Polishing Your Exhaust Tips with P21S

Today we'll tackle exhaust tip polishing.  We will be using P21S Polishing Soap and going after the BRZ's exhaust tips.  P21S Polishing Soap is a clay based polish first designed for silversmiths actually and has been designed for use on chrome, polished surfaces, and many other metal surfaces.  As with any product try it out in an inconspicuous spot first.

So here we are.  We'll start off by cleaning the tips and surrounding areas with Chemical Guys V07, I use this product because it is a hybrid of detail spray while also having some sealant properties.

Here's what we've picked up, quite a bit of dirt but nothing too tragic.  Driving through the rain (yes here in Vegas we occasionally get rain) bounced up a few splashes of water.  But now it's time for polishing.  The polishing soap comes with a sponge in the polishing container that is quite abrasive.

 First to wet it until it's damp.

Then squeeze out the extra water until it's damp.

Give it a good swipe until there's a good layer of soap on it.  Be advised a little goes a long way with this product.

Lather the sponge and go to work on the exhaust tip, working in multiple motions until it's been polished to your liking.

You can see even after cleaning embedded dirt lies within the metal and comes out when heavily worked with.

But nothing a simple rinse can't fix!

And here we are brand new and sparkling clean again!

Thanks for reading!

Does Wax Affect Gloss?

A common question many people will come and ask me is the variant of which wax do I use, which will make my paint look the best.

First off no product will make your car and paint look better than it being clean and relatively swirl free.  By polishing the paint to a swirl free surface you create a more uniform surface which allows the light to be better reflected back

Secondly though is whether products can affect gloss.  Now, it wouldn't be fair to purely look by the eye and say "Yes X wax looks better than Y sealant" because that's as reliable as saying that exhaust makes your car feel faster therefore it is putting down more power on the dyno.

I recently came across an interesting study over on the Tesla forums that uses a gloss meter which measures reflectivity of a surface.  As you can imagine, a more reflective surface has more gloss.  The forum post can be found here

The results were taken after eight weeks starting at initial application.  Here is a cutout of the spreadsheet and the products tested.

I found these results interesting but I will not make any conclusions on them.  Post below what you think and your take on it!

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Find Your Water Hardness!

A common issue for car owners is water spots.  These are caused by minerals found in the water supply and are allowed by the EPA to be up to 500 parts per million.  Ways to combat this are to use in-line filters or de-ionizing systems that use minerals to reduce these amounts.

An easy way is to head on over to ZeroWater.com

Then input your zip code on the bottom right.

Here is an example of my reading! The higher the reading the higher the mineral content which leads to easier water etching, spotting, and will inform you if your water is nothing to worry about or whether you are asking for issues by letting it remain on your paint.

Thanks for reading!