CobrAA's Eastern detailing pic

[cobrAA]

Here we have a Mustang supercharge developing some sick HP ! (+600) and it sound very angry, I feel bad for the neighbour haha!
The car was detailed last year by a bodyshop but he didn’t really like the income so when he heard about me, he decide to give me a go.

One thing to notice, 2 panel has been resprayed but the job seemed OK so it was not a major issue with my polishing.

Process:
Remove some decal
Clay bar/ chemical decon
2 bucket washing method
3-step polish
Paint cleanser
RaceGlaze Waxxon’s 76% carnauba wax.

Removing the decal. Then, I had to use a glue remover to remove the residu. Last step is to polish to remove the outline of the decal.






Lots of molding on this car.


Minimal contamination on this car:




Let’s jump directly on the after-shot if you don’t mind.




What’s the buzz with this wax ? Well, first of all, it’s a truly exclusive formula that Mark from Raceglaze UK made for 5 person in the world, I was choosen to represent the NA and I’m very honored of that. Beside that, this wax boost 76% carnauba by volume which make it the highest ratio in the industry (ex-aco with Swissvax Crystal Rock) which means that wax leave a solid protection that will last a lot longer than your average wax. It will also sheet/bead water like no other wax. Finally, I personally find that Raceglaze leave a bit more of a wet-look ( perfect look for darker paint) than Crystal Rock.

Enough talking Alex.. show us the pictures!! Ok. Ok. There ya go





































Enjoy!

[cobrAA]

Some might remember that I detailed this car last summer. Well, he went to florida this winter and had his car detailed there and finished with some Swissvax Crystal Rock. He really felt in love with that finish so he took a chance by pming me to see if I had this wax and well.. you can imagine with my +30 wax selection I had it haha.

So it was real fun talking with him, very great guy who know the difference between cheaper wax and high-end one. We also signed for the monthly maintenance wash !

J’avais poli la voiture l’été passé, il est aller en Floride et l’a fait retouché la-bas, il lui ont offert la cire Swissvax Crystal Rock et il ne jure que par cette cire maintenant. Sachant que j’avais cette cire, nous avons pris un rendez-vous en …. 3 heures LOL haha! Ce fut un plaisir de te rejaser! On va se revoir bientôt

Process:

Wash 2 bucket
Swissvax Cleaner Fluid
Swissvax Crystal Rock applied with bare hand.



Still trying to master the bare hand technique, Think I applied it too thick!




Final result:













Ya know? Haha






















Thanks for looking!

[cobrAA]

L’eingine bay est nettoyé et un protecteur est appliqué :












We backed up the car even tho there was no sun that day :


Polishing in between was a bit more complicated but came out well:





Thanks for looking !

[cobrAA]

Fast forward au moitié-moitié et finaux puisque le propriétaire a attendu les 6-7 heures avec moi, je n’ai pas voulu le faire niaisser plus longtemps, en fait!





Fully protected!






Very minimal contamination for a car of this age:


L’intérieur fut rafraichis à l’aide d’un traitement cuir 2-step et une protection fut appliqué sur les garnitures.










Wax of choice:

Highest carnauba rating at 76% ; My signature wax, Raceglaze Special Reserve.

[cobrAA]

Couple weeks ago I did this Mini Cooper, car was in good shape. So it was easier for me to detail the car and concentrate on the little detail since the overall condition of the paint/car was good.

BTW, one thing that bugged me was how low the paint was. Anyone else took reading of Mini’s paint to see how thick they are? I was reading under 100 and the owner bought the car brand new and never did a polish before that day.

Process:

2 bucket wash method
Foam gun
Clay bar
Chemical decon.
1-step polish
Paint cleanser
Interior + leather 2-step process
Raceglaze 76% Waxxon’s wax.

Car came in like this:



The risk of burning the vinyl is very high so correction will be minimal:












Nettoyage des roues avec le Sonax :










Condition de la peinture, dure à photographier puisque la couleur est pâle :






Il y en avait de la moulure à protéger sur cette voiture!

[cobrAA]

Voici un autre article ; L’aquapel.

Je suis encore étonné de voir que tant de gens ne savent pas c’est quoi. Selon moi, c’est LE produit révolutionnaire dans le domaine du detailing. Ça fait de petit miracle. Vraiment.

L’aquapel est un traitement qu’on applique sur les vitres pour les protéger, tout comme on protège notre peinture avec une cire ou un scellant.

L’aquapel permet à l’eau de glisser plus facilement des vitres dans le but de vous permettre de mieux voir en temps pluvieux. Meilleur vision = plus sécuritaire.

Méfiez-vous des imitations Aquapel, ils ne durent pas aussi longtemps, ils laissent des marques ou des stries etc. Ce produit est breveté et on comprend pourquoi!

What is Aquapel? It’s a patent protective coating that sticks to the glass and help the water to sheet freely on the glass. This action will result in windows that are more vision-clear when it’s raining so you can see the road better and react quicker.


