Product Review Thread

[sidewazegtsr]

Hey whats up guys.

I thought this thread would be usefull in the sence of being able to look at what other Skyline owners use on there cars for either cleaning/detailing or general maintience.

So be it that Mr. Clean Auto Dry system, brand of car polish, motor oil, transmission or differential oil post up what you've used, a little blurb about it such as how easy/hard to use or any little tips you can give with it. Finally your rating of the product. The rating system we'll keep easy and have range from 1 to 5 with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.

This allows everyone here to check things before going out and buying. You'll also know to stay away from something that could be a big waste of money.

So go ahead and post away.

[BobyYoo]

well, i can start with waxing my car.

I used Meguiars Scratch X and NXT Generation wax.
For windows, used RainX.

Scratch X help a bit to remove little scratch and swirve but did not remove any big scratch. $15 at CTire, I would rate it 2.5/5

NXT Generation wax was awesome. $30 at CTire, It made the paint shine like new. rate 4/5 because i'm sure they're better product.

RainX is great, no need wiper when you drive about 50km, all the water just goes up by itself. $7 little bottle at walmart. Would rate 4/5 since water only goes away driving above 50km.

These are very easy to use, just apply and remove with a good cloth towel. I did everything by hand, since i dont want to take chance using an orbital.

[m3tal]

My collection is still building haha. All of my stuff isn't even in this pic.



I'll just do a couple small ones of a few things.

Poorboys SSR2.5 - Good stuff so far, has a light purple colour to it, smells like berries, and you can use this stuff in the sun! This is a medium cut polish, and works pretty well. Only thing I don't like is how it finishes to a dust and that dust ends up everywhere. 9/10

Meguiars #9 Swirl Remover 2.0 - Good stuff as well, has a lot more bite than I expected for such a low abrasive polish. No, the Megs line does not use fillers as some people may have said. 8/10[/b]

[mcnab]

Interior Dressings:

For many of my reviews, I’ll stick to OTC Products (Over the Counter) since this is what the majority of you use. When it comes to polishing and protectants however, I’ll review some more specialized products since I don’t’ recommend using OTC products on your paint. Im very anal about my cars appearance, and OTC products just don’t it for my cars exterior appearance.

Meguiars NXT Generation Tech Protect
Rating: ****
Product Longevity: Looses gloss after 1-2 weeks.
Observations: This is obviously an interior dressing for plastics, vinyls and other interior components. This is one of the 2 OTC (Over the Counter) products that I use on my vehicles or clients vehicles. If you’re looking for a high gloss and slick look to your dash or trim, this is what you want.
When applying make sure you wear some sort of glove or apply it with a cloth. Otherwise you’re hands get a greasy residue that isn’t easy to wash off. The UV protection lasts longer than the gloss finish it leaves. This product also leaves a very nice scent that can only be described as a “tropical scent”.

303 Aerospace Protectant
Rating: *****
Product Longevity: Holds a satin finish and lasts a long time
Observations: This is the 2nd OTC (Over the Counter) product I use on my personal vehicles or clients. I’ve been using this stuff or ages and I SWEAR by it. For those looking for a nice MATTE interior dressing, this is it. With a relatively neutral smell, and an EASY application, this product is one of my favorites. This lasts much longer than the NXT, and I found it also repels dust much better than the NXT as well. Again, if you’re looking for a Matte dressing, this is the best!

Interior Glass:

Stoners Invisible Glass
Rating: *****
We’re just now starting to see this product available in retails chains, which is AWESOME. DO NOT use anything but Stoners IG, I swear by this stuff and you’ll think the same when you use it on your vehicle. IT can be used on both the interior and exterior glass. IT’s a foaming window cleanser that leaves a completely CLEAR and Streak free finish. My recommendation is to use this along with black & white Newspaper (yes I said newspaper). Simply spray the window, let sit for a minute or two, then take newspaper, crumple it up and start going back and forth. It may take a few sheets to soak up all the excess residue, but this leaves absolutely CLEAR glass. I wouldn’t’ use anything but this. The newspaper acts as a very fine polish on your glass. This is also safe on window film.

Tire Dressings:

Meguiars Endurance Tire Shine:
Rating: *****
Observations: If you’re looking for a LONG lasting, sling free tire shine, this is the stuff. It comes as a purple gel with an applicator. Simply smear it on, and wipe the tire. If you wait 20 minutes between applications it can be layered for more gloss. This stuff lasts WAY longer than ANY other OTC Tire shine. IT’s not the highest gloss, but it does last a long time. What I do sometimes is start with a layer of Endurance, than top that with a Dressing with more gloss (since I prefer a higher gloss finish).

Black Magic Tire Foam
Rating ****
Obsevations: This is another OTC Product you can get mostly anywhere. Like most others, it comes in a foaming aerosol can. The only reason I recommend this product is for a high gloss finish. This product is good at obtaining that high gloss finish, but it doesn’t keep it for very long. It also has a tendency to sling onto panels (those with lighter colored vehicles won’t appreciate this) So use it sparingly. It does do what it’s designed to do tho!

