Very good comeback!

-Heather

 

here's a little update.... my Civic was Epic'ed 10/14/06.

been through:
Rain: 21
Snow: 3 and lots of road salt!
Wash: 4 last time i washed was Thanksgiving!

this morning, i looked at the car and the water's still beading like
crazy.

and counting.

 

I've been looking for a long term report on Epic.....the beading is still good, but how about the slickness...what percentage would you say remains of the slickness now compared to how slick it was right after you first Epic'd it?

 

will find out tomorrow if the temps go up. will be washing the Epic'ed
civic and BoS'ed Legacy both waxed one week apart.

 

Temp is about 38F so will wash both cars even though its suppose to snow tomorrow. LOL.

Will post my findings later on.

I'm going to also try Hydro on top of Epic and see how that goes.

 

cool... will be interesting to hear your impressions since I haven't tried the Hydro yet.

 

so after the many weeks without a wash (last wash was Thanksgiving)
through a blizzard beginning of Dec and all the salt, though many rainy days
i finally got a chance to wash both cars. want to also note that my
wife uses the Legacy over 3k miles/month for work...that's a lot of
crap that can accumulate on the car.

Epic (Civic) applied 10/14/06: no issues so far.
the slickness was gone but beaded and sheeted water well and the
wet look is still there. also found a nasty scratch my damn community's
snow shovlers left behind..

Best of Show (Legacy) applied 10/21/06: no issues so far.
beaded and sheeted off water well and the deep gloss is
still there, felt very smooth.

here comes the problem for Prima... (well, sort of)

Hydro: product is exceptional... very slick and made my
Epic look as good as the 2nd day after the 24hr cure.
love the smell and it was just an awesome...

BUT as I was using it, the DAMNED BOTTLE FELL OFF THE
SPRAYHEAD!! :impatient :impatient :impatient :impatient

my bottle bounced several times on the driveway, then rolled helplessly
while Hydro just splashed all over. i was only able to salvage about 1/4
left in the bottle. mind you, this was a brand new bottle and i know
i torqued the spray head flat. ive never had this problem with Nero or
Slick's spray heads or any of Griot's sprays. wat a f-king way to end
the experience. this will leave a scar. i think my
neigbors down the street heard my profanity. yah, i am pissed.

well, at least my driveway looks very good now...

 

Oooo that really sucks :(

 

yah, tell me about it. wasn't my Hydro day today.

its okay, i'll just order more next time.

 

I'm going to start ordering Hydro, Slick, and Clarity by the gallon, I think. Well, I already do with Slick...but I noticed yesterday my Hydro and Clarity are getting low.

 

i think Hydro does both tasks well.... QD and SprayWax...so i think
im only going to get Hydro from now on and no more Slick.

 

I finally got around to washing Blimey again (after a month of only QDing), ICEing the trim and Epic'ing the paint. Wow - I REALLY like the Epic. Shiny, deepish (considering this is on Cool Blue metallic where "deep" doesn't really register like on JB etc.), realatively easy (harder than ICE, but hey, whatdaya expect), and SMOOOOTH. And after two relatively heavy coats of ICE on the trim, it's nice and deep black and wet-ish (but not greasy). I'll post some more photos in my gallery tomorrow when capture all the Christmas photos from the camera...

And after the 24 hour cure, the Epic looks even better, as others have stated.

Love it.

 

^^ that's weird about the hydro dropping like that... but sounds like you liked it.

just curious... the clarity has cleaning agents in it (like a windex)? the reason i'm asking... i was using it to clean my windows yesterday and it works very well, gets them nice and clear (and the MF towel is great too), but i noticed that when the sun hits the windows just right... there seem to be water spots still on the window. I sprayed more clarity on and scrubbed a little, but it is almost like the are inside the glass. they don't come off. I even thought they were on the inside of the car (how, I don't know), but they aren't. they are particularly bad on the back window... the one just over the rear wheel that curves around slightly.

oh, and this is after washing the car with a mit and shampoo and cleaning the window with the mit, so theoretically, any dirt should have been scrubbed off then.

anyone notice these kinds of spots and know how to get at them? I was thinking I would try windex next and then go back with clarity, but that doesn't fair well for clarity.

 

Those are mineral deposits from hard water. That's why I use DI water so that it won't spot like that. Clarity won't remove that, nor will any other glass cleaner. Some people say Vinegar works. I just hit it with M80 and a PC---yes, I use it on glass, and it cleans it up nicely. Then follow with Clarity to clean it off.

