Discussion
Can anybody tell me whether you buy Zymol for a specific colour. Or can it be used on any car? My 964 is white and I want to give it a good clean, get rid of the dirty streaks you always seem to get with white cars. I also want to use it on my lexus which is dark metalic blue. If this cant be done can anyone recommend a product suitable for both applications.
Thanks Simon.
Thanks Simon.
Davey S2 said:
IIRC Zymol do specific waxes for Italian cars and German cars. Has more to do with the type of paint rather than the colour though.
I use Titanium which is recommended if you do lots of motorway miles or if you track your car a lot.
I use Titanium which is recommended if you do lots of motorway miles or if you track your car a lot.
Zymol do waxes for different coloured cars, ie red Royale for Ferraris, but the colour is largely immaterial. By the time it gets buffed down to a micron or two, the colour enhancement properties of the wax are pretty limited. You'd need many layers to make a difference and even then it would be more of a subjective change in appearance. You may like to choose a dark coloured wax for a light coloured car to see the areas you have applied it to, though.
The type of paint thing is, from my understanding of paints, a bit of a red herring. Most paints are made these days by companies like Du Pont, Glasurit etc. and you are just as likely to have a German clear coat on an Italian car as an Italian one.
The simple rule is: buy a nice wax that goes on well and buffs off better, having cleansed it first. In the Zymol range, HD Cleanse followed by Zymol Carbon/Titanium would do the trick. Coloured waxes and manufacturer specific waxes have more marketing benefits for the wax co. than physical benefits for your paintwork.
911wise said:
Can anybody tell me whether you buy Zymol for a specific colour. Or can it be used on any car? My 964 is white and I want to give it a good clean, get rid of the dirty streaks you always seem to get with white cars. I also want to use it on my lexus which is dark metalic blue. If this cant be done can anyone recommend a product suitable for both applications.
Thanks Simon.
Thanks Simon.
Also check out Swissol.
John Drake , top man.
Give him a ring . He's always more than happy to advise.
Website as follows.
www.johnswax.co.uk/index2.html
Give him a ring . He's always more than happy to advise.
Website as follows.
www.johnswax.co.uk/index2.html
david911rsr said:
911wise said:
Can anybody tell me whether you buy Zymol for a specific colour. Or can it be used on any car? My 964 is white and I want to give it a good clean, get rid of the dirty streaks you always seem to get with white cars. I also want to use it on my lexus which is dark metalic blue. If this cant be done can anyone recommend a product suitable for both applications.
Thanks Simon.
Thanks Simon.
Also check out Swissol.
Yup, Swissol buffs off far easier than, say, Zymol Carbon.
I guess it depends if you want out and out "WOW!" or longevity but I used Carlack paint cleaner and Collinite Wax on my new Boxster and it looks fantastic IMHO at a total cost of about £25 excluding some decent towels and applicators.
I'm not knocking Zymol/Swissol as I've not tried either and have to say I'm tempted to see if they live up to the hype, but I wouldn't discount the cheaper options either.
I'm not knocking Zymol/Swissol as I've not tried either and have to say I'm tempted to see if they live up to the hype, but I wouldn't discount the cheaper options either.
Just ordered auto-clay and auto-balm from www.bilt-hamber.com for 19.95 + p&p
As seen in classic car mag, will post report.
As seen in classic car mag, will post report.
Edited by rs48635 on Tuesday 13th February 15:01
A friend spent 100 quid on the carbon Zymol as it was recomended for his red 964. he got a better finish with Auto Glym !!! Complained and turned out we where applying wrong. Just finished it using the approved method as discribed by thier customer service rep which incidently is a different process to that discribed in the book. Still dont look any better !!
circo said:
A friend spent 100 quid on the carbon Zymol as it was recomended for his red 964. he got a better finish with Auto Glym !!! Complained and turned out we where applying wrong. Just finished it using the approved method as discribed by thier customer service rep which incidently is a different process to that discribed in the book. Still dont look any better !!
This could be due to the basic non waxed or glazed state of the paint. I machine polished some parts of my 944 about a month ago in two stages using farecla g3 followed by the much finer compund g10 (it don't look so great now but thats a different story!). I then made the stupid in hindsight decision to apply autoglym SRP by hand which made the finish worse and seemed to re-cut back into the paintwork again. What I didn't realise before this is that SRP seems to contain fillers that fill in fine scratches, and chemicals that cut into the paint to clean it and help remove oxidisation. Given that the surface was so nice and mirror like I believe the SRP had nothing to sink into and just sort of blotched about on the surface. You could be in the opposite situation whereby the surface is not prepared well enough for the Zymol to layer on to and give a nice just waxed look. ISTR that Zymol / Swissol do not contain fillers and only work properly when put on a perfectly clean defect free panel. An alternative may be to use something like Meguirs tech wax which supposedly does a top glaze and sealent/wax in one step. This will fill in and hide any fine scratches as well as protecting against oxidasition etc.
NJH said:
ISTR that Zymol / Swissol do not contain fillers and only work properly when put on a perfectly clean defect free panel.
I used to use Zympl Japon on my S2000.
You really need to prepare the paintwork using HD Cleanse. Ideally, you should also use a claybar before that to get rid of the surface crap and oxidised paint. Claying leaves a lovely, smooth-to-the-touch finish and makes it much easier to get a good finish with the wax.
It's all in the preparation.
That said, I don't think Zymol is any better than a lot of other products out there. I switched to Zaino and found that to be easier to apply and more durable, although perhaps lacking the ultimate "wet look" finish that Zymol gave. Easy enough to remedy that though by sticking a coat of P21S on top of the Zaino.
I maintain that you'll get a decent finish with any reasonable quality wax or polish IF you (a) prepare the surface properly and (b) put the requisite level of elbow grease into applying it. It has more to do with the time and effort spent applying it than the inherent quality of the product.
So how do you apply the wax?? Straight lines on and off and rub like crazy?? Assuming you have done the clay bit/HD Clense bit? Loads of wax or thin layers??
I think a lot of it is old wives tales..howhard can it be to polish a bloody cars..it cant be a science surely!! Maybe it is and I am wrong?
I think a lot of it is old wives tales..howhard can it be to polish a bloody cars..it cant be a science surely!! Maybe it is and I am wrong?
9hellheaven said:
I think a lot of it is old wives tales..howhard can it be to polish a bloody cars..it cant be a science surely!! Maybe it is and I am wrong?
Depends on if you mean real polish or the consumer stuff which is usually not really an abrasive as such and just used to bring back a nice colour. If you follow the obsessive detailers then yes it requires a lot of experience and expertise. My brother worked in a body shop and I was asking him questions the other day to gauge if my technique with the rotary polisher is correct. Basically like he said you have to look at a car and know about the type of paint and finish that is on there. This only comes from years of experience. One size fits all guides never work to cover the vastly different situations you may need to deal with, as a simple example you may need very different approaches to polish the external plastic panels of your car compared to the metal panels. Like many I really can't be bothered with the concours type preperation but when I stood back and looked at the mirror like reflections I got on my 16 yr old car after machine polishing then it did make me feel very happy indeed.
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