American Shine vs. Zymol Carbon vs. Pinnacle Souveran

[thevolvoguy]

Well, I had bad light and had to use my gold car, so pictures made it hard to judge which is better. IMHO, the Zymol had the best shine on this color, however on my black and dark red cars Souveran is far superior, shine wise. The "American Shine" kit I recieved for free in the mail seemed a little inferior tot he other two waxes. It seemed almost abrasive when applying. Shine for all the products was good. But as you can see in the wet picture, after a small storm the Souveran section had almost completely dried w/ no spots, along with the Zymol. The AS beaded, but no better than my 2 month old LG. :D



EDIT: Sorry the pics werent working. Heres a link.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubgallery.asp?id_=35336

[Scottwax]

I got mine last night and it rained today, so the only car I had to detail today was the interior of the Ford Expidition from hell. Not really a whole lot of stains, but they never empty it out and their black long haired dog sheds like crazy.



I used the carpet shampoo-mixed it down at 7:1. I noticed it is thinner than my usual shampoo (Magnum Upholstry Shampoo) and came out of the spray bottle in a finer mist. It had a pleasant smell and seemed to work pretty well. The Expiditon didn`t have a lot of bad stains, mostly just grime and dirt which came up as easily as with Magnum.



I also tried the rubber/vinyl protectant. Again, a pleasant smell that didn`t clash with the carpet shampoo. The 2 oz sample was enough to get all the vinyl in the interior, plus my own dash (so I can see how long it shines for) and it has a nice matte gloss to it. Seems comparible so far to Meguiars #40.



I will try the wash, glaze and wax when the weather is better.





My initial impressions of the carpet shampoo and vinyl/rubber protectant are pretty good. Work as well as the stuff I use now. The only real drawback is mail order. I can get the protectant and shampoo I use now locally for a comparible price. I would say if you want to try a carpet shampoo instead of buying cans of carpet cleaner, you might want to try American Shines. I may order a gallon of the carpet shampoo to give it an extended testing.





I am not crazy about the multi-level marketing aspect though. Regardless of what anyone says, you have to work your a$$ off and bug a lot of people to make even a little money.

[imported_Intel486]

Originally posted by Scottwax

I am not crazy about the multi-level marketing aspect though. Regardless of what anyone says, you have to work your a$$ off and bug a lot of people to make even a little money.



Yep! Only thing I don`t think I`ll like about MLM....



I tried their Car Wash today. Great stuff! I got 2 gallons of water and put 4 cap fulls in.



PH Value: I tested the PH and it came out between 7.5 and 7.8



I tested the PH value of my normal water and it came out between 7.0 and 7.2



So I guess the soap is pretty darn neutral!



It saies it has carnauba in it but I didn`t really notice it. It didn`t streak windows and the water didn`t bead any different after washing with it. I think it might be good to help maintain a carnauba wax though.



I also tried their Carnauba Liquid Wax. First thing I noticed was it was green! I don`t think I`ve seen a green wax before! It also has a real pleasant smell. Not sure how to describe it though.



It went on easy and buffed off easy. Buffed off real easy! It put down a pretty good shine but I couldn`t tell much about it though b/c it was on a light blue vehicle. I plan on testing it on my truck tomorrow against P21S, Liquid Glass, Klasse SG, and Pro`s Stain Creme. I`ll be able to tell more about the shine then.





Edit: I think their Carnauba Liquid Wax is a cleaner wax.

[Scottwax]

I tried the wash, glaze and wax today.



The car wash soap is pink and has a bubble gum smell to it, so the odor is pleasant enough. Nice suds and they last for the entire wash (I was washing a Ford Expidition for some customers who pay me extra to use regular car wash soap and their water ionizer instead of Protect Alls wash-even though they admit it does just as good a job-they just like seeing a lot of water on their vehicles). I waxed it about 5 weeks ago and when drying it, the surface seemed to be pretty slick still. They claim there is some carnuba in the wash-the water beaded up nicely, but not really much more than when I washed it last week. When I took off the nozzle and trickled the water over the Expidition, most of the water sheeted off so it only took me 10 minutes or so to dry it.



Works just as well as most good car wash soaps do, again the only real disadvantage is having to order it when I can buy other products at any auto parts store or my local Meguiars distributer.







On to the glaze and wax:



I had a 1995 Ford Thunderbird to detail this afternoon. I guess the color is pewter or champagne-sort of a sliverish tan. No sense using Souveran on his paint-it won`t make enough of a difference on a light color to justify spending more. The paint did need some work, no water was beading while I washed it and when it was clean, it needed to be clayed.



I used the glaze first. Like the wash, it is pink. It seems to have cleaning/polishing ability between Meguiars #9 and #7. Easy on (foam hand applicator) and off and the paint was looking much shinier and had more gloss. I then used the carnuba wax (green, just like Intel said) and applied it with a dampened (I used some QD) foam hand applicator (the directions say to use terry cloth applicators, but they waste a ton of product compared to foam). Like the glaze, it went on easy and wiped off just as easily. Very user friendly.



The shine and depth were noticably improved by using the glaze and wax. When the customer came out to look at his car, he said "Wow!" 3 times. Obviously he hadn`t waxed it in a while and probably anything would have been an improvement, but the American Shine products made a huge difference in the look of the car. I didn`t test them side by side with other products because it wasn`t my car and I want both sides of the car to look the same. I have enough product left for another car-maybe do some comparisons using my brothers black Mazda 626 this weekend.



All in all, the stuff I got was first rate. Very easy to use and good results. As good as Pinnacle? No, but it is far less expensive. Is the glaze as good as Meguiars Swirl Free or Hand Polish-well, maybe 90% as good and much easier to use. The glaze and wax both wipe off with no effort so if ease of use is important and you don`t want to hunt down Meguiars professional level paint prep products or pay the high price of Pinnacle, American Shine`s glaze, wax and carpet cleaner all seem to be very good products based on my initial impression. The vinyl protectant and car wash are pretty good too, but similar to products you can purchase easily and at a lower price at your local auto parts store.



I may order the glaze, wax and carpet cleaner to give them a more extended and thorough testing. I like the fact you can use the polish and glaze in the direct sun if no shade is available, and the carpet cleaner works very well.



BTW, I took a pic of the Thunderbird, so once I shoot the roll in my camera, I will post it.

[imported_Intel486]

Yhea, it seems their wax is a strong cleaner type of some sort. I may ditch Pro`s Miracle Wax for this stuff because it comes off sooo easy! and it`s green :D

[Scottwax]

I had a black Ford Explorer to detail today, and it was pretty much straight up noon when I had finished the interior and washed it. American Shine says you can use their wax on a 100 degree day in the sun, so even though it was only about 92 or so and partly cloudy, I used the carnuba wax on the Explorer. It went on and off like I had applied it in the shade! I was really suprised at how easy it was to wax a hot black truck in the sun. Clearkote`s Moose Wax is also pretty good in the sun, but AS`s stuff is even better. No streaking and it was easy to wipe off.



Since I have no choice on many days but to work in the sun, I am going to order some of the wax and the glaze. It works better in the sun than any wax I have tried. Shine is pretty close to #26 (reflections are very similar, maybe not quite as wet looking, but I doubt the average person would notice any difference).

[Scottwax]

Originally posted by Intel486

Yhea, it seems their wax is a strong cleaner type of some sort. I may ditch Pro`s Miracle Wax for this stuff because it comes off sooo easy! and it`s green :D



It`s green, but it dries with a very light, nearly clear haze. Smells like bubble gum too.



Frankly, I am a lot more impressed than I thought I would be. :up



***Still not a fan of multi-level marketing though.