Silver / Chrome Polishing:

Rather than go into more labour intensive polishing techniques. I’ll stick to those products and techniques that most of you will use.

Mothers Powerball:
Rating: ****
Observations: If you’re looking for something to touch up your polished lip on your rims, or give your exhaust tip a little more shine, this thing is ESSENTIAL. While it may not be the BEST available polishing tool, for an OTC product, it’s pretty damn good. This is meant to be used with a polish of course. Essentially it’s a foam polishing ball that you secure in a drill just like you would a drill bit. Now you’ve got a tool that can do some polishing! Used this with any of the metal polishes I use below….

BIG NOTE……The polishes below are meant to give you that final shine. If you need something with more bite, you’ll need to use some light or heavy compounds.


Mothers Aluminum and Metal Polish
Rating: ****
If you’re looking to polish up that deep lip on your rim. This stuff will do the trick  It gives off a nice shine. Goes on pretty easy (in sort of a butter like state). Use a MF cloth or powerball to do your polishes, buff clean with a nice clean MF towel.


Exterior Polishes and Wax’s / Sealents

I’ll write up a more extensive review of these later and edit this post 

[GTR-Dad]

I fit my Megan Racing Coilovers from Sidewazegtst on the weekend.

The job was a fair bit easier than I thought it would be! Just put the car on blocks, pulled the wheels, and unbolted the old shocks (3 nuts each corner) and bolted in the new coilovers.

The coilovers are beautifully machined out of good strong aluminum. The red accents really set off the look. It's a darn shame you can't see them unless the wheels are off or you're laying under the car!

Things I learned are:
1 - Take both front shocks off before trying to fit the new ones. The antisway bar thinks the difference in ride height is body roll and trys hard to prevent it!

2 - Ride height impacts on more than just wheel alignment. Toe and camber both change as the wheel moves through the suspension travel arc. More to the point, once you get lower than a certain point, things start changing in handling-unfriendly ways! The GTR is designed to ride no lower than 350-355 mm (from the wheel centre to the underside of the fenderr) at the front and 340-345 mm at the rear. (Search 'alignment' on the suspension, tyres, handling thread on Skylines Australia and look for responses by Sydney Kid for more detail. The guy knows a ton and is willing to put quite a bit of effort into helping others. Very cool.)

I'd set my ride height about 20-25 mm lower than Sydney Kid recommends and during test drives around some fairly aggressive corners I noticed some very twitchy, nervous behaviour from the tail of the car. It held on nicely until about .7 g's and then broke loose suddenly and hooked up again. Not the confidence inspiring behaviour I've come to expect from the GTR!

So I increased ride height last night. I cheated about 5 mm below SK's recommendation thinking that the stiffer springs I'm running would allow less roll in corners than he's counting on because he also runs and recommends softer springs than mine. (More on this later.) My logic was that if my suspension deflects less than his, I don't have to start as high to be in the sweet spot during cornering. Upon reflection, I expected I'm wrong on this as he beefs up the antisway bars to control roll rather than counting on the springs alone.

Test drive at noon today on some tight corners confirms that the ride height adjustment was a move in the right direction. The car responds very progressively and predictably now. 8) Maybe I'll raise it a bit more when I get ambitious and see if things get even better!

Anyhow, back to spring rate. The Megan Racing coils are 10 kg/mm front and 8 kg/mm rear. If you're a student of this forum, you'll know that's exactly what Sean Morris recommended for street use when Megan Racing was looking for a test car. Good call! I started out with the dampers set 3 clicks out of 32 from full soft. The ride harshness was very comparable to my stock setup, which was really pretty comfortable. I noticed the car was a little underdamped, particularly on the freeway, so I notched in another 3 clicks of firmness. This tightened up the damping to pretty nearly critical and added a small bit of ride harshness. Nothing out of line, however, considering that Edmonton roads see many many freeze thaw cycles per year and show it!

First impressions are very positive. I LOVE these coilovers compared to my stock suspension, but then I guess that's not too surprising.

I've never experienced the top end Ohlins recommended by some of the more experienced guys on this forum, but neither am I willing to pay $2k a corner to find out what I'm missing.

Value for the dollar on the Megan Racing coilovers has got to be a 5 star rating. *****

I'm very happy with the performance so far. Four stars **** to acknowledge there are probably better coilovers out there. My skill level is probably inadequate to properly appreciate much more than the Megan Racing units offer.

My next track day is on May 27th. I'll dial in some more damping to manage the high g turn-ins on the tight track and let you know how it goes!

*EDIT* May 27th track day was a blast! I started with my dampers set for 9 clicks (out of 32) off full soft which is 3 more than I've been running on the street. The car handled well as I was checking out the course, but as I started pushing it, understeer started creeping in, particularly on turn-in.

