Well, not exactly as I used a different Carnuba wax albeit compatible, or so I was told.
My 2011 X5 Diesel daily driver had 5-months on it without a major detail and I had a lunch scheduled in Tampa last Friday so I decided to stop at the Classic Motoring Accessories place (this website) and pick up a couple of Blackfire products. I figured I would try the Wet-Fire over Ice thing over the weekend. I picked up the Wet Diamond All Finish Paint Protection, the Gloss Enhancing Polish and a Gold flat finishing pad.
My car will give an orange a run for its money so it?s not the best car for this test but it has no swirls whatsoever and the shine was good to start with. I had previously maintained it with Klasse AIO and Glaze with a topping of Souveran wax. A great finish but I?ve been reading many good reviews on the Blackfire products and wanted to try them out and this seemed like the perfect time to do it.
So Saturday Morning came around and after doing my daughter?s car I got to work on mine. Here?s the skinny on the initial wash, etc.:
- Cleaned the wheel faces, barrels and calipers with Mother?s foaming wheel cleaner using an E-Z detail brush.
- Tires done with Meguiar?s APC.
- Used the two bucket system with grit guards and Ajax dish washing soap to remove all wax. This REALLY works. There was no wax left. I normally use Meguiar?s Gold for washing and it never removes any wax.
- Dried with waffle MF towels and shop-vac in reverse
The car had no contamination so I skipped the claying. It had no swirls or paint defects (other than factory stuff, including the orange peel and a couple of stone chips) so there was no need to use an abrasive polish either.
Next, I used a Hydro-Tech Crimson six inch pad to apply the Gloss Enhancing Polish on speed 4 using a Griot?s DA ? doing a panel at a time. I did not know whether the polish would stain the plastic trim (and the X5 has a lot of it) so I did not tape. Well, it stains. But, it was easily removed with APC at 10:1 so no problems there.
The Gloss Enhancing Polish left a beautiful finish, with lots of clarity! I was surprised because I?m not a glaze fan, but this one definitely works. The paint was very smooth and had more clarity than I had ever seen in this car - no haziness whatsoever. I was very impressed. It comes off really easy as well which is definitely a plus.
I then used the Lake Country Classic Gold Flat pad to apply the Wet Diamond All Finish. The stuff comes off super easy, best I?ve ever used, and it is super slick. I do have to mention though that I?ve used a number of polishes and this one is incredibly hard to remove from the pads. Not necessarily a bad thing for the car because this tells me it?s not going to come off it, but man, was it hard to clean that pad! I showered that night and went to bed, the next morning I had a shine on my hands from cleaning the pad!!
The Wet Diamond added even more clarity to the paint and the finish is warmer than Klasse?s AIO, not a bad thing because I like the warmth. The finish is MUCH slicker.
Sunday morning early I applied a coat of Souveran wax. Besides making the paint look a little deeper it did not do much else. It was the second coat, which I applied late in the afternoon after waiting eight hours that made a difference. Still, it wasn?t a huge difference compared to what the Blackfire combo did originally, but noticeable nevertheless.
Conclusions, if you want to go for the ultimate deep finish, use the wax after the Blackfire stuff. It adds more depth, but the superb clarity is already there. I?m a perfectionist and I know my wax so I know it will keep the car looking super deep with for another four-months so that?s a plus for me. If you just want a super clean paint and killer clarity with a super slick finish just use the Blackfire combo. They have now replaced the Klasse products for my cars .
Some after pics:
