Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Spray Wax

[RandyS]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

I’ve only had the car a few weeks. The first wash was in the rain for a spot free rinse. The second wash was the thorough cleaning to put HCW on it. The 3rd wash was what got my windshield spotted because I dried the paint first. This last weekend I dried the windows first and now I see spots on the paint.

I know I’ve washed it a lot for the small amount of time I’ve owned it, but I live in the country and any driving to a town is 25 minutes away and the bugs are already out. The rain wash was actually the second day of ownership and the dealer who delivered my car to me hit a massive bug the size of my Honda emblem. LoL

I've watched numerous videos, but I have no idea what all this stuff is everyone uses. Detail spray, compounds, lubricants, it’s all Greek to me. The last time I bought wax, it was in a can, you rubbed it on, it turned white, then you wiped it off.

[510GUY]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

Here's what you should do for the very first application of HCW, especially if you don't have a really strong layer of protection on the paint to begin with.

"Foundation Layer"

1. Wash the vehicle with your normal process, rinse thoroughly but leave wet
2. Spray no more than 2 trigger pulls of product onto a panel - 3 for a large panel such as the hood of a large vehicle, roof, etc.
3. Dry with a quality microfiber drying towel
4. Done

If, on the other hand, you have really nice water beading from a previous, fresh wax application or you've already done the foundation layer as described above, then do this:

"Standard Application"

1. Wash the vehicle with your normal process, rinse thoroughly but leave wet
2. Spray no more than 2 trigger pulls of product onto a panel - 3 for a large panel such as the hood of a large vehicle, roof, etc.
3. Rinse thoroughly with a strong stream of water. A pressure washer works great, but lacking same the best approach is to use a variable setting nozzle on your garden hose and select the flat fan spray pattern. Trust me here, it's the best choice of all the settings on the nozzle for this. We've tested more dang nozzles than I care to remember.
4. Dry with a quality microfiber drying towel
5. Done

Now, if you're a regular here on MOL I'm guessing you're an enthusiast, or downright Car Crazy. Good for you. That means you might even want to do both of the above process in rapid succession. Yep, do the "foundation layer" process, then get the car wet and do the "standard application" process immediately. If you do this, especially on a non metallic black vehicle, you may see a very slight bit of streaking when you do the drying step of the foundation layer. Don't stress, don't fight it, don't do anything. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Just move on to the standard application process and you'll love the incredible slickness when you dry with a clean, dry towel. It's pretty crazy. And you'll see even tighter water beading immediately.

There are basically two ways you can go wrong with this product:

1. Over apply the product. Just go nuts spraying the car down with that lovely blue elixir. Lay it on super thick. You really want that protection!!!!

STOP IT!!!

That is NOT going to help you at all. In fact, it will make life much, much harder and you may end not liking a really awesome product! Why? Because you probably won't rinse off all of the carrier ingredients, which are actually highly hydrophillic - it loves water and will attract rather than repel it. So you end up with really lousy beading, and possibly a fair bit of streaking. True story - a friend of mine in Northern California applied HCW to his car and called me with this very complaint. I told him he probably overused the product. He admitted to using half the bottle on one car. I told him that was probably enough for 6 or 7 cars. He fell silent. He then asked how to fix it. I told him to wash the car with his regular car wash and everything would be fine, no need to even reapply the product. He said it was going to rain soon so he thought washing the car was a waste of time. I said "great!", let the car sit in the rain. That will wash off the last of the carrier ingredients, the beading will come up beautifully, and the streaking will be gone. He called me back that night and said it worked just as I said it would. Well, duh.

2. Skip the foundation layer if the car has zero protection and water lays on the paint in a great big, non moving sheet. Just spray a little bit of HCW into that deep pool of water and rinse it off.

STOP IT!!!

That is NOT going to help you at all. A huge sheet of water on the paint won't let the active ingredients get to the paint. Those hydrophillic carrier ingredients will basically form a layer between the active ingredients and that huge sheet of water on the paint, so when you do rinse it off you rinse off everything. You leave nothing behind. If you have Lake Michigan sitting on your hood, partially dry it.... just move some of the water out of the way and expose a decent amount of paint. Don't dry it fully, just clear some of the water away. Now do the foundation layer process as described above, and then, because you're a MOL user, do the standard application as well. You'll thank me. Oh, but if water is doing a Lake Michigan impersonation on your hood, you've likely got some other issues.... like that paint may need to be clayed first, just as you normally would before applying a traditional wax or sealant. Do it.

