Patent leather shoes have a mirror like reflectivity, but no depth to the shine - much like Zaino on a car. Spit shined shoes have the same mirror like reflectivity, but in addition have an unmatched richness of depth - much like a synthetic topped with a carnauba on your car. Additional spit shined layers add more and more depth.
The problem is how to add layers of shoe polish without softening/removing the underlying layers. Kiwi shoe polish (the choice of expert shoe shiners) has even more solvents than any automotive paste carnauba that I’ve ever used. Spit shining solves the solvent problem.
Some of you learned how to spit shine boots/shoes, but for the others I’ll briefly describe how a G.I. spit shines his boots. You need a pair of boots, a can of Kiwi, a bag of cotton balls, and some water. Wet the cotton ball and squeeze out most of the water. Get a very small amount of wax on the cotton ball and wipe it onto the boot - continue wiping until there is no more smudging. Add a little more wax an repeat. Remoisten the cotton ball as needed so that it leaves tiny beads of water on the boots. When the cotton ball retains too much wax, then use a new cotton ball. It takes several layers (maybe 6 to 10 or more) to achieve that mirror shine. It’s obvious that the wax builds layers because enough flexing of the leather will cause the wax to flake.
Many months ago there was a lot of discussion about whether or not it is possible to layer carnauba on a car. I knew from experience that you could do it on shoes, so I started experimenting on my car. I quickly found out that using the normal wax application technique didn’t work - the new wax just softened and smeared the old wax. Then I tried using very thin layers of carnauba and waiting a day between layers, and this gave decent results. Next I tried using a spit shining technique on a small area of bare Zaino. This gave excellent results, but was very tedious.
A year ago I made a
post on Autopia about this technique. Since then I’ve been playing with different methods in an attempt to make the process at least a little less tedious, and here is what I’m doing now.
Supplies needed: a low solvent paste carnauba such as Souverän or S-100/P21S; a 4” square of microfiber; a spray bottle that puts out a fine mist - not large drops; distilled water; a couple of MF towels. Keep the spray bottle/water in the refrigerator (thanks Brian-4DSC).
Method: Dampen the MF square and load it with just enough wax to thinly cover a small area - 1/4 hood or 1/2 door. Wipe it onto the work area and continue wiping until most of the wax disappears. Mist lightly as needed to keep a few water droplets on the surface. Move to the next work area and repeat. Now to the third work area. For the fourth step go back and redo the first area. Next do area four, then two, then five, then three, then six, etc. After you do the final area you’ll have a car with a lot of spots of hazed wax - but not to worry. Lightly mist an area with the cold water - 1/2 hood or door - and lightly buff with a MF towel. Turn the towel frequently. When the towel becomes damp switch to a new towel. After 24 hours you can repeat the procedure, and each time it increases the depth of the shine.
I don’t have an objective method of measuring the hardness of the spit shined carnauba, but subjectively - - bug removal is very nearly as easy as it is with only Zaino on the front of the car.
This is not a method for those of you who wash your car once a week and wax once a month, but it is great if you QD every day and seldom wash the car. I have had the best results with
Pinnacle Crystal Mist QD which I keep in the refrigerator.
As always,
YMMV!
for this info.
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