Remember MALM'S

jsatek · 12-13-06, 04:36

Did anyone use MALM's back in the day? I remember the 1 page ads in Road and Track they had every month. I never bought it though, I was a Zymol guy back in the late 80's early 90's.

Can anyone talk about a Malm's experience?

Bence · 12-13-06, 05:01

When American car mags were rare and unique here, I got a Car & Driver once in a year from my Dutch pal. I remember those ads too; they were quite informative.

I got even a response from them, but the prices were so sky high, that I could never dream about buying a few products from them.

Now, Malm's has a pretty correct and informative website, which looks a bit tired. I read somewhere that the products are indeed excellent, but I think Accumulator has more insights...

jsatek · 12-13-06, 05:20

Thats funny, I have about 20 years of Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Road and Track, Automobile, and Auto Week in my mothers basement.
I am going there for X-mas and will look for an old Malm's ad and Ill scan it and post it here. (I was a big magazine subscriber per-internet!)

Mike · 12-13-06, 05:28

In fact, I got a quart (two pints actually) of their liquid wax. I still have some of it. It looks, smells and works an awful lot like Meguiar's #26 liquid. Hmmmmmm. Makes you kind of wonder if this weren't just a marketing gimmick to get $30 for something that is really worth about $12. Since I've been around this board and learned a lot about car care products, I don't use liquid carnauba waxes any more. The bottom line is that there are a lot of better products than this for less money.

calgarydetail · 12-13-06, 06:04

It looks intresting. I might have to ive this a try (i seem to be on a mission to try every product out there.)

BigLeegr · 12-14-06, 08:15

I like it. Did a review on it. Spreads really easily/quickly. Not nec. an extremely durable wax, but I've gotten over a month from it. The small bottle is SMALL!! But, as it does spread so far, it's not as bad/expensive per use as some others might be. I like the "neon yellow" color!
And, I agree with the comment on the outdated website. Even the testimonials are pretty old.

Accumulator · 12-14-06, 11:15

As best I can figure, Malm's is *not* just rebottled Meguiar's stuff. The Malm's Chemical Company has been in business for quite a while. Can I *prove* it's not Meguair's? No, but I don't think anybody can prove that it *is* either

I used a *LOT* of their polish and wax in the '80s, bought it by the gallon. Got my first Cyclo through them too.

The wax is pretty good, and no staining on rubber/plastic trim. Good beading when used on a properly prepped surface. Very user-friendly by hand and machine, pretty much foolproof. Dunno about durability because I was applying it all the time back then. I can't think of any real criticisms of the product...it's simply a good liquid carnauba, no more and no less. I bet that people here would be surprised at how decent it is....label it "exotic expert-detailer super-stuff" and maybe it'd seem more impressive

How different is it from Meg's #26 (liquid)? I dunno..how different are two yellow liquid carnauba waxes gonna be? Maybe a side-by-side would prove something

Their polish is a good medium-strength abrasive with no filling that I could discern. But it's a bit hard to buff off the residue, the product shows its age that way as a lot of abrasives from the late '70s/early '80s were like that. Cleans up with water and seems low in solvents. Might not give a truly perfect ready-to-wax finish on some soft paints, but IMO it'll only be noticeable on dark colors. I can't think of any directly comparable Meguiar's polish (the Malm's is much better by hand than #83 IMO). Maybe it's like 3M FI-II, if anybody still remembers that one.

Their #10 glaze is a very mild polish with some wax/fillers. It was a nice addition to the above polish back when it came out ('80s) but these days I bet most people would be happier with VM (milder than the #10) or some other "modern" product like that; I reach for 1Z's WaxPolishSoft for instance. Meguiar's equivalent would be #9 or #82, but the #10 isn't all *that* similar to them IMO.

I dunno if there's any really compelling reason to buy some Malm's instead of some other brand's stuff, but it's not like you'd go wrong with it either. Bearing in mind that we're only talking about three products (two polishes and one wax), if you can't get something looking good with Malm's then you're either looking at a *major*-correction type of detail or you need to refine your technique. I think I'd recommend Malm's before I'd recommend Griot's line of Machine Polishes and their BOS wax, but that's the comparison that comes most readily to mind.

jsatek · 12-14-06, 11:25

Thanks for the info Accumulator.

I was also reminiscing about Car Brite last night. Crystal Shine, Crystal Buff, Bumper Kote, Butter Wax, Blue Max.
All great products that could suck the paint off of your house! Ahhh, the pre VOC law days.