ilogikal1

You might have guessed that I've washed the Z for the first time in three months this week. Well, I can't actually remember what was on the car previously (I'm sure Quartz was on somewhere, it might have been everywhere, it might not have been but I'll be buggered if I can remember) however the point is, whatever was on the car was well and truly not there any more. Except the Dodo Juice Infinity on the rear bumper, the Gyeon Prime on the side skirts, and whatever the hell was on the rear quarter panels from the door to the wheel arch (both sides, only parts of the car that was still beading at all. Very odd, I agree). The G1 on the windscreen had been suffering of late, however a few miles in the rain with the wipers on was enough to clean whatever invisible film was interfering with the G1 to bring it back to life for the rest of the journey north to a degree (it wasn't quite as good as it was when fresh, but it was clearly working still). So the car was foamed with W4 (see up there), then left out in the rain over night before being Car Chem Citrus Pre-washed and washed with WaxAddict development shampoo - I forgot the review of that, so... it cleaned well, rinsed badly and left a streaky finish, I'm not really a fan but I've got another one to try again some time. I might remember a proper review then. I might not. - and then the LSP of choice was applied, on this occasion Car Chem HydroCoat applied neat with the above combination of G5 and Glass Wax on the glass. It really needs a proper wash, decon and everything, but I simply didn't have the time to do it on this occasion, I just wanted some protection on the paint to last me until I have more time. You've waited long enough. And for that reason... well, partially that reason, mostly because I had too much time on my hands, I've gone all out this time... well, not all out but there's some effort applied at least. So without further ado I present to you some extra special (but still fake) beads; I hope that was worth the wait. Also; Because I didn't have any custard.

