Meguiar's Ultimate Paste Wax - Excellent Product

When I wrote my last blog post Rebadging I mentioned there was another story in the pictures.... it was my beautiful new wax job using Meguiar's Ultimate Paste Wax.  I bought this stuff when Crappy Tire had a sale for $9 off and the total cost was $25.99, so without the discount this stuff was $35, not a cheap wax by any means.

It comes with a sponge applicator and microfibre cloth for wax removal and buffing.  When I opened it up the first thing I noticed was the enticing aroma.... man this stuff smells good!  It really gives you the impression it is made from some good natural wax but it is actually a pure synthetic polymer so they must just add some nice coconut smell to the mix.

I read a lot of reviews about this product, all of them raving.  After a good car washing, I opened it up, applied some to the applicator pad and off I went.  This is really easy to apply and unlike the liquid wax I normally use, it is easier to see areas you have already covered.  I had my entire car done in about 20 minutes, being careful not to get any on the black plastic trim.  There are also stern warnings about keeping it off your skin so I used a pair of gloves which also made it easier to hold on to the relatively small applicator pad.

It only took a couple minutes for the wax to dry to a haze so I used the included microfibre towel to remove the wax fairly easily.  There were no signs of streaking at all left behind, which can sometimes happen with the liquid wax.

Overall I'd say this is a great product, from looking at the amount of wax I used I am estimating I can do about 10 cars with the entire container.  Highly recommended!

How to remove dried on wax from car trim!

Every now and then no matter how careful you are you may get some wax or polish on your plastic trim around the car.  I tried removing it with cleaner to no avail so I figured the internet would have a solution to this problem.  As usual there is a solution... peanut butter.  If you rub peanut butter on the trim stained with wax it will come right off.  But there had to be more to this solution.... why peanut butter??  As it turns out the solution had nothing to do with peanuts but rather the oil in the peanut butter.  The peanut oil helps lifts the wax off the plastic and the peanuts act as an abrasive to help it get well agitated.  Turns out you can remove the wax with vegetable oil, I just ended up using regular vegetable oil and it did the trick with minimal effort.

So next time you make a slip up with your wax just apply a little veg oil and it will be good as new!

Meguiar's Compound Ultimate Test

You may have previously read my post about my nasty rear bumper damage, which I have no idea where it came from.  The top two pictures here are the before shots from the back and side.  As you can see there is a lot of abrasion and deep scratches.  I didn't expect to get nearly all of them out because most of them are very deep but I figured I would give it a go with the new DA Polisher and Meguiar's Ultimate Compound.

I used two applications of about a tablespoon of compound, each time going over the area with 4 to five passes and then wiping with a microfibre towel.  After two thorough applications I applied Once a Year car polish and Poor Boys EXP Sealant.  As I figured all the scratches did not come out but I was extremely impressed with the results which you can see for yourself below.

Cabin Air Filter Replacement

I'm not exactly sure how I got to thinking about replacing my cabin air filter but Sunday it dawned on me that I should check it out.  Off to Google I went to see how to replace it and sure enough there were some detailed instructions which can be found here:
http://www.optimaforums.com/forum/67-diy-maintenance/6704-replacing-your-cabin-air-filter.html

I followed the instructions and two minutes later I had the old filter out for inspection.  It was extremely dirty and had a few flies and dandelion seeds stuck to it as well.  Those dandelions will try to grow anywhere......

Since it looked like it could use some replacing my next step was to find a replacement filter.  I emailed Kia to ask them how much a replacement filter was, they told me $53, I emailed back saying this seemed expensive and I would check around and let them know.  My second call was to NAPA Auto Parts, where the replacement filter was $32, much cheaper but it still seemed expensive for a flimsy 9" X 10" filter.  My third call was to Canadian Tire and they told me they had one for $15 but might have a hard time finding it since it was the last one in stock.

So of course I headed off to Canadian Tire and figured I would browse while they tried to find my air filter.  Much to my surprise however they found it in about 2 minutes, a nice Fram Freshbreeze like the picture above and I had just saved myself $40 on the filter.  I'm not sure how much Kia would have charged me to replace the filter but I did it myself in a minute.

The moral of the story..... never buy dealer parts or ask them to replace anything you can easily do yourself.  Google it and you may be surprised!

Nu Finish Car Polish - Spring Cleaning

Ok, so it was time for spring cleaning, got a few scratches from the harsh winter and my baby needed good spruce up.  I decided to go with the wash, clay bar, polish and paint sealant routine.  The only problem was that I didn't have any car polish.  I was also trying to decide if I would by a DA polisher to apply the polish but in the end I cheaped out and decided to go with the hand application method.

