I was washing my car today and it's beginning to frustrate me how many little tar and red/orange spots there are on my car. It's a PW with NO wax on it. what i'm wondering is, is this the case for everyone, or is it just me because I have no wax on it. i got it very close to winter, so i didn't get a chance to wax it, but I'm gonna go crazy if this doesn't change after a good waxing. ideas?

also, i've heard that metallic paint tends to be better at repeling such stains than "normal" paint. Is this true or just made up?

 

My experience from our c3/Meguires detail parties is that the metalic paint has lots of little specks in it and hence does not show all those little spots as badly as the solid color paint.

I think the specks are there you just cant see them on the metalic paint as well.

When it warms up use clay bar to get rid of the specks and then look into the Meguires NXT products. They are amazing. Once you have used them then the new little specks just wash right off!

Here is the link from our last party
http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/sho...0&pagenumber=1

We are in So Cal so we are lucky to be able to wash and wax all year round!

Good luck!

 

good to hear, I plan on using Zaino though, if I can give up that much money for some polish.

 

Zaino will work but I am with others on NXT. Hard to beat for ease of use and protection. Much cheaper too. Might want to think about trying it out and switch once the weather warms. So far it has repelled the salt, and the occasional tar bits.

 

if you don't want to do a full clay bar job/wax for the tar spots, try stoners bug and tar remover. might even work on those orange spots

 

I have a PW and I had those same kinds of spots on the rear end. I agree, they really show up on the solid pepper white. I had not waxed it since I got it last april so it was looking pretty bad. Then I had it detailed in December and they used a clay bar to clean it all off. Looked immaculate once it was done.

Good luck!

 

I started with Zanio too. It did work great but I found the Meguiar's to be much easier, less expensive, more convenient and it works great.

I shop a lot on the net but I also find it frustrating that I can't just run to the store when I run out of something.

I would say Clay bar and Stoners Invisible glass are my favorite finds for cleaning! (right behind Meguiar's of course)

 

I'm with Rickevans and Linda, NXT is easier to use and I have been very happy with the protection and shine.

 

hm.. NXT is that good. I dunno for some reason, I've always heard that the NXT doesn't last very long, so that's the main reason why I wanted Zaino, nice long protection, espeically throught the winter.

 

Zaino has a higher initial cost, but it lasts much longer than NXT. I can't tell any difference in the time to apply a coat of Zaino or a coat of wax. Depending on how much you value your time (what is your hourly rate), the Zaino may come out cheaper as you only have to seal half as often for the same protection.

There are some conveniences to NXT, though... You can find it at most Sprawl-mart stores and you don't have to do a mixing step, so if you need to do a spot touch-up, you can just apply it to the car and let it dry overnight. Just buff off the dry NXT the next morning before driving away and you are done.

Zaino, on the other hand, is a polymer sealant so you can layer it. The more layers, the deeper the shine (and the longer the protection, IMHO). I can put on a couple of coats of Zaino easily over a weekend and build up 4-5 layers fairly quickly. It is a bit more picky as it doesn't have a substantial amount of solvent or any abrasive in it, so it doesn't truely 'polish' the surface. You have to prepare the surface first, either by clay-bar or paintwork cleanser (or both), but you should probably do that before using NXT anyway.

 

well.. considering that I'm a student and currently not working. I would say that my hourly rate is about.. 0$ an hour.

Anyways, I've heard insanely good stuff about zaino and I'm also really into the layering so, I will most likely go for the zaino. I wanna see what this zaino smoothness is all about. Also like I said, for the winter, I definitely need the longest lasting protection I can get.

 

Well... even with no job, I hope your hourly rate would be bigger than $0. :smile: Consider your opportunity cost for waxing your car. How much would you be willing to pay someone per hour to do your grunt work for you (laundry, housekeeping, work that you don't enjoy). Would you rather play with your XBox for an hour and pay someone $1 to clean your bathroom or would you rather save the $1 and do it yourself?

I used to think that this was $0 until I had too much contract development (software) to do. I was ironing my shirts when I realized that I could pay someone $59/hour to do my laundry and I would still make $1 an hour on my contract. It completely changes the way you look at your time... until you run out of contract work! It's easy to go from $0/hour to $60/hour thinking... It's much harder to go back

 

Ha! I got so carried away that I didn't even mention your car!

A lot of the "Zaino Smoothness" comes from doing better surface preparation than you ever have before. The claying of your car does wonderful things to the smoothness. Most people who have been just using wax for years (myself included) never clay-bar until they get Zaino.

Don't get me wrong... I love Zaino and even my wife, who hates work of any type with a car and deplores every hour I spend out working on them, loves the results of Zaino and doesn't complain anymore when I break out the Z2!

 

I don't buy into the "Zaino is hard to apply" thing. It's not.

I have both NXT and Zaino and they both go on just as fast. BOTH require prepping the paint for optimum results. BOTH wipe on easily. BOTH wipe off easily. Zaino has less residue. Zaino doesn't stain trim. BOTH look great right away. NXT will start to degrade in a few weeks. Zaino will last several months. Zaino can be layered.

Zaino is expensive? No Way! Pro-rate the cost of Zaino over the length of time it's on the car and it's actually a better value. A bottle of Zaino will last you a couple years at least. If you can't afford that then you can't afford the car to put it on!

 

I've also gotten those orange spots before, i thought i had gone through some weird cloud of dust or something a few months ago and it had just stuck to the back of the car like everything else. Its weird to see many other PW owners have the same problem. It almost looks like rust!