Many months ago, long before I discovered Roadfly or any other detailing forum, I did some experimenting with various carnaubas and one polymer in an effort to choose the best wax for my new car. I used all of the waxes that I had in my garage plus everything I could beg or borrow. One of the waxes that was loaned to me was a bottle of Z-1 and Z-2. At that time I’d never heard of Zaino and didn’t know polymer from carnauba from Shinola!
As my playing on an old hood progressed I saw that Meguiar’s, Mothers, and Zaino were leading the pack and started trying them on test areas of my new Jet Black car. Since I didn’t know anything more about Zaino than what was on the bottles, I applied the Zaino right over the existing layer of carnauba. When Mothers dropped out of the competition it got covered with Zaino. By the time I decided that Zaino was probably going to be the winner there were 4 or 5 coats of Z-1/Z-2 on top of the original wax and 2 or 3 coats on top of the Mothers wax. At this point I finally noticed the URL on the Zaino bottles, visited the Zaino site, and ended up phoning Mr. Z with some questions. During our conversation he said that the carnauba should be stripped before applying Zaino and asked me how many coats of Zaino I had covering the carnauba. When I told him 4 or 5, he said to just let it go and continue with the Zaino. I didn’t know enough then to ask about bonding, much less to ask about topping a glaze with Zaino. Since Mr. Z also said that Zaino gave a much harder surface than carnauba, I now did a Dawn wash on the front of the car and 2 coats of Zaino. Sure enough, the bugs wiped right off, and Zaino was the clear winner!
I ordered Z-1, Z-2, Z-5, and Z-6 … Dawned and clayed the whole car and started adding layers of Z-1 and Z-5. I soon realized that each layer of Zaino improved the already great shine, and when I had maybe 6 or 8 layers on the entire car a cat jumped onto my hood and left some 9 or 10 inch scratches as it slid off. Being afraid to use an abrasive polish I attacked these scratches with 3M IHG. Since I’m a “house husbandâ€� I have a very flexible schedule, so my procedure was to go down to the garage when I had a few free minutes and put a few layers of IHG on the scratches. I soon found out that the sun would quickly dissipate the IHG, so I started topping it with Z-1 and Z-5 after each session on the scratches. Little by little the scratches disappeared, and after 30 or 40 sessions (maybe more) the scratches were gone.
Since then I’ve done a lot of experimenting with topping IHG and P21S GEPC with Zaino when dealing with micro-marring and self-induced scratches. What works for me is to use the glaze, wipe down with Z-6 or a Z-7 solution, then top with Z-2/5 plus either Z-1 or ZFX.
Many of the far more experienced and knowledgeable detailers on another board and Mr. Z himself have told me that the oils in IHG or GEPC interfere with the Zaino bonding process. But, it works for me so I continue to use it this way.
YMMV!
