[Nica]

Well finally had time to play with my new acquired wax, Crystal Rock. Now the vehicle I decided to try it out on is my Lexus GX 470.

Here is the vehicle before:



The wheel wells were going to need a little attention, that’s from the golf trips I’ve gone to recently


The vehicle previously had Vintage, about 5 or 6 coats of Vintage that is

Well first I connected the CR System:


Well the fire truck used up all the Total Auto Wash I had in my sprayer so I had to refill it:


Now I’ve been meaning to use this product. I didn’t have a spare spray bottle to put it in so I used an empty Menzerna Final Inspection bottle and just relabeled it…kinda:


Well on with the show, first up the wheel wells are given a healthy coat of P21S Total Auto Wash:


Next up the rims received Menzerna Gel 7.5:






Making sure to get all the way inside the rims:


Next up the tires were given a coat of ARO:


Here is how it all looks before application:


Now it was time to agitate the wheel wells with the help of a long handle brush:


Now for the inside of the rims, first I thought to use the two inch wool brush:


But on the front rims the two inch wool brush wouldn’t fit so I had to use my one inch wool brush:


Making sure to get all the way inside:


Next the face of the rims were agitated with a Swissvax brush:


The tires were also given a good scrub:


Well this process is done to all wheel wells, rims and tires. This actually took longer then I thought, but oh well.

Next it was time to wash the rest of the vehicle, the two bucket method is used with a sea sponge and Zymol Clear:


Now the washing process took even longer, I keep forgetting how big this SUV is

Well once the entire vehicle had been washed and rinsed off I removed as much water as possible with my air compressor and what ever water was left over I dried of with my waffle weaved micro fiber towel.

Now with the washing done I applied Swissvax Cleaner Fluid:


Once I was done with the Cleaner Fluid it was time for the main event:


Now I did start to use one of those black Swissvax foam applicators but I just can’t stand to apply wax with a applicator so I put it away and I applied Crystal Rock with my hands, nice and thick

Now when I say thick I mean thick, take a look:








yup, I made sure every corner of the vehicle was completely covered with Crystal Rock

Well once I applied Crystal Rock to the entire vehicle I let it cure for about 30minutes or so and wile it was left to bond I worked on other bits of the vehicle. First the exhaust tip:


For the rims I wanted to seal them, for this I went with DG#105:


The tires also received healthy coat of Zymol Tyre:


Here is how the exhaust tip finished off:


Well now that those little small items are done back to the removal of Crystal Rock, to remove the wax I used my favorite micro fiber towels, Cookie Monsters and I used lots of them:


Here is what the wax was leaving behind:


Now here is the vehicle wearing one coat of Crystal Rock:




















































I finished the vehicle a bit late, all that man handling the vehicle took some time. So regrettably I couldn’t get any out side pictures.

Oh and here is how much wax I used on the first coat of Crystal Rock:




That’s actually not that much considering I applied it by hand well any who the plan is that I’ll be putting a new coat every weekend on the Lexus, hopefully.

Next vehicle to receive a coat of Crystal Rock will be the Volvo.

Now as to my thoughts on the wax, to be honest it's a bit hard to tell on the silver colour but it gave the vehicle more gloss as for the glow that I'm after it didn't have as much as I was expecting. I think I'll be ablet to see the glow more on the Volvo as it's a darker colour. I haven't taken the vehicle outside though so it's hard to see the Carnauba glow inside the garage. This week dosen't look good though as we are scheduled to get rained on every day for this week, but hopefully it will clear up for a few hours and I'll take the vehicle out and snap some pictures.

So far I'm pleased with my purchase

Edit August 3, 2008
I was finally able to load the pictures of the Lexus outside and it was a nice bright sunny day too






















All in all I'm very pleased with the way Crystal Rock looks, I still haven't seen it's beading just yet though, wonder how that will look like.

	ARO Amazing Roll Off

[LanceM]

nice review!

