Eliot Ness
Active member
Getting the street rod ready for the first road trip/show of the season (NSRA-Knoxville) I decided to try some of the new ClearKote products today, so this is sort of a mini-review.
The car is a Guards red 1940 Chevy coupe that was just polished last September so the paint was in pretty good shape already. The car was washed last night with PB's SS&S, and the wheels got a couple of coats of Poorboy's wheel sealant (very nice stuff). I did hit a couple of minor spots with Meg's #80 by hand.
I pulled it out of the garage today, did a quick dust with a CCD and then started on the ClearKote regimen. I started off with VM on the PC with a Meg's polish pad, just to clean things up a bit and because it's one of my favorite products.
Next came one of the new products, RMG. This I applied with a blue Propel pad to the whole car before buffing it off by hand (just like I do VM). The RMG goes on and comes off easily, and leaves a nice gloss.
Then came the Yellow Cream Wax. This one was a very pleasant surprise. You don't hear as much about it as you do RMG, and I almost skipped this step, but I'm glad I didn't. I applied this with a Propel finish pad (grey) because I'm under the impression this is more of a typical glaze type product. I really like the ease with which this applied and removed. I wouldn't use this as a base for a sealer because it does contain some light polishing oils.
The last step was some CMW also applied with a Propel grey finishing pad. Like all the other steps I applied it to the whole car before buffing it off by hand with a Pakshak Ultra Plush Plus MF. I finished it off by going over the car one last time with an Autopia Concours Buffing Towel.
Impressions:
As most members here will tell you, proper prep is the key. The car looked pretty good after just a wash to clean off the pollen, so I didn't expect to see a night/day difference when I was finished. I will say that after each step the paint looked just a tad richer and perhaps a hair darker. The finish is very, very, slick and I was not disappointed at all in the outcome.
ClearKote products are easy to use and sun friendly. As I mentioned before I applied all products to the whole car before buffing them off, and I had no problems, even with part of the car sitting in the sun.
This was my first time using the Pakshak Ultra Plush Plus MF's, and if the MF police came around and told me that was the only MF I could use, well, that would be fine with me. And the Concours Buffing Towel is something everyone should try. When I layer on some Souveran that will be the towel I'll buff it off with!
Sorry, no pictures, my camera isn't too hot and I doubt it would pick up the subtle differences these products made, but in person you can notice. Just for reference here is a pic of the car with VM, and EX-P x 2 from this past September.
The car is a Guards red 1940 Chevy coupe that was just polished last September so the paint was in pretty good shape already. The car was washed last night with PB's SS&S, and the wheels got a couple of coats of Poorboy's wheel sealant (very nice stuff). I did hit a couple of minor spots with Meg's #80 by hand.
I pulled it out of the garage today, did a quick dust with a CCD and then started on the ClearKote regimen. I started off with VM on the PC with a Meg's polish pad, just to clean things up a bit and because it's one of my favorite products.
Next came one of the new products, RMG. This I applied with a blue Propel pad to the whole car before buffing it off by hand (just like I do VM). The RMG goes on and comes off easily, and leaves a nice gloss.
Then came the Yellow Cream Wax. This one was a very pleasant surprise. You don't hear as much about it as you do RMG, and I almost skipped this step, but I'm glad I didn't. I applied this with a Propel finish pad (grey) because I'm under the impression this is more of a typical glaze type product. I really like the ease with which this applied and removed. I wouldn't use this as a base for a sealer because it does contain some light polishing oils.
The last step was some CMW also applied with a Propel grey finishing pad. Like all the other steps I applied it to the whole car before buffing it off by hand with a Pakshak Ultra Plush Plus MF. I finished it off by going over the car one last time with an Autopia Concours Buffing Towel.
Impressions:
As most members here will tell you, proper prep is the key. The car looked pretty good after just a wash to clean off the pollen, so I didn't expect to see a night/day difference when I was finished. I will say that after each step the paint looked just a tad richer and perhaps a hair darker. The finish is very, very, slick and I was not disappointed at all in the outcome.
ClearKote products are easy to use and sun friendly. As I mentioned before I applied all products to the whole car before buffing them off, and I had no problems, even with part of the car sitting in the sun.
This was my first time using the Pakshak Ultra Plush Plus MF's, and if the MF police came around and told me that was the only MF I could use, well, that would be fine with me. And the Concours Buffing Towel is something everyone should try. When I layer on some Souveran that will be the towel I'll buff it off with!
Sorry, no pictures, my camera isn't too hot and I doubt it would pick up the subtle differences these products made, but in person you can notice. Just for reference here is a pic of the car with VM, and EX-P x 2 from this past September.
