I'll ask here. For best results, do you recommend Subaru Wax or Merlin Wax? I'm on the verge of ordering...

 

Subaru wax is a better wax, but it's a little more work to apply. It depends how much effort you want to put in.

 

Carl

My apologies

I answer all emails! perhaps it didnt come thru.

Merlin has 40% wax content wheresas Subaru has 53%. The scooby wax will provide more protection and is a little longer lasting due to the extra wax.

Scooby wax takes a lot of effort and patience to apply but the results are stunning. Once u are used to applying scooby wax you'll just love it.

merlin wax was created for those who want high gloss, ease of applictaion as well as good protection. This it achieves with consumate ease.

The decision must rest with you as which way you go scooby wax or merlin wax. Do you want to have nice soft hands with a pleasant aroma and have time on yer hands or do you want almost the same result but have speed and ease of application without nice smelling hands etc and the use of an applicator.

upto 2hrs for scooby wax or half hour with merlin. choice is yours.

wow

 

>Neil
I used to use Auto Cleanse. I now use the WW Detergent-free car wash. It is just as good as the Zymol product - cheaper, but doesn't have the yummy smell.

 

Mark,

I can only presume my original e-mail ended up in a bitbucket somewhere.

Did you ever get the mobile dent repair thing off the ground (missus's Saxo has a dent in it and I made it worse yesterday when I leant on it and 'popped' it out of shape)?

 

Yeah I'll second what MickeyG said about not telling work colleagues about the price of the stuff,I've still got loads of Zymol carbon wax left that Mark sold me ages ago and which I think is second to none.
I work for The Royal Mail and baring in mind some of these blokes cars didn't cost £60 in the first place you can imagine the stick I got and still get to this day

 

Hi Mark,

Got the starter kit on Sat. It does everything people says. Car looks shinny and it wasnt a whole lot of effort. Applying and removing the cleanser is the hardest part. Very effective that cleanser.

Got a few problem though.

There wasnt an obvious dummy warning not put wax on the windscreen washer injectors. This dummy clogged them up

My car was transported by boat and it was filthy as it didnt go into a container. The cleanser got the painter work nice and clean. The windows however were problem.

After the wash (i sponged and hosed on a per panel basis) the water marks were pretty bad. The windscreen wash included in the kit I dont is man enough for that sort of stain . I dont want to wash with water again given Ive done the paintwork.

I know the cleanser is for the paintwork but I was thinking of using it on the windows then using the screen wash. Is this a good or bad idea ?

Another problem is that Ive got lots of little white flecks. They are so regular that I thought it was part of the paintjob initially. The cleanser didnt remove them. I have no idea what they are but they appear on the windows too, and when on the windows they easily come off with a nail but not on the paintwork. You can feel them when you run your hand along the paintwork.

In due course I want to remove them. Any ideas ? I know its difficult given I cant tell you what they are but....

Question about the Merlin Wax. If you regularly wax the car does the wax in effect get thicker thereby increasing the protection and shine or does applying the last wax effectively remove the previous treatment ?

Anyhow thanks for your time.

Bkar

 

After using Mer and Autoglym for years on all my cars I can honestly say that the WW Merlin wax is the best I have ever used.

 

Glass Cleaner supplied a let down??

I also thought the cleanser and wax were superb but found the window cleaner a bit weak for the tough marks...had to nick the cleaners Windowlene to get the car fully finished.

...Ian

 

Nick : Thanks

All: After an absense of several months, used my old Zymol stuff i purchased last year. It's been sittin in the fridge of months and id grown accustomed to Halfords own again.

Once again, WOW! mirror finish.....

Sonic Blue never looked so good on a 3yr old 70,000 mile impreza.

Will be updating to WW for some updates.

The really bad news is the visibility of the body panel dents where Mr & Mrs Nobrains have opened their door into mine.

NeilR

 

Ian

I found the window cleaner excellent. What I do however is to use a Halfords string net covered sponge thingy to get all the squat flies off the windscreen. Then I use the WW Window cleaner to easily get the road film off. Works a treat for me.

BTW DON'T use the Halfords string sponge thingy on your paintwork!!! It WILL scratch!

[This message has been edited by Nick (edited 13-06-2000).]

 

Bright Kar

Give me a call Tuesday on 0800 074 1608 and then I will know who u is. Then I will blend something for u to remove this problem and I need to discusss with you these white spots...need lots of details from you


Glass Clean

Formulated as an all round glass cleaner for inside and outside. Cant win them all. However if u want a stonking glass cleaner than melts insect etc give me a call.

