Do You Wax ? Or Do You ICE ?

Just finished ICEing about 30 min ago, I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. A good wash and alot of elbow grease on the cladding, thanks to "Mothers". Living in Las Vegas, Mothers is like a dust magnet. Like above said, even the high pressure wash wont budge the grime.

Well to continue, I put one coat on the paint and had to do a second coat on the cladding and hood insert to get rid of the swirls and a couple streaks. I have to say i like it better than the Meguires I've been using. Also my 15 min drive home from the car wash, i already had a layer of dust on the VX. My Cali Duster took everything right off with one round. Unlike before.

I’m sold !!!

This stuff was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay easier to apply than Mother’s Back-to-Black!
(It was like cheating by comparison! :smilewink )


While I was at it today, I discovered a little trick that works wonders on the cladding…
Ignore the Instructions!

Instead, apply a decent coat of ICE (not so much that it runs, but still, a pretty heavy glaze), and then after you get it on there, use a number of long, repeated, sweeping strokes to even-out the coverage… Then as soon as it begins to show the very first signs of drying, start wiping with the micro-fiber cloth – DO NOT wait for it to dry to a dull haze.

Before I discovered this technique, I was getting a lot streaked areas where the grey showed through pretty badly… Afterward, the coverage was nice-and-even, and stayed quite dark - much like the Back-to-Black, only 10 BuhZillion times easier to apply (and nowhere near as sticky).


Many thanks to Psychos2 for starting this thread! :thumbup:

After hand washing my new used VX and hand drying it too, I applied the Turtle Wax Express Shine to the cladding. Then, I tried the Ice. Very easy to put on and very easy to buff. Seems to look very good so far. It rains often in Houston so I am interested to see how it lasts.

OK...so I HAD to try the new polish on the block....first a hand wash, then I applied a coat of Meguiar's Swirl mark remover....buffed that off, then started the Ice.
Went on VERY easy... I did the metal, cladding, even on the rims...the wax came off the metal and the rims like it was magic.....however, the cladding was a different story.
I applied it, buffed it off, saw nothing but streaks, like it was put on with a paintbrush. Started to get a little panicky, applied again, buffed off, same result.
I ran to the PC, looked up this thread, saw E-Zoo Zoo One's comment about using long sweeping strokes just when the Ice first starts to try, tried that.
MUCH BETTER! Whew...Thanks E Z-Z 1.....
All in all, it was about a 4 hour job...but the results are fantastic. The Ice has covered every little scratch in the paint....my Ebony has a shine that is, well, obsidan....wow. I've used Zymol, Maguiar's Tech Wax, Turtle Wax Black....but nothing like this.
I deliberately did this today because it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I'm very interested to see how the Ice handles a St. Louis rainstorm....wish me luck.

Bought the ICE today, but haven't had a chance to apply any yet. A bit spendy, but maybe that was because the kit included the sponge applicator and the micro-fiber cloth.

Ebony 1433, I'll also be interested to know how the ICE stands up to these midwestern rains.

I picked up the spray detailer the other day, but have not had a chance to try it. I will let you know how it works when I get around to trying it. shawn

Review - One Week Later:

Pollen Season is upon us here in WV with a vengeance – along with plenty of spring rains…

Almost every morning this week I have walked out of the house to find the VX looking a whole lot more Neon Lime Green than Astral Silver – sometimes with the pollen collected into thousands of dried raindrop circles, complete with countless other tree-related debris…

I have combated Mother Nature’s onslaught with the following:
--ONE garden hose spray-off
--ONE wet wipe-down
--TWO trips to a car wash (of the high-pressure wand variety)


I am happy to report that the cladding is still every bit as black and lustrous as it was a week ago… Water still beads-up and rolls right off – and there are only the faintest hints of streaking; and only where large volumes of water collect and run off of the body in a stream-like fashion. --- I suspect that a touch-up application (or use of the ICE Detailer spray) would take care of this – although I have not yet done so.

Even with the mild streaking, it still looks a whole lot better than it did after one week with the Back-to-Black (and that was with no pollen to contend with - no torrential downpours – and no multiple trips to the car wash).


