the cleaners in NXT are extremely mild that they most likely aren't stripping off much of the undercoat. It wouldn't lift up a polish that's underneath it.

 

Lately? Nothing. This is because I feel I have already found the best there is. I think Guru Reports also backs me up on this. So has just about ANY comparo of car detailing products that has Zaino in the running.

Now as far as what else have I used.....hmmmmm. Let me preface here for a sec. I have been driving for 26 years and I have had only 4 cars (mine, not including my wife's cars). I tend to fall in love with cars and take great care of them and keep them a long time.

Over the course of those 26 years I have used Turtle Wax, Zymol, McGuiars (several of their products), Autofom (there's an oldie but goodie!), Collanite Insulator Wax ( a really nice product BTW), Mother's, Blue Coral, Crystal Guard......and I'm sure many more I can't recall.

 

I didn't mean that as an attack. And wax reports are subjective. Everyones eye wants to see a different thing. And when you are **** like us things like longetivity out of the equation since we aren't the average. I was just asking because it seems you talk down some of the new stuff out there w/o trying it.





on a side note, here's my contribution to the thread from a weekend detail w/ NXT

 

see.. that photo shows why you need to have a good POLISH before your wax. That surface is pretty messy.

 

I really don't mean to "talk down" other products since, as you said, I have no experience with them, but when I hear others say, "MAN, that NXT stuff didn't last very long on my car", or stuff like that, I am compelled to chime in on MY experience with Zaino.

 

Also, the Guru Reports didn't just take into account subjective
"looks" as you said.

They used

Ease of application
Ease or removal
Shine
Depth
Reflectivity (measured not "eyeballed")
Cost
Availability (Zaino took a hit here and still won overall easily)
and last but not least Durability (measured objectively not subjectively)

 

Hotrodguy,

Are those little white specks chips in you hood?

 

well yea, but how long is your Zaino really lasting when you have 75 coats in 22 months.



And yes the Guru Reports covered a lot of things, but the big points came from what happened after weeks 3-4. Which you aren't experiencing. But as I've stated before, i'm not trying to bash Zaino, I like to tryi everything out there.

 

this is how it looked before. It was my first work at black and I didn't have much time, you can still see a little bit of micro-marring





and another after shot

 

unfortunately yes, it's a 4 year old car that's driven 150-200 miles a day and takes quite a beating. There were also about half a dozen huge bird **** marks on the hood I couldn't even do anything with because they were so deep.

 

Again, I am a "special case"

I know it is senseless for me to preach durability of a product that I apply roughly every one to two weeks. I am talking about NORMAL people who will NOT be doing this.

 

Can't compare inside w/flash to outdoor pix.

You still should use a proper polish with some cut and filer to clean up that paint surface. Before protecting it with a wax or other product.

No Zaino, Blackfire, or any cleaner wax is going to do any good for that. Needs a good true polish with cut.

 

I know, it was 6 a.m. when I started and the sun wasn't out yet. The car recieved #83 DACP followed w/ #80 only on the hood.


all those specs you see are rock chips or bird crap that's eaten completely through

 

Sorry, don't check in this section as much anymore. I bought my first Zaino several years ago before they had a "package". Since, I've just been ordering stuff as needed.

 

I may be only a Padawan Learner, but I may be able to answer this question.

After applying 10 coats of Zaino over about 6 months, I deliberately stopped applying coats, to see how well it lasted.

Any third-party reports you may hear that attribute this lapse to pure laziness are total fiction, I assure you .

After six months with no further Zaino coats but close-to-weekly washes with Zaino's Z-7 car wash, I was beginning to see a reduction in water beading. It was nothing alarming, it still looked as shiny as ever, but the beads weren't as tight as they used to be.

Does that help?

 

I understand that, my point was more of, why preach how long it lasts when you are putting on 75 coats in 22 months. And as mentioned before, at some point the law of diminishing returns comes in

 

I disagree about carnauba waxes lasting for only one or two weeks. I've been using carnuaba waxes like pinnacle or p21s and i get atleast 2 to 3 months durability. Not all waxes are made the same. Some waxes last longer than the others and some doesn't last at all. Same goes for polymer sealants. Not all of them gets great durability.

 

I think the point here is that Carnauba wax has a melting point that is lower than than the temperature of a car body sitting in the summer sun. If you leave your car out (especially a dark color) the sheet metal heats up and the wax melts. Say goodbye to any protection.

 

Unless you are storing your car in a garage, there is no way any carnauba wax will last two months.

I guess we need to define our terms here maybe. What do YOU mean when you say it "lasts"?

What I mean, is that the product is #1 still physically on the paint, #2 still protecting the paint from things like acid rain, UV light, bird droppings etc., and #3 still beading water with thousands of small tight beads or at least sheeting the water off completely.

Zaino does all of this for AT LEAST 4-6 months.

If you take your car out in the sun on a day in the high 70's or low 80's, the hood temp can reach well over the melting point of the wax. It would therefore NOT be doing what it is supposed to be doing after that day.

This is not even to mention the fact that in order to make any carnauba wax useful (i.e. to make it appliable on a car) you have to add things to it. Carnauba is a HARD wax. By itself it would be like rubbing a hard candle on your car. To make it a usable product on cars they add Silicone to it. This is not a good thing for your paint. Zaino has no silicone in it.

 

Silicones aren't necessarily bad for your paint, they just aren't well liked by body shops. Most products out there have silicones out there. Zaino doesn't, NXT, doesn't along w/ most synthetics.


Here is a good FAQ about silicones on the meguiars site

http://www.meguiars.com/faq/_index.c...ection=_19#_19