The Mega Wax Test - The Preparation Story

A test of different waxes is taking place in Slough, nr. London tomorrow - can a wax costing ££££ outshine a tin of Collinite? Tomorrow will tell when folk come to look at the cars. But for now, I thought I'd create this thread outlining in pictures to work and effort put into preparing the 7 Corsas over the past three days to make this test happen - huge thanks must go to the guys who helped me here, Neil, Gareth, Brian and Bryan as without their help, I'd still be machining the fourth car!! LOL

On with the story:

Day 1

Pictures from day 1 of the preparation, and these are the seven lucky Corsas parked up and waiting...









Not the cleanest, these are just out of storage so we do have our work cut out!!







So, we picked the dirtiest of the lot to get started with:





Bird bomb anyone?



Dust?





Nothing a good wash wont sort out...





Or will it - some serious etching here:





Well - it'll polish out

The car cleaned and clayed, ready for machining:







Doesn't look too bad, maybe a little dull... under the lights, you can see a dullness to the reflections:





And the etching:



While Harry cracked on with washing Corsa No. 2, I decided to see what we were going to need - and this is where the shock came: to get that finish back to sharp needed 3M Fast Cut Plus (two hits to get rid of the bird etching!! :doublesho)!! Got a sharpness back, left some light hologramming:





Cleaned up very nicely with 85RD Final Finish though, ready for wax - panel after IPA wipe:



Out in the sunlight you can see the difference the polishing has made... this car is the one Harely has just washed, no machining:









And this is the one that has been machined - you can see a sharpness returned to the paint, and a lovely gloss restored:









Indoors, we can see the difference too:

Unpolished:



Polished:



And now, the two cars sitting ready for tomorrow:







But still 5 left...





It'll be all hands on deck tomorrow!! :thumb:


Day 2

After testing the water yesterday with the polishing and realising that we were going to need Fast Cut Plus to get rid of a peely haze on the paint, we knew we had out work cut out today!! The target was three cars machined to a finish...

So best crack on - some work in progress shots:






























Some befores from around the cars...








And some after compounding...












After finishing:






And we did make out target... 3 cars complete:




















Tucked away...




Day 3

This will be the final thread of pics until after the event

Day 3 of the prep, and it started painfully for me... the gearbox on the Makita I was using yesterday got rather hot, and slowly burned my hand without realising it!...



So while I did a little first aid...



Neil sorted the Makita with a little modification:



Meanwhile, Gaz was killing his backing plate:





And ensuring I didn't steal his Last Touch :lol::





Work in progress pics:















Bryan from Drive & Shine came along to help today too, and did some Fast Cutting for us: many thanks!! :thumb::thumb:





They are armed and dangerous - rotaries, cutting pads, and Fast Cut!



Neil did some wet sanding on etching...





Polish out...



Bryan kept on washing...





Despite Gaz attacking him... :lol::lol:





A before and after shot by Gaz :thumb:





I ran away for a little while... to a bodyshop...



to play with a Sealey...



The back to work...





Oh heck, we killed Neil :doublesho



Blood, sweat and tears... but we're there!!











:thumb:


Day 4

Well, we made it!! :thumb:

7 Corsas, machined with Fast Cut Plus and then finished to perfection with Menz 85RD. Then on with a set of LSPs, each one getting three layers, they will of course be revealed tomorrow... but for the time being, some teaser pics of the cars all complete and waiting for tomorrow's entertainment














































7 shiny bonnets (and indeed, 7 shiny cars as the whole cars were done!!):
















It certainly wasn't a breeze...




So happy we got there, its FAB:







:thumb:

 

I can't wait for the results

 

Great idea Dave, really looking forward to seeing the results on this one.

As usual, great work with the vehicles. :worship2:

 

Thanks for taking the time and effort to conduct this test Dave and Crew! I definitely can't wait to see the results.

 

Looking great Dave!!!!!! Thats a ton of pics!!! Thanks!!

 

Dang, all of them look amazing. Thanks for doing this test for everyone :worship2:

 

Wow, just wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumb: x infinity + 1

 

Your efforts are incredible. Many thanks guys for helping us all, can't wait for the results.

 

This test will go down in history!

 

Wow, I can't wait to see the results from this test and what waxes come out on top.

 

Really looking forward to seeing how this one plays out. Great job Dave!

 

that's a lot of work you guys have done! You must be tired!!!

 

Sweet vehicles and great correction too :thumb:

I too am looking forward to the end results :nod: Should be interesting.

 

I read on Detailingworld that the results were as follows:

1st: Swissvax Best Of Show
2nd: Collinite 915
3rd= Zaino Z2
3rd= Autoglym HD Wax
5th= Raceglaze 55
5th= Zymol Royale

I think I read that 20 people were there, and the waxes were rated on a points system, and that BOS came out on top with 65 points, and Royale finished with 41 points.

 

Interesting results.

 

Wow! Those cars already look amazing :worship2:. Can't wait to see the final results.

 

Interesting results so what came in "6th" since you ranked 6 waxes and there should be one more right? Since there where 7 cars.

 

im throwing my (Royale )in the trash now!!!:drinking2::drinking2:

 

This is going to be one of the best posts in the history of any detailing Web site! It will make some people sheer with joy and other (maybe) regretting spending thousands on waxes!

 

I love it how the wax that costs thousands comes in LAST, far below Collinite which costs next to nothing.