I've been using Zaino Polish for about 4 years now (www.zainobros.com) on my 93 Trans Am, 98 and 99 Vettes and yesterday on my 01 M5.
- Use a leaf blower to dry the car. This minimizes a cotton towel touching the car and thus reducing possible swirl marks.
- Use only 100% cotton towels made in the US. If it's made in Pakastan or somewhere else, it's not 100% cotton and will scratch the paint. Towels from Pep Boys are a no-no. You can get irregular Fieldcrest Cannon towels from http://www.fieldcrestcannonoutlet.co...elbattow9.html for like $5.50 each. Cut the edges off because sometimes they stiching contains polyester.
- Apply polish in straight lines. Front and back on the top of the car and up down on the sides. This reduces swirls as you aren't using a circular motion.
- Polish your wheels too. It makes it easier to take the brake dust off when you clean your car.
Far and away this is the best polish I've ever used. I've tried the good Meguirs stuff amongst others. Don't believe me? Go to http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zeroforum?id=10 and see what everyone there is using. Same thing lots of other message boards (Mustang, Camaro/Firebird, etc).
The car already had a good coat of wax on it. Washed it with liquid dawn to strip the old wax. Used Zaino clay bar to remove contaminents from the paint. You wouldn't believe after thoroughly washing the car how much more stuff came off the paint. Then I used the Zaino precleaner and then Zaino Z5 (fills in swirl marks). Let the stuff dry for about 4 hrs and then removed it and used the Z6 gloss spray.
Unbelievable difference. All swirl marks are gone in one application.
I much prefer microfiber towels to cotton. Regular to buff wax, waffle weave to dry (door jams, trunk line and where water blade misses), and I just got a new tight weave that when wrung out with clear water only is supposed to do a great job of cleaning windows.
I've thought about trying those towels, but I've had no problem with regular cotton ones. I dry the car 90% of the way with the leaf blower so I don't need it to dry the car.
I have done extensive testing of towels and detailing products. because opinions are so readily available, and yet seem to be in disagreement so often, I took it upon myself to prove or disprove some of the claims.
For a slightly different take on Zaino, check out my test results.. Note that after I published the report, Zaino introduced "ZFX" - a catalyst that speeds the curing process. This removes one of my objections - although it also creates some new, though somewhat more minor ones.
For a quieter approach to drying, check out this Autopia thread, which I started.
As for towels, I claim that as long as towels are made with good quality 100% cotton OR are microfiber, they don't scratch your paint. If you drag any dirt or dust around with either of them, however, you will get swirls. Believing that you can ever completely rid your car of dirt and dust is a fallacy - stuff settles on your car right while you're drying it. So your goal needs to be, at every step, how to achieve maximum effectiveness of the (washing, drying, buffing) with the minimal number of wiping strokes. This is where MF is clearly superior to 100% terry. To convince yourself, just try drying a fogged-up mirror or glass, or removing the oily smears on your sunglasses, with each. You'll see that the terry takes several swipes to dry the mirror; the MF takes 1. The terry just pushes the oils around on your car (oops, I mean glasses, but on a black car it looks the same) - the MF cleans it.
CJones - no offense intended. Zaino is not BAD - if you like it, use it. I respect your willingness to post your opinions here. What works for me may not work for you, and vice versa.
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'00 M5 - The Ultimate Ultimate Driving Machine! Greg's M5 Page
'01 996 TT - Greg's Porsche Turbo Page
'00 A6 4.2 - doesn't deserve a web page
I don't want to sign up for the Porsche message board. What is the alternative method of drying you are referring to?
Not sure if Meguiars is the same but with the Zaino the more times you put it on the better it looks. I know you did 3 coats. When I had about 9 coats on my Trans Am it looked incredible. I remember one guy (Ken) who had a 97 Comp T/A (special edition trans am) and had about 60 coats. That's pretty nuts, but it looked like a custom paint job.
Zaino is the only wax I've used that came with tech support. Have a question? Call Sal. He's always been willing to take the time to answer my questions over the phone. My major complaint is the ordering process sucks (mail in a money order), though I've heard that eckles (ecklers.com) stocks it now.
