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If you’re like me, cleaning your car is something you appreciate, but aren’t fanatical about. You don’t want to spend a fortune or countless hours shining it up, nor do you want to waste your money and time on cheap product that works just well enough to dupe those none the wiser. I’ve used all the DIY detailing brands and all the big names in this segment definitely have their strong points. But if any truly rises above the rest in terms of reducing elbow grease and maximizing results, it may very well be Malco Automotive.
Malco Automotive’s Epic paint correction system is an excellent example of how it hits that mark for folks like me. It’s an awesome, quick way to put a solid shine on your car. The system is specifically designed to cut down working time as much as possible, while still delivering killer results. It’s just the tip of the iceberg, though. Malco Automotive’s got a huge line of car care products that will spruce your car up from top to bottom in that same vein. In an effort to give you an in-depth look at what the brand is all about, I’m running the Charger through its gamut of magic potions to take a closer look at what each brings to the table.
Basic Wash
The Charger is my warhorse. This poor thing sees all sorts of cruel and unusual punishment. I drive it on a daily basis, rain or shine, on all pavement and fire roads. As a result, it’s got all sorts of dust and road grime stuck to it. It’s also a 55-year-old car with a driveline of the vintage. When I’m not crawling all over the thing to maintain those components, I’m doing radical things like putting pro touring suspension systems in it. So, yeah. It gets funky.
And because it’s so funky, the cleaning process requires something with a little grunt. That’s where the CW37 car wash concentrate comes in. Being a car wash concentrate, not just another soap, this stuff is pretty powerful. Malco Automotive recommends one ounce per every three gallons.
The product is pleasant-smelling, does a great job of cleaning the paint. It won’t irritate your skin if you wash the car without a glove nor will it strip the wax off your car. And since a little goes a long way, the $29.97 cost of this gallon adds some serious value to the mix.
In the Charger’s case, I followed up the first wash with some spot treatment with the Target tar wax and grease remover. This makes quick work of any oil based buildups a quick cleaning won’t push away. The gallon costs $38.97. I think it’s worth it, as it’s a super versatile product that I’ve found useful for many situations.
Paint care
After finishing some spot treatment with the degreasers, another quick wash is in order. Now would be a good time to consider polishing. What product you use from Malco Automotive for that ultimately depends on your application. In this case, the Rejuvenator is the proper pick for the single-stage paint on the Charger. However, the Epic paint correction system is the way to go for base coat clear coat combinations.
I didn’t polish the car this time around simply because I didn’t see a need to. Instead, I just gave the Kozak clay bar mitt a spin that sells for $26.97. Like any clay bar, you slide this over the surface of the car to lift any contaminants on the surface following the wash. As opposed to using a traditional clay bar, you’ve got a mitt with a specialized surface on one side. This just helps make the process a lot simpler and more convenient to use than a traditional clay bar.
After that, I laid down the Nano Care banana creme wax as my base layer of protection, which retails for $20.97. Now, this isn’t my first time using this product; it’s been used on the Charger in the past and is currently protecting my girlfriend’s Civic. The process is the same as any other paste wax: you put it on, wait for it to haze over, and then wipe it away. While I’m no wax aficionado, the latter half of the process seems a bit easier than most, and protection sticks around for quite a while. Again, this plays to Malco Automotive’s overarching theme of keeping things simple but effective.
Malco Automotive also sent out its Epic CR2 ceramic spray wax for us to try out. It goes on really easily and is great for stacking layers. That said, it can be used as a base layer as well. This is one of the more expensive offerings, though. At $41.97 a bottle, I use it a little more sparingly. More specifically, I keep it in the car with a few microfibers whenever I go to shows or need to keep presentability up any reason because it can provide a shine a little more quickly than similar products from other brands in my collection. Those of you with far more show-worthy cars ought to consider it for that reason.
As for trim treatment, Malco Automotive’s Epic Revive Nu is the way to go. It too is expensive, but really does breath new life into faded trim and molding. I don’t have a ton of use for it on this particular car, but have used it on my poor, neglected truck and it does work really well.
Undercarriage/Underhood
We all know you’ve got to crawl under the vehicle or pop the hood to get to the real gunk. Malco offers a solid selection of products to help in this territory.
Prizm Gold is a high-strength general-purpose cleaner that works on all sorts of grime in dark places. I am actually really impressed with how quickly it cleaned up my bare aluminum intake manifold. It also ate through some gunk of unknown origin off the radiator and overflow within seconds. It comes in a gallon can be diluted to various ratios so you can dial in strength to your needs. That said, Little Red Thunder is similar cleaner that’s ready to spray out of the bottle. With a gallon of Prizm Gold going for $21.47 and a bottle of Little Red Thunder sitting at $7.97, the choice is yours.
The aforementioned Target cleaner is another great cleaner for where the sun doesn’t shine. Again, this product really works best on grease and oil, making it right at home between the wheel wells. Because it’s a concentrate that can be diluted to various strengths, you can tailor it to the mess you’ve made under there.
