Review: Son1c wax Protowax 36

[Audios S6]

I had the distinction of obtaining a sample of protowax 36 from the 1st facebook giveaway. After cracking it open, I wanted to use it immediately, unfortunately between poor weather, being sick and my work schedule I wasn't able to play with it until this weekend. I did however smell it multiple times per day - I actually brought it to my office to smell throughout the week - it's that good, but more on that later. I did finally have a chance to use it this weekend with a test on my hood before doing a dark blue 2009 3-series bmw. On to the review.

Product Info
Packaging: black double-walled plastic pot about 3 oz.
Color: orange/tangerine
fragrance: like fruity gum, it is seriously olfactory nirvana IMHO.
Consistency: I would characterize it as a hard wax.
Directions: none included, but Drew did note that he had liked to allow it to haze for 10-15 minutes prior to removal.

A couple things to note in the photos below:
1. The very surface of the wax was slightly different from the underlying wax, I would describe it as being cured as it did not readily melt. I did have to work it briefly with my finger to break through this top layer, after which it melted with ease. You can still see where some of top layer exists at the edges.
2. The double walled pot was definately a plus as it took some abuse in transit. It may be a little difficult to see in the lower photo that part of the out wall broke.





When initially trying to break through the top layer of wax in the pot I did note that the wax was a little tacky on my finger after about 5 minutes. I thought this may be an indication that it would be best to wipeoff the car quickly or left to haze for a longer amount of time. I did tried a couple methods that will be described below.


Testing
First I did a test on the hood of my car. 1999 light silver metallic audi. The car got an ONR wash, clayed with the speedy prep towel & UWW+ and hit with a couple passes of menz sf-4500 as a paint cleaner. I tried half the hood as WOWO and half as WO-haze-WO. Application was easy, I tried very ligh application and I tried a heavy application, I would say it was ever so slightly more difficult than dodo diamond white which is my currently go-to hard wax. I found that with light application, it has a good working time and wipe off was very easy. With heavier WOWO application some ghosting was apparent and I would have to flip the towel often to get a clear surface - I would have probably used 2 towels to just wipe off the whole hood had I applied it too thick - the lesson here is that a thin application is always good, but if you do apply it too thick it may not be as forgiving as some WOWO specific waxes like zymol. When left to haze I got no ghosting with the heavy application after 15-20 minutes of cure and removal was not difficult, on par with a dodo wax. When left to haze, removal of the light application was SUPER easy at 10-15 minutes, right up there with the easier products I've used (BFWD for example). I do not find it to be super slick with the back of my finger, but it did already see some rain and the drops were flying off the car at 30 mph and rolling off the car at a stop. Beading is very good initially I wanted to update this, but I've already hit it with UWW+ & FK425 since then, so results would be skewed for longevity. It plays well with the flake in my light silver. The color saturation of reflections is outstanding. It leaves a wet look and reflections are not as crisp as a with a sealant (to be expected). Below are a couple photos of the audi. As I said, this is a light silver metallic, I try my best but never expect much for reflection or gloss in full sun - but I'm really liking the results with protowax 36.






My second application was on a 2009 dark blue BMW 3-series wagon. This car got a little more work. The owner does take good care of it weekly at the DIY car wash, but doesn't have 2 buckets or great towels and that was evident from the light swirls and marring. It also had some hazy spots from where the badges were removed on the trunk. This car got CG CW&G for a wash, speedy prep towel with M34, menzerna FF-3000 with LC tangerine hydrotech pads. This paint was a bit soft and the FF-3000 was able to get almost everything out. I used SF-4500 by hand with a MF towel around the clearbra on the hood and rear bumper and I was easily able to remove the swirls, some deeper scratches remained on the rear bumper. All painted surfaces got protowax 36, clearbra and glass got diamondite crystal gloss. In this case, I only did a light applicaiton of protowax and allowed it to haze. As I started the wax application it began to rain so we had to pull the wax into the tiny 1920's single car garage. I did find that a little bit of water on the horizontal panels did not immediately affect the wax or wipeoff. As before, application and removal were very easy. I did find that it muted the metallic flake a bit on the BMW, it had the opposite effect on my audi and on other dark-blue metallics I've seen photos of wearing protowax 36. But the BMW looked dripping wet afterward. A couple photos are below, unfortunately, it was raining so I was unable to get any sun shots or anything from further away. Note that it's hard to tell a different between the panoramic glass and the paint on the roof. The iphone pics really don't do it justice, it looks fantastic.






Summary

Pros:
Can be used WOWO or WO-haze-WO
Best smell ever
Plays well with light and dark colors
Plays well with metallics (with some exceptions)
Ease of application and removal
Really wet look with great gloss
Top notch color saturation in reflections
Double wall pot saved my wax from the mail man's abuse
Good consistency in the wax - not oily or chauky

Cons:
Muted the dark blue BMW flake. Not sure if that is really the wax or if it's the flake
The upper layer of wax was cured out making the wax a little difficult to work with in a small pot.
Can ghost if applied too thick and not left to haze. No issue if left to haze.
I cannot obtain more yet.
Smelled sooooo good, my child/pet might try to eat it.

Summary
I really liked this wax. It played well with light and dark colors. I think it was easy to use, looked great and the smell is insane. There area couple cons that can be addessed by using the right technique, but there is not a steap learning curve. IMHO, this is on par with the likes of dodo & CG pete's 53, I will be buying this as soon as I can. In summary, protowax 36 is awesome, \thread. Did I mention the smell is amazing?

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

Thanks for the awesome review, makes me that much more eager to get my hands on some of this stuff!

Sent from my Transformer using AG Online

[Dr_Pain]

I have a small sampling of the 36 and have a Protowax 38 for the "South Louisiana Torture Test".

I currently have a customer's Audi Q7 waiting for its SON1C PW36 application (she selected at random). What I am planning on doing is one coat of Blacklight, and split hood between Pete 53 and Protowax 36. Since this is a maintenance vehicle (meaning I am the only one touching it), I will have the ability to control the maintenance variables and report on longevity. This will be a double blind report, meaning the customer will report (blinded as to which is which) and my son (partner in the business) will also report. He will also be blinded as to which side is which. We shall collect info on beading, shedding, attraction of dust etc..

P.S. Pete 53 is currently my go to topper wax.

I am very appreciative of your review and looking forward to giving my impressions. In your summary you mentioned that some of the cons can be addresses by using the "right technique". I would love for you to elaborate.

[JSou]

Nice review. I will have to agree with 36 being a little hard to work with from such a small pot...wait until you get the bottom!

After working with it for 2 months, I provided Drew with some constructive feedback and he has improved upon my gripes on the last two revisions.

The smell is delicious! I wanted to take an eat everytime I opened up the jar.

I've let SW36 cure for 45 minutes and it was still easy to buff off. A little does go along way.

[sproketser]

Thanx for sharing mate , love to see SONIC s work gets tested .