For what its worth, I saw the Klasse twins at the local Honda dealership parts department a couple weeks ago. Those are some of the premium products that used to be really tough to find locally. Another place to check are autobody paint supply shops. They are often Meguiar`s or 3M distributors and there are other products you can find there as well.
There are three grades of products the way I see it. Consumer, Professional, and Enthusiast.
Consumer grade products are like Mother`s. I`ve never seen those available by the gallon or marketed towards professionals. Meguiar`s has some consumer grade stuff, but they also have professional grade products in consumer sized bottles. Most pros don`t have much use for a 16 ounce bottle of car wash, but you can get Meguiar`s 00 in such sizes.
Professional grade products are industrial strength and industrial sized. Some of them don`t necessarily work any better than consumer grade, but they are available in larger quanities. Most of the paint polishes would be considered Professional Grade due to the fact that most consumers don`t have machines to cut their paint with. This is why you won`t find the whole line of Meguiar`s or 3M polishes on the shelf at WalMarts. You`ll see a couple at Autozone or somewhere like that, but usually only one or two choices.
Enthusiast grade products are for those individuals like yourself, who are only caring for their own vehicles and want the best. Since `best` is a totally relative term, I suppose you could find what works best for you off the shelf and be perfectly happy. I know I was totally content with Meguiar`s Gold Class for years until I found Klasse and Four Star and Pinnacle and Wolfgang and the list goes on. Gold Class is still a great looking consumer grade product, but when I wanted to turn the corner in appearance, I had no choice but to go online. Enthusiast grade products aren`t marketed on the shelves. They are sold through distributors who typically don`t have brick and mortar shops. I`m not sure how Zaino distributors work, but most of the product distributors I`ve seen for Enthusiast grade products are professional detailers themselves and carry the products they use to sell to their customers. All of the vendors on Detail City carry all three grades of products. The thing I like about places like Autogeek are that I can order some of the professional grade products along with the enthusiast ones that make my cars look so good and I can even throw in a few consumer products that are often priced better than they are on the shelf. Sure I have to pay shipping, but it isn`t that big of a deal. It is worth it.
One thing I can promise you is that there is no wax you will find off the shelf that will compare to Natty`s or Souveran or Fuzion. There is no polish line you will find off the shelf that is as versitle and easy to use as the SSR polishes from Poorboy`s or the XMT polishes from Pinnacle. I`ve never found a leather cleaner/conditioner that does the job of Leather Stuff from Poorboy`s. I`ve never used a leather conditioner that works as well and smells like the Pinnacle or Wolfgang conditioners do. There is a huge difference in quality and performance, so while OTC products are adequate, it sounds to me like you have a passion for detailing and making your cars look their best. I think to correct some of the problems on the older `stangs you are going to pick up you are going to need something with a little more kick than what you`ll find easily off the shelf. There is a lot to learn about what does what, but just know that while there are some products off the shelf that are hard to beat, when it comes to paint care, I can`t say that I`ve found anything locally that compares to what I`ve found on the interwebs.
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