$75 to spend - what should I get?

M

MyZmZm

New member
As the title says, if I have only $75 to spend to add to my detail 'kit', what should I get?



Paint condition is a 7.5 out of 10, still has nice depth and shine for being outside 24/7 (though not stellar) and a daily driver, with only minor swirling, scratches, rock chips and hazing (from the claybar, my bad :mad: ). Colour is midnight blue, and rims are painted gunmetal (except for winter, when it's steelies all the way :( ). Interior is cloth.



Currently in my arsenal:

Zaino for exterior - Z7 Car Wash, Z2 and 5 Polishes, ZFX Accelerator, Z6 Gloss Enhancer, Z18 Claybars, Z16 Tire Gloss

Interior - Mother's Protectant (for vinyl)



'Tools' I currently have:

- applicators (from and for applying the Zaino)

- 100% cotton flannel baby sheets, torn up into manageable sizes



Items I'm considering:

- products/tools for cleaning my rims

- towels for drying the car

- an actual polish for removing the swirl marks (ZPC? I'd prefer to stick with Zaino right now)

- products/tools for cleaning up under the hood

- don't know what else :nixweiss



So, since you're all the experts around here and I'm a lowly noob :D, tell me what I should get!



btw, I do not have a PC right now and don't intend to get one until I can find someone who I trust (and who's work I've seen) can show me how to properly use one. I DON'T want to f#%k up my paint.
 
I would say either a new or second hand PC. It is a great investment but dont worry about damaging your paint, it can be done but it requires a lot of effort. Once you have bought a PC you will wonder why you did not buy one sooner
 
Lowejackson said:
I would say either a new or second hand PC. It is a great investment but dont worry about damaging your paint, it can be done but it requires a lot of effort. Once you have bought a PC you will wonder why you did not buy one sooner
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:xyxthumbs
 
Lowejackson said:
I would say either a new or second hand PC. It is a great investment but dont worry about damaging your paint, it can be done but it requires a lot of effort. Once you have bought a PC you will wonder why you did not buy one sooner
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I will likely get one in the next year or so, but since I am pretty new to the whole detail scene, I would like to learn a bit more - technique, product, etc - and add to my car care box first. Because I have a dark blue car, it shows everything. :wall
 
Ya, you will be pleased with a PC



For products, ZPC works well with the German double sided foam applicator



You should really try Z8 also.
 
MyZmZm said:
I will likely get one in the next year or so, but since I am pretty new to the whole detail scene, I would like to learn a bit more - technique, product, etc - and add to my car care box first. Because I have a dark blue car, it shows everything. :wall
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I appreciate your caution at not wanting to damage your paint. One of the reasons why the PC is so popular is that it is very easy to use, it produces great results ( even on black cars) and it is not that easy to damage the paint.



There are those with great skills who can get a great shine by hand but for many of us a PC really makes a big difference in the shine and gloss of our paintwork.
 
Drying towels--really any large MF Waffle Weaves will do fine. Locally the Meg's Water Magnet is good and pretty cheap, so get a couple.



Wheels--never tried the "boutique" wheel cleaners, but I would say go with one of them because every OTC one I have tried is underwhelming--even Eagle One AWC. Meguiar's Wheel Brightener and Poorboy's Spray and RInse seem to be the choice for strong wheel cleaners; IDK about mild ones. If you buy some Poorboy's WHeel sealant, you could seal the rims and just clean them with soap and water from that point on.. Get a Meguiar's Spoke Brush locally, too.
 