Mike and Nick,

I've completed the Foundation and Standard application of HCW on my new Miata. I did go out to Walmart and purchased adjustable nozzle head with a Fan pattern. But when I checked it's spray, it was a fan pattern of a bunch of little drops and not the mist that a pressure washer puts out. So I used my "fireman's"
nozzle in a "cone" shape to get a more powerful fine mist like a pressure washer puts out. This worked, but seemed to put a water mist on other areas / panels
of the car. That wasn't a big deal for me since I just wiped them done with the Water Magnet I had been using for the "drying" process I the Foundation and Standard HCW applications, but I am thinking that this is what you are referring to when you say to "Trust me here, it's (the fan pattern) the best choice of all the settings on the nozzle for this. We've tested more dang nozzles than I care to remember". When I do my next maintenance wash and the standard HCW application, I will try it with the nozzle with the fan pattern and see if it's reduces the amount of water sprayed on other areas of the car. What nozzle did you use that had the fan pattern you liked?

A question. As I dried the rinsed surface with the HCW sprayed on it in the Foundation step or rinsed the surface after the HCW application in the Standard step with
a Meguiar's Water Magnet MF Towel. While doing this the Water Magnet became damp form absorbing the moisture and HCW that was on the surface I was dying. To me this seamed similar to what you see happens to the MF Towels in the Meguiar's videos of applying Ultimate Wash and Wax Anywhere, the towels become saturated with the product, but this jus helps the application of the product. So I keep using the Water Magnet towel as it absorbed the moisture and HCW during the drying process. I did flip over to new "quarter" of the Water Magnet towel and a began working on a new panel to dry of the HCW and water rinse. Later on in the process, there would still be some moisture left on the surface from using the dampened Water magnet with the accumulated HCW, so I would use an second
dry Water Magnet towel to completely dry the surface.

This is the process I have followed in the past when using a drying agent (e.g. UQW, UWWA, D115 / EWW), with a similar experience with the Water Magnets getting damp and accumulating the drying agent during the drying process. Since I had the same experience with the HCW process, everything felt fine.

Should I have made sure I used a new quarter of the Water Magnet that it was in fact dry and not damp. This would have meant using more Water Magnets for the process, but that would not be an issue. Or was the process I followed with my Water Magnet accumulating moisture and HCW through out the drying process, and using a new Water Magnet to remove any moisture left after my first pass with the damp Water Magnet Ok?

Thanks for answering my question.

By the way, I'm going to be putting my HCW in a Meguiar's spray bottle with a better spray head. I think this will give better coverage with a finer mist when I do the 2 or 3 spray passes to apply the HCW.

[Vettefan]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

Hi Nick,
What affect (if any) will the HCW have on black or dark colored textured plastic areas of the car? Can it leave spots?

Thanks,
Vettefan

[hokiedood]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

Can I use HCW as a clay bar lube?

[parker23]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

Can I use HCW as a clay bar lube?

I definitely would not do that. There's a good YouTube video proving why using any spray wax or sealant of any kind as a clay lube is a really bad idea. The following is honestly the best clay lube I've ever used. Many people swear by it. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Armor-All-...Wash/173947137

[georgeallen4]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

i want to dilute but besides cutting thru the plastic bottle how the hell do I get the top off!!!

[IBookmaster]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

What I did was keep spraying it in to a small measuring cup. Then dump it in the spray bottle I use. Filling and dumping the measuring cup with water until it’s all out.

[parker23]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

i want to dilute but besides cutting thru the plastic bottle how the hell do I get the top off!!!

I've used vice grip locking pliers on other similar bottles with success but haven't tried that specifically on the HCW bottle yet. Just lock em on and twist!

[georgeallen4]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

I tested 1:4 to dry panel after washing and it was a bit difficult to fully buff it off. I added a bit more water to my bottle, not sure what dilution it ended up being after that. I will try 1:7 or 1:8 like others had success with next time.
Good scent !!

[indyz]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

Tried 1:10 today. I always do it on a dried car, avoids waste. Its still slightly streaky. But very easy to buff off. Next up I'll try 1:15 in a few weeks

[Jrhhunter]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

Tried 1:10 today. I always do it on a dried car, avoids waste. Its still slightly streaky. But very easy to buff off. Next up I'll try 1:15 in a few weeks

I have very hard well water, so can't wash my car at home. Therefore, I apply diluted MHCW when I get home from the local car wash. I used 1:6 dilution and it seemed to work fine. Wondering if meguiars can comment on the possible problems using this technique? Are we sure the car is getting protection?

