VetteToVair
New member
First, thank you to Mark for sending the free bottles out for testing. It shows that you truly believe in your product. As i stated in another thread, this weekend was the first chance i had to try it out. I came into this with an open mind. Although i found mark's claims hard to believe and was uneasy about his failure to directly answer most questions/concerns, i feel that he has been treated unfairly on occasion considering how polite he has been. That said, i really wanted to have a pleasant experience with Acrylic Werks on this lovely sunday morning. I'll tell you now i don't have a digital camera or a scanner so please don't beg me for pics. I'll describe it as best i can.
Second, the test vehicle. The test surface was the trunk lid of a 9 year old black car. The swirls were moderate to heavy with light scratches of various sizes, shapes, etc. I have lightly polished (Meg's SFP) this car several times so 1)absolutley no oxidation and 2)excellent gloss. The SFP created an excellent gloss, but was no match for the swirls. The last SFP session was 3 months ago, and was followed by an application of Meg's #20 Polymer Sealant. Due to the vehicle's condition, i was obviously not testing for the product's ability to remove oxidation. I was observing it's 1. Ease of Use 2. Effect on swirls/scratches 3. Slickness 4. Final Appearance 5. Durability(will not be seen for a while).
Third, the grunt work. While washing the car i noticed that the #20 is still beading at probably 70-80% of what it was three months ago - not bad. I pulled the car into the garage to dry and begin working. I must say the car looked pretty nice if you avoided lighting/angles which showed the swirls. I divided the trunk lid into 3 sections 1. AW with a PC 2. AW by hand 3. Untouched.
I decided to try the AW with a PC because this would be the most efficient way to remove swirls. I figured if it can't remove swirls with a PC. then it sure as hell wont remove any by hand. I used a white polishing pad from CMA/LC. The speed was set at 5. Normally i do all swirl removal at speed 6, but i was a little cautious. The first thing i noticed was how easily the product spread on the trunk lid surface. After two or three quick passes the product started to dry up very quickly. I thought, ok we are supposed to work the product in until it is almost gone. After a few more quick passes i was not willing to go any further because the product was so dried up. Now for the removal. SON OF A B****!!!! This residue will not budge even when i apply my body weight on the trunk lid. My mindset quickly went from exploration mode to search and rescue. I went over the area again with the PC and AW on speed 5, but only for a few light passes. I went to wipe this off, but this was still almost impossible to remove. Finally i just used some water and serious buffing to remove the residue. I took a five minute break to punch a pillow and bang my head into the wall and then it was on to section 2.
After my disastrous results with a PC, i proceeded to section 2 where i followed Mark's directions for hand application. Surprisingly, the product still dried up rather quickly so i was forced to use quite a bit of product. By the way, my arm hurts. Removal of residue was much better than the PC section, but still was no walk in the park.
On to section 3. Section three went untouched - by far the most pleasant detailing experience of the day.
Fourth, the results. Let me first say that these results will not prevent me from doing further testing on other surfaces in better and worse consitions using different procedures.
BY PC: I flipped on the halogens to observe my work. This section, section 1, looked the worst out of the three sections. There were more swirls than before i started. I attribute this to two things - using a PC and a polishing pad with a non-abrasive product and working it until it is dry, and the amount of force required to remove the residue. The surface of section one was moderately slicker than the three month old #20 surfaces, but nothing to brag about. The overall appearance was no better and no worse than the rest of the car(with the exception of increased swirls).
BY HAND: The swirls on section two were marginally better than the swirls on the untouched section. This is due to either very mild abrasives or some filling capabilities. The slickness and overall appearance of section two were about the same as section one.
Overall impressions: Acrylic Werks is a difficult to use cleaner wax with less than impressive results. It cleans more chemically than abrasively. In this sense only(chemical cleaner), I would compare it to Klasse AIO. As of right now the bottle itself is more valuable to me than the product inside. However, since Mark was generous enough to send all these out, I feel obligated to continue testing on other surfaces with different procedures. Who knows, maybe next time i will have completely different results. Any comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome. :wavey
Second, the test vehicle. The test surface was the trunk lid of a 9 year old black car. The swirls were moderate to heavy with light scratches of various sizes, shapes, etc. I have lightly polished (Meg's SFP) this car several times so 1)absolutley no oxidation and 2)excellent gloss. The SFP created an excellent gloss, but was no match for the swirls. The last SFP session was 3 months ago, and was followed by an application of Meg's #20 Polymer Sealant. Due to the vehicle's condition, i was obviously not testing for the product's ability to remove oxidation. I was observing it's 1. Ease of Use 2. Effect on swirls/scratches 3. Slickness 4. Final Appearance 5. Durability(will not be seen for a while).
Third, the grunt work. While washing the car i noticed that the #20 is still beading at probably 70-80% of what it was three months ago - not bad. I pulled the car into the garage to dry and begin working. I must say the car looked pretty nice if you avoided lighting/angles which showed the swirls. I divided the trunk lid into 3 sections 1. AW with a PC 2. AW by hand 3. Untouched.
I decided to try the AW with a PC because this would be the most efficient way to remove swirls. I figured if it can't remove swirls with a PC. then it sure as hell wont remove any by hand. I used a white polishing pad from CMA/LC. The speed was set at 5. Normally i do all swirl removal at speed 6, but i was a little cautious. The first thing i noticed was how easily the product spread on the trunk lid surface. After two or three quick passes the product started to dry up very quickly. I thought, ok we are supposed to work the product in until it is almost gone. After a few more quick passes i was not willing to go any further because the product was so dried up. Now for the removal. SON OF A B****!!!! This residue will not budge even when i apply my body weight on the trunk lid. My mindset quickly went from exploration mode to search and rescue. I went over the area again with the PC and AW on speed 5, but only for a few light passes. I went to wipe this off, but this was still almost impossible to remove. Finally i just used some water and serious buffing to remove the residue. I took a five minute break to punch a pillow and bang my head into the wall and then it was on to section 2.
After my disastrous results with a PC, i proceeded to section 2 where i followed Mark's directions for hand application. Surprisingly, the product still dried up rather quickly so i was forced to use quite a bit of product. By the way, my arm hurts. Removal of residue was much better than the PC section, but still was no walk in the park.
On to section 3. Section three went untouched - by far the most pleasant detailing experience of the day.
Fourth, the results. Let me first say that these results will not prevent me from doing further testing on other surfaces in better and worse consitions using different procedures.
BY PC: I flipped on the halogens to observe my work. This section, section 1, looked the worst out of the three sections. There were more swirls than before i started. I attribute this to two things - using a PC and a polishing pad with a non-abrasive product and working it until it is dry, and the amount of force required to remove the residue. The surface of section one was moderately slicker than the three month old #20 surfaces, but nothing to brag about. The overall appearance was no better and no worse than the rest of the car(with the exception of increased swirls).
BY HAND: The swirls on section two were marginally better than the swirls on the untouched section. This is due to either very mild abrasives or some filling capabilities. The slickness and overall appearance of section two were about the same as section one.
Overall impressions: Acrylic Werks is a difficult to use cleaner wax with less than impressive results. It cleans more chemically than abrasively. In this sense only(chemical cleaner), I would compare it to Klasse AIO. As of right now the bottle itself is more valuable to me than the product inside. However, since Mark was generous enough to send all these out, I feel obligated to continue testing on other surfaces with different procedures. Who knows, maybe next time i will have completely different results. Any comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome. :wavey