I look at picking up a jug of all purpose cleaner. I find that its the most versatile product in my arsenal. APC can be used on everything from wheel wells to interiors. And to boot, the meguiar's APC is only 15 bucks. Considering you can dilute it you can get 10's of gallons of diluted APC for 15 dollars. That's awesome :D
 
Neothin said:
I look at picking up a jug of all purpose cleaner. I find that its the most versatile product in my arsenal. APC can be used on everything from wheel wells to interiors. And to boot, the meguiar's APC is only 15 bucks. Considering you can dilute it you can get 10's of gallons of diluted APC for 15 dollars. That's awesome :D
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I totally agree. An APC is probably the most economic product anyone can have. It does everything from wheels and tires to interiors to engines and stubborn bug/tar spots on paint. I probably missed some uses too. Considering the average gallon is about 10 bucks, you can't go wrong with a good APC. So an APC covers your wheels/tires product and chemical for cleaning under the hood. In addition, you might want to get a long-handled fenderwell brush to agitate the APC in the engine. As far as drying goes, get 4 or 5 quality waffle weave towels. If you want to stick to "by-hand" application, I highly recommend picking up some Clearkote Vanilla Moose. It will hide your swirls (since hand application WILL NOT remove swirls) and add a crazy amount of wetness to the paint. Top it off with the Zaino you have and you'll have a great finish. If I'm not mistaken, Zaino does not make a polish or glaze that will hide swirls, but don't worry, Zaino sealants work fine after applying any polish or glaze.



Hope this helps.
 
I also like the APC idea. I use my gallon jug all the time for stuff around the house too. I use a spray bottle diluted 10:1 and another diluted 3:1. That jug is going to last forever!



Are your summer wheels the Racing Harts? Just painted gunmetal?



OK here's my list with $75 on my mind:



7 blue/yellow MFs for the price of 6 http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?ref=exceldetail&ct=29279



Waffle Weave drying towel

http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?ref=exceldetail&ct=29280&pd=133820



Sheepskin wash mitt

http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?ref=exceldetail&ct=30057&pd=138546

(You can also get decent mitts at WalMart that are very similar).



MF applicators for applying plastic/vinyl cleaners/protectants (I've got 18 of these lol)

http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?ref=exceldetail&ct=37931&pd=102815



Pick up a tire brush at a local store. Keep in mind that most tire brushes will scratch wheels, so don't go too crazy when cleaning your tires.



Klasse AIO

http://www.autogeek.net/klasseallinone.html



Use AIO and another sealant on your wheels. Some may say that Zaino won't bond well to AIO, so you may want to get a different sealant for wheels, or just use Zaino by itself on the wheels. But I also like to use a paint cleaner on my wheels before sealing, to make sure they look their best.



I wouldn't bother trying to remove the swirls by hand. And furthermore, I think Z-PC is pretty mild, even when used with a PC. So using that by hand would probably yield painfully slow results.

Once you get a PC, then start thinking about removing the swirls.



I've still got some $$ left over, so I'd get some of my favorite tire product,

http://www.autogeek.net/wg4700.html



A cheaper alternative to the WG gel would be to go to the local store and get some Mothers FX tire protectant. I haven't tried it myself, but there have been a lot of positive comments on the FX line.





I would DEFINITELY get the PC as soon as you can afford it. Since it's probably too cold for you to use it for a while anyway, don't worry about getting it now. But you've got swirls and hazing, and Zaino isn't going to do anything to help it. You need a PC and a good polish like SSR2.5 to revive your paint to what it should look like. A light polish with fillers llike Clearkote Vanilla Moose (VM) or Red Moose Glaze (RMG) will clean the paint and also fill in some of the swirls/hazing. That might be a wise way to go since you don't have the tools necessary to remove the swirls...might as well fill them in as much as you can.
 
Porkanbeans said:
I totally agree. An APC is probably the most economic product anyone can have. It does everything from wheels and tires to interiors to engines and stubborn bug/tar spots on paint. I probably missed some uses too. Considering the average gallon is about 10 bucks, you can't go wrong with a good APC. So an APC covers your wheels/tires product and chemical for cleaning under the hood. In addition, you might want to get a long-handled fenderwell brush to agitate the APC in the engine. As far as drying goes, get 4 or 5 quality waffle weave towels. If you want to stick to "by-hand" application, I highly recommend picking up some Clearkote Vanilla Moose. It will hide your swirls (since hand application WILL NOT remove swirls) and add a crazy amount of wetness to the paint. Top it off with the Zaino you have and you'll have a great finish. If I'm not mistaken, Zaino does not make a polish or glaze that will hide swirls, but don't worry, Zaino sealants work fine after applying any polish or glaze.



