[skimo]

So I have been reading alot about this Zaino stuff... sounds really good. Does anyone have pics of before/after zaino?? i really would like to see what this hype is all about

[bozo5521]

www.zainobros.com.. all the pics you want...

[BMW 2006]

Groit's is better and easier to use!

[BMW Enthusiast]

Never heard of Groits. Where do you get it because I have not seen it in any auto store.

[BMW 2006]

Groits is Mail-order only. Check out "Groits Garage" on the internet!
Buy the basic kit to see how you like it... you'll be hooked. I've used all of their products since 1996!

[jetmechG550]

It's Griot's not Groit's. Not pickin on ya, just won't be able to find it the other way. IMO, Zaino is by far the better product.

[BMW 2006]

Oh.. your right!! Thanks for the correction!

[salbrecht]

First, allow me to enumerate my provenance on this subject. I ran a small one-man detail business out of my garage in the Bay Area for seven years. I would spend 4-6 days detailing a car, both interior and exterior. The fee was generally around $600. I generally had a queue of 3-5 cars waiting their turn, so I was obviously doing something right and had an 80+% return customer rate. I am no longer in that business because I have retired and am now living near a beach in Thailand. Now I just maintain my 2010 320d and Kawasaki Versys.

For the leather treatment, I used Leatherique products exclusively. Their web site has great instructions, so I will not take the time to retype them here. All I will say is that after trying at least a dozen other leather products, Leatherique is the best there is. Lexol leather care is the absolute worst. Run away from that stuff.

Now for the exterior paint.

In order for the paint to have the level of gloss I think you would like to have, It needs to absolutely clean and as smooth as a sheet of brand new glass. Any imperfections such as dirt stuck to a carnuba wax product, will scatter the light away from your eyes, and the gloss will be diminished. Just washing the paint is not always adequate. There are two steps to clean the paint AFTER washing it. Lightly drag your finger tips over the paint, and if it feels gritty, you probably want to clay bar it. It is a very easy procedure, and only takes a couple of hours to accomplish. The second step is to use a paint cleaner. My favorite product for this is Meguiars Paint Cleaner #1. It is the least aggressive cleaner, and still does the job quite nicely. It will remove all the old wax as well. If the paint is severely swirreled, you may need to use the Meguiars #2, or Zaino Z-PC. I would spend 8-10 hours cleaning the paint on a car,, that is how important this step is. After cleaning, the paint should appear absolutely fabulious, and you may wonder why you even need a polish. Now to finish up, wash it again, using a strong solution of Dawn detergent. Yes you read that correctly. Dawn will ensure that all of the old wax is removed, as well as any cleaner residue. It will not harm the paint!

There are two basic products available, a carnuba based wax, and a polymer based polish. Notice that the polymer product is not referred to as a wax, and that importance will become apparent shortly.

Carnuba wax is a technology that is a couple of hundred years old, and should be put to rest. The biggest problem is that it is a surface coating that remains a little bit sticky. As such, dust sticks to it. As you drive through the atmosphere, the dirt in the air abrades it away. Finally, the UV light from the sun degrades it and it turns yellow. You are lucky if Carnuba lasts six weeks. The carnuba fanatics will always claim that the gloss is unparalleled, but that of course is very subjective, and I disagree with that assertion.

The current technology is the polymer polishes. The major difference between carnuba and polymer is unlike carnuba, polymer products are not a surface coating. If you recall back to your university chemistry class, polymers are chains of molecules that are very tightly bound together. When a polymer polish is applied to paint, the polish polymers chemically bind to the paint molecules. They actually become part of the paint. It will not abrade away driving around, and it has inherent resistance to UV radiation.

There are three product manufacturers that I like, Meguiars, Zaino, and RejeX. Meguiars sells a polymer polish named NXT. It works very well indeed, in fact so well that after I applied it to my new refrigerator (don't ask), magnets slid all the way down to the floor. Unbelievable. The thing I don't like about NXT is that the bottle clearly states to keep it off of rubber and plastic trim. That was required with carnuba also. This is a real PITA as far as I'm concerned.

