2 months ago i laid down 2 layers of zaino on my S, i did it without dawn wash and recently after washing the car... i feel the paint is no longer slick! is it a sign that zaino has already worn off?

is there anyway to do zaino without dawn wash... i'd really hate to go into snow, and worst of all salt in the winter without any protection

 

It is possible that it has worn off by now... A lot depends on what was on your car to begin with. If there was a substantial amount of wax build-up, the Zaino may have stipped off by now.

The test I use is putting my hand in a plastic bag (plastic shopping bag is fine) and running it over a recently washed body panel. If you feel bumps, it is time to clay and Zaino again. If you have lost the slickness, I'd bet that you will definately feel something... a fairly good deal bumpiness.

Another coat of Zaino couldn't hurt. It is a layerable product (unlike most waxes) so if your previous coats weren't gone, you will just add to the protection. If it is significantly bumpy at all, I'd quickly clay the car... Do a quick Dawn wash, clay the car using some clean washing water as lube and Dawn wash again, dry, Zaino. Claying a Mini shouldn't take more than 45 minutes (including glass and wheels), so you should be able to do it all in one day, easy.

 

After reading my post, I could have given a bit more explanation.

Any wax on the car before Zaino will inhibit the binding of the polymer to the paint surface. It's like painting onto a dirty surface... the new paint binds to the dirt and not the surface you wanted to color. Clay bars will abrade away a bit of the old wax, but the alkaline base in Dawn will strip away the old waxes very easily and leave you a clean base on which to layer your Zaino.

Again with my painting simile: The 3 most important tasks in painting is preparation, preparation and preparation. You want a nice, clean, smooth surface for the Zaino to properly adhear.

Good luck!

 

thanks for the reply

i also clayed before zaino... i still am weary of doing dawn since if i don't lay down a proper layer of zaino then im pretty darn screwed for winter...

ill try again probably.. any advice u can give me about dawn washing? and the subsequent zaino layering? i do not have zfx

 

You didn't mention what you had on the car before hand but that isn't really important.

I talk to Sal Zaino several times a week. And the whole Dawn wash thing comes up frequently. People just freak out and over react with the whole thing. It's plain silly. We laugh about it! Dawn is simply an alkaline shampoo that will cut through carnaubas safely and efficiently. It's not even strong enough to cut through Zaino or Klasse, for goodness sake. Sure, if you were to wash your car in it day in and day out it would suck the life out of the rubber trim because the alkaline would eventually dry out the oils. It would take a year. And your finish would be dull because you would never have wax on it. But you aren't going to do this are you? You are putting far more abuse on the surface of your car with clay (an abrasive) or with a cleaner (either a solvent or abrasive or both) than you will with Dawn. And you are doing this just once!

If for some reason you are still worked up about this then I suggest you get some Z7 shampoo and wash the car with a strong mix of it two or three times. Then prep with Z1. (unless you are using ZFX) Then apply your Z2.

By the way, the best way to keep up the slickness of Zaino is occassional washes with Z7 and QD'ing with Z6. Makes a huge difference!

 

If you did not use dish detergent to remove the regular wax, assuming there was any regular wax left on there, then the zaino on top of the wax may have worn off. A good test is to just lightly spray the car. You'll see right off the bat where it doesn't bead. For example when I use some stronger soap to remove road tar, that area has had the zaino removed and its obvious it needs more as soon as I wet it.

Once applied correctly zaino lasts a LONG time. Although I typically add a new layer each month over the summer, I am lazy in the winter and don't touch it for 4 months or so. Come the spring, when it rains my car still beads more than any other car in the lot. Think about all the protection that zaino has given my paint from the salt, snow, and dirt over those months.

 

My father used to use the rule that if the water beads with a light mist grew larger than a nickel, it was time to wax again. It seems to hold true with Zaino as well

 

BradB,
Do you advocate claying as part of the pre-Zaino routine ? I realize most "Autopians" think this is the best thing since sliced bread but I'm a little wary of doing damage to my paintwork since I have never clayed before (and, afterall, it is a mild surface abrasive by design).

We only collected our MCS today and I'm hoping to give it the Zaino treatment tomorrow (if the weather holds out). I am definitely planning on doing the Dawn pre-wash. Do you think an isopropanol wipe-over would be worthwhile after the Dawn wash (or even instead of). I certainly agree that the preparative work is the most important part of the whole Zaino experience.

 

Yes, absolutely clay. Even new cars are subject to contamination from fallout and rail dust. I did my MINI and just did my new Audi S4.

Use Zaino Z7 or a quality shampoo as a lube while washing to make the job easier and faster. It should take no longer than 30 minutes to do the whole car.

Dawn wash is sufficient. Then follow with Zaino.

 

after about 2 years with zaino on my mcs, i think the easiest way to tell when you need more zaino is, as you already noticed, by how "slick" the surface feels.

i dawned the car twice, z7ed twice, then went to z1/z2/z6. i didn't clay the body, but did/do clay the wheels.

my slickness test is with a soft cotton cloth wetted with distilled water. there is a definite difference in feel / drag of the cloth between a freshly coated surface and a "worn" one. you get a lot of slickness back just with z6, but after a while, you can even tell when that's not as slick as z6 on top of a fresh z2 or on top of a fresh z1/z2.

i z1/z2 about every 6 to 9 months, z2 about every 2 to 3 months, and z6 about 1 or 2 times a month.

once you get the application down to going by feel to get a very thin coat, it doesn't really take very long.

