Mother’s Wax Explained: Jim Dvorak on Detailing, Innovation & Car Culture

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another edition of the CarDoctor program on 959WATD

on this Memorial Day weekend.

And of course, we're live, like we are, every Sunday at 11 o'clock on your favorite radio

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you go to 959WATD online, you can find us there.

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So there they are.

The average car on the road today is like 12 years old.

And they still, for the most part, most of them still look pretty good.

But you want to be able to take care of your car.

And Mother's CarCare products has been around for as long as I can remember.

I remember going to auto parts stores and seeing the array of different products and

the Mother's products have been around.

And with us on the phone is the PR manager for Mother's, Jim Dvorak.

Jim, good morning and welcome to the CarDoctor program and thanks for calling in extra early

in California.

Thank you so much for having me, John.

It's great to be here and talk to you about CarCare.

Well, first off, give us a little bit of history about Mother's products.

How long have they been around?

They've been around for a long time, right?

Gosh, since the early 70s, just about the time I was growing up and getting interested

in cars, the family had a tire store, actually a couple tire stores here in Southern California

developed some MagPolish because MagWheels were all the craze, especially out here in

California with the Surfer Vans and Baja Bugs and whatnot.

They were selling aluminum wheels left and right, but there really wasn't a polish.

So at the tire store, they developed MagPolish and put it on the market, folded it at car

shows and cruise ends.

And 50-some years later, here we are worldwide with almost 100 different products for all

aspects of CarCare.

Yeah, and that's a really good point.

I mean, when you go into the auto parts store, big box store, whatever the case is, there

is a dizzying array of products.

I remember when it was just sort of wax and aluminum polish.

Now there's this dizzying array.

And one of the things is, you know, we see waxes and polishes and carnauba wax and seems

like the word ceramic is on a lot of stuff.

What is, I remember seeing ceramic systems applied to a car and it came in a bottle about

the size of a nail polish bottle, and it was put on very carefully.

But now we see all kinds of ceramic sprays, but tell us about ceramic.

What's ceramic coatings?

What's that all about?

So ceramic is, was really started by the professional, does take a seasoned installer to use that

little vial and prepare the paint properly for this long lasting finish.

And it does end up costing, you know, a fair bit of money almost as much as a few car payments.

But we've come out with easy to use consumer friendly ceramics where a ceramic is an ingredient

that is very resilient and in the cases of some of our products that replaces the protection

that wax normally provided in the past.

It provides a resilient layer against bird droppings, bug splatters and other types of

environmental fallout.

It cleans easier, it's easier to maintain, and it also protects from UV rays much better

than say a wax which needs to be re-applied several times a year.

And don't get me wrong, we've got a lot of people that just love their carnauba wax and

we sell a lot of it.

But ceramic can sometimes make life a little easier as perhaps we want to spend more time

traveling or doing things in our retirement or taking care of the kids day to day, you

know, taking them to the ball game.

Ceramic can make life a lot easier whether you care for your car at home entirely or

take it to an automated wash and maybe spruce up that protection yourself at home or in

the parking lot at the car wash.

Ceramic just protects the paint longer and much better.

Really good point and you know I've been around for a long time and I remember when cars were

either kind of basic lack or a basic enamel paint jobs, but certainly the finishes have

changed a lot, especially with a lot of these water-based finishes and clear coat over them.

How has the kind of role of wax or wax-like products changed in the last 20 or 30 years?

Well, it's still important what really has changed is the ingredients that are available

to us to formulate newer products that are easy to use yet still last a long time.

You've always needed to really protect your paint.

I remember back here in California when I was growing up, we had an Earl Scheib dealership

that would repaint your car for $29.95.

Well, those days are long gone.

Now you're talking $2,995 just to start.

So why not pick up an affordable bottle once or twice a year, protect your paint, protect

that shine, because really a car is such a major investment these days.

It absolutely really is.

What's one of the things you wish, maybe one of the myths you see you wish would just disappear?

I'm thinking something like, oh, I have clear coat paint.

I never need to wax it.

What is there something, something people just absolutely do wrong?

Well, that's a good point.

Sometimes the salesman at the dealership is telling you he's trying to sell you a car.

And if one last little selling point is that it has a clear coat, you don't have to wax it.

That is totally false.

Virtually all paints are now base coat, clear coat, whether base coat is the color and clear

is that protective coating that enables it to shine.

Just with the technology they are using, but you still want to protect that.

And oftentimes the dealer will try to sell you some sort of package, too, which may or

may not be a good value if you absolutely don't want to take care of your car at all.

Let the dealer do it.

That's basically what they want you to do.

And then they want you to get back to the dealer for your service and then they'll spruce

up this protection.

But you can do it at home for a whole lot less and, you know, don't ignore your vehicle.

You know, if you wash it at home periodically, you're kind of intimate with it.

You see maybe there's a piece of loose trim or maybe your tires are worn a little bit.

When you're taking care of your car yourself, you can kind of keep on top of the safety

aspects of the car.

So you have retention of your investment.

You can get more for it when you trade it in or sell it.