[dsms]

For only 1 coat and the car being silver, im impressed! The reflections looks very crisp and clear on the hood showing the lighting on your ceiling. BTW what kind of lighting do you use, and you sure do have plenty!

[FMINUS]

You know the questions following this:
better than Divine? Vintage? Royale?

Thats a lot of wax u used! Ive done 6 cars w Divine and it still looks new!!!

[supercharged]

Just about time your Lexus gets a luxury treatment!!!

[detailersdomain]

yeah I thought you use a lot of wax.

the results are great!

[krshultz]

Originally Posted by FMINUS

You know the questions following this:
better than Divine? Vintage? Royale?

Thats a lot of wax u used! Ive done 6 cars w Divine and it still looks new!!!

Is it possible that this is a side effect of applying with bare hands?

Reason I ask is, the first few times I used Rubbish Boy's Original, I did it by hand. I was struck by how much wax I seemed to have used to cover one fairly small vehicle. How that I'm using a warm MF applicator pad, it sure seems like I'm using less of the stuff.

Anyway, the CR looks great. Can't wait to see it in the sun.

[Nica]

Originally Posted by LanceM

nice review!

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.

Originally Posted by dsms

For only 1 coat and the car being silver, im impressed! The reflections looks very crisp and clear on the hood showing the lighting on your ceiling. BTW what kind of lighting do you use, and you sure do have plenty!

Yes, I agree the vehicle sure has a nice reflection but I'm more interested on that Carnauba glow. I'm sure I'll be able to see the glow much better outside under direct sun light As for the lighting, I only have the regular T8's, about 30 of them that is What can I say I like my garage nice and bright

Originally Posted by FMINUS

You know the questions following this:
better than Divine? Vintage? Royale?

Thats a lot of wax u used! Ive done 6 cars w Divine and it still looks new!!!

lol..yes, I wasn't stingy with the wax on my vehicles, well on any vehicles that is. I really don't like applying wax via applicator, I personally don't care about applying thin, I don't mind wasting the wax, I'm all for the hand application, I just love man handling the vehicle, but just me

Now to the main questions, now this is just my personal opinion but for me Crystal Rock is much better then Divine, it has a better crisp look to it compared to Divine. With respect to Vintage, see that's a tough one because what I love about Vintage is that it has a really nice Carnauba glow, I didn't see that Carnauba glow like I was expecting but for that I need to have the vehicle out side, so I can't really comment which is better. As to Royale, I wouldn't know, no Royale over here

Originally Posted by supercharged

Just about time your Lexus gets a luxury treatment!!!

lol...my Lexus gets a coat of all my personal wax collection, nothing but the best for my Lexus

Originally Posted by detailersdomain

yeah I thought you use a lot of wax.

the results are great!

You bet I used a lot of wax, it's for my own vehicle of course I'm going to use lots Actually that's how I always apply wax, just ask Mike and Justin, usually they are the ones that do all the wax removal But I agree the end result is quite nice and like you said it's easy to remove but to be honest I don't really care about how easy it is to apply and remove, it's how it looks that matters to me

Originally Posted by krshultz

Is it possible that this is a side effect of applying with bare hands?

Reason I ask is, the first few times I used Rubbish Boy's Original, I did it by hand. I was struck by how much wax I seemed to have used to cover one fairly small vehicle. How that I'm using a warm MF applicator pad, it sure seems like I'm using less of the stuff.

Anyway, the CR looks great. Can't wait to see it in the sun.

oh absolutely, applying wax by hand you definetly waist lots, so if you don't want to waist the wax use an applicator.

I too am looking forward to the having the vehicle outside, should be interesting

[JLs Detailing]

The wax looks really great. I can't wait to see it outside. As far as the hand waxing thing it seems that the folks that do it by hand are really really good at it. I just cannot seem to get it to work for me but you guys do it well.

[Cooter]

Liquid Silver Lexus. Insane the depth of that silver Carlos!! Man I wish I could sell a kidney!!!!! I might just have to work about a 2 weeks straight and get some PDCR wax!! Crazy impressive!