Review: SON1C Wax Protowax Black Wax

[kevincwelch]

When SON1C announced he was going to give away a small amount of his black protowax, I was lucky enough to be browsing the forums literally right after he must have posted his messages. I was the first to reply, and I was fortunate enough to get a small sample of the wax. I will also add that Drew has given some of his earnings for autism awareness, which I think is admirable. Having treated kids with autism for various ENT problems, I can appreciate the quest for better treatment, prevention and understanding.

SON1C has a whole line of waxes -- some of which are sold on AG. I haven't tried Carnaubavore or Phoenix, but I was lucky enough to get Merry Waxmas last year and give that a try. Was awesome.

SON1C took great care to package everything nicely when he sent off the small package of the protowax, and the wax itself is poured into a nice container that appears very durable (I dropped it unintentionally once and it got scraped up, but certainly no damage to the hull).



Upon opening the container, you are immediately greeted by a very pleasant smell of liquorice. I stated before that it reminded me of the candy liquorice you'd get trick or treating. Good times.




The wax isn't hard by any means. In fact, it's very soft and has the faintest texture of oil. Not at all like Merry Waxmas. Here's a previous snap.



If you rub your finger across the wax, it's very smooth and leaves a nice waxy layer on your skin that is ever so faintly tinted black.



I would have loved to have tested this on my car, but my car is coated, and while it's dark blue, technically it isn't black. So, I recruited my neighbor who has a 2012 Volvo S60. She's a busy mom with two kids and a very practical dad. They're all very busy, so the car gets treated every now and again by the local car wash (ironically, Delta Sonic Car Wash). I wasn't prepared to do an all out paint correction, but I knew that if I didn't do something, the wax wouldn't get its due, and I didn't want anything to interfere with the bonding of the wax.

Steps for washing and application
1. Rinse
2. Decontamination with IronX (a la the "Aggressive Method" described by Mike Philips).
3. Wash with Nanoskin Bubble Bath and further decontamination using the Nanoskin fine grade wash mitt
4. One step polish using Flex and HD Polish using either blue pads or white pads (like I said, I really didn't have time to compound and polish this car).
5. IPA 17% wipe down
6. Application of SON1C Protowax Black Wax
7. Tires with Blackfire AIO Trim

You can see from the following video that this car had absolutely no protection on it. This is during the initial rinse of the care



Following the rinse, I applied generously CarPro IronX. There was tons of violaceous run off.

The car was washed with Nasonskin Bubble Bath and then further decontaminated with a Nanoskin Fine Grade Wash Mitt using the Bubble Bath as the lubricant. I tell you, it felt like (and sounded like!) I was rubbing my mitt against sandpaper. But, as I made more and more passes, I could hear and feel less and less of the grit until it was suddenly smooth. The car was rinsed down one more time.

Here's what the car was like after it was decontaminated. It would see that all the contamination and dirt might have been offering the paint some protection, because after it was completely clean, there was absolutely nothing going on there!



Here are some shots of the paint after it was dried. As many of you know, it is certainly a lot harder to dry a car that has no paint protection on it. I went through 3 of my guzzler and Dry Me a River towels.



The whole car was like that.

This was after a test pass with the Rupes 15 and a yellow pad using HD Polish.



It got a lot of it, but I knew I didn't have the time to clean up the car with the Rupes 15, so I went with my Flex and used the blue and white Hybrid pads (depending upon need) and HD Speed. It was by no means a perfect correction, and if I were to hazard a guess, it got rid of most of the swirls, but a lot of the deeper scratches just had to stay behind.

Here are some shots of the paint after polishing the car.











I was feeling pretty good about the amount of correction even though this wasn't high standards. I knew my "customer" who was getting this detail for free (basically; she had done some baby sitting for us) and my main goal was to try out the Protowax.

Here's a shot of the Protowax applied to the hood which was done with a basic Autogeek applicator pad. The wax itself went on very easily, and like many waxes, a little went quite a long way. I applied the wax in a circular motion across most of the panels. I let it haze as I moved around the car and wiped it away with your basic all purpose microfiber towels. I would consider the wax to have been removed with mild to moderate effort -- the older the application, the more moderate the wiping. This is also possibly due to initial over-application of the wax.

I applied two coats of the wax and used about 25% of the sample.



And here is what she looked like after the application of the wax.



Lots of orange peel on this car, and a few dings as well.














Here are some pictures and video of the water beading and sheeting. It's not really a sheeting test, but you get the idea.








Summary:
This is my first application of the SON1C Protowax Black Wax. This wax smells wonderful, and the application of the wax is a breeze. Removal of this wax might be moderately difficult if you over apply the wax or wait "too long" to remove the hazed over wax.

The car looks glossy and deep with the Protowax, and I'm anxious to see how this wax holds up to the fall and perhaps the winter in Chicago. Chicago is a tough market for LSPs, so we'll see how well it stands up to the Chicago Mom with little time on her hands! At least she'll have a neighbor who won't mind giving her car a re-up!

Now, I'm a coating guy, but applying this wax reminds me of why so many people love their waxes.

I'd say it's a winner.

[custmsprty]

That's awesome!

I think most of all it speaks to the power of HD Polish and the Rupes polisher. I'm sure the proto wax is good too, but the HD Polish is the clearly the game changer. It did all the work for sure.

[kevincwelch]

That's awesome!

I think most of all it speaks to the power of HD Polish and the Rupes polisher. I'm sure the proto wax is good too, but the HD Polish is the clearly the game changer. It did all the work for sure.

I loved the HD Polish.

Started with the Rupes, but moved on to the Flex. Shine is one thing; protection is another. The Protowax offered great beading and apparent protection.

We'll see with the seasons.

[custmsprty]

I loved the HD Polish.

Started with the Rupes, but moved on to the Flex. Shine is one thing; protection is another.

Having used Black Ice, Fuzion, Souveran, Dodo Blue Velvet, CG Celeste D, PBL Sealant and quite few others over the past three years on my GC, they each have their pluses, but preparation as you demonstrated is 99% of it, especially when dealing with darker colors.