Rejex is a polymer polish that was initially marketed to the small airplane owners. It's main claim is that it is so slick that bugs won't stick to it. Well...not quite but almost. I used rejex on my motorcycle faring and windshield initially, and bugs would 95% wash off with just spray from a hose. Later, I started to use it on wheels so the brake dust would wash MUCH easier. It is a great product, but not quite as glossy as Zaino IMHO. None the less, it is the best product for wheels.

Last but certainly not least we get to Zaino products. The products I use are AIO, Z2, and CS. For years I did two applications of Z2, allowing each one to set up over night before wiping the haze off. Wipe it down with a detail spray after each wipeing. Only one ounce of Z2 will do an entire car, so one bottle lasts a couple of years, especially since it will last 6-9 months. And the next time you will not likely need to clean the paint again. Then Zaino introduced AIO and CS. AIO is a one step mild cleaner and base coat polish. It's awesome on its own. CS, Clear Seal, is absolutely amazing. You mist a small area and spread it around. It 'dries' in about ten minutes or so, but they recomend letting it cure for six or so hours. There is no haze to wipe off. Just wipe it on and you are done. The gloss is to die for, and in my experience with a few hundred cars, water still beads after a year. Only 0.25 oz. of CS will do an entire car. Finally, unlike NXT, all the Zaino products can, and should, be applied to rubber and vinyl exterior surfaces. There is no white residue. I also use them on all the windows and side mirror glass. I also use it around the edges of the windshield, especially where the dirt accumulates at the end of the wiper blade travel. Keep it away from the blade swept area however as the blades will 'chatter'.

So there you have it. These observations are based upon my personal experience of a few hundred cars. Other folks will have different opinions based upon their experience. I will not get into any arguments about this, but I will be happy to answer questions I am capable of addressing.

Cheers and happy detailing
Steve

[fisherbln]

Holy crap salbrecht, did you do a search for all Zaino threads from 2005 or something?

[SharkH8R]

He probably did, but its still a great write-up. Thanks for the information, I am sure it will be well valued by all.

[MatchesMalone]

Lol, this is one example where I wish the poster wouldn't have used the

It would've been better to start a new thread and post all of this there, rather than bump 5 ancient threads. I agree that the information is certainly helpful however.

[misterjim]

How does it compare?

Originally Posted by salbrecht

First, allow me to enumerate my provenance on this subject. I ran a small one-man detail business out of my garage in the Bay Area for seven years. I would spend 4-6 days detailing a car, both interior and exterior. The fee was generally around $600. I generally had a queue of 3-5 cars waiting their turn, so I was obviously doing something right and had an 80+% return customer rate. I am no longer in that business because I have retired and am now living near a beach in Thailand. Now I just maintain my 2010 320d and Kawasaki Versys.

For the leather treatment, I used Leatherique products exclusively. Their web site has great instructions, so I will not take the time to retype them here. All I will say is that after trying at least a dozen other leather products, Leatherique is the best there is. Lexol leather care is the absolute worst. Run away from that stuff.

Now for the exterior paint.

In order for the paint to have the level of gloss I think you would like to have, It needs to absolutely clean and as smooth as a sheet of brand new glass. Any imperfections such as dirt stuck to a carnuba wax product, will scatter the light away from your eyes, and the gloss will be diminished. Just washing the paint is not always adequate. There are two steps to clean the paint AFTER washing it. Lightly drag your finger tips over the paint, and if it feels gritty, you probably want to clay bar it. It is a very easy procedure, and only takes a couple of hours to accomplish. The second step is to use a paint cleaner. My favorite product for this is Meguiars Paint Cleaner #1. It is the least aggressive cleaner, and still does the job quite nicely. It will remove all the old wax as well. If the paint is severely swirreled, you may need to use the Meguiars #2, or Zaino Z-PC. I would spend 8-10 hours cleaning the paint on a car,, that is how important this step is. After cleaning, the paint should appear absolutely fabulious, and you may wonder why you even need a polish. Now to finish up, wash it again, using a strong solution of Dawn detergent. Yes you read that correctly. Dawn will ensure that all of the old wax is removed, as well as any cleaner residue. It will not harm the paint!