You have a safer car because you're paying attention to what's going on with it all

around, whether it's brakes, wheels, tires.

You can see evidence of failing brakes by deposits on the exterior of the paint.

Tire wear, of course, is very important windshield wipers and that sort of thing.

Oh, absolutely.

Before we start to kind of go through some of the mother's lineups, one of the things

that maybe not quite as popular today as it was 10 years ago was non-shiny finishes,

kind of flat gray, flat black.

We were seeing it on some luxury cars.

Do those have to be handled differently?

They do.

What you want to avoid is anything with an abrasive polish that'll manipulate the

luster of that paint.

Generally speaking, any spray product for protection, an instant

detailer, a waterless wash and wax, a ceramic spray wax or just regular spray

wax, those are generally fine.

They'll add protection.

They might add a little bit of shine, but they're not going to harm that in any

permanent way.

When you start taking, say, a scratch remover or a rubbing compound to get out

a scratch, you're going to manipulate that and you'll end up with a shiny spot or

a flat spot.

So you have to be very careful, consult with your local dealer or a professional

to make sure that you're not going to damage that satin finish.

And they're interesting.

It's the way to personalize your vehicle to make it stand out from everybody else.

But generally, if you don't have the money to kind of take care of that, because

a minor fender bender could be a major expense because they might have to paint

the whole vehicle to get it to look right.

And that's not something your average person like myself wants to entail.

Yeah, really good point.

It's a commitment.

And yeah, leave it to the high end cars and not your daily driver.

How about vinyl wraps?

We're, you know, everything from commercial vehicles to, you know, Honda

Civics seem like they could have a vinyl wrap on them.

You know, maybe someone's trying to take a, you know, Volkswagen Golf and turn

it into one of the Harlequin ones that has four, you know, seven different colors

on it. How do you, does mothers have a product that is safe for vinyl wrap?

Yeah, generally, our sprays are safe.

It's similar to the satin paint.

You want to avoid polishes depending on the type of vinyl.

And that would be you would consult with the manufacturer to make sure you're

using a type of product that's safe for those.

But vinyl wraps can be really exciting because it's not as big an

investment as a paint job.

And some people do it when they buy sort of a plain Jane car that they

didn't maybe a color they didn't like.

They can swap out the color with vinyl, enjoy it, drive it.

And then before they sell it, they can peel off that protective coating

and they've got to brand their paint job underneath.

So it brings value to the car.

We've we've done that here.

And it's an interesting concept.

And, you know, Ford has been offering that on some vehicles.

It's it's a great alternative for somebody that really wants something

different, especially bright and bold colors.

And you can also get that can wrap so you can turn that glossy paint

into a satin finish, but it's not a big expense.

Right.

One of the things that we still still see people do is, you know,

their cars dirty, it's been outside maybe, you know, maybe here in New

England, the weather's we had we had days that went from in the last two

weeks, I think we had days that went from 80 degrees at 35 degrees.

But people want to get out and I'm going to get out and wash my car.

And, you know, they grab the Dawn dish detergent off the off the kitchen sink

because it's safe for ducks.

So it must be safe for car finishes.

But that's the last thing you want to use, right?

Well, is it cut three so it'll also cut your protective coating of

wax and the oils that are in the rubber, your trim and whatnot.

And it doesn't really sheet very well.

So a car wash soap is a pH balance.

So it's kind of a neutral cleans without dripping everything from the paint.

It's also environmentally safe.

I'm not going to talk about, you know, dish soap other than they are really strong.

Maybe they could be used periodically, especially after winter.

But to maintain your car throughout the year, you should be using a gentle

car wash soap off the shelf at the auto parts store.

Just a better choice to give a better result with less effort.

And one of your car wash soap do lift.

I'm sorry. Go ahead.

No, go ahead.

Oh, well, car wash soap, some people say, oh, I'm going to be really safe

and don't use the soap at all.

I just use water while the car wash soap will help loosen the soil,

provide lubricity so that you can carry away the dirt without scratching the paint.

So that's one thing that I get a lot where people are thinking they're being safe

by not using any kind of soap at all.

But they're actually scratching their vehicle by dragging dirt across the finish.

That's a real good point, because, you know, the the soaps, like you said,

add lubricity and sort of float some of that debris to the top.

So you aren't causing any kind of problems.

And this may be one of the dumbest comments you've ever heard.

Your kind of red color ceramic car wash product

works really well, but it also you guys you guys worked on the scent.

It smells nice.

Well, when you're working on your vehicle, especially when you're enveloped in

the project, we have a nice watermelon fence and it it makes it enjoyable.

So we have different scents for different products.

There's kind of no real rhyme or reason.

But if it's a spray wax or a detailer or even interior cleaner,

you're there for a while and you're you're kind of enveloped in it.

So a little bit of fragrance.

Most people enjoy a fragrance and it just kind of makes it more pleasant

to work on your vehicle.

And we've had people associate some of our products with a fragrance for decades.

And it's really funny.

They can't remember the name of the product, but they remember how it smelled

and they tell me the scent and I'm like, OK,

that's our instant detailer or that's our protectant car wash.