I dialed in 3 more clicks on the back to stiffen the transient rear roll resistance (increase load transfer at rear, reduce it at front, let the front tires share load and grip more) and dialed back my torque split controller a notch to sent a bit less torque to the front in hard corners. The results was a bit too tail happy, so I set the TSC back to where it was (6) and the car was almost perfectly neutral on the slalom and chicane sections. It's nice to have this kind of control!!! 8)

The track was a bit slower than last month's, but I managed to knock 4 seconds (out of about 1:25) off my time. Lateral g's were running 1.1 to 1.2 compared to 0.9 to 1.0 with my stock suspension.

*End Edit*

Cheers,
Dan

[Marke]

Tired of that tarnished fuel rail. Yellow tinge on your stainless steel exhaust getting you down. Well then grab your self a tube of Autosol.

This stuff rocks. My fuel rail looks like I had it chromed. Exhaust looks like a mirror.......but wait theres more if you order now you will get the complete set of Ginsue knives absolutely free of charge they slice dice and make julian fries in just 5 minutes thats right just 5 minutes CALL NOW!!!

Rating:*****

[JZ]

Tired of that tarnished fuel rail. Yellow tinge on your stainless steel exhaust getting you down. Well then grab your self a tube of Autosol.

This stuff rocks. My fuel rail looks like I had it chromed. Exhaust looks like a mirror.......but wait theres more if you order now you will get the complete set of Ginsue knives absolutely free of charge they slice dice and make julian fries in just 5 minutes thats right just 5 minutes CALL NOW!!!

Rating:*****

[Endless604]

303 AEROSPACE PROTECTANT (rubber, plastic, trim protectant)
FIXED FADED INTERIOR DOOR HANDLES! :shock:

Bought it at cambodian tire for...$15 bucks? bought it along with a random brand aplicator sponge. anyways, like most other R32's my interior door handles were faded. so i put this stuff on, did like 3-4 applications spread over the entire day so it could saturate the old plastic, now they look NEW! no joke. it worked the same magic for the faded exterior trim strip right above the window edge, foam seals in all the jambs and trunk, and shift boot. i love this stuff.

like mcnab explained, this is also the best stuff to use on your dash! it has a matte oem kind of shine. not slick and wet, and does not feel like teflon and start to collect dust after a few days. DAS in vancouver used this stuff when they detailed my car, so i'm sure every other high-end car detailer uses this as well. and rightfully so

[JDM-IMPORTS]

Redline Accessories/Goods

Redline Accessories/Goods

We decided to try this product out thinking that it would be a good replacement option for the worn out Shift and E-Brake boots that come on the Skyline...

We got to choose the material, colour and thread... We went with the Alcantara style material with silver thread...

The product arrived within a reasonable amount of time, however two things were evident...

1) The Shift Boot was too small to cover the area required. (We chose the one for a Skyline GT-R32)
2) The material was very thin, although it looked good.

I have emailed the company and hope to get a resolution soon.

[DrMango]

can we get 303 Aerospace Protectant and Autosol at CT?

kyle

[Marke]

can we get 303 Aerospace Protectant and Autosol at CT?

303 yes, Autosol no

[DrMango]

can we get 303 Aerospace Protectant and Autosol at CT?

303 yes, Autosol no

Best place to get Autosol then? thanks

kyle

[Daniel1458]

Product Review: CG Lock

Hello, guys. I will be doing some product reviews of stuff I have bought and put on my car. It will be very good for people who what to buy an uknow product.

For admins: I am not a solicitor, I am just avarage guy who will be doind review of different products.

ok. I have recaro seats and stiff & bouncy sports car. The verdict: I get catapulted every time I take a corner. I do have a 4 point harness but it's a big hassle to put it on all the time and I like clean intiriors (stock looking).

What CG lock does: it lock your HIPS, your upper body is still free to move.

It is very simple and I would really recomend anybody to use it. It's pretty much universal. Takes 5 minutes to put it on.




And that's my sidekick

[0piston]

My collection is still building haha. All of my stuff isn't even in this pic.



I'll just do a couple small ones of a few things.

Poorboys SSR2.5 - Good stuff so far, has a light purple colour to it, smells like berries, and you can use this stuff in the sun! This is a medium cut polish, and works pretty well. Only thing I don't like is how it finishes to a dust and that dust ends up everywhere. 9/10

Meguiars #9 Swirl Remover 2.0 - Good stuff as well, has a lot more bite than I expected for such a low abrasive polish. No, the Megs line does not use fillers as some people may have said. 8/10[/b]

Good stuff, your bookshelf looks almost exactly like mine!
A+++ on The Porter Cable orbital polisher it IS the best out there, I now have old polishers that I wonder why I ever bought them...
Klasse is top notch too! THe only thing that is missing is the dawn dish soup ahaha

[m_melen]

hey guys, firstly we need to keep this thread growing! there's alot of good info on it in just 2 pages. secondly, reviews!

Don't use Armor All car wash! it swirled the heck outta my paint job in just 2 washes!

If you're looking for high temp engine paint Duplicolor makes great stuff! Even if your local store doesn't have the exact color your want they have a big catalog with tons of unique colors. Make sure to ask the guys behind the counter, they sometimes know what you have to do to get an exact look!

thirdly, GTRC rules!