Mothers Carnuaba Cleaner Wax... pretty decent

[jumpfroggy]

Weather's finally turned a bit warm (60 degrees today! ) so like everyone else, I washed my car(s). I tested a small patch on the hood with some Mothers Carnuaba Cleaner Wax and a cheapo random-orbital polisher (walmart $20). I can say, I'm pretty impressed. I didn't spend much time on it, maybe 2 passes at a couple minutes each. But I can definitely tell the difference between the two spots now. Looking at my own reflection, on the untouched area it's a little cloudy and you can see scratches. On the polished area, I can see more clearly and the color is more black. You can still see lots of the bigger scratches, but essentially it's like the original area has a scratched up transparency over it, and the polished area does not.

The pics don't do it justice, but show a bit of the change. I'd love to step up to real polish & a real polisher (not my cheap walmart one), but for now I know if I spend a couple hours I can get my car looking a lot nicer.

(The third and fourth pics show it the best. The cracks in #4 are all over the hood, paint is just old. The blacker color in #4 is noticeable when looking straight on)

 

[PIMking]

I use the once a year car polish in the orange bottle that you can get at wal mart. I have always used it on my dump truck and buff it twice a year washing it once a week. I will buff my talon this spring but the dump truck looked brand new and its a 98

 

[jumpfroggy]

I use the once a year car polish in the orange bottle that you can get at wal mart. I have always used it on my dump truck and buff it twice a year washing it once a week. I will buff my talon this spring but the dump truck looked brand new and its a 98

Yeah, I've got that too and like it. It's simple to use, you can apply it in direct sunlight (which you shouldn't with most waxes), you don't need to rub/buff/polish at all (since it's got no polish in it), and it seems to last. Got good reviews.

The thing I like about "cleaner wax" is that it's a combo polish & wax. Wax makes things shine, but doesn't have any abrasive. The polish itself is what gets rid of the scratches. I was recently convinced of this when I was trying to polish the scratches out of a cell phone screen (long story), and realized that my nails which were touching the buffer were smooth as glass. Weird, but makes sense. So if the paint were decent, I'd use the once a year wax by itself. This was more a test of the polish part of Mothers Cleaner Wax. I'm pretty sure you can get much better results with a real polisher, real polish, and more work, but this is pretty decent for a small amount of time and work. Plus it's more forgiving, not as easy to burn the paint etc.

 

[Defiant]

Just about anything will shine it up, but nothing out there is going to recover a failing re-paint.

 

[jumpfroggy]

Just about anything will shine it up, but nothing out there is going to recover a failing re-paint.

Is that what that is? Could it just be a bad case of original paint aging badly? I don't know the history of the car, but it's one of the better-condition ones I found when I was shopping around a year ago. It definitely needs some work, but it looks decent enough. I would love to repaint it, but that's definitely not in my budget. I might consider a DIY method like the rustoleum roll-on, or at-home spraying, but I'm going to wait a long time before I take that step. At any rate, it looks decent enough from arm's length and it looks slightly better after the polishing.