And the the other one, the other product that I have to tell you,

I wasn't prepared to love it was the revision glass and surface cleaner

because I'm a spray wave fan because it's it I've had.

I've had always really good luck with Sprayway,

but I'm like, I think I'll try this glass cleaner.

Really good stuff works really well.

I'm glad you got a chance to try our revision.

We're really proud of that formula.

It's a nice product.

It's not an aerosol, so you can sometimes control the spray a little better

or spray it on a towel and you won't get that product everywhere.

But it is good for a lot of surfaces on the interior

and my housekeeper really likes it, too.

There you go.

One of the things that people always seem to struggle with is black trim,

whether it's whether it's, you know, tires or just black trim on your vehicle.

And it, you know, it can it can fade over time.

And some of the restorative products seem to only last a week or so.

You have a couple of different products to try to bring back,

you know, get the black color back to where it belongs from.

It's sort of sun faded gray, right?

Yes, we really pioneered that market segment.

Back to black trim restore came out decades ago.

It's a four bottle liquid and you apply it to the trim.

We've since come out with additional products to round out the lineup.

We have our heavy duty back to black trim cleaning kit.

And that includes a very powerful cleaning gel and a scrubbush that gets out,

baked in dirt and removes light oxidation

that onto the surface of these plastic pieces that are on the exterior.

Usually it's around the lower body panels,

front and rear or around the wheel.

Well, sometimes when crossovers and SUVs, you know, below the windshield wipers,

it's real important to scrub that.

If you've got a car a few years old, it probably needs to be cleaned with this heavy duty trim cleaner.

We also came out with an aerosol version of our back to black trim restore.

And it's really a much different formula than the poor bottle.

It's a true coating and that it can last much longer than the poor bottle product.

But it just kind of depends on where you're using it.

And for the most part, you can just spray it directly on the surface.

If you go along and hit some of the paint, you just wipe it off with a clean towel as you go along.

On a lighter colored car, that's in good shape.

You're probably not going to see any overspray at all.

So like on my car, that's light blue.

It's a 2012 to start and it sits outside.

That trim gets faded, you know, I have to redo it once a month or two.

But it's so easy, literally about five seconds of spray across the back or around the lower valance.

And it looks like brand new.

So those types of products really can help.

Make the car look so much better.

Because when you wash it and then the trim looks gray, instead of the charcoal, black or whatever color it's supposed to be,

none of these products have dyes in them.

They just help rejuvenate the oil and make it look more like new.

It is much like using a proper tire dressing.

You want to make that dingy tire, this colored tire look clean and black.

We have a back to black tire cleaner and either a back to black satin tire dressing.

If you like a more natural look or a back to black tire shine, if you like a shinier look.

So you rounded out.

You brought up a good point on both of those.

I'm somebody who kind of likes satin finishes on black trim and tires.

I don't like the glossy ones and you can kind of regulate a little bit, right?

Oh, absolutely.

Even a shiny tire dressing, if you spray it on and then wipe it down with a dry towel, you'll mute that shine.

You'll also decrease the likelihood that you're going to fling product anywhere.

That's one thing that some people using lots of tire shine have a problem with.

It'll fly all over the side of the car if you don't use it properly.

So you don't want to use too much.

But if you do, just feel free to wipe it down with a clean towel and you'll have a more muted shine.

One of the other things that unfortunately we sometimes run into with people's cars on my sister-in-law got a car from a relative some time ago.

And I don't know what they did with it, but it smelled terrible inside.

And you have kind of an aerosol bomb sort of thing, right, to try eliminate odor, right?

Yes, we have one minute.

Un-scented, which really means that it has a fragrance, but it's one that you really can't identify and it's there to mask the chemical scent and also a new car scent.

So these are a little aerosol can.

You start your car, turn on the AC max, recirculate mode, roll up the windows.

And then as you're just about to jump out of the car, you press down on the nozzle and it locks into place and get out, close the door, let it run about 15, 20 minutes.

And the aerosol in there will encapsulate malodour molecules, so you hopefully don't smell that funk anymore.

Now, a precursor step is really finding any sources of those funky smells, you know, French fries from six years ago, dog hair, you know, any clean the car and you want to clean your cabin air filter, replace that.

It's very easy to do.

There's instructions in the owner manual where you can Google it, but the cabin air filter on most newer cars is important to be replaced because funk can kind of sit in there too.

Maybe remove the mats and clean them while the car is being fogged, but that's one great way is our odor eliminator, the little aerosol can.

Yeah, it really seems like a good product.

Now, you know, mother started as an aluminum polish back, like you said, back in the 70s when people had aluminum wheels and, you know, Kregor SS chrome wheels.

You haven't forgotten about that business.

You still have a good lineup of wheel cleaners, right?

Oh, yeah, our Mac and aluminum polish is still a top seller and we do have a wonderful chrome polish for those chrome plated Kregor SS mags that were real classic back then too.

And they're still popular today, just not on every car.

So we, you know, as you were talking about, we make the trim care products for modern vehicles that have trim, different upholstery and leather cleaners, paint polishes.

Sounds like you got our new Mother's California gold ceramic line.

