BlackRegal said:
First of all, no one knows if its going to be any good or not. For every good Megs product, I can name one that sucks. Lets wait and see before declaring it to be the wax/sealant that ends all wax/sealants. Lets not forget that the source for 99.5% of our NXT information is from a Megs employee, not exactly an un-biased opinion. Not that I can blame him, if I worked for Megs I'd be pushing it like crack too.
Firstly, I for one appreciate the freshness of a comment like the one above. I’ve been around long enough that nothing posted to a forum ever really bothers me.
I’m in this for the long haul. I will be a part of the detailing community until I’m no longer walking on this earth.
“It’s my thing�.
If I quit Meguiar’s tomorrow, or if Meguiar’s fires me tomorrow, I would still post to forums like Autopia on how to get the best results for your,
* Time
* Money
* Efforts
I enjoy it.
So while it’s easy for someone to read my posts and view me as a
corporate hack, (Not you BlackRegal, I know you’re a square shooter), it’s really not like that. I’m a
car guy through and through, I only have owned what I think of as, (at some level), nothing but special interest cars, (Can you say
Milk Truck), and while I have always performed all of my own mechanical work, the part I truly enjoy is the
paint polishing part. You know, after all the hard icky, dirty, grungy work is done, then it’s time to sit back and
make it shine!
Side note: When I bought the Milk Truck, the owner advertised it as
Ready to Go… he left out a few words, the Milk Truck was ready to go alright…
to hell in a hand basket.
After purchasing it, I had to rebuild everything mechanical except the engine. But… after accomplishing that, all I ever did then was
polish the paint.
But I digress.
Point being, my sharing information about NXT via the discussion forum was simply my passion for polishing paint expressing itself naturally and that’s by sharing it with other people of a like-mindset.
Before I came to Meguiar’s, no one at Meguiar’s’ ever really hung out on forums, at least to the degree I like to, and talked shop. Anyway, NXT isn’t Crack, but after using it once, until something better comes out, I will continue to use this as my LSP.
Secondly, as has already been discussed, the "topper" isn't what makes a finish look great. If I put NXT on a petrified turd I still have a petrified turd. Prep is where the shine comes out, and prep is where professional excels and the average joe fails. If you want it to be a secret just re-bottle it.
BlackRegal nailed this one.
Surface prep is and will always be the determining factor for your final results. To prove this point, please see the accompanying photo’s that I will include in this thread of a car I applied NXT Tech Wax to this last Tuesday.
NXT Tech Wax is merely, in my opinion, what we here on Autopia refer to as a topper, and an excellent one at that. I often use the descriptive term,
last step product, as in the very last product I apply before lay my polishing cloths down and turn the ownership of the car back over to the owner. Another way I like to refer to products like NXT Tech Wax, or Pinnacle, or #26 is as a
beauty wax. That is if your goal is to create beauty, these products accomplish that.
Now if your in the extreme protection camp, then what I find is often times you have to give up some the characteristics in a wax that create beauty, in order to obtain more of the ingredients that provide protection. Basically, there two camps in the detailing world,
Synthetic Camp
Carnauba Camp
The Synthetic camp are people looking for two things in this order,
1) Long lasting protection
2) Beauty
The Carnauba camp consists of people looking for two things in this order,
1) Beauty
2) Long lasting protection
At the same time, people in both camps crossover. For example, while usually a person in the beauty camp is predominantly focused on
a good looking finish, this person may switch over to the Synthetic Camp as winter approaches and the ensuing harsh weather. Thus, this person may switch their
LSP to a synthetic wax like #20 Polymer Sealant for it’s high water and detergent resistant characterizes. Then, after the worst of the inclement weather has passed, this person will switch back over to products that potentially protect less, but create more beauty.
From my experience, NXT Tech Wax would appear to offer the features of both camps.
It turns the surface dark like Gold Class does, (I know many of you don't like Gold Class for a host of reasons but one thing Gold Class will do is turn dark paints darker, especially compared to most other waxes).
It fills really well.
Note: Meguiar's has always preached and educated on how to remove defects, not merely fill them in. That said, with the introduction of clear coat finishes, even the finest and lightest of scratches show up in bright lights or direct sunlight. So having a product that you can count on to help you with these fine scratches, or cobweb-effect
after you have done your very best to bring the finish to its maximum potential using your choice of surface prep products and techniques is a bonus in my book.
Because I personally know the head chemists here at Meguiar’s' and his personal passion to create products that first of all,
* Create a barrier-film that
protects the finish
And then, after this goal is accomplished, work on making the formula,
* Create beauty
* Apply easily
* Wipe off easily
* Last a long time
etc. etc. etc.
(I for one suggested the idea of going for beauty first, and protection second, but that didn’t fly very well).
I for one admire his choice in priorities. I mean, if you think about it… the most important thing for the majority of the population is to
protect their financial investment. Making it look good is fun and important too, but if your car’s finish doesn’t last… the beauty is irrelevant… don’t you think?
(Of course today’s modern clear coat paint technologies have the ability to last for a long time even if they don’t look good).
To sum up this response, NXT Tech Wax will certainly not hurt detailers, if anything, it will help them.
My plan of action is to recommend to all of my customers to apply NXT Tech Wax themselves to maintain the results I have created, and if they don’t want to do that, then bring it back to me and I will maintain their finish by applying it myself.
Below is a completely untouched, in any way, photo of the deck, or trunk lid of Sniper after the owner pulled it out into the sun for me to inspect. I have seen this car previously two other times, both of which the car was in either low indoor lights, or low light levels due to morning cloud cover.
For this reason, it always looked good. By that I mean the finish was clear and shiny in my eyes when I viewed it. Now mind you, the below photo is of the deck lid with 2 years of Meguiar’s Quik Detailer being used on it. The swirls you see were induced using a rotary buffer. I’m sure that a good car washing would cause these swirls to
jump out at your eyes in bright light. Point being, the swirls are worse than they appear.
