STINKYCARCUS

From all of my years of experience I have found 3m products to be far superior than anything else. Imperial hand glaze will make a black car look like a mirror and their wax is far superior to any wax ive tried including maquires(junk) and zymol(pretty decent). And as far as wheel polish goes flitz is awsome

Reggi914

iTrader: (3)

have you ever tried zaino or nxt?

Pusha_Z

I recently used Meguires wax because I got some for free last HIN in Baltimore. All I can say is.... I will be ordering some Zaino.

bixby

iTrader: (2)

Z A I N O ! !

Once you get past the initial claybar process (should you choose to do so) it's easy on and off and the shine is awesome! In all MY years of experience, I have never used anything better, including 3M. But hey, If you like it, use it.

MSOsr

iTrader: (5)

After many, many coats of Zaino, sometimes topped with S100 carnauba, I recently tried the Wolfgang twins. WOW! After using the prepolish, I applied the sealant with my Porter Cable 7336 and buffed it off with a Mequiars microfiber bonnet. The blue and metal flake on my Z just snapped !

I like it better than Zaino. No mixing required and the DB looks a deeper, richer color than it did with just Z2.

ronald_m

Zaino attracts alot of Dust.Let me try Wolfgand twin.

MSOsr,
Have you tried AIO and S100 combo?I tried it on my DB and it looks like it was soak in oil.

MSOsr

iTrader: (5)

That's a great combination! Here's the link to Wolfgang:

http://autogeek.net/wococarca.html


Enjoy and experiment!

bixby

iTrader: (2)

If you apply Z6 as your last step you get vertually no dust with Zaino.

Pathy01

I have found that although the synthetic polymers such as Zaino, Autoglym, Blackfire, etc provide great shine with multiple coats, and much better durability; for ultimate shine, nothing matches a high quality carnauba based wax. I like Meguiars #26 or Souveran personally. Unfortunately carnuba's protection and shine will fade much sooner than the synthetics. But being a detailing junkee, my car gets done at worst once a month. That being said I think that 90% of the perceived difference in depth of shine is mental for most of us. If we took identical cars and did top notch compound, polish, protect jobs using various combinations of quality products, we'd all be hard pressed to pick out which one had the product we favor used on it. Any high quality product used right is going to produce great results.

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

As we have discussed before, while carnauba does shine, it also alters the color of the paint somewhat. It is a HARD yellow colored wax that you need to add SILICONE to in order to make it usable. Silicone is what makes it shine. Silicone is not durable, and attracts dust like crazy (not a good thing since carnauba won't protect your paint much and this dust will therefore cause swirls if you're not really careful).

If you put a car with multiple layers of carnauba next to a car of the same color with multiple layers of Zaino, the Zainoed car will be it's natural color while the wax will be slightly altered (yellowed).

TCL

Four Star Ultimate Paint Protection gave me the best results of the products I've tried thus far. It has a pretty large following on the detailing forums.

Pathy01

Dr Bonz, I understand that being the resident carrier of the flame for Zaino, you feel it is supreme. However, if you speak to anyone closely involved with the highest level concours judging, you would find those vehicles almost exclusively use carnauba to attain the highest possible level of depth and clarity.

Some of the propaganda for Zaino boasts superior clarity to carnauba, which basically comes down to the improper assumption that due to the fact that carnauba is not perfectly free of color and generally is yellowish in color, this will carry over into the coating left on your paint. If the color of the product itself was indeed indicative of the finish it leaves behind, your beloved Z2 would leave your car with a pinkish tinge due to the red tint of the polish. Maybe it does, and you find that to be enhancing the color of your Brickyard Z.

