Tuesday, July 31, 2007

'Cmi' uncle

Today the 'cmi' uncle asked me 'Wow you did half the bonnet already, wax already ah?'

On hearing me reply no, he was puzzled as to why I didn't want to wax it.

'Cmi' uncle is relatively old school and does not understand the difference between a polish, glaze or wax. The only thing he knows is, waxing will make the paint very shiny. He has absolutely no idea why I'm spending half a day to polish a vehicle when he can do it in less than 1 hour.

End of the day, if the quality of my work is poorer than 'cmi' uncle's, I should really heed his advice and use his 'really crappy' products. Don't see that day coming anytime soon though~

Monday, July 30, 2007

Sealants vs waxes

People always ask me, 'are you using a sealant?'

Or they tell me stuff like 'sealants are better than waxes!'

Waxes generally refer to carnauba waxes, and its pretty impossible to apply carnauba wax by itself. Hence they are mixed with solvents that ease application considerably.

Sealants are essentially synthetic waxes, they may or may not contain carnauba. There are mainly 2 forms of sealants, acrylic and polymer. The 3rd 'sealant' is carnauba based, that's what we call carnauba wax.

In fact, sealant as a term is just overhyped. Essentially sealants and waxes serve the same purpose. They are the LSP (last step procedure) in a detail and they protect the paintwork by acting as a sacrificial layer against the elements. Of course, they give off different looks which are subtle to the untrained eye but the distinction between sealants and waxes is a pretty undefined one.

Personally if you ask me, carnauba gives a look that is to die for. Therefore, I always top a synthetic sealant with carnauba.

1st post

Welcome,

Firstly, thanks for viewing this site. This site will attempt to introduce what we at Project M do as well as to dispense little tidbits of information on how to maintain and protect the condition of your beloved cars.

A little bit on myself, I personally took up detailing as a weekend hobby when my dad got a new car. From a Subaru Impreza (97-04) we changed to a Mazda 6 (2003) and the paint was a splendid red (Velocity Red) with lots of mica flakes in it.

I noticed how great the paint looked under bright sunlight and was determined to keep the car paint in pristine condition. After trying out a rather expensive PPS (paint protection system) that did absolutely NOTHING to protect the paint, I searched online and it was from then on, I delved deeper and deeper into the world of detailing.

Its my great hope that someday end consumers will understand and know what's going on when they send their cars for grooming/detailing/polishing.

Best Regards,
Jeremiah @ Project_M