Crystal Rock and my Lexus

Well finally had time to play with my new acquired wax, Crystal Rock. Now the vehicle I decided to try it out on is my Lexus GX 470.

Here is the vehicle before:



The wheel wells were going to need a little attention, that’s from the golf trips I’ve gone to recently :shakehead:


The vehicle previously had Vintage, about 5 or 6 coats of Vintage that is :whistle:

Well first I connected the CR System:


Well the fire truck used up all the Total Auto Wash I had in my sprayer so I had to refill it:


Now I’ve been meaning to use this product. I didn’t have a spare spray bottle to put it in so I used an empty Menzerna Final Inspection bottle and just relabeled it…kinda:


Well on with the show, first up the wheel wells are given a healthy coat of P21S Total Auto Wash:


Next up the rims received Menzerna Gel 7.5:






Making sure to get all the way inside the rims:


Next up the tires were given a coat of ARO:


Here is how it all looks before application:


Now it was time to agitate the wheel wells with the help of a long handle brush:


Now for the inside of the rims, first I thought to use the two inch wool brush:


But on the front rims the two inch wool brush wouldn’t fit so I had to use my one inch wool brush:


Making sure to get all the way inside:


Next the face of the rims were agitated with a Swissvax brush:


The tires were also given a good scrub:


Well this process is done to all wheel wells, rims and tires. This actually took longer then I thought, but oh well.

Next it was time to wash the rest of the vehicle, the two bucket method is used with a sea sponge and Zymol Clear:


Now the washing process took even longer, I keep forgetting how big this SUV is :shakehead:

Well once the entire vehicle had been washed and rinsed off I removed as much water as possible with my air compressor and what ever water was left over I dried of with my waffle weaved micro fiber towel.

Now with the washing done I applied Swissvax Cleaner Fluid:


Once I was done with the Cleaner Fluid it was time for the main event:


Now I did start to use one of those black Swissvax foam applicators but I just can’t stand to apply wax with a applicator :shakehead: so I put it away and I applied Crystal Rock with my hands, nice and thick :woo:

Now when I say thick I mean thick, take a look:








:nod: yup, I made sure every corner of the vehicle was completely covered with Crystal Rock :thumb:

Well once I applied Crystal Rock to the entire vehicle I let it cure for about 30minutes or so and wile it was left to bond I worked on other bits of the vehicle. First the exhaust tip:


For the rims I wanted to seal them, for this I went with DG#105:


The tires also received healthy coat of Zymol Tyre:


Here is how the exhaust tip finished off:


Well now that those little small items are done back to the removal of Crystal Rock, to remove the wax I used my favorite micro fiber towels, Cookie Monsters and I used lots of them:


Here is what the wax was leaving behind:


Now here is the vehicle wearing one coat of Crystal Rock:




















































I finished the vehicle a bit late, all that man handling the vehicle took some time. So regrettably I couldn’t get any out side pictures.

Oh and here is how much wax I used on the first coat of Crystal Rock:




That’s actually not that much considering I applied it by hand :shrug: well any who the plan is that I’ll be putting a new coat every weekend on the Lexus, hopefully.

Next vehicle to receive a coat of Crystal Rock will be the Volvo.

Now as to my thoughts on the wax, to be honest it's a bit hard to tell on the silver colour but it gave the vehicle more gloss as for the glow that I'm after it didn't have as much as I was expecting. I think I'll be ablet to see the glow more on the Volvo as it's a darker colour. I haven't taken the vehicle outside though so it's hard to see the Carnauba glow inside the garage. This week dosen't look good though as we are scheduled to get rained on every day for this week, but hopefully it will clear up for a few hours and I'll take the vehicle out and snap some pictures.

So far I'm pleased with my purchase :thumb:

Edit August 3, 2008
I was finally able to load the pictures of the Lexus outside and it was a nice bright sunny day too :thumb:






















All in all I'm very pleased with the way Crystal Rock looks, I still haven't seen it's beading just yet though, wonder how that will look like.

 

nice review!

 

For only 1 coat and the car being silver, im impressed! The reflections looks very crisp and clear on the hood showing the lighting on your ceiling. BTW what kind of lighting do you use, and you sure do have plenty!

 

You know the questions following this:
better than Divine? Vintage? Royale?

Thats a lot of wax u used! Ive done 6 cars w Divine and it still looks new!!!

 

Just about time your Lexus gets a luxury treatment!!! :applause:

 

yeah I thought you use a lot of wax.

the results are great!

 

Is it possible that this is a side effect of applying with bare hands?

Reason I ask is, the first few times I used Rubbish Boy's Original, I did it by hand. I was struck by how much wax I seemed to have used to cover one fairly small vehicle. How that I'm using a warm MF applicator pad, it sure seems like I'm using less of the stuff.

Anyway, the CR looks great. Can't wait to see it in the sun.

 

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.

