Tried and Tested: Turtle Wax Car Care & Detailing

What was to be a routine jaunt to Mumbai for the Ed’s Hyundai Tucson ended up causing a splatter, with fire extinguisher foam depositing itself to the underside of our long-termer on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. While the sight of it certainly wasn’t a pleasant one, driving with foam would also be unsafe if not taken care of quickly, with the residue hardening up inside the wheel wells and posing a potential risk. As the resident car care geek, I was entrusted with quickly finding a solution, and that led us to the Turtle Wax Car Care Studio.

Turtle Wax, the Chicago-based car care product maker, set up shop in India in 2020 and their car detailing services are now increasingly popular. Our Tucson is one of the mile munchers on the evo fleet and could certainly do with some TLC, with swirl marks being present on the paint. Zubair Shaikh, store manager for Turtle Wax Car Care Studio, Baner, explained the process of detailing our Tucson. First up would be the general cleaning using the Turtle Wax Tar & Glue remover, which would get rid of the grime and dust gathered on the body of the car. Tackling the foam on underside would require an additional bit of elbow grease, but with that task out of the way, the car was off to a pressure wash followed by a dousing of Turtle Wax ICE Foam Wash.

“The cleaning and the foam wash are the basic processes which reduce the amount of friction between the body of the vehicle and the product being applied” says Zubair. Following the foam wash, the Tucson would be subjected to clay wiping, where the Turtle Wax Ultra Smooth Clay Bar would absorb any dirt left on the body, followed by wet sanding which would remove any hard water marks. The windows and the trim pieces of the car would be masked off during machine polishing. Three compounds with progressive grit (T10, T20 and T40) would be applied in stages to the body of the Tucson to restore the shine and glaze of the paint. After the polish was applied onto the body, the Tucson was off for another pressure wash and this was the phase where the first emergence of an immaculate shine would appear on the body. The final step would be applying the Turtle Wax Super Shine coating, which would revive the lustrous shine of our long-termer’s brilliant blue paint. You can see the complete transformation video on our Instagram handle.

From start to finish, the process took around six hours and the results were impressive, with the Tucson looking practically brand new despite the abuse we’ve subjected it as part of the evo Fleet. Depending on the size of your car, the cost of a basic wash starts from as low as Rs 500 detailing process for an SUV like our Tucson cost Rs 7500 given its larger dimensions, while the cost of removing the fire-extinguisher foam residue on our Tucson amounted to an additional Rs 2000. Turtle Wax also offers a comprehensive ceramic coating package which comes with a four year warranty for the shine. Zubair recommends that owners should get their vehicles professionally detailed once a year, but if you’re of the DIY type, Turtle Wax’s products can also be purchased from their website or on e- commerce portals like Amazon.