Mike brought his 5th gen for me to Zaino today. For the most part, I'm content with my abilities and how Zaino looks on a black car but I couldn't get all the webbing out of the trunk lid which was really frustrating. Oh well, I just have to improve my skills. The white specks aren't imperfections...it's residual Zaino powder that clings to the car due to static electricity. What was done:

Wash with Z7
Claybar
Wash with Z7 again
ZPC
Z2 Pro
Z6
Z2 Pro
Grand Finale

 

 

 

 

 

that's just nuts clean... great work

 

looks like i've got to pick up some zaino products.

 

See you on the 13th of August? Or when we discussed?


BTW.. That paint looks incredible.

 

Yep, 13th is still good. I'm going to try a different swirl remover on your car though...ZPC isn't aggressive enough.

 

Sounds good... Will it be okay on my paint? I found out a while ago that Lexus paint has the base and clear mixed and applied as a single stage.

 

It won't be anything crazy/exotic (probably DACP) and it'll be applied by hand so there shouldn't be any harm. Then again, if you don't have bad swirling, I may stick with ZPC...all depends on how your paint looks when I start.

 

It doesn't look bad now with a light coat of Meg's cleaner wax, but we will see after it's been washed.

 

Damn. Now I needa go buy some Zaino. Great job btw

 

Looks great, Ty. Black is a very difficult color to get looking perfect. Is it just me, or are there a few swirl marks on the fender in the 3rd pic?

This spring I worked like h&ll to get rid of mine, and did......for about 2 weeks. Even with the most careful washing, swirl marks soon reappear.

 

Hey Blues, Ive got the same issues with washing , it'll look good for a while, but you just walk by it and you'll get a swirl mark.

I've been using Poorboys S/W for my light duty cleaning, I'm sure I get a lot from that, but I still love the product.

Nice work THT.

For those that read this thread and think that Zaino is the reason... think again. His process is what produced the results.

 

I used a bunch of stuff before I got rid of 99% of the swirls....Poorboy's 2.5 and 2, Optima Polish (didn't have the Hyper Compound this spring) I got some micro-maring that I had to remove. And the swirls are back...not as bad as this spring, though. I'll go through the same process this fall to get it ready for the winter.

And I agree, the process is more important than the products.

 

Holy Shit That Looks Good!

 

That is the best looking black Maxima SE-R I've ever seen


















Looks really good. Nice work.

 

on the 2nd pic of the 2nd post: is that what orange peel effect looks like?

 

Yes. I'm starting to seriously consider a PC or rotary for the polish as the more I look at the pics, the more disturbed I am...

 

Orange peal comes with cars from the factory paint job. The factory doesn't wet sand the clear, so you get peal. I've seen a ton of bimmers with awful orange-peal. When you take your orbital, you're cutting the clear.
BEST solution: have a shop re-spray the clear and wet sand it. More coats of protection, and a mirror like reflection!

 

damn..i gotta start smokin cigars when i take pics.:-p
the last picture is my favorite, what buffer do you use (assuming you use one)

 

That was all done by hand.

 

It's not just you, Tom. That fender and trunk lid are what drove me to a PC7424

 

Wow, that looks incredible! But how could you possibly do that all by hand. Ouch! If I just do a wash, dry, swirl remover, then 1 coat of cleaner wax, my arms are sore as can be.

 

damn i wish u were closer to me

 

I've moved on to a PC now...and I can make cars look better than this...I'm trying to convince BlackBIRD to bring it back so I can work on it again

 

PC?

 

Porter Cable