Car Products Tested

Stjärnagloss Red Snö pH-Neutral Foam

cdavies — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:50:26 +0000

StjärnaGloss Red Snö 473ml – £7.95

As an alternative to car shampoo, snow foam can be used through a pressure washer system. You can simply buy a foam lance through most detailing/valeting online stores with the right attachment for your pressure washer, and use a snow foam to cover your car. Get the right snow foam and this can be a great way to wash your car quickly and with a bit of fun involved.

StjärnaGloss’ Red Snö foam makes washing your car easy, enjoyable and it leaves a nice finish to the paintwork too. This snow foam is Ph-neutral and has ‘gloss enhancers and wax’ within the ingredients, meaning that if you’ve spent hours waxing your pride and joy, you’ve no need to fear this product removing the wax.

It can be diluted up to 1:20, but we found it best to use between a 1:5 and 1:10 mixture as that way it still cleans well and lathers up nicely. As it’s comes out a nice Red/dark Pink colour, you can get a few curious looks from people walking past when they see you spraying it on, but that’s all part of the pleasure of using it. Talking of pleasure, this stuff is an absolute joy to use when it comes to spreading it about with a wash mitt. It makes the wash mitt simply glide across the bodywork and once you’ve rinsed off the foam and dried the car, a wonderful glossy look is left behind, along with a ‘just waxed’ feel to the paint. In really hot weather we would recommend only doing a couple of panels at a time before rinsing it off and to get the best results, use it in cooler temperatures.

9/10 An excellent snow foam which cleans well and leaves a nice glossy finish and feel behind

StjärnaGloss Red Snö is available to buy from Shinearama.com

The Red Snö diluted and ready for use

Applying the snow foam and yes, it's as fun as it looks to do this

Car fully covered

The wash mitt simply glides across the paintwork

The result - A superb feel and finish

Turbo Wax Spray-N-Wax

cdavies — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:16:06 +0000

Turbo Wax

Turbo Wax Spray-N-Wax 4oz (118ml) – $8.99 / 16oz (473ml) – $15.99

A spray wax. If you like your car to have that ‘just-waxed’ feel after you’ve polished or waxed it, Spray-N-Wax is a must. The manufactures blurb states that it leaves behind a ’super slick shine’, and… it does just that! After we’d washed and dried out our ‘test’ cars, we sprayed a light misting of the product onto the recommended area of 2′ x 2′, and then wiped it straight off, using another microfibre to take off any excess. This worked very well, but we also found that leaving the Spray-N-Wax on the paintwork for one or two minutes before removing it meant a deeper shine and an even slicker feel. The shine is deep and not unlike a good quality wax in its finish. The beading effect is not quite as good as some other waxes give, but that can be forgiven for the small amount of time it takes to fully wax your car with this product. Although the product will only last around 2 weeks per application, it’s such an easy job to re-apply it, that it’s not really a worry.

8/10 A quick and easy way to get your car’s bodywork looking and feeling great.

*Before and after photographs coming soon*

Aqua Gleam De-Ioniser Review

cdavies — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:39:05 +0000

Car washing - not normally a good thing on a hot day

If you’re someone that likes to clean their car, then this scenario is an all too common one. It’s a baking hot summers day, and you’ve decided to give your pride and joy a wash. So you wash it and rinse it off, but before you’ve got chance to dry it off with a chamois or microfibre cloth, the water has already started to evaporate. This is not a good thing though. The minerals left behind after the water has evaporated cause streaks and water marks on your paintwork, and believe us, these can be extremely difficult to remove.

Rinsing the suds without the Aqua Gleam

So when Jez Gilman, of Theultimatefinish.co.uk got in touch about his Aqua Gleam water de-ioniser, we jumped at the chance to test it. The Aqua Gleam is a very simple and easy to use system which is used with a hose pipe. It effectively filters the water, ‘de-ionising’ it and removing the minerals to produce virtually pure water, meaning no more streaks or water marks on your car after you’ve used it.

Too good to be true? We put it through its paces to see just how well it worked.

Water sat on bodywork which was easily 30˚C

We chose one of the hottest days that the U.K has seen in a long time, with the temperature hitting 27˚C, the bodywork of the test car must have been well over 35˚C by the time of the mid-afternoon test. After rinsing down the car first and then giving it a good wash, we rinsed it off with normal unfiltered water using a hose pipe and spray gun.

The damage from leaving water to dry on a hot day

After just 2 – 3 minutes being sat in the sun, the water had evaporated and left behind some seriously ugly water marks. We are in a ‘hard water’ area of the U.K, so the water is packed full of those water marking minerals. To remove these though, it wasn’t just a case of re-washing the vehicle. Nope, these were well and truly stuck in the paintwork. We had to use a slightly abrasive car polish, otherwise they would not have shifted.