So far, I’m still very pleased with this product. :thumbup:

This is all so encouraging. I bought the ICE but after reading instructions decided to wait until I can get the swirl remover and use that. My VX is so swirly it almost looks like carbon fiber. Grr. Thanks to everyone who has reported on the use of ICE and their results.

Update...we've had a very rainy couple of weeks in the Midwest. 2 days after I first applied the Ice, we had a fairly torrential rainstorm...the next morning, I walked out to the VX, and saw that the cladding had beaded rainwater on it, the same as the metal.
I drove the 8 miles to work, and inspected the finish when I arrived. All the water had run off, and the cladding was just as dark and shiny as when I first applied it. However, there were slight streaks at the cladding fasteners.
Since then, it rained (constantly, not just a shower) about the next 7-8 days in a row, and I did a road trip to Chicago and back....just now the truck is looking like it needs a wash in the last few days, more from the pollen stuck to it...
So far, I'm very impressed. Ice is better than anything I've used so far, and I pretty much used a majority of products that been recommended on this board.

Review – Roughly 3 Weeks Later:

The old familiar ‘matte gray’ is starting to show through again - but in all fairness…

(A) Weekend-before-last, Kathy and I drove across the state of Virginia through one of the most intense downpours that either of us had ever seen in our lives… It was like driving through an automated carwash, for almost 3 hours straight, at 50mph (I had to slow way down in order to see where I was going – even with RainX + the windshield wipers on high). --- Afterward, I noticed that we had lost a bit of the shine.

(B) Some road construction along our route to work, combined with a number of intermittent showers, have conspired to deposit quite a bit of dirt and rock dust… which, in the past week, has apparently leached the last remaining polymers off of the cladding.


Still, the ICE lasted longer than Mother’s Back-to-Black – and it did so amid considerably worse weather conditions…

With it being so much easier to apply, I doubt I’ll mind ICE-ing it every 2 weeks-or-so…
Plus, with it taking so little of the stuff, I probably have another 10 or 15 applications left in the bottle!


On a scale of 1 to 5…
All-in-all, I suppose I’ll give the ICE 3.5 Stars
And for comparison, the Back-to-Black gets a 2

After reading this thread I to tried the ICE...
It did not blacken up the cladding as much as I would like, even after two applications. But to be fair, she's been an outside car since I bought her in 2001 (and neglected a bit) so the cladding is pretty bleached. I to figured EZ-Z's method out for myself and it works better. The ICE is less staticly charged than other products I have tried.

After Two Weeks:
The ICE has held its color better than anything else I have tied. We had a good thunder storm the other day and I noticed some light streaking on the nose where water runs off the sharp corners of the hood. Other than that no problem and the water does bead off it excellently.

I just put this stuff on my Ebony today, and man is that a nice product. It went on easier than any hand wax I've used before and after a few applications on the cladding, it started to darken up nicely. It went on a lot like Armor-All will on a neglected dash. The first 2-4 applications soak right in before you get that nice consistent shine. I 'll probably apply to the cladding again in a week or two to get the color more consistent.

Will it repel the dreaded lovebugs? For those unfamiliar with this over-sexed pest, think thick swarms of small black flying insects attached at the 'nads thereby doubling the stain potential. In certain areas South of I-10 it's necessary to turn up one's stereo to overcome the splat noise during high love bug season. We have 'em pretty bad here in South Shreveport (considered far North by Lafayette standards), but nothing to compare to my old daily commute from Donaldsonville to Baton Rouge. I want force fields -- shields UP!!
Velvis

:) I have been using Ice on all my cars,Best wax,real easy to apply.It does not darken the cladding as much as I would like,but keeps it from fading more.Tony B

:o I almost forgot.I used the Ice on my windows,in and out.It seems to help my driversside window slide up easier,Not falling off the track as much...Tony B

So ...

Reading through various cladding threads, I was about to try the "Forever Black" tire gel to get my cladding back to a nice black glossy look. Then re-reading this, I'm wondering if I should try this ICE stuff. Or maybe both? Do an initial application of the Forever Black, give it a few days/week, then give a good ICE coating to all?

Anyone out there have experience with both? And what say you?

I’m thinking the same thing:

Back to Black or Forever Black then ICE?