Yes, I agree the vehicle sure has a nice reflection but I'm more interested on that Carnauba glow. I'm sure I'll be able to see the glow much better outside under direct sun light :thumb: As for the lighting, I only have the regular T8's, about 30 of them that is :woo: What can I say I like my garage nice and bright :shrug:

lol..yes, I wasn't stingy with the wax on my vehicles, well on any vehicles that is. I really don't like applying wax via applicator, I personally don't care about applying thin, I don't mind wasting the wax, I'm all for the hand application, I just love man handling the vehicle, but just me :shrug:

Now to the main questions, now this is just my personal opinion but for me Crystal Rock is much better then Divine, it has a better crisp look to it compared to Divine. With respect to Vintage, see that's a tough one because what I love about Vintage is that it has a really nice Carnauba glow, I didn't see that Carnauba glow like I was expecting but for that I need to have the vehicle out side, so I can't really comment which is better. As to Royale, I wouldn't know, no Royale over here :shrug:

lol...my Lexus gets a coat of all my personal wax collection, nothing but the best for my Lexus

You bet I used a lot of wax, it's for my own vehicle of course I'm going to use lots :cheerl: Actually that's how I always apply wax, just ask Mike and Justin, usually they are the ones that do all the wax removal :giggle: But I agree the end result is quite nice and like you said it's easy to remove :thumb: but to be honest I don't really care about how easy it is to apply and remove, it's how it looks that matters to me :thumb:

oh absolutely, applying wax by hand you definetly waist lots, so if you don't want to waist the wax use an applicator.

I too am looking forward to the having the vehicle outside, should be interesting :cheerl:

 

The wax looks really great. I can't wait to see it outside. As far as the hand waxing thing it seems that the folks that do it by hand are really really good at it. I just cannot seem to get it to work for me but you guys do it well.

 

Liquid Silver Lexus. Insane the depth of that silver Carlos!! Man I wish I could sell a kidney!!!!! I might just have to work about a 2 weeks straight and get some PDCR wax!! Crazy impressive!

 

SICK DUDE! Thats AWESOME!

Congrats on the purchase! Mr.Dalton certainly has done well for himself with this wax!

I am very interested in the durability. If you ever let it go a week or two without waxing it . Let us know how the wax is on durability terms. Paul's site says this wax (im guessing with a few layers) will last 1-3 years.... I asked him about how he knew this... (the wax hasnt even been out 1 year) and he responded with 'the proof is in the pudding'... lol. He probably didnt read my email fully or something. :shrug:

Anyways, congrats to you for the wax and congrats to him (if he sees this).

It also looks great there carlos! One day you are going to have to show us pics of your product collection. I think you should get a little refrigerated safe that goes behind a painting (james bond style).

Kind Regards,
Dan

 

Lexus looks amazing! For only one coat its a beautiful finish.Take some more pics as you add layers please.

 

wow man thats awesome looks great. dont use it up too fast

 

Well the wax hasn't been out for a year, but I'm sure Paul did a lot of testing before the wax was actually released. Granted 1-3 years is a bit much but it could last longer than other carnaubas.

Hey Carlos question, how was the removal of CR since you applied it by hand. I applied via applicator and it is a BREEZE to remove a thin application. Just wondering if a thick coat is just as easy to remove? Hey and since you like applying wax via hand . . . maybe that could be the next video :whistle::whistle:

BTW Lexus looks great, nice and wet. :thumb:

 

very nice carlos!!!!! thanks for pics!!!

 

To me it looks very good but there are a lot of waxes that cost far less that look very good. I think all you guys buying these real expensive waxes are a little crazy. Great job as always Carlos.

 

Thank you JLs, yes hopefully very soon I'll be able to take it outside and snap some pictures of the vehicle. As for the hand application, to be hoenst if anyone applies it like I did here they are doing it wrong becuase I went quite thick on the Lexus. The trick is think, I don't know if the hands can ever get it as think as applicators can but I'm sure some detailers can.

Thank you Cooter and yes I would have to agree the silver is looking quite good. Glad you enjoyed it buddy eace:

1 - 3 years really..um..well not sure about that but I can see it if the vehicle is garaged through the year, this Lexus sits in the garage all the time and only comes out on weekends or on special family trips..lol or lately golfing events that I've been going to :whistle: So the wax should last quite a bit. I got 6 months out of Vintage and since I kept applying and applying coats of Vintage to the vehicle I'm expecting much better performance out of Crystal Rock but time will tell. As for the James Bond style cooler lol, I wish. Maybe on the next house I get built I'll do something like that but the painting will have to be as tall as me, I've got quite quite a few tubs of wax now :giggle:

Glad you enjoyed it, I'll be posting more pictures of the vehicle as I keep appying more coats of wax on it :thumb: If all goes well another coat will go on this Friday :cheerl:

lol..I'll not too, no seriously I shouldn't have waisted so much :shakehead: oh well :shrug:

The removal was really easy, I thought I was going to have a tough time to remove but it was quite easy to buff off. I used about 5 Cookie Monsters though, but that's becuase I wanted to make sure I buffed the veicle completely. But it's definetly easy to remove.

Ooh good idea, I'll make the next video on how to apply wax by hand. This weekend should do it :thumb:

Glad you enjoyed it eace:

Hey Gary, yes there is a huge selection of wax. I still need to get my self Collinity (sorry for spelling) specially for winter. lol I can't deny it Gary, when it comes to waxes I am a little :crasy: spending the amount I do on waxes lol but to be honest it makes me happy every time I walk or sit near my collection..hard to explain but it just brings a smile to my face :shrug:

 

Looks pretty good but as you said silver is a tough test bed for nuba and outside will show it off better....

Glad you are happy with the wax my friend!

 

Look so good Nica, congrats! Love the license plate as well!

 

Than you Deep Gloss, yes silver is a bit tough to see that Carnauba glow that I'm after but the reflection is very impresive.

Glad you enjoyed it P1et :thumb: Yea I'm pleased with the plates too :cheerl: