My summer durability test

[JHL88]

I cleaned up my truck today and thought at the last minute it would be fun to have a 6-way wax royal rumble to stand the test of time this summer.

Now, before I get started I just want to point out a few things. A couple of these waxes are not offered by AG(one of them soon to be I think) so I will not post up descriptions, prices, claims, etc. just to be fair.

Second, not all of these waxes are in the same price range so take note that as some may/may not think they are in the same playing field. But its not a beauty contest its a durability test. IMO price is not a factor when it comes to that.

Lastly, My car was cleaned via DP Rinseless Wash & Gloss & the "Gary Dean" method. The truck previously had 2 month old WG Deep Gloss Liquid Seal as the LSP and before I decided to do this test I put a layer of Dodo Juice Supernatural on it, just an FYI.

So, I think that does it for the disclaimer so lets get started...

After I layered the whole truck with Supernatural (Before I wanted to do this test) I wanted to cleanse the hood to start new for the waxes. So I used this to start fresh:



It was my first time using PBL cleansing polish and I must say I was satisfied with it. I prefer this over DP prep polish since its too runny for my taste.

All prepped and ready to go!



And now everyone, meet the contenders



Auto Finesse Spirit
Adam`s Patriot Wax
Son1c Phoenix
Pinnacle Souveran
Dodo Juice Supernatural
Blackfire Midnight Sun

The conditions:

Not too shabby...



Finished product and ready for battle:



I will rank these waxes for what I think are the best in certain categories.

Ease of application (from easiest to...)



1) BFMS (wowo)
2) Pinnacle Souveran (wowo)
3) Adams Patriot
4) Son1C Phoenix
5) DDJ SN
6) AF Spirit

All of them were easy to apply and most of them were negligible to compare. However, I may be eJumped for saying this but BFMS was noticeably easier to spread even compared to Pinnacle Souveran. MS just glided across the paint like a slip n slide. Souveran spread like butter, and I could tell that a little goes a looong way.

Ease of Removal

1) BFMS (wowo)
2) Pinnacle Souveran (wowo)
3) Son1c Phoenix
4) Adams/DDJ SN (T)
5) AF Spirit*

Now, this is where it got tricky. I had no issues with these waxes except for Spirit. I let it haze for maybe 5 minutes so when it came time for removal it was considerably harder than the others. I think when I first started to lay it down it was a little on the heavy side and that part was a pain in the A** to remove.

So those of you who are going to use this wax in the future, thin thin thin is in x2! And don`t wait long for removal. Id say 2-3 minutes from my experience.

I waited 5 minutes for the other waxes that needed to haze and had no issues.

Smell

1) Son1c Phoenix
2) AF Spirit
3) Adam`s Patriot
4) Pinnacle Souveran
5) DDJ SN
6) BFMS

I know this doesn`t really matter but I thought I`d throw it in here for the sake of it.

I was going to claim the AF Spirit for the #1 spot until I applied it to my paint. The smell went from fresh pineapple from the container to rotten pineapple when applied to the vehicle. IDK why or how it happened but it did.

The more time I spent with Phoenix the more I liked it. I left it open in my laundry room when I went to grab another wax applicator and the whole room filled with an invigorating tropical fruit aroma. It was very pleasing. At that point I was confident to name this the #1 smelling wax. And yes, it smelled the same when I applied it :xyxthumbs:


Now on to the slickness. Some people like it when a LSP is slick and some people don`t care. Im one of those that really don`t mind much, as long as it does what its supposed to do. Im not going to have a ranking like the above because it was so hard to tell between the various waxes.... Except for one.

I was impressed with Adam`s Patriot wax, as it seemed to be slicker than any of the other waxes. To the point where each time I ran my fingers across the surface of the paint I could tell instantly.

With that out of the way, some info on what`s going to happen next.

My truck stays in the garage overnight errr "overday" since I work night shift so about half the time its out in the elements. We`ve been getting a lot of rain at night so we`ll see how that works out.

I don`t really have a plan on when I`m going to wash/maintain the ride but I will keep tabs on when I do and what I do to it. I did decide on what I`m going to use.

Either one of these for a touch-up



One of these for a bath



Im leaning towards Lather since it may be the safest of the 3. I did choose these specific products for a reason. They all do not leave any residue behind. I.e wax, gloss enhancers etc. So these players will not get any "help" in this test.

Final thoughts

-I have to say in general, I was very impressed with ol faithful aka BFMS up to this point. The ease of use was just unparalleled IMO. It mostly has to do with its wipe-on wipe-off characteristic but even compared to the other waxes I`ve used this one stands out. Whether it will stand the storm is another thing.

-I could not tell any difference in looks between the waxes as the truck was inside the whole time and the area where the waxes were applied was small.

-Disappointed in AF Spirit in terms of removal. For a $160 (I think) wax (got it for $70) it should be easier to use IMO. We will see if it will redeem itself.

-It will be interesting to see how long DDJ SN will last on a prepped/clean surface opposed to being layered over WGDGLS.

Other Info

I will continue to update this thread as time goes on. I will try to post up some beading shots tomorrow and eventually some sheeting action!


Questions, Comments, Concerns welcome!

[JHL88]

6/11/14

Some beading shots...

Blackfire



Adams



Pinnacle



Son1c Wax



Dodo Juice



Auto Finesse



Looks like Phoenix & Spirit have the strongest beading followed by Souveran & Supernatural, then Adams and the least uniform and tight beading by Blackfire.

[Ronkh]

Nice test.... But (and just my opinion)

Souveron has never been known to be a durable wax. It is a beauty wax.

[JHL88]

Nice test.... But (and just my opinion)

Souveron has never been known to be a durable wax. It is a beauty wax.

Yes, so is Adams Patriot. So we`ll see who outlast who. Plus I wanted to use all the waxes I had in this test.

[mnehls86]

Very nice. I haven`t tried any of those waxes yet but will eventually get around to at least a couple of them. Especially some of Son1c`s waxes.

[WaxAddict]

Initial beading on Auto Finesse is stellar. BF not so much!

[TacoHerder]

I love these tests. Always wanted to do one but I love wax too much. I get too impatient and want to wax my car simply to wax it to get a fresh look going again. Me having to wait months to wax my car would be impossible.

[EVOlved]

Nice setup for the test and the beading on spirit looks fantastic!!

[JHL88]

*6/12/14*

It rained HARD last night while I was at work and on my way home I made an observation. Sorry, I do not have any pics but there really wasn`t any point because all the beads looked the same after the rainfall.

Anyway, I travel about 5 miles on the highway each way for a commute and I noticed that while traveling between 30-60 mph, It seemed as if the section that was covered with Phoenix shed the water droplets faster than any other section. Just something that I noticed on the way home.

When I pulled in the driveway, the section was nearly dry along with the Souveran section, with only a couple of very small droplets. The other sections had several beads varying different sizes.

[SON1C]

As I`ve already told you I`m honored to be part of this, going head to head with some giants here! Thanks again for taking the time to put this together as I know its a lot of time + effort.

[SON1C]

*6/12/14*

It rained HARD last night while I was at work and on my way home I made an observation. Sorry, I do not have any pics but there really wasn`t any point because all the beads looked the same after the rainfall.

Anyway, I travel about 5 miles on the highway each way for a commute and I noticed that while traveling between 30-60 mph, It seemed as if the section that was covered with Phoenix shed the water droplets faster than any other section. Just something that I noticed on the way home.

When I pulled in the driveway, the section was nearly dry along with the Souveran section, with only a couple of very small droplets. The other sections had several beads varying different sizes.

That`s awesome, glad that the wax is performing well for you

[JHL88]

That`s awesome, glad that the wax is performing well for you

Its a great wax as far as I can tell. Whenever I`m done with the test Im going to strip everything and use Phoenix on the whole truck. That`s if I don`t eat it first.

[SON1C]

Its a great wax as far as I can tell. Whenever I`m done with the test Im going to strip everything and use Phoenix on the whole truck. That`s if I don`t eat it first.

hahaha that`s awesome -- don`t eat it though it doesn`t taste as good as it smells. About 5 people have reported tasting it, to be honest it could probably be used as chapstick but it`s not something I have tested