Wax On – Wax Off

I have to admit that I have a little bit of an OCD problem when it comes to cleaning my car, I take it out, I bring it back and she gets a clean before the cover goes back on. The guys at Mustang Maniac use my car cleaning obsession to wind me up about it all the time. I like to try all sorts of different cleaning products to find out what works best for me. I love the Meguiar’s products, but there are others products that I use for specific jobs by other suppliers, DoDo Juice, Auto Finesse, Chemical Guys, Poor Boys World, EZ Car Care etc. I have tried some products and I didn’t like them on the Mustang for various reasons, but I use them on my others cars as they are fine for those. I have started to add to the Car Detailing Reviews menu again now to let you guys know what I think of them.

Here in the UK there is a show that is held once a year just for a single day which has been held for the last five years now called “Waxstock”. The Waxstock show is also billed as Europe’s largest car care show. I wanted to go last year, but it clashed with a car show that Mustang Maniac guys and friends were going to be attending in numbers, so that was my choice last year to go to the car show. As it turned out that car show was a nice sunny day, a great day out and having plenty of laughs with the guys. This year the same clash was going to happen, but the car show’s location was predicted heavy rain or thunder storms. As much I like to see the Mustang guys it’s quite a trek to get there for me. So I decided with a heavy heart to leave the car in the dry and take a trip to the middle of the country to visit the Waxstock show which would be a two-hour drive to get there. The weather there was not going to be brilliant either, but at least it was going to be held inside.

Cost of the tickets was a little expensive at £15 per person to get in, but that included the free parking on the day. The show is mainly aimed at the professional car cleaning companies or the more specialised car detailing companies. The outside parking area was split up to have the show and shine area for people who wanted to show off their cars and hopefully win a prize and the general parking area. The down side was there was plenty of small cars with big exhausts trying to sound like big cars, if you know what I mean. To be fair there was some nice cars on show outside and some “less than average” examples should I say to be kind. It seems as though the slammed look is still the in thing, I personally don’t like the look, but beauty is in the eye of the behold and I can really appreciate the amount of work gone into those cars. A couple of the cars I think we’re there for a bet as the paint on the cars were scuffed and slightly worse for wear.

 

The doors opened at nine thirty in the morning on the dot and the long queue of people to get in started to move. There was supposed to be fifty-five stands representing over seventy brands. Most of the vendors were around the outside and the bigger sponsors were in the middle.

 

I never knew there was so many different suppliers of car care products. The main hall was not that big, maybe around the size of a football (soccer) pitch or there abouts.

 

There were cars at some of the stands all nicely polished and gleaming. From old fans to super cars and the Pagani Hyper Car.

 

 

It was obvious that many of the cars were trailer Queens and transported to the show without a tyre touching tarmac. There were some pretty spectacular old English Ford’s a Cortina and an Escort. Both highly collectible and can command some big money, especially at this standard. The sad part? They were never going to be driven and enjoyed, they are just large show pieces now.

 

There were a number of cars from private entries all trying to make a claim for the prizes of best in show.

 

There was a couple of demonstrations from vendors showing their products in action which was interesting.

 

I managed to walk around in about an hour or so and watched a couple of stand demos. There was a talk in the staged area from guests who were respected in the detailing industry. After a second look round it was time to part with some money, some old favourites and a couple of new products to try out.

I spoke to a couple of suppliers about what I found with their products and what I wanted to achieve. In particular the points I have raised when using the DoDo Juice Tropical Red Mist on top of Meguiar’s wax which leaves streaks. The great guys at DoDo where aware of as it had been mentioned to them before. All in all it was a good day to see what all the fuss was about. But I doubt I will go again. I bought enough to make it worth my while as I was there using the discounts. But to be honest, the prices are not that much cheaper as you can get on the likes of eBay. Saying that, there was a a single pot of wax  a new sale for £500! Hopefully I will be at a car show soon and see how these new products I bought perform in the hands of an ordinary man with his Mustang, along with his OCD obsession.