Wet look: polish or sealant?

[Lin-chi]

Over the past few months I`ve been experimenting with a few polish/sealant combos on my silver `04 Accord since I`m brand new to detailing. As recommended many times over I tried VM/EX-P and the look was very nice. A slight darkening of the silver, brought out the sparkles nicely, and very wet looking. The one drawback I found was that the car seemed to collect dust and pollen like crazy throughout the following days. It came off easily enough but was an endless battle.



Having read some good things about 1Z MP and 4* UPP I decided to try it out, primarily to see if the UPP might not collect so much dust, as many seemed to comment that it is slightly slicker than EX-P. The result was very shiny and beaded excellently but the silver looked washed out, flat, and almost white. I was a little disappointed as I really liked UPP: definitely slick and seemed even easier to apply than EX-P.



Is the difference in outcome here due more to the polish used or the sealant? I`ve heard people mention the washed-out effect but I don`t really know what causes it. Is it worth trying VM & UPP for the best of both worlds maybe or will there be bonding problems?

[Bill D]

My best guess is that the sealants are giving you different looks.I`m not familar with either VM or UPP although I hear very good things about both individually. It would be a very interesting experiment to see how the VM & UPP combo would look. Would you be topping UPP with VM to make up for the washed out,flat look you got from the UPP alone?

[imported_YouGottaBeLeaf]

There was a thread where someone posted a picture of their hood after half was treated with a sealant and half with a carnuba. Once treated, they drove through the desert. The picture clearly shows the sealant attracted way more dust than the carnuba side. I have found the same thing with NXT wax and FMJ. They are both polymer based sealants.



I too grew tired of the dust battle and ended up topping FMJ with 2 coats of #16. I actually like the look now better anyways so it worked out well :)

[Scottwax]

I`m suprised UPP would give you a washed out look on silver. I`ve used it and UPP is great on silver, in fact, great on every color I tried. The only real problem is the version I have requires a 45 minute wait after applying before removing so I don`t use it too often.



What you may want to try is Klasse AIO and UPP before giving up on UPP altogether. I think it is a killer combo on silvers and pearls. Since you already have the UPP, it may be worth trying out. You can also go back to VM/EX-P (which also looks amazing on silver!) and top it with Natty`s Paste, S100 or Meguiars #16 and see if that gives you the look you want and cuts down on dust attraction.

[mnbv]

scottwax said it.

[NavindraLR]

i have an 04 acura rsx, which i think is the same color (satin silver), and i have used sonus paintwork cleanser, topped with p21s, and it came out really good, and i have also tried 1z mp topped with p21s... which also looked pretty good... id have to give the edge to sonus paintwork cleanser, with p21s tho... it did give a nice shine/wet look

[Lin-chi]

So it sounds more like it the effect I observed would be due to the sealant, not the polish/glaze. Maybe VM+UPP wouldn`t make much of difference then (Bill D, I was thinking more along the lines of just topping VM with UPP.)



I do have some AIO so maybe I`ll try that out next time. I just did VM+EX-P today and it definitely brought back the oily look, which I like (I also wanted to make sure I wasn`t just imagining the difference.) Maybe I`ll toss up a photo after the second coat tomorrow. Have to see how the dust goes. I suppose it`s possible that it was just abnormally dry with a lot of airborn particles last time.



BTW, I did see that photo...pretty scary :scared