As for the DP bottles--they look nice, but I dislike them very much. I ordered a gallon of Hydro and Clarity a few days ago, and will be filling my Meguiars bottles with them. LOL. Yes I rip off the labels and use their dispenser bottle. NXT Glass Cleaner for Clarity, and NXT Speed Detailer for Hydro since the bottle is transparent unlike the Quik Detailer bottles.

 

ugh! so is the hard water bad for my paint? DI = distilled? guess I'll try some vinegar and see what happens.

thanks octaneguy, as always!

 

No hard water just leaves water spots when it dries. Usually this happens when a sprinkler gets your car wet, and then it bakes in the sun and dries--the mineral in the water leaves spots that won't come out with normal washing or waxing.

DI is Deionized water. I have a special filter I plug into my water source that gives me 100% mineral free water. It's basically a larger version of the Mr. Clean that uses the PUR water filters. Mine uses refillable resin crystals and filters 100 gallons of water before needing replacement.

DI water allows you to wash a car under sunlight and let it dry without drying it--and still drying spot free. Pro Detailers that carry their own water, use DI water.

Richard

 

good to know. i remember seeing the filter in one of your pics/posts somewhere. i should look into this.

this was driving me crazy yesterday... trying to get the water spots off that back window. there's the part of the window that is in front of the back pillar, so of course there's no window on the inside, so i knew the spots had to be on the outside, but they would not come off.

 

Yeah those spots can be pretty stubborn. Like I said, the PC is a very useful tool, and it's what I use to clean up mineral spots on glass.

 

yah, the product itself (Hydro) is very good. it's even
easier to use vs Griot's SprayOn wax as it dries very clear
without the need for a final buff.

SprayOn wax dries clear, but it's best you go over the car
with a fresh MF towel to buff to a perfect shine. not a big
deal for me, but if you're in a rush this might be irritating as
you know water drips from the crevises sometimes.

 

There's something else about the MINI glass that I haven't figured out. There are places on the glass (some on the inside and some on the outside) where if I mist it with some water, there are wide (1/2") streaks that become visible (almost as if some chemical had run down the glass in a straight stream).

When the glass is dry, they're invisible - they only pop up when the glass is wet. And they're only on the MINIs at our house - we have four other vehicles (three of which live outside), and none of them have ever had these. But my wife's 6-month old MINI and my two-month old MINI both have them, as well as two MINIs I've detailed over here in the past six weeks.

Our water here is very soft, and the marks are both on the inside and outside of the glass, so I'm not sure what's causing them. I'm just glad they're invisible when they're dry.

 

i think it's from gassing from the dash and a-pillar pieces. most all of my
cars do that.

ever since using Nero on the dash though, the gasses have been
significantly less. i think UV protection is doing its job?

 

Yeah I've seen that. I haven't found an acceptable solution to this short of not worrying about it since it's not that serious.

 

A good, cheap alternative to the DI water filter that OG has is the Mr. Clean Auto Dry. Don't use the soap or anything else that comes with it - just buy the cheap $15 version at Target/Wal-Mart, pop the filter in, and use it for your pre-wash/post-wash rinses. We have seriously hard water here but I have had no water spot issues since I started using it.

If it's on the glass, you can also try shower cleaner that's meant for hard water spots (just don't get it on your paint). I did this on my old commuter that had terrible water spotting and it took care of it.

But try the Mr. Clean thing. For $15, you can't really go wrong and it's worked very well for me!

 

i should try that Mr.Clean thing... my water isn't that hard but some times
i want to rinse my commuters and not have to wipe it down. lazy? no...

some times you got rain in the forecast and you want to do a quick
wash (half **** job) without looking so obvious.

 

scratch this idea. i tried Hydro as a QD over my brake dusted wheels
today instead of Slick. did not work well vs Slick or Griot's Speedshine.

Hydro felt like i was wiping with either distilled water or Meguiar's pos
maroon bottle QD. it does not seem to have much 'lifting' capabilities.

therefore, i recommend those that use Slick to continue buying Slick as
QD and use Hydro for wax enhancer. Hydro works great on clean and
fresh surfaces. im not sure how well Hydro sticks on top of Slick
though...

im more of a SpeedShine fan as far as QD.