Meguiar's New Tech Wax

Mike,



That is unreal ! ! ! :bow :bow :bow :bow



Scratch X is a great product but it is how YOU USE IT that is important in this and every other car that you deal with. Your by hand prep and the use of NXT Tech Wax is truly amazzzzing!



Keep up the super terrific work and thank you for sharing all of your superior knowledge!



Cheers,
 
Mike,



That hood shot of the Vette you did with Scratch X by hand is great. I have never been able to get results like that with Sratch X. How much of the results was Sratch X, was most of the improvement in the hood from the NXT Tech Wax?
 
locutus said:
i'm a definate noobie, i've tried an awful lot of products, (i really like zaino the best so far) but am i missing something? the pictures i see here look to me like they have horrible swirlmarks both before and after. please excuse my ignorance as i'm just seeking knowledge.
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Look at that shot of the hood raised. It is quite clear that the swirls have been reduced. What is impressive about it is that all Mike did was hand-apply Scratch-X and then NXT. Those swirls look awfully bad, and one would expect Scratch-X and a protectant to do very little for them. That's what is impressive about it. Mike said he wasn't happy with the final condition of the paint, but it does look to be much improved. No doubt Mike could get that paint back to perfect shape, but that's not what he was trying to show there.



By the way, Mike, it pains me to see Corvettes mistreated like that... :( I guess it's a good thing it is a 1986, and not a 1987 like mine was. Otherwise I'd probably be in tears... At least they are doing the right thing by bringing it to you! :)
 
Hi Aurora40,



Thanks for pointing out the obvious for locutus, let me add a few things here also.



We could have removed 90% of the surface defects easily with a rotary buffer, but, that was not the goal of this project.



The goal was to show what Joe Consumer could do with his hands and a few products on a Saturday afternoon.



Two things,



1) I rubbed the one half of the hood out by hand aggressively, and quickly, Cam was in a hurry. He wanted to get on the road ASAP to beat traffic so that he could get the car to the tire shop where it's getting new wheels and tires. Had I more time, I would have worked the hood over 2-3 times with the ScratchX, not one quick, aggressive application.



2) As everyone here knows, camera's can be used to make things look good, or bad, depending on how you take the picture.



The pictures posted here are all raw photo's, I never monkey with, or touch-up photo's, however, I did post only a few of the many pictures I took that showed the before and after in the best light. Something I never do, but in this case I already figured that some people would focus on the lack of perfection instead of the abundance of improvement… I was right.



That said, the cobweb-effect, and the swirls are still easily visible to the naked eye and to the camera. But... the car's finish does look incredibly better than when we started.



Here is a before picture of the hood right after we washed it.
 

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The below photo was resized, but in no other way touched-up.



Here is a 500 by 500 pixel crop of the raw photo,
 

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Here is a resized photo of the After side, in the sun, notice there is still horrible cobwebb-effect, but it is dramatically reduced.



Not perfect. Not as good as could be improved by either a PC, or a Rotary buffer, but not bad for one quick, aggressive rub out with ScratchX



Mike
 
Now here's a cropped out photo, 500 x 500 pixels of the actual raw photo of the above, After shot,



Mike
 

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So you can see, the cobweb-effect is still their, it's just been reduced and improved. Alone it looks pretty bad, but side by side, it looks dramatically better.



Here's a shot I took with my Flash on, inside, after the ScratchX/NXT Tech Wax combo.



Mike
 

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And one more, out in the sun, with the Spot Meter focused right on the center of the sun. (This is why the overall finish is darker). So while it's not perfect, or as good as it could be, for hand cleaning, it is much better.



Mike
 

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stevet said:
Mike,



That hood shot of the Vette you did with Scratch X by hand is great. I have never been able to get results like that with Sratch X. How much of the results was Sratch X, was most of the improvement in the hood from the NXT Tech Wax?
Click to expand...



Mike, same question here... I also have Scratch X but couldn't get result like that... Would you kindly tell us HOW TO USE Scratch X by hand to get the best result, i.e. how hard to buff, which foam pad/terry pad, et al?
 