- Durabilité : Entre 6 et 12 mois
- Last between 6 to 12 month. Can last 2 years if it’s a summer car.
- Plus sécuritaire car meilleur visibilité en temps pluvieux.
-Improve your safety when it’s raining.
-
Économie de lave-glace car les débris collent moins sur la vitre
Save on windshield washer since dirt doesn’t stick to your glass.

- Économie d’usure d’essuie-glace car l’eau glisse tout seul. L’ultimement, si on utilise moins ses essuie-glaces, on risque moins de grafigné sa vitre.
Your also saving on wiper blade because you will use them less so your getting longer wiper blade life.

- Très utile à appliquer sur les vitres de coté aussi car on a aucun balais pour nettoyer la vitre.
It’s also very effective to coat the side windows too because you don’t have any wiper blade to get the water out.

- Plus de déposit de calcaire sur vos vitres. Seulement, une vitre ultra-nette.
No more water-spot because as you will see in video #2, it makes drying windows super easy.

Vidéo #1 : Ici, vous voyez bien la différence entre le coté avec Aquapel et celui, sans. Sur le coté gauche, il reste toujours une couche d’eau qui obstruait la vue. Tandis que du coté droit, il y a des goulettes, mais pas de flaque majeur.

The idea in this windows is to focus on the difference on how the water sheet on the left and how it sheet on the right. On the right, Aquapel side, all you have is little line of drop of water. However, on the left, you end up with a rivers of water that totally block your vision and could lead to an accident if your wiper blade was not up to task.

Vidéo #2 : Voyez comment il est beaucoup plus facile d’essuyer l’eau sur le coté avec aquapel que le coté gauche. Si ma microfibre ne peut pas l’essuyer parfaitement, imaginez ce que vos balais d’essuie-glace peuvent faire.

In this video, I only wanted to show how easy is it to dry without water spot a glass with Aquapel coated on the glass. See how the left side left a good load of water that could turn out in water-spot and etch your glass .

[cobrAA]

Neutral. Same on both. They seems to sheet and bead quite well. We will see in a week or two if they repel dirt as well as they claim to.

Look department:

IMO, More of a glassy look for Shield where 4x4 has maybe a little more of a carnauba glow to it but to be honest, this is a gold/beige car, maybe it would show a bit better on darker color.

























So as a first impression, I think that Raceglaze is not only cheaper, smell better and spread easier but it’s also twice cheaper. I also have RG55 and later on, I should try to review RG55 vs. 4x4. So far, I really like it, but I only have enough to do 2 car or 3 other half car !

[cobrAA]

The point of this detail was to review 2 wax of mine ; Swissvax Shield Vs. Raceglaze 4x4.

So I start by decontaminant the car with Iron-X:











I also clayed the car:


I then did a 1-step polish with Menzerna and followed by Swissvax Cleaner fluid by hand:


So we’re now up to the review!!

Both wax are made of PTFE to enhance the durability of the wax. I’m sure we could find more brand having PTFE inside their wax but I think the goal for Raceglaze was to beat the most-know swissvax shield or let say they are equal, Raceglaze would still be twice cheaper than Shield! So, let see if I think Raceglaze have what it takes.

Packaging:



Theses are the old jar-style and they are VERY WEAK. Probably the worst jar I’ve ever used and when you consider it’s from Swissvax and the price they ask for it, you would prefer something better quality. One of my jar have a broken cap (that SV don’t want to replace) and this one is craked at the jar but since it’s a ‘’double jar’’ it doesn’t really matter.

On the Raceglaze end, the sample pot is quite cool and it might look very tiny but it was still quite easy to dip the yellow applicator inside the jar. However, I still think the 30ml with a wider jar wouldn’t be a bad idea. I mean, I still managed to wax the car without having to get the wax with my hand and transfer it to the pad but I think 30ml is a great sample size If I compare with the big 8oz jar RG55 I have, I can tell you the quality is there and I can’t see myself stripping the tread like always happen on Swissvax jar. ( never tried the new-style jar tho!)

+1 Raceglaze ( comparing with the old-style jar)

Smell:

The old version of Shield smell pretty neutral, maybe a bit chemical. Now I think they added fragrance to it ? For raceglaze, it smell like pineapple, very much like Victoria Collector, in fact.

+2 Raceglaze ( comparing to the chemical old version)

First impression when touching the wax:

Swissvax: it’s quite hard! Pretty much like Crystal Rock-level so it might be easier to use less. (= more application)
Raceglaze: A lot more soft, quite oily. I thought PTFE would make the wax harder but here it feel really soft, it melt to the touch almost instantly. So I’m thinking easier to spread but maybe I will use too much. It also look pretty similar to RG55 or Victoria wax.

+1 Swissvax ( I don’t hate soft wax but I prefer the feeling of harder wax)

Application:

Swissvax: Like I thought, it need a bit more work to spread easily on the paint but it’s management without too much troubles. It buff out like a breeze. I think that’s a Swissvax signature, any wax I tried buff out easily ( maybe beside Mystery).

