Polish for Classics - Page 2

The best car wax that I have used was carnauba wax sold by a door to
door salesman in Surrey in support of a local charity that employed
disabled ex-servicemen and fed the profits back into care homes etc.

It was also pleasingly cheap compared to stuff sold at Halfords. Sadly
since leaving Surrey I haven't seen any of these salesmen in Hants.

Steve Firth wrote:

The best I ever used was bought as "Bankrupt Stock" in an open-air
market, after the manufacturer went bust.  It was a 3 tin set called the
Porzelac Polishing System.  This was years ago - about 1971 I think,
judging from the car I used it on, which I bought in 1970.
Tin 1 was a Deep Cleanser (a bit like T Cut, I suppose).  You used it on
a newly washed car while it was still wet, then rinsed it off with a hose.
Tin 2 was the Shiner, which I suppose contained some form of wax.  You
polished the still wet car with it and then let it dry completely, which
left a whitish film.  Then you wiped off all traces of the film with a
dry cloth, leaving a shiny surface.
Tin 3 was a Sealer.  You put this on a clean cloth and wiped it over the
  car, and before it dried used another clean cloth to wipe off the
excess.  Then you let it dry, and it left a hard deep shine.

The complete set took most of a weekend to apply (including an overnight
dry after using Tin 2). But it was a magical finish.  Bird droppings
washed off in the rain. Even the sticky stuff you get if you park under
lime trees washed off in the rain.  I had that car for four years, and I
never cleaned it again - the rain always brought it up like new.

No wonder the manufacturer went bust.  Everybody would have bought just
one set of tins!

Jim

Thanks!  Ever since this thread started I've been trying to remember the
name....  Porzelac it was, and every bit as good as you say.  Trying to work
out dates from other events I'd guess I bought the stuff in 1970.  Used the
last of it (Tin 2?) about 1984, and greatly hacked off to find it no longer
available.

Geoff MacK

Jim Warren wrote:


That was good stuff.

Steve Firth wrote:


I have my doubts about those types of sales persons.  We have them
coming around selling pens for $1  and out of that 10c goes to the
charity the remainder goes into the pockets of the organization
distributing the products.

Autoglym is (was [1]) fine if you don't attempt to 'do to much at
once' assuming that the paint is unblemished (if it is you'll end up
highlighting it), it's also easy to use - I preferred the old style
wax paste if I wanted a really deep shine and good protection.

[1] I would say that this experience was gained 15 plus years ago so
the current formulation might be different now, since then due to
being in a paint shop environment.

:Jerry: wrote:


Actually Autoglym have a product to restore the paint first was called
Renovator??  which you prepared the car for the "hard" polish.

This was the process which firms like "Ming" etc used as a paint
protection plan.

Yes indeed, that is why I asked (in another reply) for clarification
as to if the OP wanted polishing (buffing) compound or wax (sealer). I
know of no *effective* one step solution that will both polish and wax
at the same time - in fact it's almost a oxymoron to ask for one!

But that's how most on the market work. As I said Turtle Wax Extreme is
one of the better ones at a reasonable price.

--
*If you ate pasta and anti-pasta, would you still be hungry?

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.

I've never found Autoglym to work well on black paint; lots of swirls. I've
had collinite recommended to me as something that gives a good shine and
long lasting protection, and it's not stupidly dear as far as car wax goes.

I also once saw a Porsche on a Swissol stand that looked stunning, but I
suspect they'd had 3 blokes on it for at least a day...

I've had decent results with Mer but only when I've applied it whilst
the car is still wet. Downside of that though is that you need to carry
a polishing rag with you to scrape out the dried up residue from under
trim that seems to still come out after every time it rains several
weeks later.


--
Conor

How about taking the safety labels off everything, and let the
stupidity-problem solve itself?

<snip>

I think this is a point that many people are missing, there is no easy
(magical) way of gaining a shine other than to spend time, and
sometimes that means a lot of time, polishing and then waxing. If you
want to get a deep shine you have to get rid of the imperfections, you
might be able to get a smooth surface by using one of the
'automagical' paint sealers (aka silicon wax) but you are only sealing
in the imperfections which can - and probably will - still be seen
through the apparent sheen.

There is a quick way. It's called a buffer. You're still stuffed if the
imperfections are deep though. There are a hell of a lot of glazes and
similar products available which fill imperfections for a short time, which
I expect are used heavily on show cars and cars photographed for magazines,
adverts and so on.

That isn't always quick either, and if you do attempt doing it quickly
you risk needing a re-spray when you burn through!...

and decided it was time to write:


Autoglym do a product called 'ultra deep shine' now which I have found
quite satisfactory for use on my black TR3A:

http://www.autoglym.co.uk/enGB/product-proddetail.asp?v06VQ=HF

http://www.intuh.net/trshine.jpg

A tenner a bottle, I believe, but it goes a long way.

--
Y.

'All parts falling off of this car are of
the highest quality British manufacture'

Gosh - just saved me £6990 on Zymol which someone recommended!

Thanks,

Geoff MacK

Geoff if you aint got £7k to spend just get back to Halfords theres a
cheaper Zymol at about £12.00 for all you cheapskates ( and its bloody good
too)

http://www.vertar.com/zymol/zymol-cleaner-wax/

Show me a picture with the bouncing off the bonnet towards the camera...

and decided it was time to write:


http://www.intuh.net/trshine2.jpg

Satisfied?

--
Y.

'All parts falling off of this car are of
the highest quality British manufacture'

19:08:34 +0200 and decided it was time to write:


Or this one, maybe?

http://www.intuh.net/trshine3.jpg

That's not my house you see reflected in the paint, BTW. It's my
parent's.

--
Y.

'All parts falling off of this car are of
the highest quality British manufacture'