I too love Zaino. It last longer and looks better than anything else on the market. I have not got much experience with multiple layers yet. I plan to experiment this winter while she's laid up.
Greg is right about the swirl marks. perhaps I should try the MF towels. They do seem alot softer than cotton. No matter what I do I ALWAYS get SOME swirls.
Greg can you help here?
Like Greg I use the water sheeting method, followed by a leaf blower.
Then I use Z6 for a final touch with cotton towels.
Originally posted by cjones I don't want to sign up for the Porsche message board. What is the alternative method of drying you are referring to?
Not a Porsche board - it is a detailing board called Autopia. sign-up ios like here - free, no obligation. Lots of Zaino fans there too - so good answers for you. However I'll reprint the original post below.....
Quote:
Not sure if Meguiars is the same but with the Zaino the more times you put it on the better it looks. I know you did 3 coats. When I had about 9 coats on my Trans Am it looked incredible. I remember one guy (Ken) who had a 97 Comp T/A (special edition trans am) and had about 60 coats. That's pretty nuts, but it looked like a custom paint job.
If I need multiple coats to look good, I don't want it. You WILL get swirls, either in the Zaino or the paint - and that means you're going to have to polish them out. Polishing removes ALL coats. I don't want to spend another 10 hours putting mutiple coats back on. I also like to work on one section of the car that needs it - say, a hood or fender, without neccesarily doing the whole thing. I use Meguiar's Gold Class liquid and Pinnacle Souveran. For a while I left Zaino on one section, though, to test its longevity and dust repulsion claims. The overwhelming majority of friends and strangers, when asked if they could see a difference, said "YES" - and then,, in response to "which part looks better" it was the non-Zaino part. I did not tell them what products were on the car, let alone where, until they'd answered. YMMV.
Quote:
Zaino is the only wax I've used that came with tech support. Have a question? Call Sal. He's always been willing to take the time to answer my questions over the phone. My major complaint is the ordering process sucks (mail in a money order), though I've heard that eckles (ecklers.com) stocks it now.
I've spoken to Sal. Nice guy - with a vested interest in promoting his own product. I have gotten very good tech support from both 3M and Meguiars too. The local meguiars rep even put on a detailing seminar for a bunch of us M5 guys a couple years ago.
And now, the drying thread said:
Quote:
I started this as a reply to the "MF vs. Chamois" thread but decided it was important enough to warrant its own thread. Guys - I believe I have come up with the absolute best drying method, which has evolved over time and I've tried a lot of stuff. I've only gotten this far recently, but I've tried it now 3 times and I am absolutely convinced it is "right".
Premise: I think we all agree that rubbing of any sort is the enemy, so the goal must be maximum drying with minimum rubbing. (And of course it goes without saying that you better have done a good job washing in the first place - we don't want to be rubbing dirt around on the paint!)
Observation: Nothing completely dries with minimal swipes and no scratching better than a MF towel. However MF towels load up with water pretty quick and don't work well once they're very wet. Which leads me to:
The Technique: First thing is to get MOST of the water off without touching the car. I've tried driving it, leaf blowers, air compressors, you name it - but frankly, low-pressure, high volume water is easiest and perfectly sufficient. Take the nozzle off the hose. Let it pour over the top. You will see the water sheet off. Move the hose down to "feed" the sheet as it flows down the car - this will keep the sheet wide and it will carry away more water that way. (i.e., feed the wet part, not the dry part.) This gets rid of about 90% of the water.
The remaining 10% is still enough to soak a MF towel - so - take a nice absorbent terry towel in one hand and your MF towel in the other. BLOT - do not rub - with the terry towel. This gets rid of all the remaining drops and leaves only a little moisture behind. One wipe with the MF in your other hand- voila! A perfectly dry car, wiped ONLY with MF, only one pass per area. A single terry and a single MF are more than sufficient.
PLEASE TRY THIS!!! If you can come up with anything better I want to know it.
__________________
'00 M5 - The Ultimate Ultimate Driving Machine! Greg's M5 Page
'01 996 TT - Greg's Porsche Turbo Page
'00 A6 4.2 - doesn't deserve a web page
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