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I bought a Honda Ridgeline (white) about a month ago. I have been maintaining it rather anally since having bought it with the full NXT line of products and have been very pleased with the results. The thing is gorgeous, who needs women.
Anyway, I just ordered up some fender flares, body side molding and some other goodies to be placed on the truck (thing). After looking over some of the instructions for installing some of the parts, I saw I will be required to rub alcohol on the finish to remove the wax so the adhesives can adhere properly. No biggie there, will give me another excuse to wax it, which for some reason I find myself enjoying.
So since I know that when my parts arrive I will need to use the alcohol and then will likely need to rewax anyway, I decided to do a little experiment.
Keep in mind this is a brand new honda Ridgeline with white paint in excellent condition. What I did is put on "4" different Meguiars Waxes. Each side of the truck has 4 main body panels. On each side I started from the front and applied NXT Paste to the front quarter panel areas on each side. Next went on the Gold Paste on the 2 front doors. Next came the Deep Crystal System #3 on the rear doors. Then finally the Cleaner Wax on the rear quarter panel.
I applied all this over a very clean truck just washed with NXT wash, dryed with the Waffle weave. Each was applied using the Foam applicator except for the cleaner wax as it was a brand new can and I assumed it had an applicator in it. So fortunatley I had some brand new Even coat applicators with me. " AHEM, I did this at work BTW". I applied all product in one very thin coat, let all dry about 30 minutes, then buffed off each wax with a separate 100% cotton terry towel then give everything a very light/quick buff with an Extreme shine Microfiber.
As far as applying the product there was nothing unusal. But the DC #3 surprised me just a tad as I figured by it being a liguid it would be the easiest to apply. It went on fine but I noticed If I put it on a little thick, it was much "stiffer" to thin out over the surface as compared to the other types which were all pastes. I also noticed that the NXT was really the only one that set up with the familiar white haze.
As far as product removal there were no major differences noted except for the NXT. It was the only one that need an extra buff off. There was a very light skim of towel marks and the second buffing took care of that. The other products did not really seem to need it but got it anyway.
Keep in mind I did all this at night and it is still dark, I just wanted to get my thoughts down in writing while I was focusing on this.
As far as intial looks under artificial lighting, from what I see thus far, the cleaner wax appears to give a slightly deeper look to my white paint. The NXT seems to show a few more towel marks that the others but it is hard to tell. I am sure the next Speed detail will take care of that. Also the NXT seemed to hold on to quite a bit more dust as compared to the others. I actually went over the NXT a third time, very lightly, to get the dust off.
Keep in mind that I have not clayed, cleaned nor polished this paint yet. And all of 4 of these waxes were applied over a well mantained new factory finish. I had just waxed the whole thing about 2 weeks ago with NXT paste and then rewaxed last week with NXT Spray Wax. Had this experiment been on a paint job that was properly prepped, the results would likely be somewhate different. But, my objective here was to do a little experiment to see which wax I liked the best. When I get home from work this morning, the sun will be up by then and I can inspect it during the daylight and with a fresh set of eyes that have not been strained all night trying to see.
Again this is white paint so I don't expect to see miracles here but I do hope to be able to narrow down the field. This far, the cleaner wax gets my nighttime vote.
I don't have any pics right now as I am the guy here that is supposed to take your camera away from you if I catch you with it so it would be bad form for me to be snapping pics next to a military airfield in the middle of the night. But I do hope to get some pics today once I get to the house.
But, to offer a thought out to those of you who are gearing up to do the 5 step program. You may wish to consider doing something like what I am doing. Wax it up using what ever waxes you have laying around and compare. Do this a week or so before doing the 5 step plan. Can't hurt and might just offer you some insoght as to which to the Megs waxes work well in your neck of the woods, on your vehicle and by using your waxing methods. Plus, the next time I am bragging about Meg's Products I can tell others about this little test and "AW" them with just how CAR CARZY I am. :
Anyway, I just ordered up some fender flares, body side molding and some other goodies to be placed on the truck (thing). After looking over some of the instructions for installing some of the parts, I saw I will be required to rub alcohol on the finish to remove the wax so the adhesives can adhere properly. No biggie there, will give me another excuse to wax it, which for some reason I find myself enjoying.
So since I know that when my parts arrive I will need to use the alcohol and then will likely need to rewax anyway, I decided to do a little experiment.
Keep in mind this is a brand new honda Ridgeline with white paint in excellent condition. What I did is put on "4" different Meguiars Waxes. Each side of the truck has 4 main body panels. On each side I started from the front and applied NXT Paste to the front quarter panel areas on each side. Next went on the Gold Paste on the 2 front doors. Next came the Deep Crystal System #3 on the rear doors. Then finally the Cleaner Wax on the rear quarter panel.
I applied all this over a very clean truck just washed with NXT wash, dryed with the Waffle weave. Each was applied using the Foam applicator except for the cleaner wax as it was a brand new can and I assumed it had an applicator in it. So fortunatley I had some brand new Even coat applicators with me. " AHEM, I did this at work BTW". I applied all product in one very thin coat, let all dry about 30 minutes, then buffed off each wax with a separate 100% cotton terry towel then give everything a very light/quick buff with an Extreme shine Microfiber.
As far as applying the product there was nothing unusal. But the DC #3 surprised me just a tad as I figured by it being a liguid it would be the easiest to apply. It went on fine but I noticed If I put it on a little thick, it was much "stiffer" to thin out over the surface as compared to the other types which were all pastes. I also noticed that the NXT was really the only one that set up with the familiar white haze.
As far as product removal there were no major differences noted except for the NXT. It was the only one that need an extra buff off. There was a very light skim of towel marks and the second buffing took care of that. The other products did not really seem to need it but got it anyway.
Keep in mind I did all this at night and it is still dark, I just wanted to get my thoughts down in writing while I was focusing on this.
As far as intial looks under artificial lighting, from what I see thus far, the cleaner wax appears to give a slightly deeper look to my white paint. The NXT seems to show a few more towel marks that the others but it is hard to tell. I am sure the next Speed detail will take care of that. Also the NXT seemed to hold on to quite a bit more dust as compared to the others. I actually went over the NXT a third time, very lightly, to get the dust off.
Keep in mind that I have not clayed, cleaned nor polished this paint yet. And all of 4 of these waxes were applied over a well mantained new factory finish. I had just waxed the whole thing about 2 weeks ago with NXT paste and then rewaxed last week with NXT Spray Wax. Had this experiment been on a paint job that was properly prepped, the results would likely be somewhate different. But, my objective here was to do a little experiment to see which wax I liked the best. When I get home from work this morning, the sun will be up by then and I can inspect it during the daylight and with a fresh set of eyes that have not been strained all night trying to see.
Again this is white paint so I don't expect to see miracles here but I do hope to be able to narrow down the field. This far, the cleaner wax gets my nighttime vote.
I don't have any pics right now as I am the guy here that is supposed to take your camera away from you if I catch you with it so it would be bad form for me to be snapping pics next to a military airfield in the middle of the night. But I do hope to get some pics today once I get to the house.
But, to offer a thought out to those of you who are gearing up to do the 5 step program. You may wish to consider doing something like what I am doing. Wax it up using what ever waxes you have laying around and compare. Do this a week or so before doing the 5 step plan. Can't hurt and might just offer you some insoght as to which to the Megs waxes work well in your neck of the woods, on your vehicle and by using your waxing methods. Plus, the next time I am bragging about Meg's Products I can tell others about this little test and "AW" them with just how CAR CARZY I am. :