Hope this helps.
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From the sounds of things, I'll have to see if I can pick up a jug of the APC locally since that would probably be a b**ch to ship (I'm in Canada).



To ensure that the Zaino would properly 'stick' after using the Vanilla Moose (sounds like a hair product :chuckle: ), I would just simply wash my car with the zaino car wash, correct?
 
White95Max said:
I also like the APC idea. I use my gallon jug all the time for stuff around the house too. I use a spray bottle diluted 10:1 and another diluted 3:1. That jug is going to last forever!



Are your summer wheels the Racing Harts? Just painted gunmetal?



OK here's my list with $75 on my mind:



7 blue/yellow MFs for the price of 6 http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?ref=exceldetail&ct=29279



Waffle Weave drying towel

http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?ref=exceldetail&ct=29280&pd=133820



Sheepskin wash mitt

http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?ref=exceldetail&ct=30057&pd=138546

(You can also get decent mitts at WalMart that are very similar).



MF applicators for applying plastic/vinyl cleaners/protectants (I've got 18 of these lol)

http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?ref=exceldetail&ct=37931&pd=102815



Pick up a tire brush at a local store. Keep in mind that most tire brushes will scratch wheels, so don't go too crazy when cleaning your tires.



Klasse AIO

http://www.autogeek.net/klasseallinone.html



Use AIO and another sealant on your wheels. Some may say that Zaino won't bond well to AIO, so you may want to get a different sealant for wheels, or just use Zaino by itself on the wheels. But I also like to use a paint cleaner on my wheels before sealing, to make sure they look their best.



I wouldn't bother trying to remove the swirls by hand. And furthermore, I think Z-PC is pretty mild, even when used with a PC. So using that by hand would probably yield painfully slow results.

Once you get a PC, then start thinking about removing the swirls.



I've still got some $$ left over, so I'd get some of my favorite tire product,

http://www.autogeek.net/wg4700.html



A cheaper alternative to the WG gel would be to go to the local store and get some Mothers FX tire protectant. I haven't tried it myself, but there have been a lot of positive comments on the FX line.





I would DEFINITELY get the PC as soon as you can afford it. Since it's probably too cold for you to use it for a while anyway, don't worry about getting it now. But you've got swirls and hazing, and Zaino isn't going to do anything to help it. You need a PC and a good polish like SSR2.5 to revive your paint to what it should look like. A light polish with fillers llike Clearkote Vanilla Moose (VM) or Red Moose Glaze (RMG) will clean the paint and also fill in some of the swirls/hazing. That might be a wise way to go since you don't have the tools necessary to remove the swirls...might as well fill them in as much as you can.
Click to expand...

Hey Paul, thanks for chiming in. You think you're cold right now, you should come up here - it's a balmy -15C plus windchill. And my baby's outside in it! (no garage :( )



Yup, rims I'm talking about are the gunmetal RH's, and no, I don't want to scratch these babies. What should I look for in a tire brush? And since the rims are the closest to the road, and will pick up the most abuse, what would be better? To use several layers of zaino or the AIO? When you say paint cleaner, are you simply referring to using some car soap/wash, or something else?



I forgot to mention that I do have a sheepskin mitt, microfibre mitt, and chenille mitt, so I don't need those. The last time I washed my car by hand (a few weeks ago), I used the sheepskin mitt and I have to admit, it felt a LOT better against the paint than my supposedly soft sponge.



What's the difference between the Vanilla Moose and the Red Moose? Which would be better to use if I only got one? One of the guys down in Calgary (I think you know him from msprotege - Maxx Mazda) has said that he'll polish my car for me come spring. I'm hoping to hang over his shoulder and bug him, and maybe try it myself, just to learn proper technique, etc. His car is in amazing condition, so I trust him with my baby.