More damage - these water marks are embedded into the paintwork!

So okay, you may say that you’d dry it off rather than just letting the water sit there. Yes, we tried that too, and all that happened was the water evaporated even faster as it was thinned out by the drying cloth, causing much the same problem.

Onto the next test, this time with the Aqua Gleam (which looks very cool by the way). We used the two fitments and small piece of ‘go-between’ hose to attach it to the tap. To remove all traces of normal water from the hose pipe, and to let the water have chance to filter, we ran it through for 60 seconds or so.

The Aqua Gleam de-ioniser

Same test as before. Wash vehicle again, rinse it off and leave it to dry. This time however, once the water had disappeared after a minute or two, there was not one trace or mark left anywhere on the car. We were astounded by the result, but just to check, we re-ran the test again. Twice. The place we really noticed a massive difference was on the car’s windscreen. Usually, even after you’ve dried out the glass on a car, there is still some sort of streaking or water marks on it, but the de-ionised water completely disappeared, leaving a crystal clear finish.

It’s not just summer where water streaking is a problem either though. After a good wash in winter, you can still guarantee that after the car has dried out, there will be water runs from various bits of exterior trim. Again, the Aqua Gleam works the same to eliminate these.

So, what’s the damage to your wallet? Well, the 12 inch Aqua Gleam unit we were sent costs between £54.95 and £59.99 depending on resellers. Before you go shouting ‘it’s too expensive!’, and clicking away from this page, consider this. The minimum amount of washes you will get from this sized filter in a hard water area is 20. Break that down, and it’s costing you just £2.75 per wash. That’s still a lot cheaper, and better for your car’s paintwork, than an automatic car wash or paid for hand wash, and you get far better results too.

In a soft water area, you could get up to 70 washes or more out of a filter, costing you the ridiculously small amount of 78 pence per wash.

Larger filters are available, which cost more but are even more economical overall.

So, the verdict. It’s an excellent piece of kit which will astound you. Very much a well-deserved 10/10! Whether it’s summer or winter, you will notice a huge difference after washing your car. Just think how much time the Aqua Gleam will save you in drying time alone. It makes perfect sense. Now, we’re off to wash our cars again.

The Aqua Gleam is available from www.theultimatefinish.co.uk

Click here for a U.K water hardness map

Sitting water after using the Aqua Gleam filter

The result after the de-ionised water had evaporated - zero water marks or runs

Even wiping 'normal' water off glass normally results in streaking, but this is after using the Aqua Gleam

A quick wipe down and the de-ionised water completely disappears with no traces at all

Another quick wipe on a panel - normally this would dry leaving streaks behind

However, as we used the Aqua Gleam filter, there was no water marks at all

The boot after it had completely dried out - this car has not been waxed afterwards - there's just a complete lack of any water marks or streaks

ValetPRO Dionysus Trim Glitz

cdavies — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:20:36 +0000

ValetPRO Dionysus Trim Glitz (No price as yet). Buy a sample of this on our Samples Shop

Make no mistake, this new exterior trim product from ValetPRO is THE best trim product we’ve ever come across. Its colour is golden, and it makes sense as this stuff is liquid gold to any of the cleaning fanatics out there. Once applied, Dionysus leaves behind a chasm-like deep shine, which will last for weeks through the hot sunshine and lashing rain. It will restore the look of even badly faded plastics and can also be used on rubber trim. We were amazed to find that once it starts looking a bit dull, just give your trim a quick wipe over with a damp microfibre cloth, and that deep shine will re-appear once again. This is an amazing product which we can’t praise enough. Please note: the main photograph of the product is not the official ValetPRO one. We are awaiting it and this is our sample bottle.

10/10 Restores faded plastics with ease and leaves a deep shine that lasts for weeks and weeks.

Buy a sample of this on our Samples Shop

A 50/50 shot. The right side is before the Dionysus was applied.

A 50/50 of the rear step. The right side is before we applied the Dionysus.

This is a photo after the Dionysus was applied 4 weeks previously. A quick wipe down with a damp microfibre cloth was all that was needed.

StjärnaGloss Hjul ph Neutral Wheel Cleaner

cdavies — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:11:21 +0000

StjärnaGloss Hjul pH Neural Wheel Cleaner 473ml – £7.95 / 3.78 litres – £24.95

StjärnaGloss are a fairly new company, but one that has made their entrance with some truly outstanding products. This wheel cleaner gel is one of those and doesn’t disappoint. It is aimed more at regularly cared for wheels, rather than those that have months of dirt and grime embedded into them. It is completely Acid and Alkali free which means that it can be used on any type of wheel or rim. Chrome, painted, alloy and carbon fibre – all okay.

