Ceramic Paste Wax Showdown / Test

[acuRAS82]

Update 4/8 ~3 weeks:
Although the beads never started out as nice as I wanted, whether due to cold application or allowing water, WW or whatever, they have continued to behave similarly through constantly being outside through thick and thin. Heavy T-storms came through last night and I snapped a few pics after a sheeting drive this morning. Average sheeting speed is about 45mph which is faster than I would like but I don’t recall the good ‘normal’ on this car.

The hood and trunk do self-clean very well and look superb when dry. Here’s the large moon last night.

 

[Sizzle Chest]

Still good characteristics. Nice shots, that moon shot was cool!

 

[acuRAS82]

Still good characteristics. Nice shots, that moon shot was cool!

Thanks Scott. I agree that behavior looks good still after a ride or a hose flush. The beads just look a little funky across the board after an initial rain. I should have taken a pic before going on my drive. I’ll have more chances though. The ‘enjoyability’ factor of these waxes are so high, and as mentioned previously, uniform wipe off is so guaranteed compared to most sprays.

Heres one more I took moments ago when the sun snuck out... no cleaning prior.

 

[acuRAS82]

Update and Ending: 4/24

Sadly, I polished off the vertical panels today to start a different test. I didn’t even take any recent pictures, but I had tried Numerous coating maintenance washes and Feynlab Pure Rinseless. The waxes basically remained the way they were. I’m not sure if the Acura’s soft paint was an issue, or if it was too cold in my garage during application and cure time, but the results started blah and remained that way, and I yearned to try something new. I hope to do another ceramic wax test in the future under better weather conditions and maybe on different paint. I’m even keeping track of a few panels with done ceramic waxes on my German cars and the results are much better... this was just to prove to myself that my wax pots hadn’t gotten too old.

Anyways, during my last wash a few days ago, most sections were sheeting quite slow. Like, 30+ seconds to sheet ‘shower’ setting off (I don’t have access to the plain hose for sheeting). But if you turned around for 1 minute and looked back, the entire hood would be 95% dry. So still protection there, just low performance.
The best sheeting (by far) went to Angelwax Fifth Element (Titanium).
The other two that looked decent were Angelwax SEMA 2019 (graphene) and Dodo Nano.
Perhaps these 3 like the Acura paint the most or did best during colder application/cure time. Who knows. Dodo Nano in the past has been on par with Synergy for me, but Synergy looked fairly poor during this test period. On my X5, I have the two side by side on the roof and Synergy is doing great on that paint.

Thanks for following and sorry this was a bit of a disappointment, but don’t let it deter thoughts about using ceramic waxes. This is my first less-than-stellar experience with them. Hopefully more to come later in 2020 or 2021...

 

[Mary B]

Update and Ending: 4/24

Sadly, I polished off the vertical panels today to start a different test. I didn’t even take any recent pictures, but I had tried Numerous coating maintenance washes and Feynlab Pure Rinseless. The waxes basically remained the way they were. I’m not sure if the Acura’s soft paint was an issue, or if it was too cold in my garage during application and cure time, but the results started blah and remained that way, and I yearned to try something new. I hope to do another ceramic wax test in the future under better weather conditions and maybe on different paint. I’m even keeping track of a few panels with done ceramic waxes on my German cars and the results are much better... this was just to prove to myself that my wax pots hadn’t gotten too old.

Anyways, during my last wash a few days ago, most sections were sheeting quite slow. Like, 30+ seconds to sheet ‘shower’ setting off (I don’t have access to the plain hose for sheeting). But if you turned around for 1 minute and looked back, the entire hood would be 95% dry. So still protection there, just low performance.
The best sheeting (by far) went to Angelwax Fifth Element (Titanium).
The other two that looked decent were Angelwax SEMA 2019 (graphene) and Dodo Nano.
Perhaps these 3 like the Acura paint the most or did best during colder application/cure time. Who knows. Dodo Nano in the past has been on par with Synergy for me, but Synergy looked fairly poor during this test period. On my X5, I have the two side by side on the roof and Synergy is doing great on that paint.

Thanks for following and sorry this was a bit of a disappointment, but don’t let it deter thoughts about using ceramic waxes. This is my first less-than-stellar experience with them. Hopefully more to come later in 2020 or 2021...

Thanks alot, this was great ! I always wondered about Synergy.
(don`t know if this helps, but I use WG paint prep. and it does leave a film. So I`ve started to use it only before polishing and Gyeon prep. for my last wipe down before LSP)

Thanx again.

 

[acuRAS82]

Thanks alot, this was great ! I always wondered about Synergy.
(don`t know if this helps, but I use WG paint prep. and it does leave a film. So I`ve started to use it only before polishing and Gyeon prep. for my last wipe down before LSP)

Thanx again.

Thank you! This is the first I’ve ever heard Perfekt Prep called out. I’ve had numerous issues applying after it but I have a half-gallon left and it’s a pricey prep spray so I have trouble justifying buying something new. This has beeen my only experience with prep spray other than N-914 diluted 1:8 (which also may leave film from what I read).

When I know I need a clean surface for sure, I reach for prep polishes as the only other option in my arsenal. I’ve had no questionable results with those that I can recall. A bit extra work but at least I can trust results.

I appreciate your feedback and since I’m trying to determine possible causes for this inconsistent test, I likely won’t be using Perfekt Prep for future tests. No need to have additional question marks.

 

[acuRAS82]

One thing to note for all: DP “NYF” SiO2 Wax on the vertical panels is doing fine. This was put on Essence and didn’t have the same issues as the bare horizontal panel test.