Recently I had the opportunity to finally try the Soft99 Fusso Coat. This product is a few years old and there was lots of hype around the world on how spectacular it is but it was hard to obtain in the USA back then. I recently got some Soft99 products in from a UK Distributor to test drive for you guys and for my own personal piqued interest. Please check my Youtube video for more live details on how this all went down. The process of applying paste wax to millions of car enthusiast around the world is joy and therapeutic in it’s process. Growing up in the early 80s I remember waxing my fathers 1952 Packard in our backyard and even my grandfathers old Ford Gran Torino. The smell of carburetor cleaner and stuck floats on these old cars almost identically matched the horrible solvent based waxes available in those days. As a kid growing up in this era I would dread helping out with these chores because of the fumes and serious elbow grease required for removal. The white dust everywhere almost seemed like an antiquated process for the times.

I remember seeing my grandfather use turpentine and pumice powder on a rag to polish up old school single stage enamel and lacquer paints. If you think about it this is how it was done back then and the paint chemistry was bulletproof because things were not so regulated with OSHA and the environment as they are today. We did not have all these fancy polishes and machines or coatings for that matter. Car care was also not an obsession and multi billion dollar industry back then. Most of these chemical companies not only branded existing products used for Industrial, Aviation and Marine use to the car world which is why these harsh products that worked awesome found their ways onto shelves at your local auto parts stores.

Watch how I apply the Fusso Coat

From the first crack open of the can of Soft99 Fusso Coat it was like stepping back in time over 40 years into my childhood. Smells and things I disliked growing up were cemented into my mind forever, such as eating liver mom would force down our throats when we were sick to cleaning my grandfathers paint brushes in real turpentine, to waxing the old cars in the household. Fast forward to 2019 and I am in my shop scratching my head as to why the hell does this Japanese wax smell so darn bad and why does it smell like a thing of my childhood nightmares in our old garage. Soft99 Fusso coat is a PTFE which is Poly Fluoromine resins found in Dupont Teflon. Yes the same Teflon that is on your favorite frying pan and also the same Teflon that has been linked to cancers and health issues for years.

The misconception is that these car care products will encapsulate your cars paint in a Teflon non stick layer but that is not true in actual theory. You see for Teflon to adhere to any surface the substrate needs to be etched. Etching is done by an acid passivation process and the PTFE resin is heated to over 800 F to form a permanent membrane to the substrate.

So what, why and how is PTFE being used in car care products and do they really work is the question everyone wants to know. Yes they work but the claims can be bogus because I just can not see how any coating can last 12 months or greater due to the extreme changes in conditions our cars face each day and through the various seasons. In the Soft 99 Fusso product line the Japanese chemists have figured out a way of using a very strong harsh solvent to break down the PTFE resins to flow into a paste and adhere to your paints surface through solvent evaporation. I am sure there are other synthetic ingredients to this process we will never know but the product does work as advertised besides being such a torture to apply, and get high at the same time using it. The water shedding is unlike any other wax you can buy today. The self cleaning properties are equal or better than the most expensive 9H Ceramic Coatings on the market. So the question remains is it worth it for any car guy to expose themselves to either harsh application of Soft99 Fusso or a 9H Ceramic coating? I guess it depends on who you are and what you ultimately desire.

Collinite 915 has been my wax of choice since the 1990s and I just enjoy the process, the smell and the end results just work. Most of my cars are black and 915 is one of the best carnauba waxes I ever tried to make black cars POP like no other. The process of using the Soft99 Fusso Coat SUCKED!, my entire garage reeked of the solvent, I had to wear gloves and the white residue and struggle with the haze was like working backwards and going back in time 40 years. I just could not figure out how this product became so popular around the world because almost every wax 30+ years ago offered the same misery of an experience. Does anyone remember the original Liquid Glass polish from the early 1980s? another claim to fame and nightmare to work with that never proved it’s weight over the years. Technology has come such a long way and I just think the Japanese took our old secrets of poison chemical processing and brought them back to life for the 21st century. Watch my video to learn more but if you are like me and one who enjoys the process this product will make you cringe the moment you open the lid. Stay tuned as I will be posting more testing and information as time goes on as to how well this product is holding up on my Alfa Romeo.