Looking for general tips, product advice.

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eyedrop

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I've finally ran out of my 5 year old bottle of Zaino Z-2 and ready to buy a more modern sealant. The Zaino performed very well, but it was kind of a pain working with. I would try to use as little as possible, as suggested. But I was never sure if the area got covered or not. I would look at the paint from an angle as I wiped, and you could see part of it not getting applied unless your towel and hand were perfectly flat. For me, using such a concentrated product was harder to work with. Use too much or too little, and you were wasting your time. It was a very thin line (pun intended).

The easiest product Ive ever used was Turtle Wax Express Shine spray wax. Super easy to spread because of its liquid consistency, and buffing was a breeze. It was very forgiving. But the longevity is horrible! Ideally, I would like Zaino level protection, but with the ease of a spray sealant. Something I can just spray and wipe, while still having decent protection. The idea is to do a quick seal after every: 2 bucket wash/quick clay/wash/leaf blower (which I do every weekend). Hopefully it would eventually build a couple of good coats of sealant on it for the coming winter. Any suggestions?

Its a blue 2015 Nissan Leaf. Its got a few minor to medium scratches and light swirls that ive tried to remove with my DA and some M205 and a white finishing pad. But I think I need to get a little more aggressive. I have a bottle of M105 and an orange pad, but Im afraid that might be too aggressive. Should I try the M105 with a white pad? I dont want to damage this new, fragile Nissan paint. (Ive heard the clearcoat is very thin, and paint is soft.)

Also, what is the best way to deal with rock chips, other than getting a repaint? Ive seen people use touch up paint, and it honestly looks like crap. Ive heard of people filling in the chip, then sanding/polishing the spot. But on such a new car, I would hate to take off all that clear coat. Any suggestions?
 
Check out Optimum Opti-Seal for a spray sealant. Rupes 808 is also an excellent product.

You can absolutely try the M105 on the white pad, but I haven't found the orange pad to be all that much more aggressive than the white, especially once it gets wet.
 
Welcome. I used to be a Zainoite back in the day (mid 90's).

There are lots of great products to choose from that will last for a while. It's fall soon to be winter here so I tend to then recomend Collinite 476. 845 works well too but 476 is their strongest and longest lasting product.

Medium scratch....is one that you can feel with your fingernail? Does it seem to blend/go away when wet? If its deep you might even consider filling it with clear coat, masking it off, wet sanding it to level and then buff. Same process for the touch up you mentoined. Dr. Colorchip is amazing, easy to use, eliminates a lot of sanding needs but can be sanded if needed. No need to stress about it. Just mask off the area, sand and then polish.

If you hit it with the 105 start with a white pad and see. Won't hurt. Orange is fine too.
 
You might like to look into Ultima products. Ultima Paint Guard Plus (UPGP) is a nice wipe on/walk away (WOWA) paint sealant. Super slick and glossy. Easy application. Great longevity. A little goes a long way. A bottle will last a long time. Ultima also makes a trim-specific and interior-specific product in the same line-up.

The other often-mentioned WOWA sealants you'll find here on the forum are Optimum Opti-seal, Wolfgang Deep Gloss Liquid Seal, and Blackfire Crystal Seal. I'll leave it to you to research those, as I've only used the UPGP. It's a great product.
 
This is a brand new 2016 Atlima SR I just purchased for my daughter less than two weeks ago. That's with a quick coat of BFMCSCW, like I said, I love this stuff.

I use a blue mf foam covered pad to apply, let it lightly haze and then wipe off. Longevityis amazing for a "spray wax". I ended up buying a 1/2 gallon :props:

 
OP here. So far, Im kinda leaning towards the Rupes 808 or maybe the Blackfire stuff, since it doesn't claim to be "ultra concentrated". I would rather be able to liberally spray and wipe, to ensure proper coverage. I mean, over applying is never good. But I just feel like a super concentrated product tends to soak in the applicator, and its hard to believe that just one little spritz worth of product will provide a truly even application on an entire body panel... Which of these spray sealant's/waxes are less concentrated?
 
Less concentrate equals more fillers (water) and less protection.
 
eyedrop said:
OP here. So far, Im kinda leaning towards the Rupes 808 or maybe the Blackfire stuff, since it doesn't claim to be "ultra concentrated". I would rather be able to liberally spray and wipe, to ensure proper coverage. I mean, over applying is never good. But I just feel like a super concentrated product tends to soak in the applicator, and its hard to believe that just one little spritz worth of product will provide a truly even application on an entire body panel... Which of these spray sealant's/waxes are less concentrated?
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In your OP, you mentioned you were looking for a "sealant". Just a heads up-- you'll see people mention sealants and spray waxes. When you read "sealant", that's more than likely referring to a true paint sealant, which differs from "spray waxes" (ex. the turtle wax product you mentioned). It sounds like you might be looking for a spray wax (i.e. a maintenance product for after washes) rather than a sealant?

If that's the case, then yeah, disregard my recommendation for the Ultima products. Lots of praise around here for the Blackfire that custom sporty mentioned. I'd also recommend another for your consideration-- Duragloss Aquawax. I consider it a spray wax, although some go so far as to call it a sealant. Words aside, it's an awesome product. You can apply liberally, as you wish, and it definitely has better longevity than a lot of the spray waxes out there. It's glossy and slick.

