Products You Don`t Hear Too Much About Anymore...

Let`s just say that products like Liquid Glass, ReJex, Klasse AIO , and Collinite 845 Insulator wax are "classic chemical formulations" that still have their niche market appeal and use. Even Meg`s M16 Professional Car Wax had its day and appeal and probably still would, but Meg`s pulled the plug on its manufacturing after it could no longer met new government-mandated VOC regulations rather than change it formulation.

It is kind of like my career field of mechanical design/drafting and the drawing/graphics technology. When I started this career it was all manual drafting: paper vellum, technical pencils and lead hardness types, and drawing boards. Very tedious and time consuming. But the individual technical art-work was outstanding and it was very easy to tell who made what drawing and who was a good draftsmen or designer and who was not. When computer-aided drafting and design (CADD) came in, that all changed. All drawings looked identical. Now you used a computer and keyboard to "create" the technical art. What really changed was the speed that design changes could take place at and part dimensional accuracy. No more manual drawing "fudging" or out-of-scale parts or hand-calculated coordinate dimensions. When the computer-aided machining (CAM) portion came in, design and manufacturing processes were even more streamlined. it was old technology versus new technology. The point is, though, that drawings are still drawings. Parts could be made from old manual hand drawings or new CAD drawings. It was just a lot easier using the new CAD drawings and much of my CAD drafting was redrawing old hand drawings into CAD to "correct" manual drafting shortcomings or dimensional mistakes (engineering errors).
The same could be said of old formulations of car-care products and newer formulations. Old formulations of Meg`s M16 shine as well or out-shine some of the newer formulations of sealants and coatings. What M16 does not have is the protection characteristics and application longevity of the newer sealant and coating formulations. So why use M16?? For me sometimes nostalgia is just that: a carnauba wax shine is unique in its look and when it is just applied it has a WOW-factor that is hard to beat (in my eyes anyway).

That said, it would "difficult" for me to back to manual drafting. Today`s 3-D graphics are so far removed from the manual drafting I did, just as today`s SiO2 coatings are from old canuaba waxes. But I REALLY miss the unique craftsmanship and art work of technical manual drawings made by gifted designers and drafters in those days and the skill sets it required. Which is why I still like to use old car-care chemical formulations sometimes: just to remember how much I did like it (and to use up that product in my stash!).
 
Larry A said:
Do you want to go back , how about Car Groom. Thats what we used before Meguiars came to the midwest. Car Groom was a great line , you could only buy it at a place that sold auto paint...
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Hey, maybe *that* was the brand of Finishing Polish I used back then! I`ve been wracking my brain for ages trying to remember what it was...white bottle, black lettering, pink product.

Yeah, back in the day *everybody* bought all their Detailing stuff at paint stores, even the women in my family.
 
wannafbody said:
WD40 or kerosene to get single stage paint to shine
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-AND-

John U said:
Growing up at our lake home an elderly lady a few doors down washed her car with kerosene and an old rag.. She said it left a paraffin film on it when it dried. I`ve heard of farmers doing this also on their machines.
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One of my friends` dads did that on his `62 Chevy. Hey, he got over 400K out of it driving year-round in Ohio, quite an accomplishment back then when everything rusted out so fast.
 
Lonnie said:
Old formulations of Meg`s M16 shine as well or out-shine some of the newer formulations of sealants and coatings. What M16 does not have is the protection characteristics and application longevity of the newer sealant and coating formulations. So why use M16?? For me sometimes nostalgia is just that: a carnauba wax shine is unique in its look and when it is just applied it has a WOW-factor that is hard to beat (in my eyes anyway)...
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I only recently quit using my M16. IME it lasted longer than quite a few sealants, protected better than some of `em too. I only liked its look on certain paints, but yeah..for me that "nostalgia factor" is definitely triggered by its scent. Great stuff to apply by machine too, as long as you don`t over apply/work it (which will change your day if it happens).
 
Lonnie- Some old-school draftsmen I`ve known were *incredibly* skilled, and I bet you are too. Just the regular *handwriting* of people who really know how to wield a writing implement can blow me away...genuine pleasure just to look at it. In some cases I believe it`s an innate gift that some rare people are born with.
 
Accumulator said:
Lonnie- Some old-school draftsmen I`ve known were *incredibly* skilled, and I bet you are too. Just the regular *handwriting* of people who really know how to wield a writing implement can blow me away...genuine pleasure just to look at it. In some cases I believe it`s an innate gift that some rare people are born with.
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Not me! I had to practice, practice, practice my hand block printing EVERY day in technical school. I was fortunate enough to have an old-school drafting instructor (even by those standards in those days) who made all his students hand-print lines of text he wrote on the blackboard (what`s that!?) onto 3X5" index cards and be graded accordingly. To this day I STILL hand-print checks, mail envelop addresses, & application or information forms because of this "ingrained" training. People marvel at how precise and crisp it looks, even today because you just do not see that anymore. Just takes me forever to do so, which drives my better half bonkers and she has to wait for me to finish filling them out , like at healthcare offices.
I was not a natural draftsmen by any means, but my technical school instructor did teach me how to draw and read blueprints. I loved making technical drawings and I considered myself a "good" draftsmen when I graduated. When you have a passion for something, you tend to work very hard to become "good" at it, like vehicle detailing!