But if it’s free from those more toxic products and can clean any type of wheel, it must be a weakling right? Nope. In fact, it’s the opposite. A month’s worth of brake dust is no problem at all to it and, as it can be diluted to your needs, you will save money if you’re just using it on wheels that are lightly dirty. It is a thick and sticky product when neat, and in that form can actually be painted straight onto your wheels if they are really dirty. With it being a gel, once you spray it onto your wheels, it sticks there rather than running off, as normal cleaners do, which in turn helps it to work its way deep into the grime.

We tried it at a 1:5 and 1:15 dilution rates on dirty and lightly soiled wheels, and it performed excellently. It smells of Piña Colada too which makes cleaning that little bit more enjoyable.

9/10 A superb and extremely safe wheel cleaner which is more suited to regularly maintained wheels. Can be used on any type of rim.

Buy a sample of this product from our Samples Shop

To buy the full size, visit Shinearama.co.uk

Before:

After:

Welcome U.S.A. Marin Sonoma Concours D’Elegance viewers

cdavies — Sun, 16 May 2010 14:56:14 +0000

Hi and welcome along to Carproductstested.com

As well as us testing and reviewing car cleaning products, we also sell samples of them too. Check out the Samples Shop here.

We work closely with Mark Essman, one of the main organisers of the Marin Sonoma Concours D’Elegance, and he arranged for our car cleaning product samples to be sent out for the show car owners, which is where you may have seen our website, or you may have seen it on a flyer or banner around the show too. Another reason that we were chosen was that even though we are U.K based, we ship Worldwide. We have sent our samples out to Europe, the U.S.A and the Far East.

Our Samples Shop is very popular with detailing and valeting fans, and we have an outstanding reputation for our high quality and personal service, which is why we were chosen for the Concours D’Elegance.

We have put together a pack of samples especially for the discerning U.S consumer

These samples are products from premium British brands such as ValetPRO, Autobrite, StjärnaGloss and Dodo Juice. We picked them because they represent what U.K products are all about – outstanding quality alongside understanding the needs of people who love looking after their vehicles.
The pack includes 8 waxes, 5 car washes, 1 wheel cleaner, 5 polishes and paint prep products, 1 multi-purpose product and a fantastic exterior trim product; enough to give you a taste of how they work and just how good they are to use. This is only place to buy most of these samples as we are world-wide exclusive sample suppliers of most of the samples here (all except the dodo juice waxes).

This stunning samples pack costs just £108.00 (aprox. $157.00) including delivery by Royal Mail Airsure™.

If you want to add extra items to the pack, or double up others we will be happy to do that for you. If you would like any help at all, please contact us using our Contact Page here.

A bit more about our Samples Shop.

We set up our samples shop around five months ago. We hand-pick our products, and put a lot of thought into each one before we choose it. When choosing them, we look closely at how good the product itself is at what it does, what sort of reputation the company has for quality goods, and also who are our audience is.

Although most of the products we sell as samples are used by professional detailers and valeters, many people are now starting to cotton onto just how easy these products are to use, and just what stunning results you can achieve with them. These products rival and in most cases excel the ‘high-street’ brands for price and results.

The samples come in 50ml (1.69 U.S fl oz) bottles and the wax samples come in 30ml (1 U.S oz) pots. The sample bottles give easily enough product to get a good idea of how the product works etc. Some of the car washes (shampoo’s) we sell will give as much as 5 or 6 washes and the wax sample pots allow at least 2 applications on a medium-sized vehicle if used correctly. All samples come with emailed instructions.

We hope you enjoy the samples shop.

Best regards, Chris (CPT Admin).

How-To…Remove Bird Muck Properly

cdavies — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:06:39 +0000

Dratted birds! You’ve come out your house to find you newly-cleaned pride and joy splattered with their dried on muck, which is a real pain to get off. Why should you remove it quickly, after all it’s just dirt right, and there’s no need to wash off normal dirt in a hurry as it won’t damage the paint. But we’re talking bird dirt here though people, and this stuff is majorly acidic and also abrasive, and if not removed within a short period of time it will damage your paintwork. So what do you do normally? Just grab a sponge or scrubbing pad and scrub the muck off? Let’s make it easier and go through what you shouldn’t do first.

What to avoid doing

Don’t just use the nearest old T shirt, cloth and definitely not a scrubbing pad (the type used for pots and pans). Don’t have a go at the bird muck while it’s dry and baked on either. Don’t use strong cleaning detergents, such as washing-up liquid etc. Another thing to avoid doing is rubbing at the dried out bird muck with your finger to remove it. If you do use those things, you will end up putting swirls and light scratch marks into your paintwork, and using a detergent will take off any wax or polish that you’ve previously applied.

What to do

Do try and remove bird dirt within 48 hours of it landing on your car. After just 2 days, it can start to damage paintwork, as the acids in it are strong. We’ve seen cars that have had bird muck left on for two weeks, and the only way to get the paint back to normal again is to get either a paint correction process done or to have a panel resprayed. Yes, it really is that bad!

