So, I've made some car waxes. Just doing a little testing.

[BluBrett]

Looks awesome. Do want.

[Vic Cardenas]

Thanks! Those who want shall have...

[MarcD]

Here is the wax I had mentioned. It is called Collinite 845
http://www.amazon.com/Collinite-Liqu...+insulator+wax

[Vic Cardenas]

That gets pretty good reviews...and at $20 it seems like a bargain if it is as good as they make it seem. I guess I have a problem with products that have lots of solvents though. I hear the smell isn't that great. What's your opinion on the smell?

I started out making solvent rich formulas right from the start because all the 'make your own wax threads' I read were mostly guys making solvent rich waxes with the likes of turpentine and mineral spirits. I quickly learned that I did not like using that stuff in my waxes. I was even using VM&P naphtha and let me tell you that stuff will never get touched again unless I'm trying to strip some paint off my deck. After my brief experiments with harsher solvents I quickly learned to make a water/oil and oil/water emulsifications and started using drying oils like linseed oil. I'm having a tougher time getting these products to haze like I want them to because of the slower evaporation rates and they certainly are easier to screw up and make 'too oily' but I'm finding the extra effort is paying off because I have not had too much difficulty making usable waxes. In fact, the first time I made a water emulsification, I found that that wax preformed even better than any of my previous harsh solvent based waxes!

[MarcD]

The Collonite 845 does have a distinctive odor but nothing I recall as being offensive. It was made originally for power companies for high voltage insulating and is one of those old school products. Amazing it has been around for over 100 years. I used a few times a few years ago and it does go on and come off very easy. And it does leave a very wet look. I'll have to give it another try again soon with my new polisher

[Vic Cardenas]

You guys might recognize my "test bed". It's proved useful at first to use my CF hood as a test panel. But I am running into some problems now that I've applied multiple layers, I am having trouble removing the old ones. I suspect there is some porosity in the clear coat and it does not mimic exactly a car's clear coat. I'm looking for more panels to use at the moment but I would like to find some good condition blue, red, silver and black panels. I think I'll be heading to the JY to find some decent body panels.

I'm also starting to test pour into some production ready containers. I really like this blue one but the trouble is if it's a hard wax it won't come out due to the lip. The black double wall container is great for hard waxes because it will pop out as pictured. This is beneficial for hard waxes so it's easier to apply the wax to a machine polisher. I don't see this being a problem with a soft wax. On that note, I've had some difficulty formulating a good soft wax. Either they end up too greasy or too much solvent is used and gives off a bad smell. I would rather not have to mask the smell of solvent so I've been playing around with water emulsifications and more mild drying oils. It has proven difficult to get a good "soft" formula. The plus side, I've made over 2 dozen successful "hard" waxes and I am getting quite good at getting the perfect consistency with those. I've nailed down one really nice smelling fragrance to go along with these hard waxes... A Lemongrass Coconut smell. Some of the other orange and citrus smells I've been playing around with are not quite right.

[Vic Cardenas]

Well, I am pretty excited!

I have really nailed down one of my recipes. I kept refining one of my recipes several times until I got, what I think, is a really, really good one. I am quite happy with this one. This is evolved so much from some very good waxes in their own right. I was able to get the carnauba content in this to be quite high while still retaining spreadability. The haze time is very quick and it polishes quite easily. A true wipe-on, wipe-off product. I think we have a winner! I will still refine it some more after this point but I have really made a truly high end wax, I believe.

This shows some hazing action. It is quite cold in my garage right now.
I am amazed at how I was able to spread this product in a not-so-warm environment.
It is putty like in hand feel, but spreads and hazes quite well for such a hard-ish paste wax.



Here is the taped off border on my trunk lid.
On the Nighthawk Black Pearl, it really makes the flakes pop out like crazy.
The depth, clarity and gloss are really good on this one.
Ignore the crazy swirl marks, please. I will be polishing the car soon.



Some beading action on the border on the fender.



Beading on the trunk lid.
There is some older wax on the left side but you can see a big difference between the two.
The beads on the right stay upright and higher.



More beading...



The reflection of the trunk lid that has been waxed on both sides with the new wax.
The reflections are just insane on the NBP. This is my best "black car wax" to date.



C-Pillar...



When I spread this on the canturbury sedan, I was amazed at how much the flakes in the paint popped out. I had never seen the flakes like this after testing dozens of waxes on this particular section of this car. I am testing this on top of an older coat of some decent stuff I had made about a month ago. I quickly cleaned off a strip on the trunk and you can still see the snow from my wife's recent trip outdoors. That's how easy this stuff spreads even when it is in it's most stubborn, hard state. The thin strip I spread the new wax on is just the edge of the trunk and the top of the fender. You can see the difference between the two waxes. This car only cost me $1000 and is a beater in every sense and this section looks like showroom fresh paint! The clarity and gloss is excellent with this color. I was really impressed on how it did on the canturbury green and will be doing some more testing on the rest of the car.





Some water beading and run off shots. When you blow on the water beads they run off quite quickly and leave a nice clean area behind them.





This picture doesn't show much but I was really impressed at how the carbon fiber panel was reflecting.

[518RLKiNG]

Awesome work, I had a pearl white rl for a few years and they were so easy to maintain. I now have a Monterey blue pearl which I have yet to properly detail. Hopefully this weekend. What recommendations do you have that have worked best for you OP?

[Vic Cardenas]

Thank you! I was surprised, I haven't looked at this thread in a while and I was surprised at how much I have progressed in just a few short months. If you think this is good, look at my latest thread here, it shows a customer submitted picture of his Land Rover with Econauba Sol and it looks like a mirror! http://forums.acuralegend.org/10-dis...rs-t33003.html As far as recommendations, I think you are on the right track, (from our conversation last night). M105 and M205 will do a good job compounding and polishing out your swirls and buffer trails. They are two of the most well used polishes in correction and they work well on Honda paint. I'm using Lake Country CCS pads based on a recommendation from Chrispy here. I think they are great... My wax will be a great compliment on the top after that! Thanks for the interest!