I gave my 2009 SRT the full "Meguiars treatment" in my garage. Meguiars Gold Class Car Wash Meguiars Ultimate Polish Meguiars Ultimate Liquid Wax Meguiars Ultimate Detail Spray Meguiars Ultimate Black Plastic Restorer Meguiars Hot Shine Tire Foam The results were outstanding. Pretty good for a 12-year old car!
@SRT-Tom ... Your car always looks amazing! Well done, sir. There's a lot to be said for the "old-school" multi-step approach for making a car shine. Mine currently has a good coat of Mother's Pure Carnauba Paste wax on it and is about due for a refresh ... but I think I'll wait for the Florida heat to subside a bit. A month-or-so ago I tried the new-fangled Mothers Ultimate Hybrid Ceramic + Carnauba Spray Wax on my daily driver. It looks good and is a heckuva lot easier on my back.
Your car looks great Tom. I've always used the Collinite liquid Insulator wax on all my cars but am starting to use ceramic spray wax. More like "experiment". Wizard - I may try that Mothers Ultimate you used. Is it a spray, wipe and buff or a spray and wipe (no buff required) product?
The Mothers Ultimate Hybrid Ceramic - Carnauba Spray Wax that I used is a Spray / Spread / Buff product. I'd never used it before so I broke down and read the directions. I know ... very risky and probably put my "man card" in jeopardy. I sprayed and spread half of the roof and half of the hood. Then I buffed it off of the roof and sprayed and spread the other half of the hood. Then I just kept playing panel leap frog until I'd worked my way around the car. However ... their YouTube video shows it being used faster than what I did. More of a faster spray/wipe/buff method. I've also used their Ultimate Hybrid Ceramic Detailer & Bead Booster product. It's a spray on - wipe off product and seems to do exactly what the name implies.
I don't know how long it'll last. It's only been on the car since late-April. Still beads water nicely during a rain storm. BTW ... It's on a 2005 Chevy Monte Carlo that is never garaged.
^^^ That's very impressive for leaving the car in the FL sun with all the heavy rain. I could never get that life out of a 'normal' spray wax, or even my pricey Griot's hand wax.
I've done my daily drivers twice a year with a spray-on ceramic, once in the spring and once in the fall. I've tried a couple retail brands each under $30. How long they last is subjective, based on shine(?), water beading (?), feel (?). I'm good with a six month timeline between applications and my cars are run through a carwash on average twice per month.