3M Shine Restorer Plus Carnuba Wax

When I find a new "miracle" car care product, I am a bit of a skeptic. This was no different.

I found the product at Wal-Mart on a late night "I-want-to-waste-some-time-since-I-can't-sleep" trip to wally world. It cost about $7.00 which was steep for a 8oz bottle of miracle product (of course, that is only if it doesn't work). I figured that since the product was from 3M it had a little credibility and it did not wear the "As Seen On TV" badge which is often a tell-tale sign the product will be crap.

The bottle sat in my car for a couple of weeks before I needed to clean it up for a night on the town with my fiance'. So after a wash, I put it to the test. The directions for hand application (it can be used with a machine as well but I only use hand products )are very straight forward:

1. Shake well before use.
2. Dispense a quarter-size drop of material onto a clean, soft terry cloth towel and apply to the paint surface using a firm, circular motion.
3. Rub until dry, turning the cloth to assist clean up.
Repeat as neccessary.

Now I have been waxing a little different from directions for a while... instead of circles, I wax/;polish in straight lines... this helps hide the surface scratches on the car. I also used a two towel method. One towel to apply and one towel to wipe off residue. Change towels fairly often as dirt can etch the surface and leave scratches/swirl marks.

Now for a little history on the car I will be using it on.

Known as "Project Old School" on this website, my 1991 Acura Integra LS-S with 142K miles on it will serve as the test car.

My Integra sat in front of my house, under a tree for about 7 years before I took control of the car (it was my brother's). The paint had all of the damage from 7 years of not being washed (not even one time). I have washed and tried many different waxes and products on it to try to restore the shine to the paint with no success. The car did not look like it had a damaged clear coat, it just had no shine.

I washed the car using Zymol's car wash. Nothing special here... any car wash would be fine (use a car wash... not dish soap!!!).
After the wash, I started with a small area on the hood. If there was no difference, I was not going to waste anouther two hours doing the rest of the car. The result? Amazing... I could move down the hood and see my reflection where I used the product... and then the finish would be dull where I had not used it.

So that was it... about 1.75 hours later, the car was complete... and I was surprised by the results.
Of course the car has some damage that it won't take out (bird droppings that damaged the clear coat and such), but on a whole, the car is VERY shiney again and actually is something to be proud of when driving.

Now for the "after" pictures...

On a scale of 1 to 10, 3M Shine Restorer Plus Carnuba Wax gets a solid 9 as I am sure there could maybe be some improvement, but it does what it claims and does a very good job of it!