 

Please help! I've already been told that even breathing on deep blue mica can cause scratches. My MY00 arrives next month, needless to say I've only just learned how fragile the paintwork is. Your advice please

 

CLS

Call Mark & kit a Subaru wax starter kit. I really wish I'd used it from new rather than when my my99 DBM was 1 year old.

 

Using Mark Underwoods epic (above) I sent an email to Auto Glym. See below for what I sent and there response (I did not tell Auto Glym where I got the information):

What I sent:
I have always been impressed with your products and have been using them
for the past few years. I would, however be interested on your comment to
the following statement:

The AutoGlym product uses a high vapour plus chalk to help the product dry.
The chalk acts as a microspoic polishing agent which then removes paint as
well as minor imperfections. Whilst buffing all this chalk off your get
white fallout all over the place and when doing the roff it lands on the
glasswork to boot. Net result is that you have to keep shaking the residue
out of yer colth. The so called waxes that AutoGlym product use are
sythetic resin waxes ie man made and analysis show that the content of such
resin waxes is between 3.5 and 5% maximum. Lasting effect of such so called
resins are around 2 weeks and sometimes 3 weeks.

Their response:
we obvously cannot disclose the exact content of each product and durability
varies enormously dependent on environment , weather , age of car, etc.etc.

The level of information supplied by Auto Glym differs markedly when compared to the information offered by Mark U.

 

Mark,

Thanks for taking out the time to write all that info - has cleared up all the little questions I had!

cheers
Night

 

Nightmare

Its always my pleasure and no problem at all. Its part of the service and if u learn from me then I'm pleased.

regards
WOW

 

Hi Mark,

Ordered my Subaru starter kit Yesterday.
One question I have and others must be affected by is Brake dust - I cleaned my 17" OZ racing Super Tourismo gold wheels today and they are a pain to clean (multi spoke) anyway went for a blast and when I came back they are covered in brake dust again anything I can treat the wheels with ??

Tal

 

Tal,
if you're looking for a cleaner, the wax wizard multi-clean included with the Subaru pack is superb. I believe Mark also does a protector which sounds interesting.

 

Well gang, I've just got the starter pack and used the Cleanse and Wax after the comments on this thread. The Cleanse was a real pain the in the ar$e to use - it took ages and there was no "silky smooth" feel afterwards. The wax itself was fairly straightforward in comparison.

I have to say that after several years of using Autoglym I am very disappointed with the Wax Wizard. The Autoglym Extra Gloss polish has much the same effect for half the effort and cost. I only hope that WW will be better at retaining its shine than AG was. Anyone know how often the Cleanse and Wax should be used, i.e. after every wash (nightmare!!!)?

IMHO, don't do it, stick with AG

Cheers

A

 

askan

surprised at your comments.

a friend and i bought the starter pack a week and ½ ago from mark who took the trouble to drive 40+ miles to visit and demonstrate all the products to us.

he was a confirmed autoglym user until seeing and then using marks WW products.

i too was impressed with the ease in which the cleanse went on and off ! (similarly with the wax)

generally everyone on here is in favour of marks products. could you have a 'funny' batch ??? mark perhaps you can comment ?

as to how often to use. the cleanse should be used twice a year...april and set/ oct.

mark recommended waxing the front of the car each time you wash it as its the part of the car which suffers the most from dead flies etc. otherwise once a month.

i'm v happy with mine. sorry to hear you're not.

 

MTR

[This message has been edited by MTR (edited 17 September 2000).]

 

Aksan

pse call me on 0800 074 1608 and I'll tell you what you did wrong with the cleanse...i can guess but I need to ask some questions first.

Again...if u aint happy send the stuff back and I'll refund your purchase price.

 

one further thing - Im in a writing mood this evening.

Aksan...when I first bought the product, I wrote a bit comparing it with AG (you can find it easily enough by searching) - the Zym*l stuff came out slightly in favour but not much.

I then read a lot more of the user guide about the best ways to use this stuff, and have found that practice makes a real difference....there is no comparison between the results I got at first with the ones I get now. I belive that perseverance is worth it to protect a car worth as much as these are...

worth bearing in mind I think....

 

A question for Mark - advice welcome.

I purchased a Starter Kit last April which was applied to my new Silver car on delivery. After reading this thread I realise that its not a good idea to cleanse/wax in direct sunshine - but I did.

I washed the car but since it dried quickly in the sun, I didn't leather it - big mistake! I then cleansed and waxed. On applying the wax to the roof I could see and feel the dirt edges of 'little puddles' which must have occurred when I left the car to dry without leathering. I tried to cleanse again but no effect.

The rest of the car is great and I doubt anyone else would notice the roof - but the 'puddles' are still if you look carefully.

Is there a solution?

Phil