I have personally compared multiple coats of the following on different panels of the same car at the same time: Autoglym Super Resin Polish, Blackfire All Finish Paint Protection, Pinnacle Souveran, and Zaino Z2 with ZFX. The entire car was washed with Dawn, cthen layed using Quik Detailer as the lubricant, followed by another Dawn washing. I then polished with Menzerna Intensive polish using a yellow cutting pad on a Dewalt 849 at 1200 RPM. The surface was then cleaned using a damp cloth. This was followed by Menzerna Final Polish II using a white polishing pad at 1000 RPM, and another wipedown with a fresh damp cloth. The 4 products above were then applied per their individual instructions to various panels of the vehicle by hand using microfiber applicators and buffed using 100% cotton towels from Griot's Garage. The following day 2 additional coats of each were applied to the same panels.

Results of the test: In the shade, the finishes were for all intensive purposes identical looking. In the sun, Pinnacle Souveran seemed to have a deeper, more glass-like appearance than the others, followed by the Zaino and Blackfire, and the Autoglym did not seem to hav quite the same 'pop' as the other 3. At night, under artificial light is where the Souveran seemed to really outshine the others, and the Autoglym seemed to be equal to Zaino and Blackfire under the lights. It could be me being subjective (although I had no preference going in, nor had I used any of the products previously) but the Souveran was the winner in my eyes. I really would have preferred any of the other 3 to produce the best results, as they are much more affordable.

What does it mean: With the 4 different products on the same car at the same time, with complete prep prior to application, it was very hard to tell the difference under most lighting conditions. Any car that is driven and does not spend its life either parked in a garage or competing in concours events is going to look supreme using any of these products. The perfect shine will only last so long, even with garaging and dedicated washings.

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

:

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

Pathy:

The thing is, those concours cars never see the road! They are transported in covered trailers and handled with kid gloves. They don't NEED a product with any durability and they don't HAVE to worry about UV protection, protection from brake dust and regular dust. They don't have to worry about swirl marks or acid rain.

Carnauba may give you a nice shine that will look good under the indoor show lights but I certainly wouldn't trust it to give you any of the protection I just mentioned out on the road on my daily driver.

Not only does Zaino shine like crazy. IT PROTECTS better than any other product out there. It also outlasts any of them.

Pathy01

Dr Bonz:

To the contrary, Carnauba does provide UV protection. Also with frequent washing and usage of Quik Detailer, the surface remains super slick, resisting the adhesion of brake dust, pollen, bugs, etc. I enjoy detailing and the finish has not begun to dull, show any hard water/acid rain spots, or lose its slick feel before I am ready to spend the time to re-apply to my daily driver.

Whatever our preferences, I'm sure both of our cars shine like crazy and would make most any other cars they'd be seen next to look a little dull in comparison.

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

Agreed.

n8vz

Never Tried Zaino. I like is Blackfire, the best car paint protectant I have ever tried.

bhobson333

Thanks for the interesting and informative scientific test. Your results conclusively confirm my findings:

Pinnacle Souveran is a wax. You can get a great shine by applying wax. You can get a really excellent shine by applying a top-quality, expensive wax. No matter how much you pay or how good it is, if it's wax it will melt off your car in one afternoon in the summer sun, leaving you with diddly-squat protecting your paint.

Zaino and several other polymers will not melt off your car in the summer sun. They will shine and bead water like crazy and protect your car for 6 months or more, even in the summer sun.

If you're going to wax/polish your car EVERY week, you can get a look as good or MAYBE better than a polymer by using a wax. If you choose a wax and leave your car out in the summer sun, the wax will melt off your car in one afternoon, leaving it unprotected for the rest of the week.

I chose to use a polymer. I tried Zaino, I couldn't be happier. Other people who chose another polymer are also happy with their choice. I suggest that you do some research, but choose a polymer, NOT a wax if you want any durability.

dogfish1

dogfish1

This is the most informative discussion I have seen in ages, so thanks.

On my end it is Zaino. I did the Zaino thing a few months ago; wash, claybar and the various applications and aside from washing the car with Z7, have not applied Z2, Z5 or any of the polish/wax since. Nonetheless, the car still beads and more amazing the finish is still slippery.

I have never used a polish or wax before that produced those results, specifically pertaining to durability.