Last night I bought a bottle of ICE Synthetic Liquid Polish from O'Reilly's for $14.99 plus tax. (It's $16.99 at Autozone btw) and inside 35 minutes I had the mag grey TCH shiny.

The beauty of this stuff is that you can apply it in direct sunlight AND it does not leave a powdery white residue around the badges and does not discolor rubber.

Now I'm hoping for some rain!

 

hey ozarkgolfer.. I was considering a similar finish for my MagGrey TCH!.. Could you possibly take a picture of that nice shiny finish and post it here for me to see the finish your ICE put on?.. I was considering black magic platinum synthetic which I supposed is about the same kind of product.. It's about 17 bucks though but if you had excellent luck with ICE, then I'll go for it.. Was it easy to put on/take off (Gee I hate to use the phrase 'waxon waxoff' that would be so lame.
:-)
WillyBill

 

My personal favorite is Maguiar's NXT Generation Tech Wax Paste for all our vehicles, but I do have to keep a microfiber towel handy to wipe off any slop that gets on the rubber. It requires only a fine coat and is thus not as dusty as some other waxes when polished up.

 

Geez - I should not have wished for rain as it's coming down in buckets right now. Nope - not gonna take my beauty oustide for a picture in this mess!

The paint finish on my new TCH was pretty good when I collected it from the dealer. I have run it through two brushless car washes since taking delivery and spent the full $6 each time for the wash, wax, filtered water etc etc deal. Even though I 'waxed' the TCH in very dim light last night, the shine looked very deep this morning but the paint did not feel super smooth.

Consumer Reports has a test of various waxes in this month's edition. They talk about waxes and polishes that were once seperate products but now there are more crossover products, like the Turtle Wax ICE product I used. It does not look like they tested the ICE but other Turtle Waxes products rated well in their tests.

IMHO, 30 - 35 minutes of elbow grease plus $16 including tax for the product bought me a decent finish and only time will tell if the finish stays. According to C-R 'polishes' do not have the longevity of pastes and waxes. However, if it only takes me 35 minutes AND it appears I will get at least 15 - 20 applications from one bottle, I don't mind sending the kids out to do the work more often once I get my fill of doing the work!

 

I recommend a clay bar application at some point. Then a coat of wax. Your finish will feel as smooth as wet glass, after that! Here's my (long-winded) post on clay bars and what they're good for and all that jazz:
https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...08&postcount=4

 

I picked up some of that ICE and put a coat on my Magnetic Grey TCH and it's terrific. I posted three pictures on this site of the finished detailed car.
Thanks for the tip. It's great stuff and very easy to apply and as you stated, you don't have to worry about getting it on the rubber.
https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/image1512.html
Thanks
WillyBill

 

Another tip...
I picked up an 'Aqua Dry' drying towel at WalMart in the auto section. No idea what I paid for it as I also bought groceries that day (but it could not have been more than $6). It's 3 square feet and after running the TCH though the automatic brushless was, the towel acts like a chamois and really takes off the water and leaves a dry surface without spotting. I've already washed it after getting it a little dirty in the door jams. Suggest you don;t dry it all the way but put it back in it's plastic container ready for the next time.

 

We had a hard rain on Sunday afternoon, the water ran right off, and after it dried out, left no water streaks or spots. This stuff is awesome and since I got it applied soon after purchase before any bugs and junk got on it, the finish is a smooth as glass. I would highly recommend this TurleWax ICE. If I have to re-apply every few months, it is NO BIG DEAL.. 30 minutes or so even while talking to a neighbor.

 

Based on this thread I assume it is OK to wax (or clay and wax) a new TCH? I pick mine up in a couple days. I had thought maybe the factory paint still needs time to "cure" before waxing (I'm not sure what I mean by "cure".)

 

I think 30 days is the suggested wait time, but since these cars are still coming from Japan most of them are close to 30 days by the time they get into your hands.