Firstly, Cheers Dan, that means... probably a lot more than it should do actually. I do appreciate the kind words though. Now, as you (should) know stuff has happened recently. The stuff that happened included some new products, however time constraints resulted in a lack of photographic evidence so words will have to suffice for now. First up was GTechniq W4 Citrus Foam - I had 150ml of this to play with courtesy of Waxybox (yes, I'm a little bit behind on them, I know already!) so I used all of it, mixed with 100ml of water in the bottle. Then I discovered a leak in my foam lance. Then I remembered I didn't have/use any PTFE tape last time I put it back together. Nevertheless I persevered (read; couldn't be arsed to swap it over) but apply that information to the following as you see fit. It may have affected how thick the foam was applied. It may not have done. Anyway, that said... First point to note of W4 is that it's a much thicker consistency to every other snow foam concentrate (that I can remember anyway), it's more of a typical shampoo consistency - this is largely why I had no issue with diluting it slightly in the bottle. When applied the foam itself wasn't overly thick (in fact it was about the same as Car Chem Snow Foam) it had a fairly good dwell time of about 10 minutes or so but it didn't linger on the driveway (again, very similar to Car Chem) and it had a mild citrus smell even after being diluted by the pressure washer (unlike Car Chem). Cleaning wise it was pretty good. It wasn't the best I've tried, but it was certainly towards the top of that list. At £14 per litre it's priced just above the Auto Finesse Avalanche level, which used to be quite expensive compared to others, however there are now a number of offering that are considerably more expensive (Gyeon, Dodo Juice, I'm look at you!) so W4 can now be considered mid-market on price. That doesn't make it cheap though... All in all I'd quite happily use it if I couldn't get any of my preferred Car Chem or Bilt Hamber foam, but like Avalanche I would resent paying that much more for it. Next up Koch Chemie Green Star Universal Cleaner. This was used neat on the tyres - sprayed on, allowed 2-3 minutes to dwell, agitated with a stiff brush, rinsed and repeated. It did a good job of cleaning up three months of filth from the Michelins on the first application (the 2nd was just to make sure they were clean as much as anything) and even before agitating you could visibly see it drawing the dirt out. Once agitated it began to foam up nicely which drew more dirt out and it rinsed freely. It's got a fairly neutral smell, so not too "chemically" like some others can be. It can be diluted for various other jobs but I've not tried that yet. It currently retails at £5.95 per litre. My verdict on Green Star Universal Cleaner is that it's a good product that does what you need it to, however it's still just an APC so at £6/litre it's still £5 more than Tesco's and it does nothing differently. Even Flash will only charge you £2.30/litre if you fancied a different scent for time to time. Conclusion; good but expensive. Another product I tried today on a Leon's very dirty wheels (that hasn't been washed in months either!) was Glimmermann Non Acidic Wheel Cleaner. Due to a lack of litmus paper I can only assume the non acidic claims are correct, however this usually means it's heavily alkaline instead (which can be just as bad if not worse - hence using it on the Leon ). The instructions call for spraying it on the wheel, allowing 2-3 minutes dwell time, agitating with a brush and rinsing (deja vu anyone?), so that's what I did. This appeared to be doing very little whilst it was dwelling, what little it did remove was akin to just pouring water over the wheel. After ~3 minutes, I agitated the filth with a couple of damp Wheel Woolies and the dirt just lifted off and rinsed away leaving a spotless wheel (well, nearly, I clearly missed the odd bit of the wheel with the Woolies here and there, such was the filthiness! But a quick scrub - with no additional product - and that too just lifted and rinsed away). In an attempt to fully test this wheel cleaner, I attempted just rinsing the wheel with the pressure washer after ~3 minute dwell (before agitating) and that lifted nothing off at all, however again no additional product was needed to lift the filth with a Woolie. I also attempted to agitate the filth with just a damp Woolie and no product, whilst some dirt removed it clearly wasn't as much as with the wheel cleaner too. It currently retails at £10.95 for 2 litres - however it should be noted that it is recommended that this is then diluted up to 1:20 - my sample came pre-diluted to 1:20 apparently so this should make 40 litres of product. The verdict; a very good product at a bargain price compared to others at £13/litre (and dilution ratios of 10:1, to make 11 litres of product). However, it should be noted that the MSDS sheet is only available by contacting Glimmermann directly to request them, as such although it's fairly safe to assume that this is non acidic I cannot confirm whether this is highly alkaline or not and the product should be used with due caution. Also, whist it may not bother some that MSDS sheets aren't readily available, it's something that does bother me so I won't be buying this simply as a matter of principal. Dr Beasley's Glass Wax is also being put to the test. In terms of application it's very much like using a glass cleaner - spray, spread, buff - but this has the added advantage of sealing whilst "cleaning". It claims to be a glass polish and sealant in one, however I assume they mean a glass cleaner rather than a polish as it clearly doesn't have any cut. When I applied it, it struggled to lift water spots and the instructions even state "clean and dry the glass first", so I question the ability to clean (or polish) at this stage. Application, however, was remarkably easy. It spread well and had the perfect flash time allowing you to cover a good area to get it nice and thin and then buffing off effortlessly. I suspect, as with my previous experience of Dr Beasley's product, that it will be another one of those "apply little and often" products as previously the products have worked very well but not for very long, however this remains to be seen. I can't currently see it for sale on the one Dr Beasley's retailer that I know of in the UK either so I don't know what it costs. It should not also be noted that it receommends NOT using this on the windscreen *this isn't true, I was mistaken*. So But I haven't, I've topped up my G1 with G5 instead (tried and tested, and all that), however Glass Wax is currently on all the other glass on my car. Verdict; I'll get back to you on that one.

Dan will like it more if you put a VW badge on it. He's a massive fan of the Beetle, after all.

It's not quite that bad!

I forgot to mention something that has been stated by many a manufacturer and informed user alike for... forever; the above goes to show that just because there's a strong colour-change reaction it does not automatically translate to the best product/performance.

I just never understood why, when fitting a BGW the original lip spoiler isn't removed at the same time. The worst thing about that is the double-spoilerage*. *Which is quite an achievement given how daft a wing of that size looks when you're sitting in traffic during you're daily commute to the office!

