Subaru Forester Detail & Product Testing -
The Subaru returns for another detailing session. Compared to its visit last month, there was considerably less work to be done this time around. Even so, to free up some time today I actually began proceedings on Sunday, bowling over the vacuuming and interior wipe down.
As per a previous post, I decided to give the front carpet mats a deep clean in an attempt to remove the ingrained dirt. This is why I personally think daily drivers are much better served with rubber floor mats, it's a vastly superior solution, especially in winter. After a blast with the pressure washer, KCx Pol Star was applied and allowed to soak before extracting with the Bissell. This process revealed bright white stitching and Subaru lettering, they were grey-brown prior to treatment.
Also on Sunday, I had given the car a very quick Touch-less foam and rinse to plough through the bulk of the dirt, again freeing up some time for today.
For it's visit last month, I'd given the Subaru a pretty extensive decontamination wash, which meant I could skip all of that today. With the wheels and tyres taken care of (Purge, Brake Buster & Wise Guy), the vehicle was then foamed with KCx Active Foam as a pre-soak. After a rinse, I then reformed with Active Foam for the contact wash. Don't let the "Foam" aspect of the name fool you, this is an excellent soap for contact washing as its super slick and holds onto the paint as your work around the car. It's pH of 9.5 puts it with Meguiar's Hyper Wash, meaning its slightly more aggressive but not to the level of KCx Super Foam or Carpo Lift. However, where Hyper Wash is a bear to rinse off, Active Foam is free rinsing, which improves efficiency and reduces water use. Oh, and it smells divine.
Normally from here I would get some Hydr02 or similar onto the car, but I had other plans so skipped this step. I will say though, the P&S Defender that was applied last month is much more durable than you'd think. After a hit with Touch-less and two rounds of Active Foam, it was hanging in there.
And this is where the new product testing comes into the equation. Earlier in the month I was sent a small selection of new Koch Chemie products to sample. All bar one have already been used and reviewed, but I needed the right vehicle to test the remaining product, Perfect Finish Sealant.
Koch Chemie Perfect Finish Sealant | Durable Gloss Enhancer & Sealant – Waxit Car Care
Perfect Finish Sealant is a new product from Koch Chemie, one that I've struggled to get my head around (more on that shortly). Words such as "ceramic", "hybrid" and "Si02" are completely missing from the product description, instead this is an old-school synthetic polymer sealant. Koch Chemie highlight the following benefits -
- A high gloss finish with a slick feel
- Amplifies reflectivity and smoothness after polishing
- Durability, forming a long-term barrier to contamination
- Provides UV protection
- Ease of use, both application and removal
- No streaking
- Apply by hand or machine
- Provides anti-static properties, in theory keeping the car cleaner for longer
Before application, I gave the entire car a wipe down with KCX Panel Preparation Spray. Actually, I did this after blowing the car off with the EGO, then used PPS as a drying aid to remove remaining moisture. I actually finished off this bottle, which I bought at great expense for a prep spray comparison a few years ago, an absurd $42.95 for 500ml. This is an excellent product, so much so that I found it to be the best on test.................but I just couldn't hand it the win due to the ridicules price. Carpro Eraser won that comparison, which back then a 500ml bottle was half the price of PPS. However, since Waxit have taken over distribution of KCx, the pricing is much more palatable.
Koch Chemie (PPS) Panel Preparation Spray | Control Spray – Waxit Car Care
And this is where I got confused, the application. The consistency of PFS is quite thick, which means it doesn't atomize like a regular spray sealant. That said, a spray head can be used to apply it into a towel or applicator. For anyone who has used AMMO Hydrate, you will know what I mean here. As such, this is NOT a simple mist and wipe product such as Carpro Reload, ADS Amplify or NV Boost.
Reading the directions, Koch Chemie suggest using a foam applicator sponge or a soft waxing pad on a dual action polisher. This puts it alongside some very old school sealants such as Menzerna Powerlock or Wolfgang DGPS. I've also seen suggestion of using a two-towel application method, one to spread, one to buff. In the end, I went with a foam applicator puck, but also tried it with the towel method.
Working panel to panel, apply PFS into the applicator, then work across the section. After allowing 30 - 60 seconds to bond, wipe off with a towel. I'm told a little goes a long way, however I found that hard to gauge owing to the white paint. Once applied, PPS doesn't necessarily haze over like a traditional sealant, in fact it almost flashes away. The wipe off itself is then very easy and requires little to no effort achieving a perfectly clean, clear finish. A "perfect finish" if you will.
Funnily enough, untreated panels felt slicker than the freshly treated ones, which is somewhat odd for a polymer sealant. However.................the gloss it imparts is hard to argue with. And it's a lovely warm gloss too, not the almost fake glass-like gloss a ceramic will achieve. I was also told prior to use that PFS has the ability to mask or reduce minor paint imperfections. And that certainly played out here. In fact, right before my eyes I watched as PFS transformed a jacked-up Subaru badge into a clear, glossy Subaru badge. It also helped bring out the metal flake of this Crystal White Pearl paint.
So, while the (as usual) KCx product description caused some confusion, and its not the quickest and easiest to apply, the results speak for themselves.
For the rest of the vehicle, I used ECH20 on the door jambs, Stoner Invisible Glass inside and out, misted the carpets with Fresh Up, scrubbed the seats with Pol Star, then applied an old favorite to the leather, NV Nourish. The tyres were dressed with Carpro Perl, and the black plastic trim treated with Mother's Naturally Black.
Finished results! The key to making white paint POP is having the surrounding materials and accents dialled in. In this case, the black plastic body cladding and tyres......................
I'm told Perfect Finish Sealant has proven to be comparable with NV Boost v2 in terms of durability, so up to 6-months or so. Obviously, that's dependant on a variety of factors, so use that as a guide only. With this vehicle parked in the open most of the time, it will be interesting to see how long PFS lasts. As it stands, I really like the way this sealant looks.
^ THIS ^
- was Ian Callum, who's work I adore. And thirdly - I had driven a 2004 GT, but the gearbox was dreadful.... The XR8 now has 413,000 kms on the odo and is still going strong. My mechanic services it every 10,000 km - so it's very well looked after.
