Souveran has won me over again

T

TGates

Active member
I pretty much always use either a glaze/carnauba or sealant/carnauba combo on my GTO as I feel that gives me a little room to slack with regards to hiding some marring rather than polishing it ALL out. Right now I've pretty much got a different carnauba on every panel. I've got Max Wax on the doors, Pinnacle Sig 1 on the roof, Sig II on the rear bumper and trunk lid, Souveran on the hood, S100 on the front fascia, CMW on the front fenders, Natty's Blue on the rear fenders, and #16 on the spoiler. Sounds silly, I know, but I like to see how each different wax reacts with certain car washes, quick detail sprays, dust attraction, beading, slickness, et al. I usually only have one carnauba at a time, but I thought I'd give this a try since I drive the GTO only on nice days and I can pretty much use it as a test bed for products.



I had some friends over today and as we were walking through the garage to go inside, one of my friends who knows absolutely nothing but coin-ops when it comes to washing cars stood and stared in amazement at the hood of my car where the Souveran currently resides. I had noticed that it looked amazing immediately after applying it a few days ago, but for him to ask what I did to the hood to make it look so much better than the rest of the car really made me appreciate Souveran all over again.



It does NOT mute the metallic flake in my paint, and it absolutely shimmers and looks like a layer of water running across my hood... it almost looks like it is in motion.



At first I thought to myself that it must just be because that's the largest horizontal surface on the car that's below eye level and easy to take all of it in. However, after having all the previous waxes on the hood of my car at one time or another, none of them compare to Souveran. It's worth the price if you still love using carnauba, and Crystal Mist is brilliant over Souveran.



Natty's Blue is my second favorite because it leaves the finish dripping wet and is only $15.
 
Good to hear. Got any pics? Considering of picking this up over Zymol Titanium. How is the durability?
 
BlackSunshine- what glaze/sealant do you have under Souveran and the other carnaubas? Just curious on your process/products combo. Still using AJ?
 
maximax,





Wow, that Maxwax got a face new lift or something? I thought was black and orange color?
 
Bioman- Unforunately I do not have any pics. The differences between all the carnaubas other than Souveran are so subtle that I doubt they'd even capture on film. Regarding durability, I haven't really put Souveran to that test because I have never used it on my daily driver. I would suspect it would last a couple of months by itself.



maxi - DP Max Wax, as has already been pointed out. It's pretty darn close to Souveran in all aspects.



buzzb - Up until just a few days ago I had AJ topped with, at one point, Natty's Blue, Pinnacle Sig II, and Max Wax. I then polished the whole car with the new XMT line, including the finishing glaze, and topped with the different carnaubas. Since I either wax or OCW this car weekly, durability is not my top priority, so I prefer a glaze/carnauba combo.



It is also worth mentioning that if making the paint look DARKER is your priority, CMW wins that contest hands down.



On the Corvette, I prefer a sealant/spray sealant combo.
 
It does NOT mute the metallic flake in my paint, and it absolutely shimmers and looks like a layer of water running across my hood... it almost looks like it is in motion.
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I love Souveran but it does darken the paint a smidge. I think it's a quality trade from clarity to wetness. The reason I say this is because I use AIO+Souveran for a long time and when I used Z-2 Pro I got more flake action.
 
SilverLexus said:
I love Souveran but it does darken the paint a smidge. I think it's a quality trade from clarity to wetness. The reason I say this is because I use AIO+Souveran for a long time and when I used Z-2 Pro I got more flake action.
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I should have noted that the metallic in my GTO's paint is very subtle compared with the metallic in most other paints I have seen, including the metallic silver on my other Autopian spec vehicle.



Regarding my specific paint, the most flake pop I have seen was with the entire Clearkote line up on the paint, after having polished with OP. Other than that, the flake is almost always the same, and the hue of the paint changes depending on the LSP.
 
I love the souveran too, I've got a lighter coloured BMW to do this friday so will be using Sig II on that, and use the DP wax on the solid colours where better durability is needed.



I've used the DP on my car too, and find it didnt mask the flake as much as other yellow grade waxes have... and looks very wet.
 
here's the pics of DP, taken day after application:



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ee7be676.jpg




I did find wiping the DP clear just before it hazed easier than letting it haze tho. What did you think?
 
finerdetails said:
I did find wiping the DP clear just before it hazed easier than letting it haze tho. What did you think?
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Interesting, as I found the exact opposite to be true. With Souveran, you can wipe it off whenever and it glides right off. With the Max Wax, I found that if I didn't let it dry sufficiently (say, 10 minutes per panel) that it would just smear around. The humidity was in the 30% range that day, however. Either way, it's a great wax, especially since I got it for ~$16 on sale at AG.
 
BlackSunshine- heh heh, I see you're still enjoying experimenting with different products :D



Yeah, Souveran is one LSP my wife can spot right away, she loves it on silver.



You might experiment with letting it dry completely before buffing it off. Dunno if you've seen my previous posts about doing that, but it worked fine and *maybe* improved the durability a bit. Just put it on nice and thin and it'll buff off easily (I let some set up for a long, long time with no problems).



SilverLexus- My experiences on silver sound similar to yours (though I haven't tried Zaino). I'd say Souveran is the least muting of the carnaubas I've tried and better than a few synthetics too. Not on par with the synthetic stuff I have on the S8 (1Z Pro MP topped with UPP), but still "better" in this regard than both #16 and BF.
 
Agreed-Souveran is one of the least darkening carnaubas I have used. It works fab on silver but you do give up a little bit in the clarity department. Just a personal preference but with Z-2 Pro looking as wet as it does now it's been hard for me to go back as much as I love Souveran. I'm keeping my Pinnacle inventory for the time being.
 
Accumulator -- when does it end??? :D



I haven't tried Souveran on silver yet, only on red, black, and now midnight blue metallic. I have heard liquid Souveran works wonders on lighter colors.
 
BlackSunshine said:
Accumulator -- when does it end???
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Maybe when you're in your mid-40s :D I don't really try new stuff much any more, it's kinda a not-broke-don't-fix thing for me any more.





SilverLexus- yeah, know what you mean about the clarity. Some day I'll probably try Zaino on the S8 just to see if it can win me over from my age-old preferences. But I keep getting back to the mindset mentioned above and I'm really a carnauba guy at heart. Heh heh, I actually prefer the look of good single-stage, if that tells you anything about my preferences ;) Most people think my single-stage metallic gray/silver Jag just looks weird but I like it better than my b/c silvers :o
 
I understand Accumulator. I love the carnauba action as well. I just like the extra flak pop I'm getting from Z-2 Pro. We've had bright sunshine and the car is just glistening like a movie star. My only wish is that I had a decent quality digital camera to photograph the sparkling. :)
 
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