WEEK 1:
First shot is to show the condition of the hood after just 1 week of sitting in my backyard, this is how it was pretty much the whole test, pine needles and other tree junk landing on it on a daily basis . Throughout this whole period there were also random showers and temperatures ranged from the upper 50s all the way to high 90s . Apologies if some of the shots are harder to see the beading/water on, a lot of times the sun was on me and i couldn`t see the phone screen too well.
After rinseless wash and water hose rinse:
HD-Mckees-Megs-Sonax
WEEK 2:
WEEK 3:
WEEK 4:
WEEK 5:
At this point I considered the Mckee`s out of the competition, behavior was weak compared to the rest.
WEEK 7:
WEEK 9(
with Mck37 being out for good):
I did a standard hose rinse(top row),followed by low pressure to sheet most of the water off,then hit it again but this time trying to simulate a rainfall/shower with more of a mist than standard water pressure so that I could see how the surface reacted and you`ll see a lot more beads, for those that are into that (bottom row).
WEEK 10 (Done Today and final day of test) :
Final thoughts,based on all notes I made after each test/wash :
Ease of application
-Mckees felt like the thinnest of them all,very easy to spread even in the sun, very close comparison to D156.
-D156 most are familiar with, I`ve been using it for a while and it has done great every time during application.
-Sonax is next as thickness goes, spreads nicely but needs to be "worked" in slightly more than the above 2 and it proved a bit more "challenging" in the sun. No issues really, just keep in mind to approach with more care compared to the thinner products and you should be fine.
-HD Express was the thickest of them along with the least sun friendly one. It was still possible to apply under the sun on a hotter surface, but I found myself buffing the product more compared to the rest. Not really a deal breaker since I know to work a smaller section in order to adjust.
Behavior during testing. The following are basically copy and paste from my notes onto here. I noticed the behavior in some of the products to sort of go back and forth with the "quality" of water behavior/sheeting response/beading response . You will notice this when reading some of the notes and I found it very interesting how one week, product "x" would be more responsive than product "y" and then the following week it would flip the other way around. Also, there was an instance or 2, where I washed the panel with product from my Kwazar Foamer which contained a mixture of car soap and a bit of Megs APC .
WEEK 1 NOTES:
*HD Express & Sonax were the only ones showing some good behavior during initial rinse of dirt. Slow sheeting came from both and eventually minor beads developed.
*After washing everything, all products started "reactivating" with Mckee`s 37 being the slowest one to where it looked like almost nothing was left but then it improved.
*After thorough rinsing with hose and flood then left to sit (water behavior):
-HD Xpress sheets nicely for just a spray on product,this side had the least amount of water on it
-Mckees 37 has a combo of beading and sheeting that behaves noticeably slower than the rest, seemed weaker than all
-Megs D156 has the tighter beads of them all and seems to be holding on there still
-Sonax has larger beads combined with some sheeting
Week 2 notes:
HD Xpress - Still holding on, a BIT weaker but still behaving well and sheeting reasonably.
Mckees 37 - significantly weaker, taking much longer to sheet, i`d consider it "out of the race" most likely at this point.
Megs D156 - Still beading pretty well,a bit weaker.
Sonax - Least amount of change compare to the rest, still holding well and beading up quite quickly.
WEEK 3 NOTES:
-HD Xpress- Still showing signs of sheeting, obviously weaker than week 2 but still noticeable. Good choice for topping HD Speed with IMO after an AIO Job where a more durable sealant is out of the budget & to keep the synergy of products.
-Mckees - Pretty much gone at this point, noticed no signs of protection,whole area covered in standing sheet of water. Safe to say it is out of the test.
-D156- Surprisingly still holding there, decent beading/sheeting,a bit weaker than week 2 of course.
-Sonax-Still holding on pretty well like D156, noticed a decrease in beading uniformity and now a slight increase in sheeting(very interesting).
WEEK 4 NOTES(notice some of the notes from week 3 still apply below):
-HD Xpress- Still showing signs of sheeting, similar to week 3 .
-D156- Surprisingly still holding there, decent beading/sheeting. The most tight beading out of them all
-Sonax-
same as week 3
D156 & Sonax showed the most quick response to beading, with D156 holding beads for longer while Sonax displayed a combination of beading and sheeting. HD Xpress is still a solid choice for a quick HD Speed AIO Job Topper without adding cost to customer nor much time to the job.
WEEK 5 NOTES:
-HD Xpress- Still showing signs of sheeting and beading combined this time around . Good choice for topping HD Speed with.
-Mckees - Strangely some signs of beading were noticed only in the front section of hood,where during Week 4 there were none. I still consider it out of the competition regardless.
-D156- still holding there, decent beading/sheeting. Weaker beading than Week 4, took a bit longer to develop/show compared to previous weeks.
-Sonax-Similar notes/behavior from week 3 and 4 , but additionally, beading behavior took longer to show than previously.
WEEK 7 NOTES:
-HD Xpress- Still showing signs of pretty slow yet evident sheeting with small beading.
-D156- Still beading/sheeting water, this time faster than Sonax.
-Sonax-Still sheeting water with some flatter beads.
WEEK 9 NOTES:
All 3(excluding Mckees) show slow sheeting during regular rinsing with hose. Upon showering to duplicate a rainfall :
*HD showed more random beading with a combo of sheeting out of the 3.
*Megs D156 showed noticeable beading still with minor sheeting.
*Sonax BSD showed the tighter beads of them 3 .
Week 10/Final notes:
-All products were obviously weaker at this point, with HD showing weak sheeting and D156/Sonax still doing their slow beading with some sheeting behavior. i will say that upon rinsing the panel down before washing it, Sonax was the only one showing
some hydrophobic behavior and then after the wash, D156 "stepped up" to hang in there with Sonax. To me it was a tight race between Sonax and D156 when it came to beading and sheeting in combination, with Sonax winning but not by a whole lot. HD Express was a nice surprise and I really liked the sheeting-over-beading type of behavior that it brought to the table. For us who maintain our vehicles once a week or a few times a month, any of these 3 economical products are nice choices I would say. If you only plan on topping once a month , then you should be fine with D156 or even HD xpress , but if you want to stretch that to 2 months, I would choose the Sonax since it seems to be the toughest one of the 4.
Mckee`s 37 : I was very disappointed in,especially since the label made the boldest claim of them all and I quote... "
2-3 months of durable paint protection" and something among the lines of excelling when used as a drying aid. Tested under the same prep,weather and wash conditions as the other 3, it was a let down since I like their line of products but oh well, they can`t all be winners.
Well, I think i typed everything I intended to , so thank you all for taking the time to read this . I hope this was helpful to at least some who might be on the fence about which one of these 4 products to try .
Again ,sorry for some of the lower quality/weird lightning pics.
. Price is right and products work great....