MACH1

Just come off www.autoexpress.co.uk and a survey on there
says that Turtle wax Gloss Guard is the best value at £6.99
What do you all think? Has anyone tried it for themselves?

rr_ww

I used to use Autoglym Super Resin.
But recently tried Meguirs Tech Wax.

Apart from the AG ending up with lots of dust on the car. I cant see any real difference.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

It's not what you use...its how you prepare it!

BTW: way sorry to be a pedantic old git...but the intial question states which polish. Then your thread goes on about both wax AND polish

Wax and polish are two entirely different products....one actually is a extremely fine abrasive (think T-cut but much much less agressive) and the other is a sealent/protective layer that sits ontop of the paint.

To sum up the potential confusion:

Autoglym Super resin is a polish
Meguires tech wax is a wax

you should actually use both: The polish as the final part of surface preperation, then the wax to seal!

rr_ww

Aah that might explain it

What do you recommend?

AudiMan

Autoglym 7/10
Zymol 8/10
Meguiars tech wax 9/10

Swissol very good but way to expensive for me, also on a silver car the "deep" shine of a darker colour is not really possible to achieve.

IMHO


Ian

03-CTR

gloss guard is top stuff imo.

as said though do not mistake what is effectively a wax for a polish as they're two different things.

if your paint is in good order then it's fantastic stuff. £ for £ it blows meguiars/autoglym away imo (have used both in the past) as it lasts far longer, is much easier to apply/buff off, gives a silkier finish and is cheap too.

what i normally do is use turtlewax 'safe cut' if the paint is a little rough and needs smoothing out. its a really mild cutting polish with a little wax so cleans things up and gives a mild shine. I then finish off with the gloss guard which gives an ultra slick feel.

hope this helps

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I too and throw a fair bit depending on what I have on the shelf

Personally I tend to use 3m or concept (big 5litre commercial valeter's polish), but obviously you can get that very easily.

So, generally I quite like the Meguires Deep Crystal system, for prep, polish and wax. Plus value for money

Although the polish does cause shade differences if not applied evenly. The wax if over-applied (like all carnuba waxes) is a **** to remove

Autoglym Super resin Polish is easier as a polish, but is dusty, and is a PITA if there are any residual surface contaminents. The Autoglym Extra gloss protection is their euqivelent to a wax - good finish and very easy to apply and wipe off but not that durable.

Mer - more aggressive at cleaning the paint, but very dusty, and not such a shiny result. (plus you still need the wax on top of it)

Iain Young

Mer is abbrasive, and will eventually kill your paint if you use it a lot...

I use Swissol. Yes it's expensive, but it lasts sooooo much longer than the other stuff, especially if you prepare (clean) the paint properly before application. For example, I bought a pot of the wax (about £50) over 5 years ago, and I'm still only half way down it

The finish is much better than I ever achieved with the turtlewax / autoglym stuff...

ethanrob

iTrader: (3)

maguiar's three stage cleaning system cannot beat it IMHO, cheap as autoglym and ten times more effective,deep shine and glass like finish
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,shiney

rr_ww

Seems to attrack a lot of grass though

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

ALL polish is abrasive - thats how it works!

It would take a hell of alot of polishing to to that. Now if you were using medium or fine grade cutting compounds every weekend I'd have more concern after, say, 5 years of using it. Mer in comparison, is much much less agressive. Although maybe slightly more so than other polishes. But it is by far much less agressive than, for example Meguiars."Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner" or Swissol's Medium Cleaner fluid. And even then you'd have to do a hell of lot of polishing (bordering on obsessive) to even cut through the factory's orange peal, yet alone go through the top layer onto the base paint. You'd probably do more long term damage to the paint by polishing it and then not bothering to wax it afterwards

Now if you want to know what does kill paint...Automatic Car washes!

ethanrob

iTrader: (3)

yeah,sorry that was my fault,hot day at the japs show,rolling around in the grass like a dog,lucky its not a my99 model,or that grass could be deadly to the "chocolate engine"

Iain Young

Not so. I used it once on my old scoob. Pressed a bit hard in one place to try and remove a mark in the paint, looked at the cloth and it had blue scooby paint on it. Never used it again after that.

Possibly true, but they are designed just to be cleaners, whereas mer is an all-in-one solution (or that's how it's advertised). I'd expect the cleaners to be more agressive, however I've never had paint come off with the swissol medium cleaner like I did with mer.

Very true. I've never used one, and I never intend to

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Any car used which is a solid colour (not metallic or pearl) and without a clear coat laquer will at some point show paint on the cloth with certain polishes and cutting compounds. As using any certain polishes or cutting coupound removes paint (we're talking a very small number of microns here). It is especially much more noticeable in the case if the paintwork has oxidised through age and lack of care, or has at some point been repaired, be it chips away or a bodyshop where areas of new and old paintwork have been blended.

Here's why: Most polishes work by removing the top surface of paint so it is level with the scratches in the paint (very fine scratches - invisible to the eye which makes the paintwork look Matt and dull). So it is inevitable to have traces of paint on the cloth because that is how these polishes work. The only time you won't see it is with vehicles that have a clearcoat laquer as the finsihing coat (anything metallic or pearl, and some solid colours on new cars). Or the car is already polished to such a high finish that only very light buffing is required. The other exception is using a polish that "fills" the scratches (normally silicone based or similar). Most polishes are a combination of both abrasion and a filling materials. Some are more abrasive than others, but at no point are they excessively abrasive unless...

Eventually, if you are obsessive enough. Any polish will wear through the paint in the long run (The long run being in 10 years time you'll end up having arms the size of tree trunks, arthritus and RSi in both elbows and your car is now just bare primer ). This is another reason to understand the difference between wax and polish

(waits for sombody to ask if Mr Sheen is wax or polish - I personally think the labelling is misleading.....lets call trading standards! )

Iain Young

Not arguing with you, but this was the first time I used mer, on a well looked after 6 month old car, (so no paint oxidisation etc) and it took the paint off the first time I tried it (it was a new cloth / pad as well, so no paint on the cloth before I used it). I sorta lost confidence in it after that and bought some swissol instead....

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

You'll probably find the same would have happend with Autoglym super resin (abrasive)...or dare I utter the word T-cut (very abrasive).

MattN

so I need to wash my car, polish it then wax it??? That sounds like a lot of work.

How much is all this stuff????

Turbohot

I dont do all that but i do remember 2 yrs ago about 95% people here on one thread praising Turtlewax.I went ahead and bought it but hardly ever used it.Must be good who knows

Mogsi

Meguiars gets my vote everytime.... Amazing results...

Every 3months - 2 Bucket Wash with Gold Shampoo/conditoner, Stage 1 Paint Cleaner, Stage 2 Polish, NXT Tech Wax..

Every couple of weeks just top up the Wax.

For good results I always use meguiars applicator pads and a clean polishing cloth for each product...

Mirror, Mirror on the wall

Jap2Scrap

Nah, he's English, you can tell by the moustache

StickyMicky

prep prep prep

MACH1

Cheers for reply, didn't realise this would cause such a result, perhaps a survey could be in order. Will try out Turtle wax now.

class_A

You forgot claying

Try Serious Performance for your detailing supplies. The ordering method is a little old-school but Alex has always provided good service to me.

rgv_stu

whats the best way of getting rid of all the bugs and tar etc i seem to pick up at this time of year ??
ive been using the tech wax since jan and im really impressed with the shine