Stay Fresh Car Care product review with pics!

[Guzic]

Hopefully this is in the right section : ) Mods feel free to move if necessary.
Beware long Review

This is a review for the Stay Fresh products from the vendor on this site.
Before I even get started I must say that the customer service on their part was AMAZING. Ryan answered all my questions and the whole time it felt like a regular conversation rather than a seller/customer relationship. He even threw in a 2 oz sample of their Back to Black and Brilliance Glaze. What made me try their products was that they actually showed their products working on damaged paint and not brand new supercars. They also have their own lab where they make and hand batch their own products, so you know you are not getting a watered down and relabeled product at a higher price. That,coupled with a great price (rivaling top companies) gave me high expectations of this line.


The products I will be reviewing are their polishes (Restore 1, Renew 2, and refresh 3), their quick detailer, and their towels.
First off, the towels.The ones I bought and used were the green and purple ones at a 15x12 size. What made me buy them was the price. THE PRICE!. They are under $5 for a 800 gsm towel. I'm a huge towel freak so when Is aw that I went crazy. Before, I only used Zaino and Rag company towels but these towels are great quality, they will not scratch your paint, and do not catch on your hand when slowly dragging them across your hand. One thing to note, when I first placed my order, I did not notice that each towel color is different quality, The blue one is listed at 850 gsm, green at 800, and the purple towel at 750 gsm if I remember correctly. I now wish I would have ordered about 10 of the blue ones as well as the other colors are plenty soft.

Onto the quick detailer. The price on this is amazing as well, you can get 32 oz for what most companies sell 12 oz's. 32 oz was what I ordered for only $15 I believe. I was expecting one big botthe of quick detailer to arrive when I got my package, but as you will see in the bottom photos, I received two 16 oz bottles. I thought that was pretty cool as you can always use the second bottle for whatever you wish after the detailer is gone.The bottles also come with a locking trigger to prevent accidental spray. It acts as a slide pin like you would see on a foam gun except it is a button rather than a pin. Another cool thing about the quick detailer is that the mist does not come out in the traditional angle spray. it comes out in a "halo" like ring. While weird at first, I got used to it and found it actually offers better coverage without wasting product. It offers great lubricity and a great kiwi smell. Stay Fresh also claims to offer UV protection.

The last products left to review are the Polishes themselves. My philosophy is that great shine comes from the polishing. Of course a good technique will always yield good results as long as the product works.If you apply wax
or glaze and you see your vehicle become noticeably shinier, that means the scratches and paint damage were not removed, only covered up. A well polished area should look the same with or without wax/glaze. Sometimes by layering products you can achieve a deeper depth look but that's a whole different subject.

Restore 1 is the most abrasive polish that Stay Fresh offers and it comes in a sweet strawberry scent.I've used abrasive polishes from Meg's 105 to Optimum polish to 3M polish. What really surprised me about Restore 1 was that it completely eliminated about 90% of faded sun spots on the paint on the first pass through. By sun faded paint I am talking about paint left in the sun all day for almost 10 years in the Vegas sun. While the polish did very well in removing the top layer of damage, it was not "Over cutting". By this I mean that it was actually working as hard as I wanted it to work. Again, techniques comes into play again as it is possible to overwork a polish and damage the paint further. Another aspect of the polish that I noticed was that it was not excessively dulling the paint as other polishes do. If you've ever used Meg's 105 you'll know what I mean. This is not to say that it serves as a 1 step polish, but rather that it might actually save you time later. As with other polishes, it requires multiple passes to remove the damage that's really deep in the clear coat. one thing that I had to get used to while using Restore 1, was that it works really fast so it will start flashing quicker than you'd expect. Again this saves you time but be careful not to overwork it.

Renew 2 cleaned up the slight damage left by Restore 1. It also removes any of the small damage that may have been missed by Restore 1. This polish starts adding another layer of shine to the car as well as evening out the surface to prep it for the final polish. The polish itself is just slightly more liquidity than Restore 1 as you'd expect. This gives you a longer working time when working the polish. Something to note is Stay Fresh recommends that it'd be applied at medium speeds of 2,500to 5,000 OPM as opposed to restore 1's speeds of 6,000 OPM.Please note it says OPM not RPM as they are two different measurements of speed and apply to different machines.

Refresh 3 is where the shine and reflection really starts kicking in. It also cleans up any minor damage left behind by Renew 2 and Restore 1. This polish is the one that really smoothens out the surface while giving you that mirror like look. Refresh 3 is also a bit more loose compared to the other 2 polishes giving an even longer working time and is recommended to be applied at low speeds of 1,000 to 2,500 OPM. The great thing about these polishes is that they do not contain fillers. This means that when you are applying them, they will not simply hide the damage from your eyes but actually correct it.
The Stay Fresh line is a solid selection of products that work even better than I'd expected. I am always looking for new products to try and get super excited when I stumble across great working products. Like I said before, the products are hand batched and made by Stay Fresh themselves in their laboratory so you will not be getting a mystery in a bottle from a random wholesaler. I will include some pictures of the car I am working on and how the polishes brought the paint back from the dead.Below are some pictures on how the car was brought to me up until the final use of restore 1. Finished pics will be posted in post #2.
If you think I've missed anything or have any questions just ask

[Guzic]

This is the final look of the hood of the car. Paint went from scratched, damaged, and faded to a smooth mirror like surface. Now, due to the severity of the damage, it is not 100%. There are spots where the sun really went through the clear coat but you'd have to really comb the paint to find those imperfections.
The first few pics are my favorite, as they really show off the look of the paint. The first picture demonstrates the paint passes the "reflection" test, you can read every letter and even see the swirls that are on the bottle itself! The quality of the pictures were far better, but I had to resize every photo :/.

[Guzic]

Originally Posted by Stay Fresh Car Care

Came out looking GREAT!

Thank you for the review. Ryan wanted to me to tell you it was a pleasure exchanging emails with you. We look forward to keeping you as customer.

Let us know if you need anything

David

Like I mentioned in my review, Ryan was great. There's probably about 30 emails that went between us in just a few days. He answered everything I asked about your products and was even interested in what I used to polish. The whole time it felt like just a regular conversation you'd have with a friend. Getting ready to place my second order soon as well. If your other products are anything like the ones I tried, I'm sure I'll continue to be amazed.

[STV3]

So I know absolutely nothing about detailing and restoring, but would something like this work to remove haze for 7 year old Carbon Fiber?

[Guzic]

Originally Posted by STV3

So I know absolutely nothing about detailing and restoring, but would something like this work to remove haze for 7 year old Carbon Fiber?

A pic is necessary to see the damage. But generally It all depends on what kind of carbon fiber you have. I believe the 2 most comon are straight resin and clear coated CF(correct me if I'm wrong). Strwight resin tends to naturally oxidize over time and might either need wet sanding or polishing as it is more like a single stage paint. Clear coated CF will just show minor blemishes and swirls as it comparws to stage 2 paint.

[STV3]

Originally Posted by Guzic

A pic is necessary to see the damage. But generally It all depends on what kind of carbon fiber you have. I believe the 2 most comon are straight resin and clear coated CF(correct me if I'm wrong). Strwight resin tends to naturally oxidize over time and might either need wet sanding or polishing as it is more like a single stage paint. Clear coated CF will just show minor blemishes and swirls as it comparws to stage 2 paint.

Ill post some pics up when I get home from work but I believe my CF is just resin.

[Guzic]

Bump for a great product and for those that may have missed the review.

[STV3]

Originally Posted by Stay Fresh Car Care

Can you please post a picture of the carbon fiber?

Sorry completely forgot about this, but this is what I am dealing with.