[parker23]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

Guys I hate to be a Debbie Downer but it seems a little crazy (and dare I say fruitless) to me to try and force a product to be a dry application quick wax, waterless wash application, etc. when it was literally designed from the ground up to be the exact OPPOSITE of all those. Dozens of already outstanding tested and proven products already exist to accomplish what you're trying to do with the HCW. The counter argument might be that you really want that semi ceramic protection and water beading. Well, massively diluting the HCW isn't going to offer great results on that end and using it dry as a waterless wash or wax is just going to lead to scratching, none of which is worth it to have diluted HCW coverage. I'm sure Meguiar's greatly appreciates the high interest, but there's no way they're going to comment on application methods that were never tested for. And if they do, it'll be "we never tested those application methods and can't make recommendations or comment on them. Do what you will with the product at your own risk, but we can only speak to and recommend methods that we tested and that the product was designed for."

[indyz]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

Well, I did 1:10 on a dry car about 2 weeks ago. Car sat outside in the sun 24/7. Looks good. A bit of road grime near the bottoms. We got a few drops of rain today and there's great water beading on the horizontal surfaces. The vertical surfaces seem to have sheeted the water off

Considering my other application on the same car, of full strength HCW, only lasted a little over a month (outside 24/7), I am perfectly happy with "forcing" a 1:10 diluted, dry, HCW application. Avoids waste and streakiness, makes it easy to buff to a shine.
If I don't wash the car at least once in two weeks, its gets way to dirty for my tastes. The only reason I am holding off on washing the car is that I want to see how long diluted HCW lasts in the extreme sun and heat.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

Wow, lots of chatter here on diluting the product and I must say, it's kind of odd. You can't imagine what it took to develop this product - it's really pretty crazy stuff in a truly unique formulation that was actually really frustrating to develop. Diluting it to the level that some of you are, especially to avoid streaking, really just tells us that you're trying to reinvent what our chemists worked very hard at perfecting, and we dare say you're going to get inferior results because of it.

Throughout testing, and even with all the demos I've done with this product in multiple countries, we've gotten a very similar result when doing the foundation layer application; namely, a bit of streaking. Look, you guys are all MOL members, detailing enthusiasts, and as such you do some really weird stuff which, for the most part, we absolutely LOVE - it's fun to watch and we actually learn a thing or two from it!!! So please, keep it up!!! Except in this case, probably the weirdest thing you should do is to do the foundation layer, then immediately re-wet the car and do a "standard" application of the product.

As mentioned above, it's not uncommon at all to get a bit of streaking when doing the foundation layer on a black car. But every single time we've done this, and followed immediately with the standard application, 4 things happened:

1. the second drying process was insanely fast and easy - the water just jumped off the paint and into the towel. If you're blow drying the car, great, it should be a breeze now!
2. the slickness felt when towel drying the paint is crazy!!
3. the tightness of the water beads is insane, noticeably better than just after the foundation layer
4. any streaking you may have had from the foundation layer application is gone.

G. O. N. E.

Do not - and this can't be repeated enough - DO NOT overuse the product. DO NOT lightly rinse off the product with the hose. A couple of trigger pulls per panel (doors, fenders, quarter panels) is usually sufficient, with maybe three or four trigger pulls on large panels like hoods, trunk lids (depending on car, of course) and roof panels. While a pressure actually works best, if you don't have one then we highly recommend an adjustable nozzle on your hose, and select the flat fan spray rather than the hard central one. It just seems to work better. If you don't even have access to a hose, and you can't even get to a coin op wash bay with a pressure washer, then your only real option might be something like a rinseless wash followed by a light spraying of the product onto the panel, then spread it with a wet microfiber towel or wash mitt, and then dry the panel. But if you over use the product you're going to get streaking. If you dilute it dramatically to avoid streaking, you're going to lose the great effect of the product. You really are better off spraying just a bit less onto the panel, wet wiping it around to distribute, and then dry. It spreads like wildfire, it really is kind of bizarre how that works.

For more, check out this video from Autogeek featuring yours truly explaining the process in depth:

[indyz]

Re: Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax

snip for brevity!
...... spraying just a bit less onto the panel, wet wiping it around to distribute......

Sounds like diluting.....