So with that car wash, there's a ceramic paint correction, which is a great polish.

Paint correction basically means we're going to remove defects like scratches, swirls, spider webbing.

We have a great ceramic spray wax and a spray and rinse now that makes applying a protective coating of ceramic quick and easy.

Before we let you go, there's a couple more things I want to talk about.

Let's talk about the spray and rinse product again.

I was looking at it online and it almost sounds too good to be true.

It's a fascinating product.

The technology that we're able to use these days is really mind boggling.

We wouldn't have thought of something like that before, but it's quite simple where you're washing your car at home.

Or you could do it at the car wash.

So you clean the vehicle and you've rinsed it with the soap and dirt and you take our little spray bottle of spray and rinse and start at the top and spray a section and rinse it off and it sheets across the finish.

So it'll hit the roof, the glass, the hood.

You do a section at a time, but it provides a protective coating and the water just falls off and it's really fascinating.

You can dry it with a leaf blower or use towels if you wish.

We always recommend microfiber towels when working on a car, but it really makes a big difference in how you care for and protect your vehicle.

Fascinating product and we do have a satisfaction guarantee on every product that we sell.

I'm usually the guy that is called when they have questions or problems or they don't quite understand how to use a product.

And again, full satisfaction guarantee on anything if you don't like it, we'll give you your money back or trade it for something else.

There we go.

You mentioned microfiber towels. You guys have a full lineup of brushes and all kinds of stuff.

We sure do. Most of them are sold online. You can get them directly from our website or on the Amazon.

And what's your relationship now with Doug DeMiro and Carson Vitz?

Well, we've got a partnership with him. In fact, we're selling one of our cars on cars and bids right now, our ZR-1 Corvette.

And we had a lot of fun with it for the past few years. It went on the Hot Rod Power Tour and saw the show circuit and decided it's time to give it up and find a new home for it.

So, yeah, if you look at cars and bids, we'll have a car there which will be kind of interesting to see what it sells for.

There you go. And mothers.com is where you find all this information.

And there's also a bunch of things to help you choose the right product in some how-to videos too, right?

Yeah, there sure are. We also have a YouTube channel and Instagram.

And a lot of our retailers and retailers have good information there too because we do sell in the major auto parts stores in Home Depot, O'Reilly Advanced, AutoZone.

Lots of other retailers, your mom and pop shop, Napa Auto Parts, were virtually everywhere.

If you can't find something, ask at the counter.

Yeah, absolutely. Again, it's a product that's been around for 50 years now, I guess.

And it has changed and kind of changed with the times, which is great to see.

But also, again, having the resources there, not just the catalog so you can kind of look for what you want, but the kind of how-to.

And if I do this, is this going to work? And knowing that there's 100% satisfaction guarantee, something you don't hear very often?

Absolutely. We are still family-owned. It's a great little company.

We fell around the world now and I'm just really happy to be here and help consumers take care of their cars.

And it's great talking to CarGuide, whether it's 57 Ford or a brand-new Lincoln.

Well, it is car show season in New England. The car show season started up a couple weeks ago and people want to have their cars looking good.

And Mother's Products seems like it would be a good way to get your car out of storage, clean it all up and get it ready for the show circuit.

Or just any cruise night.

And do this for the community. Take a kid to a car show.

You know, that was one of the, I think that was a line from the guy who used to own Hemmings Magazine.

He was always one of these guys that always said, take your kid to a car show, get them interested in it.

And Terry Eric was his name. I remember meeting him quite a few times and he always wanted to do that.

And I try to go to local car shows wherever I can whenever I see kids there and kids that are interested in the cars and, you know, taking more interest always makes me feel good.

And, you know, that's what it's all about.

Well, Jim, I want to thank you for taking a little time out of your Sunday morning and joining us on the CarDoctor radio program out here in Massachusetts.

Thank you so very much for having me. I'd be glad to have you be back anytime you like.

Alright, thanks Jim. Take care. Why don't we take a break, pay some bills. My name's John Paul. This is the CarDoctor program.

When we come back, no car review this week, but something, something review nonetheless. We'll be right back.

My name's John Paul. This is the CarDoctor program on 959WATD.

Tune in to 959WATD Monday nights at 9 p.m. to hear Mass Asoya today.

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Each show you'll hear uplifting stories, discover the latest news, and learn more about the community that makes up Mass Asoya Community College.

Monday nights at 9 p.m. on 959WATD.

Make an appointment Sunday morning at 11 p.m. for John Paul, the CarDoctor, on 959WATD. Now back to the CarDoctor.

And welcome back to the CarDoctor program on 959WATD. No car review this week because I'm getting ready to head back up north so I canceled any press cars.

But I do have a product to review. And this is, this is a little, this is where too bad I wasn't on video because it would make more sense.

But there is a company called Olite and they make flashlights. And I'm a fan of flashlights because as you get older, you can't see as well in the dark anymore.

In fact, between the time you're 20 years old and 60 years old, you need three times as much light to see. It gets worse after that.

In fact, between the time you're 20 and 40, you need twice as much light to see. So I like having a flashlight handy.