I did offer to buff out the entire car doing what I call a Complete, i.e. starting with a compound, then progressing through the entire paint polishing system after Cam is finished with his article.



If he takes me up on the offer, I will be sure to show what can be done when time is not an issue and I am free to use any and all tools required to take a finish in this condition to it's Maximum Potential.



Here's one more, notice the time stamp. After that shot Cam was down the road ahead of schedule.



Mike
 

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love2shine said:
Mike, same question here... I also have Scratch X but couldn't get result like that... Would you kindly tell us HOW TO USE Scratch X by hand to get the best result, i.e. how hard to buff, which foam pad/terry pad, et al?
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I applied the ScratchX to the pad, using an ample amount, then worked it into the finish aggressively, rubbing it both in circles first, and then in straight lines until the product had almost dissipated.



I overlapped my sections, and rubbed the entire hood out 3 times... quickly.



I actually broke a sweat. I had moved all of the clutter out of the garage so Cam's pictures wouldn't have excess noise in the background. I had to stop at one point and go fetch the Fan, to blow on me to keep cool while I was rubbing out the hood so I didn't end up a sweaty mess.



Note: I wasn't careful at all when I rubbed this hood out. That's because the finish on this car was horrendous. I knew I couldn't do any more damage to it with ScratchX and a foam applicator pad then was already present. So I didn't even try to be careful. I tried to clean the paint, to restore clarity, and I tried to level the paint, to reduce cobweb-effect. I banked on NXT Tech Wax to do the rest.



Again, had I more time, I would have been more careful and I'm sure I could have achieved even better results. But had I more time, and this wasn't a specific request, I would have used a rotary buffer.



Removing cobweb-effect, buffer swirl and scratches from clear coats is almost impossible to do by hand with anybody's chemical, the most you can hope for is to improve them, not remove them. Then, let your polish or wax, (i.e. paint protectant), carry the rest of the load.



Reality.



Mike
 
love2shine said:
:bow Mike, thank you so much for your reply! :bow
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Your welcome.



I hope my response did not disapoint you. By the way, for anyone interested, the before and after articles in the Motor Trend and Corvette Fever magazines will be in the March issues.



Mike
 
Mike, not at all. It's what I had expected at most from Scratch X and by hand..."reduced" but not completely "removed" Thanks again and can't wait until NXT Tech comes out. Meguiar's is very lucky to have you as an employee!
 
I second what love2shine said:



1. Autopia is very lucky to have Mike P. as a contributor.



2. Can't wait for NXT to come out.



Will NXT samples be available to Autopians before it goes live? Anybody know?
 
jmsc said:
I second what love2shine said:



1. Autopia is very lucky to have Mike P. as a contributor.



2. Can't wait for NXT to come out.



Will NXT samples be available to Autopians before it goes live? Anybody know?
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I've been inquiring about samples religiously. Just a small bottle will do, a eetie bittie oh oh bottle. Please?
 
I would like to know what the Masters are going to apply along with their Megs NXT Tech Wax ... if anything ... on 01 Feb 04 - Release Day (R-DAY).



I have reviewed the NXT/Lab Sample posts and the question does not appear to have been addressed (maybe because it is dumb question?).



For example, would it be a good idea to apply one layer of NXT to fill in scratches and swirls, one layer of Klasse SG or Platinum UPP to seal it in and then another layer or two of NXT over that? Would it be a problem to top NXT with Souveran (or would this prevent the NXT Booster Spray Wax from working)?



In other words, is there a way to multiply the benefits of each product while minimizing the detriments?



Maybe NXT is so good that such questions have become Moot. I am sure that future threads will address this issue more thoroughly once autopians have had a chance to do some alchemy.



But I do not want to wait that long. I desire to have the ultimate result by midnight of R-DAY.



I appreciate the good advice I received in response to my first posts a few weeks ago re the 97 Audi A4 (Laser Red) and I would like some more good advice.



Thanks Autopians.
 
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