Raceglaze: Again like I thought, it spread sooooo easilyyy it’s a breeze to apply! Leave it 10 minutes and buff; didn’t felt any harder to remove, I heard some people saying raceglaze needs a bit more work but I think they let the wax cure for too long. I admit, if you leave the wax for 20 minutes or dry out in the sun, you will have a hard time buffing the wax but that,s also true with 50% of the ‘nuba on the market.




Neutral or a slight edge for Raceglaze if you don’t let the wax dry on the paint.

Here’s how much I used to do half of the car:







Water behaviour:

Both being PTFE wax, I think it would be ‘’weird’’ if they acted completely different right? So far, after 3 hours, they look EXACTLY the same. The only difference is that one is twice cheaper

Shield on the left, 4x4 on the right

[cobrAA]

So I start by decontaminant the car with Iron-X:











I also clayed the car:


I then did a 1-step polish with Menzerna and followed by Swissvax Cleaner fluid by hand:


and after:

[cobrAA]

Trim were fully dressed also:


















Oh I wet-sanded that area also, big scratch from someone who layed on the car:










Ça m’a fait plaisir et j’espère que ça va taire certains ….. Faites moi confiance, laissez moi votre auto pour 48 heures, vous allez voir le résultat

[cobrAA]

- Storage damage:

These damages occurred when the car was in storage.. the owner didn’t put a cover on his car and the piping leaked and left some white/yellow-ish residue on the paint like salt in fact..







So, what I did is trying with a clay bar, didn’t do nothing. Then tried something more aggressive cleaner, didn’t work either so I went straight to the wet-sanding! Then compounded the whole care anyways. It’s now perfect








- Waxing and Cleaner fluid:

So for the finishing touch, nothing less then the finest product on the market; Swissvax Cleaner Fluid to prep the paint and My signature wax made by Raceglaze UK. This wax will give the ultimate shine that will last longer than sealant. This wax is truly exceptional, if you think Zymol Glasur is special, you have no idea what it’s like to work with this product. Thanks Raceglaze for trusting me.

[cobrAA]

- Engine bay:

I’m happy to see that my polishing last year inside the hood lasted quite well. So I just did a quicky and put it another coat of protection. I also polished every metal I could find. With the single turbo conversion there’s now a hole showing that needed a good cleaning too. But hey!! You can’t expect a 20yr old jdm WHITE to still be pure white 20yr old later. You simply can’t haha.

Before:









After:

You can see the 75/25 in this picture! The metal polish did a good job.








- Volk racing Wheels:

I then found out that the wheel needed a little polish. Beeing black gloss, swirls was easy to see. I also polished the lip with Menzerna polish since it’s clear-coated not bare metal!

As for the protection, I went crazy with some of the finest wax on the world. Since we will see each other every month, it’s not a problem to re-apply anyways. As always, the wheels were cleaned with Sonax and boars hair brush first.







After:


- Cleaning:

As always, I cleaned the car using my usual procedure which include the use of many boars brush, APC, Clay bar, foam cannon, chemical decon. Etc.

















- Yellowish rear bumper:

Thanks to a rich tune.. the white bumper takes second to turn yellow haha! I had to compound it, APC it and get under the car to really clean it well along the edge of the bodykit. I tried nano-coating the bumper, maybe it will help.. Dunno!





After with the exhaust polished:



Its now as white as it can be! But for how long ? haha

[cobrAA]

Process :

The Showroom treatment. Period. ( I do whatever needs to be in a dealer showroom. As simple)

- Headlight:

They needed wet-sanding so this was in the to-do list:







After the wet-sanding and nano-coating:


- Paint reading:

When doing a big correction, it’s mandatory to have a paint gauge to monitor the thickness of the paint:












- Interior :

For reason between me and the owner, we didn’t the extractor wash, we only did a dusting and protecting trim.. He registered to my maintenance wash detail so I will do it next time!

Very very dusty!







After:

[cobrAA]

Sur cette 128i 2012, le propriétaire m’a demandé la protection qui serait la plus durable. Son but était de protéger son fini le plus longtemps possible tout en réduisant le risque de swirls. J’ai donc opté pour le traitement opti-coat.

Ce traitement durcit plus ‘’fort’’ que les clear coat conventionnel et permet donc de réduire la quantité de cheveux d’anges introduites sur sa voiture. En plus, la compagnie dit que ce traitement est permanent.. Bref, je sais qu’il dure au moins 1 ans jusqu’à ce jour!
C’est un bon investissement pour ceux qui viennent de se procurer une voiture en bonne état et n’aiment pas en prendre soins souvent.

Processus :
Décontaminant à la clay bar douce
Décontaminant chimique
Lavage
Opti-coat.

Et voici le résultat :

































Si vous avez une nouvelle voiture, pensez-y! le traitement opti-coat peut valoir la peine, au lieu d’une cire.

À la prochaine.

[cobrAA]

Bon, beaucoup de photos! J’espère vous avez aimez.

Alex