I noticed from a prior washing that my car's paint was peppered with those annoying yellow spots from salt and other residue from our hard on paint winter.  I gave it a couple of shots of TRIX which was covered in a previous post but that stuff is just difficult to work with and smells horrible, although it does get rid of most yellow spots.  I thought I would try a different approach.

So I gave it a good washing, applied the clay bar and then started on the polishing using Nu Finish.  I was going over all the polish options at Crappy Tire but settled on Nu Finish for two reasons.... the price was actually on the high end so I thought it would be good and a customer there said he uses it all the time and it works great.  I applied it to one section and started rubbing to see if I could get out the yellow spots and sure enough they started vanishing.  The only thing I will say is that this took a LOT of elbow grease, two hours worth of rubbing in a circular motion, but the results were great.  I also got rid of several surface clear coat scratches with this product.

I followed up the polish with a good application of my Poor Boys Sealant and the car was looking as good as new (except for the bumper damage).  Although I used up the better part of a full afternoon I removed almost all the yellow spots, got rid of several surface scratches and shined up my Optima beautifully.  Next time I may buy a DA Polisher just to make it a bit easier for the polish application.  I also have to do my better half's car.

Product Review - Meguiar's Wash & Wax

I was recently reading about waterless car wash products and it seemed like something that would be useful here in Newfoundland where the cold makes it quite annoying (and sometimes impossible) to wash your car from November to March.  When I was down in Florida I went looking at Pep Boys for waterless car wash and the only thing they had was Meguiar's which I figured I could just as easily get home at Crappy Tire.  The price was $16 in the US and when I got home sure enough they had it at Crappy Tire for $19.  This product looked especially good because it also had wax which means I could both wash and wax in one application.

Side note on the purchase:  Crappy Tire had a 10% - 100% off your purchase promotion on today. I went to the cash with my product and was not offered any discount, I enquired and was told you had to pay wither with cash or debit to get the discount.  I told the cashier I would gladly pay with debit and she scratched off a card saying I had 10% off.  She then said that I would get $1.90 back in Canadian Tire money, there was actually no discount off this purchase it would be off my next purchase.  Now nowhere on the promotion sign did it say you could win CT money, it clearly said you would get 10% to 100% off your purchase.  This is just one of the many reasons why CT annoys people (their automotive department being number one of course).

Anyway, when I got home it was freezing so the perfect time to wash my beautiful Optima with waterless car wash after being left alone to accumulate dirt for the past two weeks.  The instructions were quite good, shake well, spray to cover one section at a time, use one microfibre cloth towel folded in quarters to apply, use another to remove access and then turn over the second one to buff.  It says you may need four cloths to do the entire car depending on how dirty it is to begin with, mine wasn't super dirty but it was dirty enough.  Luckily we have about 50 microfibre towels from Costco on hand.

So I started out with the hood and it seemed to be working quite well, I gave the hood about 8 sprays, wiped it in good, wiped off access and then buffed.  The finish felt really nice when I was done.  I continued around the car and only needed two cloths to do the entire car.  Although the bottle says it will do 3 or 4 cars you can see from the picture above how much product I had to use, not very much.  Now my car is coated with several layers of paint sealant and wax so dirt does not settle onto my paint very well and it is easy to remove.  I figure I could get about 10 applications from one bottle at this rate.  The very second I finished the last panel, it started to rain / sleet.  I will need to go over the car with my detailer spray tomorrow to remove the water spots.

Overall this product works as advertised, I am quite pleased with it and will continue to use it throughout the winter whenever possible.

Tire Rim Protection

I was trying to figure out the best way to protect my beautiful aluminium rims from salt this winter. I did my normal ask on autos.ca

http://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php/topic,80851.msg822373.html#msg822373

Poorboys Wheel Sealant seemed to be the solution but before I get to reviews on the product itself I have a funny story about trying to buy the product.  I went to the poorboys site and the product was $20 which seemed reasonable enough.  I proceeded to the checkout and selected Canadian shipping...... the total was now $1520.  I was thinking that $1,500 seemed a bit high for shipping on an 8oz jar of sealant that cost $20.  I`m sure it was some type of error in the shipping calculation but it did give me more time to review the purchase.

I checked out some reviews on the product and apparently nothing really gives good rim protection, and the poorboy`s stuff smells especially bad to boot.  That being said I am willing to give it a try but not for $1,520....  I checked Canadian Tire for rim protectant and they don`t have anything.  A lot of posts say just to try wax on the rims and clean them regularly.  The rims have a clear coat protectant on them which will keep salt away as long as the coating is still in tact.

I think I will just go with the wax and wash this winter and see how it goes.  If my rims get pitted from salt I won`t be happy but I think with some TLC  we will make it through unscathed.