And when I worked in a garage, I think my first pocket flashlight was your typical little pen light that, you know, people, you know, everything from your neighborhood doctor used,

one of those stainless steel ones with a couple of batteries in it, regular bulb in it, batteries didn't last very long.

Then I think I went to a pocket stream light kind of a little bit bigger than a big pen, worked pretty, worked pretty well, did what it's supposed to do.

And I went mini mag light was one of them. I used to carry that with me all the time. It was a little bit, a little bit geeky that I carried, you know, a few things in my pocket all the time.

But handy when you're trying to look under a dash or, you know, in a fuse box or something like this.

Well, the one that I got about two weeks ago is from O-Lite, and it's called the Arc Pro.

And this is something I know Jesse likes. The packaging is almost as good as the light.

I know Jesse is somebody who doesn't throw boxes away when he gets new bits of electronics, he hangs onto them.

The boxes, the boxes are very well done. But this one, this Arc Pro, sometimes it's called Arc Feld, but it's Arc Pro is probably one of the most innovative everyday carry flashlights that I've seen.

First off, it's not round. It's relatively thin and it's flat. So it fits in your pocket pretty well.

It's aluminum construction, so you can drop it, it'll be fine. It has both a pocket clip and I guess maybe a hat clip? I don't wear a hat.

But I guess you could stick it on the brim of a hat so you could use it like a headlamp, which can be pretty handy.

Can we talk more about the packaging though?

Sure, if you want. What do you want to know?

No, I'm just kidding.

Well, I will let you know. This thing isn't very big. It's probably five inches long or inch wide. It comes in a very nicely constructed cardboard box with a very nicely constructed holder that holds it in.

Underneath the holder is where the charging cable goes. It looks like a little piece of jewelry box with a little ribbon thing on the end that I guess maybe hangs off a shelf or something. It's just very well done.

I will say that I do throw away boxes. I don't want to sound like a hoarder, but I only throw them away because the wife makes me do it.

They do end up in the trash, but not at my free will.

So you are a hoarder?

I would like to be, but the wife won't allow it.

Well, you know, the difference between a hoarder and a collector is how much space you have.

That's a good point, yeah.

But anyway, back to this flashlight. What makes it kind of unique is it does multiple things. It's an LED flashlight up to 1300 lumens, which is bright.

There's a wide, even beam. There's kind of a more focused beam.

It has something called moonlight, so sort of dim, then turbo, extra bright.

So if you want like mid-range work, something, if you were, you know, not just working on your car, but if you're working around the house, maybe you have a job as a home inspector or something.

Really good. If you're working in a garage, one of the other things it has, it has a green laser.

So if you need to point something out to somebody, say you're working in a garage and there's an oil leak under the car, and you don't want to stick your hand up there.

This way you can just point at it with the laser.

The other nice thing about lasers are, if you're a professional or a really serious do-it-yourselfer and you're looking for a vapor leak and you use a smoke machine, the laser beam kind of finds the smoke.

So where you're looking, you're like, I can see some smoke, but I can't really see where it's coming from. The laser actually looks at that, and it makes it easier to see.

So it's really strong, and it's visible in daylight, and it's useful for, you know, pointing out all kinds of things.

You know, if you're working in an office, you could use it, I guess, for presentations and things.

Or you can just tease your cat with it, if you want to lose kind of people.

The other thing it has is it has a UV light.

And I guess I've never used a UV light for anything but finding fluid leaks.

For instance, when you add a dye to air conditioning or oil or something like that, you can use a UV light, and sometimes you use a UV light and special glasses.

But the UV light brings up certain colors.

You could also use it to look for counterfeit bills.

Bills have security strips in them, and something I learned, they're all different colors, those security strips.

Some are blue, some are green, some are red, they're all different colors.

So it sort of makes it easier to use and, you know, if you're somebody who's worried about getting counterfeit 100s or counterfeit 20s,

having a little pocket light that you can shine at the bill and make sure it has a security strip in it,

is one way to minimize your chance of, you know, someone passing you a fake bill.

So this is a flashlight, it's a laser, it's a UV light, two different beams.

And what's nice is the light and like the laser you can use together.

So you can light up an area and point at it with the laser, which is really nice to use.

It's pretty simple.

It has a swivel switch on it so you can go from one light to another and you can flip the switch back and forth so you can look at the different lights.

Really handy that way.

And I'm playing with it right now.

So it's pretty simple.

It's pretty intuitive.

There's a little bit of a learning curve, but I think if you're somebody who wants to have a flashlight with them all the time,

I know everybody carries a cell phone now and everybody has, you know, some sort of flashlight built into your cell phone.

I have an iPhone.

It's a terrible flashlight.

It's not a good flash.

You know, in case of an emergency, it's better than nothing, but not much.

So if you're somebody who's doing anything from auto repair to home inspections to, you know, you're a plumber, an electrician, whatever the case is,

and you carry something maybe like a leatherman with you and you want to have a good flashlight,

this ArcPro Ultra is a really good choice, great performance.

And I mentioned it's rechargeable.

It uses a magnetic charging cable, which is, you just set it on top of it and it charges it up.

