Hi Matt,
Just as comment about silicones and products without them,
Meguiar's started out making nothing but products without silicones and waxes. In fact, Frank Meguiar Jr. took great pride in creating products for both the OEM and the Refinishing industry that did not contain wax or silicone so that they wouldn't cause any surface adhesion problems.
Meguiar's didn't come out with their first wax until 1951 shortly after Frank Meguiar Jr. passed away. That was #16 Professional Paste Wax and it's still around today. (53 years later).
At work, I'm a bit of a boat rocker here at work, I ask questions seeking information that I can pass onto members of forums like Autopia for people that have questions.
After the Tech Wax
Cleaner fiasco, Meguiar's has told me for the most part, that Meguiar's isn't going to tell people what ingredients are in Meguiar's products. (Which makes sense, no other wax company does this either).
For the most part, people are free to try the product and decide if they like it or not. You tried Tech Wax and didn't like it. I and the Ferrari owners applied it to around a doze Ferrari's last weekend and everyone loved it.
Go figure...
This Friday I will be at a Porsche Tech Session in San Luis Obispo
http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/calendar.php?s=&action=getinfo&eventid=29
Teaching people how to
safely remove swirls and scratches out of their finish and then apply Tech Wax to top it off.
Then on Saturday, I'll have about 30 Mercedes-Benz owners doing the same thing.
http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/calendar.php?s=&action=getinfo&eventid=6
So while it doesn't work for everyone, and no product does, it does seem to work for me on just about any paint type I put it on.
And because I see people try to say that the reason for that is I do the prep work, to insure that's not the reason, I do my best to have the owners of all of these cars do as much of the work as they can, except for some of the rotary work.
Here a couple of months ago, I had a person post to Meguiar's Online that he hated Tech Wax and it was the worst wax he had ever used. I sent him another bottle that I opened to make sure it was okay, a couple of extra wax pads, some quality microfiber polishing cloths and some extra instructions to make sure there was no doubt as to how to apply and remove it and now I have seen him posting to other people how much he loves this new product on his black Corvette.
I get e-mails and pictures all of the time from people that have tried this new product and have been blown away by the results. I think these type of results are the norm, and not the exception.
Perhaps if you have it within you to try it again, pick out one of the show cars you work with and after cleaning, and polishing (if needed), apply two thin coats of the Tech Wax either by hand or using a Porter Cable Dual Action Polisher and then inspect again.
I'll even send you a quart of the #83 DACP, (non-Silicone) cleaner/polish if you don't already have some to pre-clean the finish.
Most important though, is inspect your results in bright light compared to other products you usually try. I find for a show car under bright lights, nothing has outperformed Tech Wax for darkening the color, eliminating the cobweb effect and making a smooth finish look wet.
The below Viper belongs to a forum member here on Autopia by the name of
Newport Viper. He had been previously using only Zaino products on his car. In fact his first post here on Autopia was a request for a professional to detail his car and
ONLY USE ZAINO.
Here's the link,
Need mobile detailer in Scottsdale AZ for Viper!
I even chimed in and offered to do the detail job. After a while I forgot about the thread and moved on.
Down the road, Newport Viper moved to Newport Beach, CA instead of Scottsdale AZ and I got a phone call from him one day.
He had ordered some Tech Wax when it first became available and wanted to come right by Meguiar's and pick it up. So he asked me if I could pull his order which I did. For his particular detail he prepped his Viper's finish using Meguiar's #9 Swirl Remover 2.0 (Non-Silicone), and than applied 2 Coats of Tech Wax.
He was blown away! He then posted pictures of his results to a bunch of different forums, including Autopia...
NXT Viper
A few months later, he organizes a
Viper Detail Day at Meguiar’s.
At this event, he re-polishes the paint on his Viper with #83 DACP which is more aggressive than #9 SR 2.0 and then comments to me how much better his finish looks than it did with the #9/Tech Wax combo because the #38 removed even more of the fine swirls and scratches in his car's finish.
I have to agree... his Viper's paint looks like it's wet!
And that's with one coat of Tech Wax, and he did all of the work.
So maybe, just maybe, give Tech Wax another try?
Mike
p.s.
As far as the silicone thing goes, for me personally, I just trust the fact that because Meguiar's knows when to keep the silicone out of a product, when the chemists decide to put it into a product,
they must know what they're doing?
(yes, I know they don't). 