But I wasn't happy with that, so I did a rematch on the other two wheels. The 2nd pair of wheels had also been treated to a snow faom already but I opted to actually wash these two properly first, so out came the wheel woolies and a 10ml shot of Swissvax shampoo into a 12litre bucket of hot water and I set to work. Wheels suiably washed, Revolt took the front wheel, thusly; Iron took the rear wheel, thusly; 6 or 7 minutes later, the pressure washer was used to rinse both wheels. Iron was then applied to the front wheel, as such; All I found was this; And this; The latter was actually just dripping off the disc; And that was literally it after 6-7 minutes. Meanwhile Revolt was applied to the rear wheel, as such; And... well, this; Granted, most of that in the last picture has dripped off the disc again, but you can still see very specific spots that have reacted directly on the wheel. So a somewhat more conclusive result! The winner; Car Chem Revolt.

So some stuff happened today and I'm just going to gloss over the 3 month gap since the last time stuff happened. Today's stuff was... Gyeon Iron vs. Car Chem Revolt. The wheels (or any other part of the car) hasn't been washed by anything more than rainfall for three whole months (I'll come back to that later on), so I started simply with a snowfoam and a rinse followed by a suitable application of fallout remover. This happened on a front wheel; Then this happened on a rear wheel; Quite a reaction from both, but that was to be expected. First thing to note is that Gyeon Iron is a very deep, strong purple when it reacts whilst Car Chem Revolt is much lighter and not as strong a colour. Also Revolt is a typical fallout remover smell whilst Iron has a sweeter hint to it - make no mistake though, it's by no means pleasant still, the difference is akin to a rotting corpse vs a rotting corpse with a Battenberg cake in it's pocket (specifically a Batternberg cake, because that's the undertone scent of Iron, btw). Both started to react initially at about the minute mark and there's very little to chose between them in terms of speed of reaction. Each was given about 6/7 minutes to react before being washed off with the pressure washer. Also; Bleeding tarmac. Anyway, rinsing left me with considerably cleaner wheels. The Gyeon'd wheel was left like this; The Car Chem'd wheel was left like this; You'll notice that I'm still getting f**king spotting from the f**king Slick Rims coating. Which is in no way annoying me at all, obviously. Anyway, Revolt and Iron swapped wheels and this is what happened; Revolt did this; Iron did this; So... er... a judgement call based on what was in front of me in person gives a marginal win to Revolt.

I'm going to hazard a guess that it's the Stillen one. Probably painted to match to rest of the paintwork. Wild stab in the dark though because, like you, I just didn't bother reading the post right before yours answering that exact question.

Not tried Si3D myself but I know a few who have and they have been happy with it so far. I am a fan of Nanolex products in general through my experiences of them. I have quite a bit of experience with Gyeon's stuff, whilst Nanolex products are on the whole very good I find Gyeon products to be better - as a generalisation over the whole range. There's quite a few reviews of both Nanolex and Gyeon products on my thread if you've got the patience to read through that, otherwise feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer.

No.

It's a topic that's been covered ad nauseam with the many negatives compared to the one positive. Some people who want something, in this case spacers, won't acknowledge negatives and thus convince themselves (and later others) that there aren't any. Eventually those who acknowledge the negatives simply get tired of even trying, hence don't. Then you end up here with the situation that spacers are often demanded as much as suggested.

I just don't know off the top of my head.

But with the super-batteries and chargers that Tes... Nope, I just can't bring myself to do it.

That's a bit harsh Ricey... ...there's no need to throw away a perfectly adequate microfibre applicator. Agreed about the Klasse beading though, that is shocking for something that's freshly applied. The Bilt Hamber beading however, is looking good.

And wanky levels of camber, obviously.

I would hope so too, even you can pull some stickers off without professional supervision*. *Care in the Community staff aside.

I don't think we all can... P.S. I have nothing useful to add to this thread. Like many, many others.

This pleases me greatly.

Just a coating can be done done for around that price (in some areas) - geographical location, specific detailer rates and actual products used may cause discrepancies, but there or there abouts. If any correction/cleaning/etc needs doing first, it will of course increase the bill accordingly.

BMW drivers as a whole, you mean?

Kestrel DAS6 [/thread] Also, what Dan did gone done sat but with the addition of pads as well as compounds.

If it was more standard it'd look less @*!#, agreed. But it's not, so it's doesn't.

Ironic.

Yes. It's commonly referred to as "a window". The worst part is, I'm not even sorry.