Battery life is solid for normal use if you use it in turbo mode.

Yeah, it can chew up the battery pretty fast, but normal lighting, it's fine.

It's water resistant.

It's not waterproof, but it's water resistant.

You could use it outside in the rain, no problems there.

It's got an aluminum, like I said, aluminum body, so it's pretty impact resistant.

So whether it's, you know, a daily carry, roadside work, garage diagnostics.

I think it's a really good thing to have with you, whether you just keep it in your car.

They also have a couple other lights.

One's called the Baton 4 Pro and the other one is called the Baton Ultra.

These are more conventional round flashlights.

Some of them use two different types of charging profiles of magnetic charging,

as well as you can plug in a USB-C to it.

If I had to find any real fault with it, two faults-ish.

Battery's not replaceable.

So when the battery finally goes bad, like batteries eventually do, it's time for a new one.

It's more expensive than a single-purpose light, but then again, it's multi-purpose,

so it can do a whole bunch of different stuff.

For someone who's looking for a compact, multi-purpose tool, especially in automotive safety or inspection work,

not having to carry different things.

Maybe you carry a, you know, maybe you do carry a pocket laser.

Maybe you do carry a pocket flashlight.

Maybe you do carry a headlight if you're working in kind of tight areas.

This kind of does all of that, and I think it justifies a place in your pocket

and it justifies the price at the same time.

So it's called O-Lite.

This one is ARC Pro Ultra.

I noticed, because I watched too much YouTube,

CheckEngine Chuck, mobile mechanic out of, I think out of upper state New York somewhere.

I noticed he was using one the other day, and I noticed Royalty Garage,

who's, they're located in Georgia, in two different locations in Georgia.

They have a very popular YouTube channel.

I noticed this is his light of choice when he's pointing out things,

when he has to look in dark crevices and things, he uses this ARC Pro Ultra.

So again, if you're somebody who needs a light, but you also need something to point stuff to people,

the ultraviolet light, you might never want to use it in a hotel room.

There might be things you see there that you wish you never saw.

But it is, it is a great little light and something I'm going to carry with me a lot.

So there you go.

There's the kind of review of that product.

And if you go to Olight, you can find the various things they have,

and I'm sure they're available outside of their own website.

So go check it out.

There you go.

James Brown was called the busiest guy in music, I think,

but apparently Jesse Wilkins is now too.

How many different businesses are you going to be in?

A few.

A few?

A few.

Yeah, so the newest endeavor is opening up a music school.

So Pizza Shop?

Yes.

Podcaster?

Yes.

Video editor?

Yeah, that kind of thing.

So I don't want to sound like too busy, but that all ropes in with the podcasting thing.

All right.

Kind of.

You edited something for the MMA fight last week?

I did, yeah.

Francis Ngano.

Yeah.

Yes, I did.

And it was pretty cool.

Yeah, it was like a Logan Paul involved and a couple of the superstars,

the guys from Pawn Stars, so they were in it and everything like that.

Unfortunately, I didn't film it, so I didn't get to meet any cool people.

They just sent me the video in my office.

So not as cool as it sounds, but it was cool to be involved, though.

And now you're opening a music school?

I am, yeah.

So opening up on July 1st, and this was in Whitman.

So a lot of folks are familiar with, it's called Horrigan Music School,

and he's going to retire, kind of retire.

I'm going to keep him on to continue to teach at the school and stuff like that.

But yeah, I'm taking over ownership on July 1st, so we've been doing construction

and working on the place, and it's coming along.

I was there way too late last night, actually, so I'm exhausted.

And what are you going to teach?

Mainly focusing on piano, guitar, and drums.

So piano, I could take it on at any level.

I haven't teached piano forever, so that's not an issue.

I'll be doing beginner drums and guitar as well,

and then any kind of advanced stuff, I can point them towards John,

or I have a couple other teachers I'm going to bring on board.

Right now we're in the Make the Place Look Awesome phase, and it's coming along.

And are you going to move your podcast studio to the music store?

Not really. I'm going to kind of keep what I have at the house,

because it's at my house and it makes it easy if the wife's out, and I get kids.

I'll have that, but I'm going to put a recording studio inside the music school.

So it'll be an option to podcast from there.

So that's the plan.

And then it'll also tie in, because I'll do some music production lessons

and some studio sessions as well, just limited though.

I couldn't do a full band, there's not enough room for that.

But we'll see how it goes.

So right now it's painting and doing some construction on the place

and updating it and everything like that, and it's coming along.

I'll send you a picture.

I suppose one of the jobs we didn't cover is,

you did say you have kids, so you're a parent.

Oh, there we go. Yeah.

So, busy guy.

The kids are helping though.

The kids like to help.

It was funny, we were driving and I was collecting furniture for the place,

and we were driving through Whitman actually,

and one of my kids points up and I was like,

oh, there's a free couch.

We were on our way to pick out another couch.

And I was like, oh, pull over.

But I had no, my kids are nine and 11 years old.

So I got nobody to help me with the couch besides them.

So they hopped on one end, I hopped on the other,

and it was a struggle, but we got in the truck.