There are two basic products available, a carnuba based wax, and a polymer based polish. Notice that the polymer product is not referred to as a wax, and that importance will become apparent shortly.

Carnuba wax is a technology that is a couple of hundred years old, and should be put to rest. The biggest problem is that it is a surface coating that remains a little bit sticky. As such, dust sticks to it. As you drive through the atmosphere, the dirt in the air abrades it away. Finally, the UV light from the sun degrades it and it turns yellow. You are lucky if Carnuba lasts six weeks. The carnuba fanatics will always claim that the gloss is unparalleled, but that of course is very subjective, and I disagree with that assertion.

The current technology is the polymer polishes. The major difference between carnuba and polymer is unlike carnuba, polymer products are not a surface coating. If you recall back to your university chemistry class, polymers are chains of molecules that are very tightly bound together. When a polymer polish is applied to paint, the polish polymers chemically bind to the paint molecules. They actually become part of the paint. It will not abrade away driving around, and it has inherent resistance to UV radiation.

There are three product manufacturers that I like, Meguiars, Zaino, and RejeX. Meguiars sells a polymer polish named NXT. It works very well indeed, in fact so well that after I applied it to my new refrigerator (don't ask), magnets slid all the way down to the floor. Unbelievable. The thing I don't like about NXT is that the bottle clearly states to keep it off of rubber and plastic trim. That was required with carnuba also. This is a real PITA as far as I'm concerned.

Rejex is a polymer polish that was initially marketed to the small airplane owners. It's main claim is that it is so slick that bugs won't stick to it. Well...not quite but almost. I used rejex on my motorcycle faring and windshield initially, and bugs would 95% wash off with just spray from a hose. Later, I started to use it on wheels so the brake dust would wash MUCH easier. It is a great product, but not quite as glossy as Zaino IMHO. None the less, it is the best product for wheels.

Last but certainly not least we get to Zaino products. The products I use are AIO, Z2, and CS. For years I did two applications of Z2, allowing each one to set up over night before wiping the haze off. Wipe it down with a detail spray after each wipeing. Only one ounce of Z2 will do an entire car, so one bottle lasts a couple of years, especially since it will last 6-9 months. And the next time you will not likely need to clean the paint again. Then Zaino introduced AIO and CS. AIO is a one step mild cleaner and base coat polish. It's awesome on its own. CS, Clear Seal, is absolutely amazing. You mist a small area and spread it around. It 'dries' in about ten minutes or so, but they recomend letting it cure for six or so hours. There is no haze to wipe off. Just wipe it on and you are done. The gloss is to die for, and in my experience with a few hundred cars, water still beads after a year. Only 0.25 oz. of CS will do an entire car. Finally, unlike NXT, all the Zaino products can, and should, be applied to rubber and vinyl exterior surfaces. There is no white residue. I also use them on all the windows and side mirror glass. I also use it around the edges of the windshield, especially where the dirt accumulates at the end of the wiper blade travel. Keep it away from the blade swept area however as the blades will 'chatter'.

So there you have it. These observations are based upon my personal experience of a few hundred cars. Other folks will have different opinions based upon their experience. I will not get into any arguments about this, but I will be happy to answer questions I am capable of addressing.

Cheers and happy detailing
Steve

[woodpecka]

[powerbarsk8ter]

I had my car detailed with polish but blades started chattering even after new ones were put in. Could you please tell me how to remove the Zaino polish that might have got on the windshield? Thanks.

[FRRYY]

Great read guys.

But here's my questions...

How often should detailing be performed?
and do you do a normal wash in between?

[CLE-335]

Zaino lasts pretty long. I clay bar and use z5 followed by two coats of z2 in the spring, z6 after washes all summer, and then late summer throw on two coats of z2 for the winter.