Well, it has been about 6 months since I last washed and waxed my ol' girl, and decided I just had to do it. I commute from Santa Fe to Albuquerque every day, which is about a 66 mile trip each way. Needless to say, I had about a million and a half bugs on the front bumper, bull bar, windshield and hood, not to mention thousands of miles of road grime and tar. This state is also qualified as a desert because of the lack of rainfall and overall humidity: meaning he dust is horrendous. The temperature often gets into the triple digits daily and usually no clouds: direct sun all day on a vehicle. SO, when it does rain, the vehicle gets a nice filmy layer of dusty crud on it, and everything gets baked on. What I'm saying is, my X was dirtier than a 5 year old in a mud puddle.
While I was at pep-boys, I picked up a couple "new" products: Eagle One "wax as you dry", Armor All Power Wash Gel, Turtle Wax Bug and Tar Remover (alright, not really new, but new to me), Turtle Wax Brushless Wheel Cleaner, Armor All's Ultra Tire Shine, and Armor All's Low Gloss Protectant.
I had 2 sponges on hand, which I recommend everyone gets: the Generic super absorbent giant yellow sponge, and a smaller absorbent sponge which was wrapped in a net-like material. Some of you may like a terry cloth to clean as well.
The Armor All Power wash gel was one of those products that made you really think about buying it because of the claims on the bottle. It was only about $5, so what the heck. It said on the bottle that no bucket was necessary, I semi-ignored that and put a little in my bucket anyway. The gel sank to the bottom and would not suds up. But, the way it was supposed to be used is just squirt some onto the sponge or car, and suds up that way, wash as normal. My findings are: This stuff works pretty darn well; some of the bugs I missed got off with minor rubbing with the net sponge, and all the road grime came off pretty effortlessly. Rinses of nicely. I suggest anyone at least try this product.
Turtle Wax's Bug and tar remover worked pretty good too, regular towel and some rubbing got those baked on bugs right off. I also park my X under a pinion tree, and it droppes little pieces of tree sap on it. So my X had "freckles" on her hood.
(not anymore)
The Eagle One Wax as You Dry was by far the most impressive product I've ever used to detail my truck. Application was idiot proof: wash vehicle, leave wet, spray on sparingly, dry. I used 4 terri cloths (1 sq. foot each) to dry/wax my X. I was the easiest wax job I've ever done on any vehicle. No hard rubbing, no applying then buffing: just spray on and dry. There's a nice shine on the paint that tells me it's been recently washed and waxed. Best of all: you don't get those little "pile ups" of wax is crevaces and edges like normal wax. I highly recommend this product to anyone.
The Brushless wheel cleaner by turtle wax let me down just a bit. It claimed no brushes necessary: just spray on, let foam, hose off. Survey says: WRONG! I tried that just to see if a product really worked like it should've. I don't think it did anything to those thousands of miles of brake dust. I did have a few brushes on hand to clean my factory wheels. The cleaner helped, but kinda lied to me. (I don't like being lied to by bottles) Overall: the cleaner helped, but didn't really live up to it's claims. I suppose it works just like the rest of them, but not like it says it should.
The Tire shine was just like any other tire shiner: makes it shiney. It works.
The Low gloss protectant (for plastics, vinyl, and such) worked just like it's original formula counter-part, only less glossy and less slippery. This product is more of a personal preference: it's less shiney which I like. You guys make the decision to buy it or not...
Sorry if anyone has already written up a review of any of these products. I'm just so happy my X looks semi-new again.
While I was at pep-boys, I picked up a couple "new" products: Eagle One "wax as you dry", Armor All Power Wash Gel, Turtle Wax Bug and Tar Remover (alright, not really new, but new to me), Turtle Wax Brushless Wheel Cleaner, Armor All's Ultra Tire Shine, and Armor All's Low Gloss Protectant.
I had 2 sponges on hand, which I recommend everyone gets: the Generic super absorbent giant yellow sponge, and a smaller absorbent sponge which was wrapped in a net-like material. Some of you may like a terry cloth to clean as well.
The Armor All Power wash gel was one of those products that made you really think about buying it because of the claims on the bottle. It was only about $5, so what the heck. It said on the bottle that no bucket was necessary, I semi-ignored that and put a little in my bucket anyway. The gel sank to the bottom and would not suds up. But, the way it was supposed to be used is just squirt some onto the sponge or car, and suds up that way, wash as normal. My findings are: This stuff works pretty darn well; some of the bugs I missed got off with minor rubbing with the net sponge, and all the road grime came off pretty effortlessly. Rinses of nicely. I suggest anyone at least try this product.
Turtle Wax's Bug and tar remover worked pretty good too, regular towel and some rubbing got those baked on bugs right off. I also park my X under a pinion tree, and it droppes little pieces of tree sap on it. So my X had "freckles" on her hood.
(not anymore)The Eagle One Wax as You Dry was by far the most impressive product I've ever used to detail my truck. Application was idiot proof: wash vehicle, leave wet, spray on sparingly, dry. I used 4 terri cloths (1 sq. foot each) to dry/wax my X. I was the easiest wax job I've ever done on any vehicle. No hard rubbing, no applying then buffing: just spray on and dry. There's a nice shine on the paint that tells me it's been recently washed and waxed. Best of all: you don't get those little "pile ups" of wax is crevaces and edges like normal wax. I highly recommend this product to anyone.
The Brushless wheel cleaner by turtle wax let me down just a bit. It claimed no brushes necessary: just spray on, let foam, hose off. Survey says: WRONG! I tried that just to see if a product really worked like it should've. I don't think it did anything to those thousands of miles of brake dust. I did have a few brushes on hand to clean my factory wheels. The cleaner helped, but kinda lied to me. (I don't like being lied to by bottles) Overall: the cleaner helped, but didn't really live up to it's claims. I suppose it works just like the rest of them, but not like it says it should.
The Tire shine was just like any other tire shiner: makes it shiney. It works.
The Low gloss protectant (for plastics, vinyl, and such) worked just like it's original formula counter-part, only less glossy and less slippery. This product is more of a personal preference: it's less shiney which I like. You guys make the decision to buy it or not...
Sorry if anyone has already written up a review of any of these products. I'm just so happy my X looks semi-new again.
