Originally Posted By: qwertydude
It's not one person out of 300 million. Mike-in-Orange the Meguiar's rep even admits silicone protectants are pretty much interchangeable save for their gloss levels, and the chemists who devise these types of protectants already know they're the same.
And they may not even link it, but a whole lot of electricians and car mechanics know 100% silicone sprays will protect rubber seals extremely well but don't make the connection that Armor All is basically just a water diluted silicone spray. Saying I'm the only person who has secret knowledge is ridiculous. Go on all the detailing forums. There's always several people who are usually old timers and who swear by Armor All and have enough years of experience using it to know it works, now I'm not saying Armor All is the absolute best, I'm saying it's the best value for what it does, heck if ZEP brand protectant were cheaper by the gallon I'd recommend it. But they're usually flamed by people who really really want to believe their particular brand is the best of the best of the absolute best and merely bringing a competitor's bottle nearby will crack their precious plastic. Take your pick I've seen people claim Meguiar's is the only brand that knows how to formulate plastic protectant, some say Aerospace 303, some say Vinylex, some say 1Z, etc. And it seems the more niche the product is the more fervent the flaming.
It's hard to keep a simple chemical formula secret. Heck it's tough keeping complex formulas like prescription drugs and even hydraulic fracking fluid secret. And fracking fluid is kept under some serious trade patent secrets and yet the formulas make their way out and in this case in the news. It's very easy to reverse engineer the chemistry of complex drugs. It's why there's a whole generic prescription market. So I have a hard time believing a generic silicone spray has some top secret ultra expensive so much better than everyone else ingredient that's simultaneously allowing less silicone to be used and providing more protection (that in my experience washes away more easily) but isn't listing it in the MSDS because it's so top secret they won't even admit it exists as a trade secret, as is the norm, and that no other big company like Meguiar's or Armor All or Turtle Wax can reverse engineer and produce it vastly less expensively with huge economies of scale and simply undercut them. In that case even if I were 1 in 300 million, my above scenario would still be more unbelievable than 1 person in the whole country knowing Aerospace 303 is just watered down silicone and no one else in the country knows how to make a decent plastic protectant.
I take it you buy only name brand prescription drugs? You know the generics are just as good. Same with something as chemically simple as a plastic protectant. It's just silicone.
Hey, I said I'd try it based solely on your recommendation, I can't do much more than that
So when I add the water, do I just shake it up ? Are there any other steps ?