LustreLab LXR

[Street5927]

Hello All, it`s been a while since I`ve posted anything due to some family health issues, so it`s good to be back checking in on things more frequently and posting more frequently.

In all of my downtime, I`ve been doing some reading on whats better....water beading or water sheeting. After reading some posts and some input by valued experts such as Mike Phillips and such, this has been on my mind.

I guess you can say I am normally like the plumber, fixing everyone else`s pipes while mine are leaking. Now that I am back into the swing of things, I don`t have as much time to do my own cars due to a backlog of customer requests.

In reading some insights from many different people, I am leaning towards sheeting being better than beading for various reasons.

So, It`s been two years since I have applied CQuartz to my 2015 Murano and it is time to reapply a protectant for the winter. So, in doing some research, I came across LustreLab LXR car wash. This claims to lay down an acrylic polymer which causes water to sheet rather than bead. Although, there is not much information on it`s protecting ability, the sheeting action has caught my curiosity. So, at 4.5 oz/2 gal was my dilution rate, mixed very well (as it is the consistency of syrup) and applied using an all natural sea sponge and two bucket method.

So, I stripped off the CQuarts with a mild polish due to some minor scratches and swirling. Today, I washed my car for the second time with the LXR. As you can see, my car is black, it was very sunny and here in Pa, todays temp was around 70 degrees. Also, I`ve noticed it cleans bird droppings, and bugs much better than my previous brand name shampoo.

The first time I washed it, I saw some sheeting properties, but not much. This time, I saw alot more. I washed the vehicle, and according to the directions, rinse thoroughly to prevent streaking. In about 5 minutes, the car was pretty much bone dry without taking a MF to it. No streaking, and no water spots (yes, none on black) and not using a water de-ionizer.

So, at this point, I am relatively impressed with the sheeting action. Now, my question is (and don`t know how to measure this accurately) is how is the protecting abilities.

My thoughts are, according to the company, the more you wash with this, the more of a mirror finish, shine and sheeting properties. I am lead to believe this would be great in a rain storm or just a quick hose off at the car wash in the winter, which would leave the finish cleaner than before....but only time will tell on this.

I have attached two photo`s of what it looked like after washing and only natural drying.

Any additional thoughts that I have not yet read about?

 

[Accumulator]

Street5927- Glad you`re getting back into the swing of things!

Heh heh, what caught *my* eye is that you`re using a natural sea sponge! I used those for a good long while back in the day...

Anyhoo...I can`t help but be skeptical that a *WASH* product will leave anything sufficient to resist the kind of etching (from bird-bombs/buts) that eats through many decent LSPs. Eh, maybe I`m setting the bar awfully high with such criteria

 

[Street5927]

Street5927- Glad you`re getting back into the swing of things!

Heh heh, what caught *my* eye is that you`re using a natural sea sponge! I used those for a good long while back in the day...

Anyhoo...I can`t help but be skeptical that a *WASH* product will leave anything sufficient to resist the kind of etching (from bird-bombs/buts) that eats through many decent LSPs. Eh, maybe I`m setting the bar awfully high with such criteria

Accum.... Thank you for the welcome back.I just love washing with a natural sea sponge. I`ve been using them for years and can`t help but notice that they greatly reduce any wash induced scratches plus with proper care, they do last quite a while. The only difficult part is making sure that all of the sand is out of a brand new sponge.

I agree with you that I am very skeptical as well, however, with that being said, I`m willing to give almost anything a fair Shake. However, I am not that confident to be using it on a client`s vehicle.

I will keep everyone up to date and informed on any future observations while I experiment with continued use of this product on my vehicle

 

[dervdave]

Didn`t realise LustreLab LXR was still around, I used to buy it from a UK tv shopping channel 12 yrs ago (still got a bottle I think somewhere) and use it 12 years ago.
It was quite good stuff and always left a good finish but moved over to ONR and waterless.

 

[Street5927]

Just an update. So here we are 6 days later after washing my car the second time with LXR. We have had two days of rain here, and I have driven the vehicle back and forth to work as well as to other places during the rain. Today when I got home from work, the rain had stopped long enough for me to take a few pictures. Granted it has only been 6 days, but even after driving in the rain and wet roads, my black Murano is pretty much dry from the time the rain stopped this morning with the exception of a few water beads. To my surprise, there is no spotting or "dirt marks" from driving in the rain as I would have gotten prior to using the LXR even with an application of CQuartz. It actually looks like I had just washed it and where it was already totally dry, like I had just waxed/sealed it. So far, my impressions are very good. I am going to hold off on washing it to see how long the "just washed" look/sheeting holds up. Although it is difficult to test it`s protecting properties, the lack of water spotting and dirt accumulation without washing and it`s sheeting properties I think is a good way start. I will keep updating this as I am still in the experimental and "skeptical" phase of using this product.

 

[WaxManRonnie]

Welcome back!