The final product I was sent for use in horrible places is the Iron Blaster Fallout Remover. This is probably my favorite product of the entire line. It’s an iron remover that’s sole purpose is to lift and remove stubborn iron deposits.
I used clear paint on the Heidts Pro-G IFS kit on my car, which is already peeling away. I have all sorts of surface rust starting to poke through. Normally, I’d hit it with an abrasive, but Malco Automotive’s Iron Blaster eats this stuff right up. You just spray it on and let it sit for a moment. It turns purple when it’s working, and it only takes a few minutes to do its thing. fair warning, this cleaner stinks really bad, and it is pretty expensive at $22.97 a bottle, but it’s worth it. It won’t replace the paint job I need, but you can see in the photos it’s almost magical in terms of removing surface rust. Something like this goes a long way in the rust belt.
Wheels and Tires
The Charger’s wheels have seen better days, and it won’t be long until the chips and dents push me to buy a new set. Still, I’ll do my best to keep them clean in the meantime. Malco Automotive’s Complete wheel and tire cleaner is easily the best-working tire cleaner I’ve used in a really long time. While I did pair it up with a tire brush, just a single quick pass was enough to give the tires a meaningful cleaning. All surface contaminants were stripped away. The tires were left with that pure, low-shine finish signifying a job well-done. At $10.95 a bottle it’s another clear winner for the brand.
Cleaning the inside of the wheels is another opportunity for the Iron Blaster fallout remover to show its strength. On top of dealing with iron deposits and rust, it does a good job of removing brake dust. If your wheels are long overdue for a cleaning, you may want to let it work its magic here too.
Obviously, a tire dressing is due once the tires are bare. Malco offers two different products for this, Blue Blazes, which offers a lower shine, and E-Zee Shine, which delivers a high-gloss finish—both of which retail for just around $15.00. I tried both for the purposes of this review, but I think E-Zee shine is the clear winner here. Despite declaring a high-gloss finish, it’s not super shiny, which is a good thing. It also seems to go on just a bit easier.
Interior Cleaner
The Charger’s cabin is in dire straits. The dash is busted, the carpet’s falling apart, and the seat covers are hiding decay only those with a strong stomach can handle. Still, I did dive in to do at least a little bit of cleaning.
Malco Automotive sent over a few products for this part of the project, including its aerosal carpet and upholstery cleaner, Oxy carpet and upholstery cleaner, leather and plastic interior cleaner, and Clean and Shine interior cleaner. It also sent over Leather wipes and Clean and Shine wipes.
Out of all of those, the Oxy cleaner, leather and plastic cleaner are what I like the most. The aerosol carpet and upholstery cleaner is a bit too strong of an odor to handle, at least for the potential payoff of cleaning up a carpet that’s ready for the dumpster anyway. And I’m not really a fan of shined-up interior parts. Clean and Shine definitely works, but leaves a finish I personally am not too keen on. That’s not to say it’s a bad product, I just, again, prefer low shine finishes.
That said, the products I did use were able to get this interior the cleanest it’s been in a while, and that’s saying something. I actually had a moment where I was taken aback by how good the dash looked after everything was said and done. The carpet and upholstery cleaner also did a decent job of lifting some of the oil that was soaked in after a catastrophic oil pressure gauge failure. It still didn’t save my thrashed carpet, but it’s still awesome. With everything listing for $12-$15 a bottle, value is holding strong too.
The Verdict on Malco’s Line-Up
So far, I’ve said mostly good things about Malco Automotive. It’s only fair to lean into setbacks, even if for a moment. The only real issue I can think of is that it’s not as widely available as some of the competition. As a matter of fact, there are no registered distributors anywhere near me. Meaning Malco Automotive’s products are only available to me through its site or Amazon. That’s the case for a lot of things these days, but I’ve always personally used whatever’s available on the shelf of my local parts store. I know a lot of people are in that boat. When it comes to detailing products, lack of exposure makes it hard to buy something from the internet.
I do think you ought to give Malco Automotive’s car care products a shot, though. They consistently meet the goal of keeping detailing simple. Across the board it delivers awesome results with less input than I’m personally used to. That’s good for anyone into detailing, but is particularly great for someone like myself that doesn’t necessarily have that burning passion for cleaning cars.
I know. Most DIY grade detailing products deliver on that front. However, I do think Malco Automotive does have an edge in delivering results I find to be more impressive than average in this category of detailing product.
Pricing is pretty much on par with direct competition. Perhaps slightly higher, depending on the product, but you won’t spend a considerable amount more on anything from Malco Automotive. Considering the performance truly is that much better, the extra little bit is well worth it.
| | Malco Automotive Car Care Line |
|---|---|
| Value | 8/10 |
| Performance | 9/10 |
| Accessibility | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 9/10 |
| Overall | 8/10 |