lexasgs400

I plan on purchasing a black sapphire pearl gs350 tomorrow and want to get everything I need to properly take care of the paint.
I have had good results with clay, is brand important?
What brand Wax to use?
What kind?
How many coats?
Buffer or by Hand?
What steps? Wash, Clay, Wax?

TWong350

iTrader: (8)

Zaino. Search it in this forum or the detailing forum

mysteryan

Sealants like Zaino a plastic like reflective sheen. They're good for light colored cars and silvers. A sealant would make it a little more sterile on darks. Since your car is black, a carnuba based wax works the best for that deep, wet reflective look. Best wax depends on what you want to spend. I like Dodo's Supernatural, and Wolfgang's Fuzion. They're the best bang for the buck in my opinion at around $200. If you want to spend less, I would look into Pinnacle Souveran (about half the price) or even lesser P21s.

I like to polish with a DA machine followed by a glaze and wax by hand.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

if you look for durability and shine, zaino will give you very good results. there are wax/polish that gives out more shine, but they don't last as long

for clay, for normal purpose, any would be good. i would probably recommend less abrasive ones to begin with, unless the surface is in very bad condition

for zaino, if you use zfx, max 3 coats within 24 hours

with zaino, you can just do it by hand, not much advantage going with buffers. use buffers if you are polishing the car

wash, clay, was, (seal), wax

Coolpop

I'm partial to a lot of Meguiar's products. When I got my CPO GS 450h last month, the paint was not exactly in great shape (really makes me wonder what Lexus means on their website by stating that all CPO cars are "virtually indistinguishable" from the new ones. NOT EVEN CLOSE). I'm such an **** detail freak that I used Meguiar's clay bar kit, then put on two coats of Meguiar's NXT Wax. I don't think you need to spend anything close to $200. You can check out my pics here https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...done-pics.html and judge for yourself.

Not sure I'd use an electric buffer on a dark car. You're just begging for swirl marks. Stick with hand and use a microfiber towel. Costco has giant packs of em.

And yes, you are correct with the steps - wash, clay, wax.

Bushwack

Zaino (I also like their clay). Took these pictures three years ago and car looks the same today: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...50-woohoo.html

mysteryan

Personally, I'm pretty **** about shine. Spend a lot of time on Autopia. Tried most of the Meguiars products as well as NXT, but still trying to squeeze a better look. Yeah, as you go for the higher end products your gains on luster would be more marginal. I have used several sealants as well, but still prefer carnubas.

I'd choose Ultima's Paint Guard Plus over Zaino though. But if you choose to use a sealant on a dark color car, I'd recommend you glaze (Danase Wet Glaze works well with sealants) before you do to bring out more depth. I've had pretty good results with that combo as well as other people. Here's an example of a car applied with PGP, DWG, and PGP again on another member's ES:

Blkexcoupe

iTrader: (8)

I prefer to use sealants over carnauba waxes. Sealants generally last longer, but carnauba makes the paint look wet. I've had good results with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant and Blackfire Wet Diamond.

Wolfgang


Blackfire


The brand of clay isn't as important as the aggressiveness. I buy Mothers clay bars since I can get them at any automotive store.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

my thoughts on sealants are they definitely last longer than carnuba, but they still don't last as long as the zaino. but i very much agree that on dark color cars, zaino are ok but not the best on shine and deep wet look. i have tried sealants and carnuba, i was amazed at the results

and to Coolpop, buffer doesn't mean swirls. if you do, then that only means you are using the wrong pads / polish, or you aren't doing a good job. if it's done right, the finish will be far better than using hand. put it this way, using orbital / buffer, if done right, it's just the same as using your hand and applicator/microfiber, only 100 times faster

Coolpop

I'm still not too old to learn something new

rominl

iTrader: (4)

lol, trust me we are all learning.

but from another point of view, i know very very well what you are talking about. when i first stepped foot on detailing, i got my orbital and i did have the same feeling as you, it seems like i constantly noticed swirls after polishing and they never seem to go away.

so i started reading more (especially on autopia) and learned there are tons of different pads, polish, how the combination could affect results. then i read about how to polish/buff, and also that orbital is the "safe" way but it takes longer time than rotary, etc...

later on with more practices and trials (yup, failures included, haha), now it's much much better

JRey350hou

I purchased es350-2010 in mid March....bought Zaino products 2 weeks later and had excellent results...sure there are many that work as well or maybe even better but overall very satisfied. bought z-7-car wash, z-5 polish/ sealant, z-6 -gives great zang after applying z-5 with zfx mix. also purchased zaino tire shine. BTW I have black sapphire pearl....took several pics but dont know how to load them here oh well !!

rominl

iTrader: (4)

you should try z2 unless you have a lot of swirls you want to take out. z2 gives even better shine

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

I would give Poorboys polish w/ sealant and polish w/carnuba wax a try... I used the polish w/carnuba last week and such an amazing product.. Much better IMO than the NXT.. NXT is harder to put on and take off IMO.. The Polish w/wax mixture is by far more superior..

JRey350hou

Romin....yes, the Z-2( dont have swirls yet ) is on my list...about to order 2nd shipment soon. sorry to OP...not trying to get off track...but one question for Romin or any other Zaino user do you think it's neccessary to get z-8 if you already have z-8 seems to be overlap there.