(Old draftsmen never die; they just draw flies!)
 
Lonnie- Actually, that`s even more impressive! You had to *work* at it, and you did what it took to gain mastery. I honestly wish I`d received such training when I was younger, bet I`d simply love reading your handwriting :D
 
Writing in cursive these days is getting to be an endangered species. My handwriting always sucked. Doesn’t help I’m lefty . I admire those who can write in Cadillac script-like calligraphy.
 
Lonnie said:
Not me! I had to practice, practice, practice my hand block printing EVERY day in technical school. I was fortunate enough to have a very-old school drafting instructor (by those standards in those days) who made all his students hand-print lines of text he wrote on the blackboard onto 3X5" index cards and be graded accordingly. To this day I STILL hand-print checks, mail envelop addresses, & application or information forms because of this "ingrained" training. People marvel at how precise and crisp it looks, even today because you just do not see that anymore. Just takes me forever to do so, which drives my better half bonkers and she has to wait for me to finish filling them out , like at healthcare offices.

)
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Same here I took drafting courses every year in Highschool. No autoCAD so it was drilled into us how we had to write. It drove my mother nuts. She was an elementary school teacher. And she would say "All those years teaching proper handwriting wasted just to draw a picture".

However, I got the last laugh and went into Medicine. Now my handwriting is atrocious.:P
 
Kerosene 1 cup to a bucket of water was the first rinseless car wash. Sponge on a section at a time , wipe with a towel and then wipe with a dry towel. If you did this all the time , the metal clips that held mouldings on which were metal would help prevent rust.
 
OK, since my extensive list of car-care manufacturer`s/name you don`t hear much about in post #13 of this thread, I must add one:
Surf City Garage
I do remember that they were offered for a while at Walmart, but I do not see them anymore there.. I assume they have been supplanted by Chemical Guy`s.

I go back to SCG and their Professional Line that they introduced a while back. I see Autopian All-Star Sizzle Chest using SCG Pro Glass Cleaner listed in his products used in his posted details, so I know someone is still using their products.

Anyone else use these products yet, or are they gathering dust on the back shelf of car-care products??
 
Blackfire Paint Sealant, aka the original Wet Diamond All Finish Paint Protectant (WDAFPP). This was discussed a ton 5+ years ago but has since been supplanted by BF’s newer offerings; One Step, SiO2 Spray Sealant, and BlackICE Liquid. But the sealant and the combo with Midnight Sun wax are still amazing.
 
Lonnie said:
OK, since my extensive list of car-care manufacturer`s/name you don`t hear much about in post #13 of this thread, I must add one:
Surf City Garage
I do remember that they were offered for a while at Walmart, but I do not see them anymore there.. I assume they have been supplanted by Chemical Guy`s.

I go back to SCG and their Professional Line that they introduced a while back. I see Autopian All-Star Sizzle Chest using SCG Pro Glass Cleaner listed in his products used in his posted details, so I know someone is still using their products.

Anyone else use these products yet, or are they gathering dust on the back shelf of car-care products??
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I just used the Surf City Grime Destroyer (Tar Remover Gel) the other day :)
 
acuRAS82 said:
Blackfire Paint Sealant, aka the original Wet Diamond All Finish Paint Protectant (WDAFPP). This was discussed a ton 5+ years ago...
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I got mine long before they came up with the "Wet Diamond" name; I still had the dealership building for my shop and that was last-century. Utterly unfavorable impression, one of the two/three LSPs I`ve ever stripped off...using it up on calipers.

But OTOH...I can see why somebody else *would* like it. It did the "darkening" thing rather dramatically, made the car look completely different, like a whole `nother paint code.
 
Accumulator said:
Utterly unfavorable impression, one of the two/three LSPs I`ve ever stripped off...using it up on calipers.
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This might be the first time we`ve had different experiences. I never "looked back" or stared at the wife`s Kia so much as I did when it had the Wet Ice Over Fire combo.

This was a fun thread to read through.
 
Larry A said:
Kerosene 1 cup to a bucket of water was the first rinseless car wash. Sponge on a section at a time , wipe with a towel and then wipe with a dry towel. If you did this all the time , the metal clips that held mouldings on which were metal would help prevent rust.
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Yep, remember by co worker doing that in the late 60`s early 70`s. Had the shiniest pickup on the job!!! He said he always did that in the morning before it got too hot cause it would streak otherwise. If it was really dirty he would substitute Lestoil instead of kerosene.
 
Early 70`s when I got my first GS, I used nothing but AstroShield. I remember when they redid some potholes I got po`d, but I had so many coats of this stuff on that when I hit it with the hose it came right off. Back in the day that was the slickest stuff that I ever used.
 
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