imported_Aurora40
New member
Well, I've gotten around to trying a few of my Christmas gifts. I thought I'd post my initial impressions.
The other day I used Protect-All QEW on my wife's car. It was fairly dirty, but not gray from salt or anything. It was quite easy to do and seemed to be quite gentle. I was surprised how little water one gallon is (and how much an ounce is). I guess I usually use less than an ounce of carwash for about 1.5-2 gallons. Anyway, I was impressed with the job the QEW did. Quite a nice product to have in the arsenal.
I also used Meguiar's #00 Hi-Tech car wash. If you recall, I was worried it would be too mild. I can report it did a great job on transforming my winter gray Aurora into a cherry red one. It is very sudsy and feels very mild. I really like it, and I probably won't buy GC anymore. I think I will probably start using less of it than I use of GC, though. I filled the wash bucket back up with water after finishing the car (at which point the bucket had about 25% of it's original volume) and it was instantly super sudsy and slick again. I used that to wash the doorjambs. So apparently it doesn't take much of it to do the trick.
Lastly, I used some DF Towels to dry the car off. They are absurdly soft. I really love them. They seem to absorb more water than the PakShak, but it still wasn't enough to dry a car that had water beaded all over it. Probably with a sheeted car it would be fine, but now that I use the final distilled water spray I can't sheet it.
As an aside, the distilled water trick isn't quite the miracle it seemed to be. I've noticed a very light spotting that gets left behind (most noticeable on windows). I don't get the car completely dry, but I wipe it down with the DF (formerly with a Pakshak) and leave the little bit of water remaining to dry on its own. I don't know if the problem is the hose water that was on the car isn't being diluted/displaced enough by the distilled water, or if I need to spray two gallons instead of one, or if the distilled water I bought isn't "clean" enough (which seems unlikely). The spotting is much reduced compared to before I used it (and the drying is just easier), but it hasn't worked out as I hoped it would. I'll first try using more water. I could try a second pass of drying to get the last bits of water, but that won't work come summer and the whole point was to avoid spotting if the water dries before I can get to it (which is inevitable when it warms up).
Oh, I used the Meguiar's All Metal Polish on some exhaust tips. It really shined them up great (better than AIO) but they weren't all that dirty. I don't know how it will do on worse surfaces, or on household metals like brass. But it is interesting and easy to use and doesn't smell like poison.
The other day I used Protect-All QEW on my wife's car. It was fairly dirty, but not gray from salt or anything. It was quite easy to do and seemed to be quite gentle. I was surprised how little water one gallon is (and how much an ounce is). I guess I usually use less than an ounce of carwash for about 1.5-2 gallons. Anyway, I was impressed with the job the QEW did. Quite a nice product to have in the arsenal.
I also used Meguiar's #00 Hi-Tech car wash. If you recall, I was worried it would be too mild. I can report it did a great job on transforming my winter gray Aurora into a cherry red one. It is very sudsy and feels very mild. I really like it, and I probably won't buy GC anymore. I think I will probably start using less of it than I use of GC, though. I filled the wash bucket back up with water after finishing the car (at which point the bucket had about 25% of it's original volume) and it was instantly super sudsy and slick again. I used that to wash the doorjambs. So apparently it doesn't take much of it to do the trick.
Lastly, I used some DF Towels to dry the car off. They are absurdly soft. I really love them. They seem to absorb more water than the PakShak, but it still wasn't enough to dry a car that had water beaded all over it. Probably with a sheeted car it would be fine, but now that I use the final distilled water spray I can't sheet it.
As an aside, the distilled water trick isn't quite the miracle it seemed to be. I've noticed a very light spotting that gets left behind (most noticeable on windows). I don't get the car completely dry, but I wipe it down with the DF (formerly with a Pakshak) and leave the little bit of water remaining to dry on its own. I don't know if the problem is the hose water that was on the car isn't being diluted/displaced enough by the distilled water, or if I need to spray two gallons instead of one, or if the distilled water I bought isn't "clean" enough (which seems unlikely). The spotting is much reduced compared to before I used it (and the drying is just easier), but it hasn't worked out as I hoped it would. I'll first try using more water. I could try a second pass of drying to get the last bits of water, but that won't work come summer and the whole point was to avoid spotting if the water dries before I can get to it (which is inevitable when it warms up).
Oh, I used the Meguiar's All Metal Polish on some exhaust tips. It really shined them up great (better than AIO) but they weren't all that dirty. I don't know how it will do on worse surfaces, or on household metals like brass. But it is interesting and easy to use and doesn't smell like poison.
SFP is gentler...