Review: Pinnacle Black Label Reserve Wax

[Mike Phillips]

Thanks for another great write-up. Beautiful paint to boot.

That wax looks good. I'm still a fan of the waxes. I still wax cars.

Knowing the rage is coatings, I'm finally getting ready to start trying those out. Finally. I've had two coatings on my shelf for some time, and will hopefully have a chance to play with them tonight.

But, I'll always use wax on one car or another!

I base what I use on 2 things,

The car
The customer


Not everyone on Planet Earth wants or needs a ceramic paint coating.

I think wipe on, and let dry might apply with some paste waxes, but not with some others. For example, a wax like the old Blue Coral.

That one was apply on a 18'X18" section, and rush to pick a towel up with lightning speed. Otherwise, you were in for one hell of a time of removal.

That's true too.... I wasn't thinking about antique waxes and their application in modern times. But it is true that some old school paste waxes could be, and can be hard to remove.

The key with all of them is to apply as thin of a coat as possible if it's a NON-cleaning wax like Meguiar's M16 and if it was a cleaning wax, then remove it after working it over the surface - for old/antique paste waxes.

Thanks Mike. Nice write up. Reviewing the pics I think I can be a little more liberal with how much wax I use.

I think trying to go too thin is costing me some time.

If I would have sat on my butt for the lower panels I could have put on a thinner coat of wax. Because I was wearing pants - I sat on a roll-around stool and this made it very awkward to apply "professionally" to the lower body panels.

I should have changed back into shorts and then I could have applied a thinner coat. I'm not really a fan of hand applying anything so there's a bit of ugh.... involved.

[JustJesus]

I base what I use on 2 things,

The car
The customer


Not everyone on Planet Earth wants or needs a ceramic paint coating.

To that I'll add:

Their budget.

The more they are okay with spending, the more time I can put in

[Coatingsarecrack]

would have sat on my butt for the lower panels I could have put on a thinner coat of wax. Because I was wearing pants - I sat on a roll-around stool and this made it very awkward to apply "professionally" to the lower body panels.

I should have changed back into shorts and then I could have applied a thinner coat. I'm not really a fan of hand applying anything so there's a bit of ugh.... involved.

When you say you use an orbital do you mean like a hand held (griots hand held water) or an actual DA? If it is a DA do you use a 8mm or a long stroke?

Thanks,


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fightnews]

One of the hardest things to do was resist the temptation to whip out an orbital polisher and machine apply this wax. I RARELY work by hand but I also get it that the majority of do-it-yourselfer car owners still work by hand. And this is why I used this wax by hand on a car without first machine polishing the paint. I was,

Keeping it real...

Hi Mike, I also love machines so this is off thread topic but I couldn't help it. I used your technique for cleaning tires with a drill yesterday. I wasn't expecting it but it was so much faster and did an unbelievable job cleaning the tires. Ive done it many times by hand and it was no comparison. For some reason I didn't think it would work that good but I was pleasantly surprised.

I've had the equipment for a while now I just wish I tried it sooner.

[fightnews]

I base what I use on 2 things,

The car
The customer


Not everyone on Planet Earth wants or needs a ceramic paint coating.






That's true too.... I wasn't thinking about antique waxes and their application in modern times. But it is true that some old school paste waxes could be, and can be hard to remove.

The key with all of them is to apply as thin of a coat as possible if it's a NON-cleaning wax like Meguiar's M16 and if it was a cleaning wax, then remove it after working it over the surface - for old/antique paste waxes.






If I would have sat on my butt for the lower panels I could have put on a thinner coat of wax. Because I was wearing pants - I sat on a roll-around stool and this made it very awkward to apply "professionally" to the lower body panels.

I should have changed back into shorts and then I could have applied a thinner coat. I'm not really a fan of hand applying anything so there's a bit of ugh.... involved.

Another point I wanted to make about machine waxes. I found out recently that the flex mini with its 12mm orbit applies a much thinner and even coat of wax then the griots mini in the same amount of time. I noticed this when wiping it off one panel with the flex then another panel with the griots. This was by chance I wasn't trying to test it or anything.

Next time I will test the flex mini vs the flex regular that I usually use with the 5" pad.

[Mike Phillips]

When you say you use an orbital do you mean like a hand held (griots hand held water) or an actual DA?

If it is a DA do you use a 8mm or a long stroke?

Thanks,

Good question. The answer is really simple. I have a lot of bad jokes or comedy that I use in the garage, here's an example,

When asked what the best anything is? For example,

What's the best spray detailer?
What's the best polisher?
What's the best microfiber towel?

Etc., etc., etc...


My answer is,

Whatever is closest to my hand


And what I mean by that is, If I need a polisher, whatever is closest to me automatically is the best because it's close to me. If I have to walk 20 feet across the garage to get the one I really want I could do so, but normally I'll take whatever tool or widget that is next to me and use it simply because it's close at hand.


That's the joke answer, the real answer is,

When detailing a car, whatever tool I use for the last machine polishing step is also the one I apply a wax or sealant with. I rarely switch to a dedicated tool when I already have a tool out ready to go.


Here's something I say all the time,


If you spend enough time behind any tool you will learn how to make the tool dance on paint