dlp@akgua.UUCP (D.L. Philen [Dan]) (08/26/85)
Re: Rain Dance Liquid wax.
Warning: If you use automatic car washes, don't waste your
time reading this.
( You probably don't rally care about your car anyhow. :-) ).
I currently own the following cars: 1949 RR touring limo,
1954 MG TF (concours winner) 1964 RR Silver Cloud III (1st
place English car days- Atlanta), 1965 Austin Healy Mk III
(first in class), 1983 MB-300CD (first place MB Peachtree
Section Councours '84). I mention this only so you might
acknowledge my credibility for this article.
The national Mercedes-Benz club publication (The Star) did
an article about a year ago on waxes. They waxed the cars
MANY times and after each application examined the finish of
the paint with an ELECTRON MICROSCOPE!. Their conclusion
was that the modern liquid waxes gave every bit as good a
shine as a paste wax. Also, the idea of a good shine
comming from a paste with mucho elbow grease and polishing
was a big myth. The liquid waxes gave just as good a shine
as the paste. The big selling point for ANY wax is the ease
of application. If a wax is hard to apply, you are just not
going to take the time to wax your car very often. The
article said that no wax would stand up to hard soap washing
for any time at all, and frequent washing with a mild
detergent and waxing was the best approach. (Paste waxes
tend to last longer than liquid, but that is probably only
because they were put on thicker.)
I now use ONLY Rain Dance Liquid. My neighbor recently came
running over with s "GREAT BUY" on Blue Coral Liquid. I
tried it. It streaks, doesn't come off easily, in general is
not the wax of choice. The Rain Dance is the easiest wax to
apply that I have ever seen. It will take out small
scratches or black marks from inadvertently brushing against
the car. My MB is ivory and shows small black marks easily.
I only have one recommendation to using Rain Dance ( or any
liquid in a spray bottle ). Take an old bottle of Meguires,
or shampoo, (the type of squeeze bottle that has the tip
that folds up and down) and put that wax in that. The spray
or stream setting of those spray bottles tend to splatter
tiny drops of wax everywhere and it seems you can never get
them all cleaned up. Grills like the vent areas below the
windshield are a disaster to get clean.
One final word on washing. Use only Ivory Liquid, a wash
mit, or a big horse hair brush. Clean the mit in the soapy
water frequently. Use plenty of water from a hose. A
sponge will pick up the surface dirt (boulders as far as the
paint is concerned) and drag it along and cause tiny
scratches. Over time you have many fine scratches on your
fine paint (you could have gotten the scratch effect quicker
from the warning above).
From the mechanic at Dan's Garage
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D. L. Philen
akgua!dlp