 

ok, a quick follow up

i did my dawn, followed zaino's instruction to the book, laid down 2 coats.. both coats i waited overnight before buffing, then left sitting for 24 hours before laying the next coat

just 2 weeks later,
just came home from a car wash, but it already feels rough again! what the hell am i doing wrong? the whole beading thing isn't working either... water simply slides off the sides, anythin that dont slide off are tiny little water mist beads... the front end feels relatively smooth, it's the back, where it just seems to have lost it altogether, am i suppose to always use the zaino quik detailer after every wash?

by the way, i used eagle one car wash... should i just dump it out and start using Z7?

thanks again

 

The back of the MCS is very effective in picking up every single bit of dust and dirt and debris that comes off the road! The only thing I can think of is to wash your car's rear end more often.. I wash once a week with Zaino Z7 with a mist of Z6 QD after, and it works pretty well at keeping it cleaner.. Just 30 minutes to an hour a week. I'd say give Z7 a try.. It's a pretty nice car wash, very slippery, and does seem to work hand in hand with the rest of the Zaino products.

I don't know what to add, except my own experiences with Zaino.. Just yesterday I finished the whole procedure again, but I added another step..

1)Wash my car with Z7 car wash.
2)Clay my car with Z7. Rinse with water, and then dry.
3)Use Menzerna Final Polish (FP). - this is the new step
4)Buff FP off with microfiber.
5)Apply Z2 with ZFX. Buff off after 15-30 minutes.
6) Apply Z6 quick detailer.
7) Apply Z2 again. Buff off after 15-30 minutes.
8) Apply Z6 QD, and that's it.

I did my entire car in about 3 hours, going pretty slow, and making sure to get all the nooks and crannie free from debris. I'll probably add another couple of layers of Z2 in a couple months. The last time I did this procedure was about 5 months ago (with four-five layers of Z2), in the middle of summer, and just last weekend the surface of my car was getting rough..

 

Water should slide off the sides. Zaino makes the surface hydrophobic and gravity does the rest (unless the water droplets are tiny). Does it still bead on the horizontal surfaces e.g. roof and bonnet ? When I hand-washed after the Zaino treatment (2 coats of Z5 with Z6 before & after) the car felt and looked like it was Teflon coated

 

I agree with the poster above. Water should slide immediately off of the side surfaces. I use the size of the beads on the hood as a guide to claying/re-Zainoing. As the beads get larger from additional rain (or water from your misting hose), the bead should break loose and make a run down the hood/roof before becoming the size of a nickel. If you have many beads that grow wider than that before achieving the critical mass to slide off, it's time to re-coat (wax or Zaino... your choice).

 

ya... the size of hte mist on the sides are less than the size of a dime, so i think it is still okay

the front end, same thing.. only tiny beads.. roof a little bigger beads, but not much...

thanks for the great advice... i take it if water don't slide off the back end it's time to re-zaino

 

You can also tell alot about the wax-job by the SHAPE of the water bead.

The smaller ones on fresh wax will be very tall in relation to their width and will be very round. The ability of water to grab ahold of the finish is so low that the surface tension of the water draws it into a tight circle and the water will tend to mound up rather than spread out, resulting in a nice rounded bead with a good deal of height.

As the finish wears away, the water is better able to grab ahold of the finish, spreading out into a flatter bead. The perimeter of these beads is less regular, taking on stranger and stranger shapes as the finish wears away.

You know that the finish has given up and started wailing in pain when no beads form... a perfectly flat (height=0) and irregular bead (all over the car). The water has a huge amount of surface area to grab on to and the microscopic cracks and grooves in the paint lead the water away by capillary action. You will often see this effect on old Chevy Cavaliers and every entry-level car that Oldsmobile made (and other cars that nobody ever really gave a flip about anyway).

Wow... I guess I was listening through all of those 'Chemistry of Water' lectures in college...

 

Yes, I would absolutely use Z7. It makes a difference! Also, did you prep the surface properly? Is it smooth? Did you clay? Zaino Z6 QD does add a lot to the slickness when used between application coats of Zaino and after washes and when used just periodically as touch up. You can't use this too much!

 

im in need of some new Z2 (i did my ma's A4 just a few days ago, and im running low), im probably gonna look into some Z6, and probably Z7 when my eagle one wash i use now runs dry...

to answer your question.. i clayed my car about 3 months ago, i didnt see a point to do it again... and after my dawn wash the surface is smooth.. the car's surface right now is still smooth, except the back.. where it seems to have worn off a bit more

 

Yea, I think that's the problem. Zaino works at it's optimum when you use all the components together. The Z6 quick detailer and the Z7 shampoo really boost the look and performance of the sealant. That's a huge part of its success. I like adding several coats at once, too so I always suggest getting the ZFX additive as well. It makes things faster and easier.

 

Is the Z7 really necessary? I usually just pick up some Turtle Wax car wash from Auto Zone. It say's it's safe on waxed finishes (ie it won't strip the wax off).

 

I really would suggest NOT doing that. The huge benefit of Zaino is that the polymers of the Z2 and the quick detailer Z6 work together as a system. Same goes for the Shampoo. It's part of the chemical system.

There is an amazing improvement in the feel and slickness of the finish when you stick with Zaino shampoo. It also allows you to layer on additional coats without having to strip off the "film" the other shampoo leaves on the surface. (This would not allow additional layers to bond)

Also, Z6 quick detailer will interact differently with the film left over from the other shampoo especially if it has trace carnaubas in it which many do. This can give you a streaky look.

I've been there, done that. I know better now. Z7 is worth it.