Sunday, November 6, 2016

1 Week Later: The Wax Wars Follow-Up


If you have not read the first part of this test (seen here), you should do so before proceeding any further.

ONE-WEEK FOLLOW-UP: I returned a week later to skate the curbs again, and rerun the tests. Unfortunately, my friend Joe was not with me to compare results. I did not add any additional wax or spray to the curbs. I wanted to see how weathering, etc. impacted their performance. As a reminder, the enamel and lacquer were applied about one week prior to the very first test. So, keep in mind that they had two weeks of exposure compared to the waxed curbs. How did everything hold up?

(1)  DIY WAX: Wax on top of curb was mostly gone. Could still see some on the grinding edge, but not much. The vertical surface still had a bit. I expected this to happen. This is the wax I’ve been using/making for a few years now. It is soft, melts off in the Sun, and is subject to weathering. One the flip side, it is very cheap, and easy to make. How did it grind? It didn’t. At all. Tail slides were a no-go. Too much of the wax had weathered away. I know from previous experience with this wax, that a quick reapply would have made things grind/slide again. 

DIY waxed curb, 1 week later.


   
(2)  Shorty’s Curb Candy Wax: Visibly, it was the same as the DIY wax (e.g. mostly gone). However, its 50/50s were a go from the first attempt. This surprised me. It wasn’t as fast as last week, but no question, it was grinding. Tail slides were a little sticky, and didn’t go far, but they went. Curb no longer smelled like a Martha Stewart Christmas Holiday Project. Thank God.   

Curb waxed with Shorty's Curb Candy, 1 week later.
  
 (3)  ENAMEL: The curb appeared just as it had last week, maybe with a little less sheen. It did not grind, at all. Likewise with tail slides. I was surprised by this. 

Enamel, 1 week later (well, 2 actually).
   
(4)  LACQUER: This also appeared just it had last week. It was still slick, and grinded/tail slid right from the start. It wasn’t AS slick as it was last week, but it was still the best of the four.  

Lacquer, 1 week later (well, 2 actually).

FINAL CONCLUSIONS & TEST WINNER
1st Place: Lacquer, hands down winner.
2nd place: Shorty’s Wax.
Tied for 3rd/4th Place: DIY wax and Enamel.

Notes: It seems that for best results, use lacquer for initial priming, and then touch-up with Shorty’s if/when needed. Since these posts have gone public, a few others have mentioned bar soap and Gulf Wax (paraffin) as other good options. As result of this test, I now have a lot of extra enamel, lacquer, Shorty’s Wax, and DIY wax. I will replicate these tests on different type curbs, and throw soap and Gulf Wax into the mix. A long-term follow-up will be posted at some point in the future.   


1 comment:

  1. Thank you for following up! I’m getting myself some lacquer today!

    ReplyDelete