For picking up a PC, where would be the best place to look (locally or online), and what should I look for?



Oh, and thanks a bunch for providing links - always helpful.
 
MyZmZm- Let me be the last person :o to welcome you to Autopia! Saw your posts over on the "New Dog" thread but didn't say "hi" for some reason.



For the wheels, I'd put on a few coats of Zaino and see if you can just wash them with carwash shampoo, which won't strip the Zaino the way stronger washes will. I clean my wheels with Boar's Hair Brushes from Griot's. The PN for the wheel brush is 92546 and you might also check out PN 15520, a set of small BHBs that are great for washing nooks and crannies (inside fuel filler pockets, door jambs, around tight areas of wheels, etc.).



Mazda clear is sorta hard (I have a Mazda) and you won't do any real correction with something like VM so you'd just get a little hiding from it. I'd pick between glaze/wax and sealants (like your Zaino) and go one way or the other. Dark blue can be pretty unforgiving with regard to marring, so the glaze/wax approach might have something going for it. But you already have the Zaino, huh?



Given the whole dark color- marring thing, you might want to use a foamgun when you wash. IMO, not marring the paint in the first place beats trying to fix/hide the marring after it's occurred. And washing is what you do most often. Some people even find the foamgun fun to use.
 
It's 10*F/-12*C here right now. :( But we're supposed to climb above freezing this weekend! Strange that I'm looking forward to "warming up" to 32*F.



Klasse AIO is a paint cleaner. A paint cleaner is just a chemical that cleans off stains, oxidation, bug splatters, and other stuff like that. I think the Zaino would be great for protecting the wheels, but I would want to use a paint cleaner first. So you could try using the Z-PC by hand first on the wheels, and then the Z2. Once you get any type of sealant in there, you'll notice that the dirt and brake dust just wipe right off with no effort. I'm sure you've seen my thread/wheels over on the Mazda forums.



A tire brush is a pretty simple tool. The only thing that you might want to look for is something like the Meg's Versa-Angle brush that has softer bristles on the outside, just in case you happen to contact the wheels with the brush. I have one, but I received it after I had taken my wheels off, and frankly I couldn't motivate myself to scrub my winter tires/wheels real well when it was <35*F outside. I would have been left with a nice patch of ice that night too.

You can get a cheap tire brush at any parts store or department store with an automotive aisle.



VM and RMG are pretty similar. Aside from their color, I felt that the RMG was slightly easier to use, and had about the same filling ability. IIRC though, it costs a couple bucks more too. Either one would be a good choice. They are both easy to use, have fillers, cleaning ability, and yield great results.



The problem I have with Zaino is that it's so picky about what you can use it over. Supposedly it doesn't bond well over anything except a clean paint surface, so if you use any type of cleaner wax (RMG, VM, AIO, PwC...) you aren't supposed to use Zaino over it. So that's why I prefer other, less picky, sealants.



Maxx will probably be using a rotary polisher, since he works/worked for a dealership. I'm sure they weren't paying him to use a PC. It'd be too slow. You probably don't want to try using a rotary at this point. Get used to polishing with a PC (basically harmless) and then move to a rotary (very harmful in untrained hands).



PCs are available at Lowe's stores for $99. I don't know if you have any Lowe's in Canada. They were $69 at the local Lowe's store here for a while. I don't know if they still are.



I got mine from http://www.coastaltool.com

I think it was $119 with both counterweights (5" and 6").



IMO it's best to buy the PC separately and then buy the Propel pad kit from http://www.exceldetail.com
 
I'd still say to buy a PC. It's really hard to mess up your paint with it, even if you knew what you were doing and were TRYING to mess something up. I guess if you took a cutting pad, with a rubbing compound, put the PC on 6 (the highest setting), left it in one spot, and pressed all of your body weight down and just stood there in the same spot for 5 minutes you could probably do some damage. But as long as you have an idea about what's going on, you really won't mess up anything significant.
 
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