What will I need?

A pressure washer or a hosepipe with a sprayer nozzle, a decent wash mitt or sponge, a wax or detailer spray and a good microfibre cloth.

How to remove the bird muck safely

Rinse off as much of the bird dirt as you can with a pressure washer, hosepipe or bucket of clean water.

Soak a piece of kitchen roll or soft cloth with water.
Place the wet kitchen roll or cloth over the dried on bird muck. If it’s very baked on, try using warm water instead of cold on the roll or cloth.

Leave the wet roll or cloth to soak on the bodywork for a few minutes until the bird dirt has softened.

After the muck has softened sufficiently, use a good wash mitt or sponge and a bucket of water with some decent detergent-free car shampoo to remove the last of the bird muck. If it still wont shift, don’t scrub at it, but instead repeat steps 2 – 5 again.

Rinse off the suds fully with clean water.

Use a good soft microfibre cloth to dry the water off the paintwork.

Use some detailing spray or a wax over the area where the bird muck was to top your wax back up again, as the bird dirt may have eaten it away.

Stand back and admire how good the formerly muck-bombarded area now looks.

Turbo Wax Car Shampoo

cdavies — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:35:51 +0000

Turbo Wax

Turbo Wax Car Shampoo 4oz (118ml) – $8.99 / 16oz (473ml) – $11.99

After using this shampoo on cars that had come through some of the worst British weather in years, we came to the conclusion that this is impressive stuff. It cuts through the worst grime to leave a healthy look to the paintwork. Usage is half an ounce (15 ml) per gallon (3.7 litres) of water, so around 40 ml of product is needed per bucket of water. We used slightly more of the product in our buckets as the cars we tested it on were so dirty. Although this is not the best dilution rate that we’ve come across, Turbo Wax Car Shampoo does perform well and, as it states on the bottle, is highly lubricated, making your wash mitt or sponge glide easily across paintwork, even if the grime is thick. It is also formulated not to remove polish or wax either, so all your hard work is kept safe.

8/10 A good product to use, won’t remove wax or polish, dilution rates are slightly high.

Turbo Wax are currently looking for a U.K distributor of their products. If you are interested, contact them through their website.

Turbo Wax Car Shampoo - Before

Turbo Wax Car Shampoo - After

Turbo Wax Wheel Cleaner

cdavies — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:33:43 +0000

Turbo Wax

Turbo Wax Wheel Cleaner 4oz (118ml) – $8.99 / 16oz (473ml) – $15.99

After testing this wheel cleaner on rims in various stages of filthiness, we came to the conclusion that for a ‘non-acidic & safe’ wheel cleaner, this product works very well. The range and type of wheel it can be used on is good and even includes being able to use it on clear coat and tyres too. We used it to remove very thick industrial tyre shine from a set of tyres along with a stiff scrubbing brush. It worked brilliantly and got rid of all of the nasty gloopy tyre shine and left the natural finish behind. On one particular set of rims, there were several large pieces of road tar stuck on, and the Turbo Wax shifted them with no trouble at all. The finish left behind is bright and shiny. The instructions are to spray the Wheel Cleaner on, leave it to dwell for one minute and then agitate with a wheel brush. After the one minute dwelling time, we found that it had dried slightly too much to agitate properly, but another quick spray of the stuff gives enough to work with.

9/10 A very good wheel cleaner which is safe for any type of wheel and tyre. Cleans deeply and brightens well.

Turbo Wax are currently looking for a U.K distributor of their products. If you are interested, contact them through their website.

Turbo Wax Wheel Cleaner - Before

Turbo Wax Wheel Cleaner - After

ValetPRO Achilles Prep

cdavies — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:48:48 +0000

ValetPRO

ValetPRO Achilles Prep 500 ml – £9.20 / 5 litres – £46.00

As a paint preparation product, this stuff is truly excellent. It can be used as an ‘after claying’ product or on its own if you’re in a rush. We put only a small amount on a foam applicator pad and went over panels until we had covered a full car. The paint was in bad condition and the vehicle had not been washed properly or waxed in a long time and it had plenty of swirl marks and light scratches in the paintwork. After we’d removed the Achilles Prep from half of each panel we were astounded at the results. The paint went from a dull and lifeless look to a glossy and fresh-faced youth again. Nice. The lighter scratches were almost removed and the swirl marks were a lot less obvious. On a machine polisher, we think this stuff will be even better to use. It’s much like T-Cut, only better as it shines as it goes.

9/10 A little effort produces great results. Much like T-Cut, only better as it shines as it goes

Buy a sample bottle of Achilles Prep from our Sample Shop

Buy ValetPRO Achilles Prep (full size) from ValetPRO