Yes - it's time to start the Zaino thread again. Let's try to compete with the Miata and Vette forums shall we?
Our story begins with my Dad - who excitedly bought a used Corvette not long ago. The car wasn't "pampered" by an owner who bought the most expensive and best of everything to maintain it - still, it's a nice car and for an 8-year old machine it doesn't look bad.
It was obviously kept clean, and waxed, but could have been better so the topic of "...what's that stuff you used on your MG..." was brought up, and out came the Zaino bottles. You remember Zaino? That horribly expensive, hard to use, multi-step, complex, hardly worthwhile stuff? Well I
did hear that from a few places around the net. In any event, out came the bottles.
Under my very close supervision (ahem) I directed the bottle of Dawn dishwashing detergant to the garage, along with a sponge and bucket. The above mentioned new triple-black vehicle was pushed into the soothing shade of a small oak tree, to shield it from the blistering afternoon sun of east-central Florida. Washing commenced, followed by a cool soothing bath in wonderful Florida tap water.
We pushed the vette inside and thus started lesson #2 - CLAY BAR. I did half the hood and got my Dad started on doing the rest. Surprisingly there wasn't much debris in the paint (maybe someone already clayed it...). The final result from claying was a wonderfully smooth shiny and glossy looking car. NICE.
My announcement that it was "...time to wash the car again..." was met with astonished faces and looks of anxious disbelief. The second washing did, however, commence - followed by a very long cool rinse.
Our next lesson was in the application of the first layer of ZAINO show-car polish. I don't have the new ZFX additive yet, so we used the old favorite - Z1 polish-lok and Z5 (to fill in those annoying little polishing scratches - which were in abundance!).
I did half the car, my Dad did the rest. A very thin coat of Z1 using one side of an applicator, followed immediately with a very thin coat of Z5 using the other side.
My Dad, never having used the products couldn't believe how little we used. We could do "a dozen more cars" with what was left, he said. Pretty close anyway.
After an hour and a half or so of drying we starting buffing away the polish with the prescribed 100% cotton (made in USA mind you) towel I'd ordered off the internet (no I didn't order just ONE, I ordered a dozen big bath-sized ones last year). To make it even better I wiped it down with the Z6 (I believe thats the number) detailing spray. Yup, it works.
The final result was a super slick, wet-looking black on black on black car with absolutely no white "residue" along the sides. Yeah, it was nice, but with a general feeling of "that was a lot of work".
Yes, it was.
But then my lesson continued. "Put another coat on tonight before bed...", I said - and we did. The next day we wiped it off again, and used the detailing spray.
"Wow", my Dad said.
"Yup", said I.
"That wasn't so hard", he said.
"Nope", said I then, "let it set up until this afternoon and put another coat on it, but use Z2"
"Z2?"
"Yup. Z2 - the pink stuff"
So we did. A super thin coating of Z2 (mmm smell that Z2) and a couple hours later:
"Wow!", my Dad said.
"Yup", said I.
"Wow that IS easy to use"
"Yup."
...which brings us to today, and the fifth coat of "Zaino". My Dad just let me know that he can't believe how shiny and deep the black is... it's like there's no "surface", just pure black (except the slightly scratched paint from years of people doing this, and that to it). He think's it's simple to use, easy as can be, a breeze to put on and take off, with no residue. In the sun it looks great, doesn't cook-off, etc.
While it might have it's problems and complicated methods of prepairing the car for its use (as evidenced in the discussion Basil pointed to), the aftermath is really quite good and very easy to maintain.
I have the ZFX stuff on order, along with a couple other things to try on the Saturn. We'll see how it does shortly, I hope.
(after wash/clay/wash/Z1-Z5)
[ 06-11-2002: Message edited by: aerog ]</p>