Duragloss Aquawax (AW) #951

I've not used it yet, but It's on the way... Ultima just came out with an acrylic spray wax that also looks promising.
Ultima Acrylic Spray Wax
 
Meguiar's D156 is also a great choice for a spray "wax." It works well on clear coat, trim and glass. I have a love-hate relationship with it, but when it performs as expected the results are great. If time permits I like using it on customers' wheels that are clear coated.

McKee's Fast Wax is similar to D156, but in my experience it doesn't impart as slick of a finish. There are a ton of spray waxes available and the majority will likely match your expectation.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
Now to confuse you even further... you indicated that you prefer a spray on/wipe off application method. I would recommend these two spray on and immediately wipe off products from Prima:

http://www.autogeek.net/prima-hydro-max.html

http://www.autogeek.net/prima-hydro-spray-wax.html

Prima Hydro Max is an excellent spray on/wipe off sealant that is just ridiculously easy to apply. Use it after you correct your paint and maybe once a month through the winter to maintain your protection.

Prima Hydro is an awesome maintenance product that can be used with your planned weekly washes. A fantastic drying aid and gloss/protection booster.

IMHO you could not go wrong with this 1-2 combination!
 
Eyedrop, lots of great LSP recommendations so far. Getting back to correcting your paint i might suggest stepping up the M205 with an orange pad to maybe nudge just a little more aggression before going with M105.
 
Depending on the color of the car, my recommendations could go different directions when it comes to the spray sealants.

For a car with non-metallic paint or paint with minimal flake, I'd recommend D-156/Ultimate Quik Wax. Vehicles with metallic paint I think look better with Blackfire Wet Diamond Polymer Spray. Both are excellent products from my experience. UQW seems to have better sheeting properties and leaves the surface pretty slick. On the other hand, I found the Blackfire Polymer Spray beads more and seems to be more durable.
 
Used to be a Zaino-zealot as well. Now fully immersed in quartz/glass/ceramic (whatever you wanna call them) coatings and couldn't be happier. Much, much less time spent cleaning cars and cars spend much, much more time looking clean. Pick the right coating and application is as easy, if not easier, than some sealants and waxes.
 
OP here. I spent an hour or two buffing one of the doors on my car, which had some severely etched water spots, as well as some minor swirls and one deeper scratch. I decided to stick to only the M205, but tried the orange pad this time. It took quite a few passes, but the finish looks great now! Once the water spots were gone, I noticed there was still some light swirls here and there. So I finished it off using the white pad, and that took care of 90%+ of them. The deeper scratch was diminished greatly, but the "outline" of it, as well as the white color in the valley of the scratch is still noticeable in certain angles/lighting. I might have to wet sand that one. But yeah, stepping up to the orange pad did the trick. It took forever, but it worked. Maybe next time, Ill buy whatever is one step more aggressive, like a 5 or 6 cutting ability. That would be perfect.

I still have some defect spots where the pad couldn't "reach", like around the edges of the door handles and near the corners/crevices of the panel. I tried hitting those spots by hand for a few minutes, but there are still some defects. Also, the chrome door handles have some swirls and water spots. Any advice on that one?

BTW, I ended up ordering the Prima Hydro Max sealant from autogeek. What attracted me is the supposed super easy application, low price and a less concentrated 16 oz bottle, all while being reasonably durable.
 
FWIW, had some pretty severe etched water spots on a black Corvette. WG Uber Compound, Megs M101 on yellow foam did little. Megs D300 with their microfiber cutting discs worked very nicely as long as ya clean/blow out the pad after every section.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
 
eyedrop said:
. The idea is to do a quick seal after every: 2 bucket wash/quick clay/wash/leaf blower (which I do every weekend). Hopefully it would eventually build a couple of good coats of sealant on it for the coming winter. Any suggestions?

For easy apply solid protection I go Collinite 845... 2 coats will perform as weel as the 476s paste equivalent, and it is super easy to use. This is your foundation so to speak.
For weekly post wash wax boosting the easiest performer I have found is optimum car wax, (i bought agallon and decant to a trigger bottle), very forgiving and can be used on any surface.. i mix mine with ONR at detail spray concentrations as a drying aid after the blow dry... Megs D156 is a nother good perfromer very fogiving great gloss can smear a little on hot paint but just ensure paint not hot :)

Its a blue 2015 Nissan Leaf. Its got a few minor to medium scratches and light swirls that ive tried to remove with my DA and some M205 and a white finishing pad. But I think I need to get a little more aggressive. I have a bottle of M105 and an orange pad, but Im afraid that might be too aggressive. Should I try the M105 with a white pad? I dont want to damage this new, fragile Nissan paint. (Ive heard the clearcoat is very thin, and paint is soft.)
just go up the scale on agression on the test spot until you see progress.. nothing you have is going to cut at such a rate you need to be worried.

Also, what is the best way to deal with rock chips, other than getting a repaint? Ive seen people use touch up paint, and it honestly looks like crap. Ive heard of people filling in the chip, then sanding/polishing the spot. But on such a new car, I would hate to take off all that clear coat. Any suggestions?
if jst clear chips then touch up clear and either wet sand with 3000grit then polish, if through to colour coat then just touch up with color and repaet the process.. it looks better than a chip fropm a distance an the colour match available these days is vary good..
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All the best.
 
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