I am beginning to view Sonax as the best kept secret in the Indian detailing industry. They have been here for years and are distributed by Methods Automotive based at Bangalore.
The range is broadly divided into four categories - Base, Extreme, Profiline & Premium Class. The base range is what most of us can find at the Shell petrol pumps / Shell shops. While this has very affordable & decent products like the Sonax shampoo, the overall range is targeted as the lower end of the market. Move up to the Xtreme range of products & things suddenly become very interesting. This range is targeted at DIY enthusiasts and professional detailers alike, who are willing to pay for quality products. Some fantastic products like the Award winning Sonax Brilliant Shine Detailer, Sonax Full Effects Wheel Cleaner, Sonax Xtreme Protect & Shine Hybrid NPT Sealant fall in this range. The Profiline range of products is targeted as Professional Detailers looking for world class polishes, shampoos, waxes & detailers. It has products like Sonax Polymer Netshield Sealant, Sonax Perfect Finish Polish, Sonax Machine Polishing pads etc. The premium class range as the name suggests, comes at a premium and is priced quite high compared to other ranges.
The interesting thing is that their products are readily available in India at fantastic prices. You can buy the Sonax Perfect Finish polish in one liter packing at the price of 4K odd rupees which is a fantastic price for a fantastic one step polish with good cut and excellent finish. What Sonax needs to perhaps do better is either launch an online store or make the Xtreme & Profiline range of products readily available at the Shell outlets.
Over the last month or so, I had the pleasure to realize buy and try some of the best shampoos, polishes, pads, sealants, waxes and other products that I have ever used. To be honest, after using a few of the products from their base range; I was not expecting a lot from this brand. However, the brand is gaining massive popularity abroad and two of it's products won the product of the year award in UK this year. That coupled with local availability & very aggressive pricing just made me approach them with all the money I had in my bank account this month. And I have not regretted a single purchase yet.
Here is a little weekend detailing project that was executed last Sunday.
The idea was to wash, decontaminate, clay, compound and random deep scratches, polish, panel wipe, coating and sealant.
Wheels First: The wheels were washed with Sonax Full effects Wheel Cleaner and unlike other bleeding style wheel cleaners, this is a wheel cleaner & fallout remover rolled into one product so no need to wash your wheels, then use fallout remover and wash again. Just spray, wait for the reaction, agitate if required & rinse.
Decontamination: Since I only planned to use their coating on the bonnet, I quickly washed it with the Sonax Xtreme shampoo and dried it. After that, Carpro Trix was used on the panel. No reaction so there wasn't any fallout but it still managed to break the traffic film and remove all greasy residues. After this step, the entire car was washed with shampoo & dried. Sonax offers both Fallout Cleaner as well as Tar remover & both are readily available in India. I had already invested in Carpro Trix so will get to try the Sonax products once I am through with the Trix.
Tire Dressing & Wheels: Tires were dressed with Sonax Xtreme High Gloss Tire Gel and the I sealed one wheel with Sonax P&S sealant (Retail version of their Polymer Netshield) and the rest of the wheels were sealed with Sonax Brilliant Shine Detailer. Sonax BSD is already a superstar worldwide but the Tire gel was a surprise. It held well for 2 weeks even after a long drive when I applied it for the first time.
Clay: Next step, the panel was clayed.Sonax does sell it's clay in India as a kit with a clay lube but I had my clay block so did not buy the Sonax clay yet to try.
Polishing: I tackled a random deep scratch with Optimum Hyper Compound on a CG Hex Logic compounding pad. Then I moved on to using the Sonax Perfect Finish polish on a Sonax Orange Foam polishing pad. The combination corrected very well and the finish was spectacular. Just out of curiosity, I tried Carpro Reflect polish on a LCHT finishing pad and though it added a slightly more gloss; it wasn't required after this polish. SPF (Sonax Perfect Finish) is a true one step polish as far as I am concerned. The pad cost around INR 550 while the 250 ml polish cost around INR 1,000
Attachment 1223539
Trim Cleaning & Dressing: I worked without masking tape on the cowl for a reason. I wanted to test the Sonax Dirt Eraser sponge and whether it will work with water to thoroughly clean the plastic. And it did. The cowl was dressed with Sonax Profile Trim Restorer.
Panel Wipe: The polishing residue was removed with Sonax Paint Prepare.
Coating: Sonax Nano Paint Protect coating was used. This isn't a so called "Permanent" coating. It claims to protect for one year. At INR 1,500; I am not complaining.
Sealant: Sonax Polymer Netshield is a hybrid sealant that comes in an aerosol can and is the recommended topper for this coating. The coating was allowed to harden for one hour and then the PNS was applied.
Disclaimer: I am not associated with Sonax in any manner. All the products were used by me on my personal car and it was done purely to check if Sonax really has the world class products that are gaining so much popularity abroad while we were only exposed to their base products sold through Shell outlets.