Well, you know, some day they'll take it over from you.

Do they have musical ability?

My oldest has been taking guitar,

and he's learning at a rapid pace,

so he's actually getting pretty good.

And then the youngest, he expresses interest,

but he hasn't really picked an instrument to learn yet,

but I'll get him to do it eventually.

You know, the whole family's pretty musical.

Wow.

I have no musical ability whatsoever.

I could fix that for you.

Yeah.

I don't think you could.

You're pretty far away.

I guess you couldn't come to the music school.

Well, you know, I could try to.

I'll be not that far away pretty soon.

That's true.

There's a plan.

If people want to join us in, I don't know,

talk about Jesse's music school or questions about the car,

all they have to do is give us a call at 7-8-1-837-4900.

7-8-1-837-4900.

And we can talk to you about what you have on your mind

about your car.

Some of the questions that came in this week,

what do you think of the new Ford Maverick pickup

and how does it compare to the Hyundai Santa Cruz?

Both are a couple of years old and should be well sorted out.

If I was buying a Ford Maverick,

I would really try to choose the front-wheel drive hybrid version,

only because I think it's a really good price.

Now, I understand Ford is coming out with a all-wheel drive hybrid version,

but I haven't seen it yet.

The Hyundai Santa Cruz, another one that is, I think,

a little bit more refined, but there's some rumors

that the Santa Cruz may eventually be discontinued,

though nothing's been formally announced that I could see.

Both vehicles, I think, fill kind of a niche market

that's been missing for a bunch of years.

There's practical trucks that are genuinely useful

and not outrageously expensive.

You know, the average full-size pickup truck today

is in the $60,000 to $80,000 range.

I remember when the Maverick first came out.

Now, it was, you know, the hybrid front-wheel drive,

steel wheels, no cruise control.

It was $20,000.

I tried to buy one, but the list was, like, way too long.

Let's talk to our buddy Tom from Kingston.

Tom, good morning.

Tom?

Hello, hello.

Here I is.

So, go back to the waxing of your car.

Wax on, wax off.

Yeah.

Back many years ago, I was only going to find that product,

Mothers, and I did M-O-T-H-E-R

and came up with nothing.

How do they spell Mothers?

I think the normal way.

Let's see.

Let me look.

Let me see what it says here.

Let's see what happens when I do it.

Well, when I look up Mothers, it's M-O-T-H-E-R-S.com.

It is, okay.

Maybe I missed something.

Maybe I hit an N instead of an M on the keyboard.

Who knows?

But I just typed in Mothers.com

and apparently you can get 10% off your next order

because that's the first thing that came up on the website.

I think it stays well because I'm way too old.

I'm over 39.

Me too.

To do it, I think I bring it to a place

and just tell them detail the car.

The biggest thing is trying to find a place

that does it the right way.

Yeah, I'm too cheap for that.

But that's just me.

The idea that some of these products are really

easy to use.

I kind of like the idea of that.

One of the things that I've been told a long time ago

was if you wash and wax your car,

you'll burn up to 900 calories.

There you go.

You can justify getting a dessert when you go out for dinner.

Something like that, yeah.

I haven't been here in a while

and I assume they're still around

and maybe something.

In Weymouth,

there was a company called Cochran Auto Detailing.

It was Cochran.

I did a remote broadcast from there once.

Right off the expressway?

Right off the expressway, yeah.

They did a really good job

and I assume they're still there.

Our buddy, Mike from Hingham,

I know used to bring his cars there.

He had them both ceramic coated,

which he said was expensive,

but according to him, his car is still brand new.

If you're thinking about having somebody else do it for you,

maybe give the fellas over at Cochran Auto Detailing a call.

As far as it comes to worse,

I still have total wax on the shed from 1981.

Yeah, I'm sure it's in great shape.

It probably looks like a bar of soap now.

Do I love every one of the mother's products?

The mother's wash and wax, for instance,

the spray on waterless car wash.

Sometimes I'm a fan of waterless car wash

because you can just go out and spiff up your car

and make it look really good.

As long as it's not gritty dirt,

I'm more of a fan of the Maguire's product

over the mother's product for that.

Even though you hold them up,

they look identical, the same color stuff,

but I like the Maguire's one a little bit better.

I was always a Maguire's wax person.

I got to tell you, some of these new mother's products,

and I was using them the other day.

It's not on a car.

I was getting my little boat ready to put away,

so it got kind of, from sitting around,

it got all dull and scratched on one side,

so I went out there with their detailing products

and their light rubbing compound products

and got it back to looking good again.

So better than the actual boat product

that I bought at the local water part store.

So I thought it came out really good

and it did a really good job.

And again, this window cleaner, this revision stuff,

my wife is super fussy about two different things.

Pizza and clean windows.

And I've cleaned the windows in her car a couple of times,

and I'm like, how are the windows?

She said, oh, they came out really nice and clean.

So the mother's revision product for that works really well.

So I mean, I haven't tried them all,

but really good.

And last year, the people from Bling

sent me some of their Bling Sauce products.

And I still like this.

They make a really good product,

really good, quick detailing product.

I like their products a lot,

but the Bling products aren't quite as popular.

If you're looking, look at the mother's products.

The ones I've tried do a good job.

So unless you have, you know,

maybe you got that old set of Krager SS wheels

that you want to buff up and...

Oh, yeah, the Kragers.

You know, the other thing is you talk about the windows.

I had a 1971 or 72 Volkswagen bus.

And I had arms like Popeye the Sailor Man.

Did you have 23 windows?

I wish.

I wish I'd be very rich today.

You would be.

I see those at the auctions.

It's like, oh, that's my dream.

Just to have it just for a couple of weeks.

Yeah, yeah, no.

But isn't it amazing how history changes how you remember things?

Now, if you really remember a 1971 Volkswagen bus,

you know, they were as slow as could be.

They couldn't go up hills and they blew over in windstorms.

And there's the thing, I had a Volkswagen bus

and I lived in Rockland and I had to work up in Cambridge.

And in the wintertime, it was tough.

To get the heat to come up to clean the windshield,

I had a nice scraper for the inside.

Yeah, yeah.

And I almost entertained it getting a small wood-burning stove

to put it on the inside, bolted to the floor,

put a little thing coming out of the top.

It's like, you know, when you're young and dumb,

but it sounds good.

Yeah, no, but I mean, every once in a while,

I stumble across an old Volkswagen Beetle

that's got the gasoline heater in the front.

So, you know, every once in a while, I see one of those.

I had not a mechanic come down and replace the engine.

He was up in Quincy, came down to Rockland

and replaced the engine on my Volkswagen bus.

So, he paid him $600 or whatever it was back in that time.

And I said, thank you very much.

And he went to take off.

About 10 minutes later, he comes knocking on the door

and he goes, hi.

I said, what's up?

I have no idea why he's there.

He goes, can I get a jump?

I couldn't believe it.

Here's the auto mechanic.

Well, you know, it happens.

You know, cobbler with holes and issues.

You know, Harvey Kurtzman, before he sold his building up there,

I swear had $2 million worth of Volkswagen parts

stored in a warehouse.

But that was right there.

Hey, we got to get going.

We got one more break to squeeze in here.

What was the price on the flashlight?

I think it's expensive.

I think it's around $80.

Okay, good.

But it's got lasers.

But it does a million things.

So, it's worth it.

All right.

Why don't we take a quick break when we come back?

Let's see if we can fit Tom from Waymuthin.

Let's take that quick break.

You'll listen to the car doctor on 959WATD.

Hey there, folks.

It's Quinn Kelly reminding you to tune in Sunday night at 5

for the South Shore's first voice in sports talk radio,

the Sports Exchange.

Unmatched coverage of local high school action,

as well as a relatable voice on all things Boston Pro Sports,

we've got you covered live at 5 every Sunday night.

Have a question for our host, Miss Last Week Show,

or just want to share a great sports story,

you can find us on Twitter at SE on WATD.

But remember, mark your calendar, folks,

and we'll see you Sunday night at 5

for the Sports Exchange on 959WATD.

Honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award

from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

He's John Paul, the car doctor on 959WATD.

And welcome back to the car doctor program on 959WATD.

We have a co-radio person with us.

We have Wolf from Veteran's Voice Radio with us.

Wolf, good morning.

Yeah.

Get the car in.

I've been on the radio for years.

The first time I ever called in, I have a real question.

You ready?

Sure.

This is going to be like click and crack.

How the heck do you clean the inside of your car window?

I have never been able to do it.

I use my dad's old vinegar and newspaper.

I use Windex, nothing.

Yeah.

Sometimes depending on what the inside of the window is like,

because the plastics off gas and they put this filmy stuff on,

I would start with something like sprayway window cleaner,

the foam stuff that comes in the aerosol can,

use a good microfiber cloth when you're done,

but also when you're looking for paper towels,

and newspapers used to work,

but now they're all recycled,

so they don't have the same ability to clean as they used to.

There is a blue paper towel that you'll see,

and if you go to Walmart or one of those stores,

I think it's made by 3M,

and it's made specifically to clean glass,

and it does a really good job cleaning.

If it's really filmy inside, clean the window first,

and this is a little bit messy,

but clean the window first with something like Bar Keeper's Friend.

That will wash away all the film in there,

and then you should be in pretty good shape.

Bar Keeper's Friend, right.

But use sprayway foam, I think works really good.

Try that first, and then if you don't try that,

try the revision stuff, it's a good product.

All right, take care Wolf, bye-bye.

Well, that music means we need to go.

Remember this is Memorial Day,

so thank all the veterans out there for everything they did,

their sacrifice, their work,

everything they did to keep us safe and here.

Until next week, make sure you wear your seatbelt drive safely,

be good to your car,

and if you do see an emergency vehicle by the side of the road,

slow down and move over, it saves lives.

Talk to you all next week, bye-bye.

Mother’s Wax Explained: Jim Dvorak on Detailing, Innovation & Car Culture

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spruce up this protection

wash it at home periodically

deposits on the exterior of the paint

Kregor SS chrome wheels

Mac and aluminum polish

scraper

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