Durability of Z-AIO

[Accumulator]

You get about the same as me on ZAIO... On the other hand when people say they only get 2 weeks out a wax it seems like I get 5 or 6 weeks.

Heh heh, yeah...many of my product experiences are utterly different from other peoples' too

Who cares how slick it is. What's important is how long it beads.

Honestly, if you want slick then add some TW ice detail spray over it.

Heh heh, come on...by now you know how much I value slickness IMO it makes for less marring during the wash and, well, it's just one of those things I want from my LSP; I just *like* it. I do use slick QDs after most washes, but IMO it's not the same as having a slick LSP.



And whenever slickness drops off, I figure that *something* has happened that's not good. I want my vehicles to seem "just waxed" all the time, so as soon as something changes I want to change it back...slickness, beading, looks...they're all either OK/not in my book and when any of them becomes "not" I redo things.

If I was going to use Z-AIO as a stand alone on a car, would this hurt the paint if I apply monthly? I think it's a good question because of the abrasives in Z-AIO which are "minor" but overtime it might be bad?

I dunno...I was sorta surprised by how abrasive my ZAIO sample was. I ended up marring some surfaces with it, and to bring 'em back I had to use abrasives that I wouldn't want to use every month. This told me that the ZAIO was *more* abrasive than those products, so I'd be just a little cautious about using it *that* often.



Please don't misintrepret the above, I really *like* ZAIO and I plan to buy some when I use up my sample bottle.

 

[Macruz19]

I use Z-AIO with a PC on a white pad.. from using it I did not see any cutting ability, but it did clean the heck out of dirty paint! We all have different opinions, but I'll just stick with Z-AIO as a base for my Z-5.



If I did end up using Z-AIO as a stand alone... I think it's very hard to resist topping it.

 

[DETAILKING]

In my experience Z-AIO is on the mild side, with little to no cutting ability. It's best used for cleaning, removing old products, etc, rather than trying to dampen swirls with it. I use it mostly by hand with excellent durability. If I am going to reapply anything in the next few weeks/ months I would typically use Z5/Z2 or CS. Every other wash I use Z8.



I just used AIO on my boat this past weekend and am hoping to get the whole season out of it (as I did with Z2). I'll keep you posted.

 

[Accumulator]

In my experience Z-AIO is on the mild side, with little to no cutting ability..

Here's how I came up with my take on the abrasiveness of ZAIO, perhaps it won't translate very well to normal car paint:



1) I first tried it on the A8's sideview mirrors in a comparison test against KAIO. There was no correction to be done on the painted part but the ZAIO did clean it up nicely. On the black (unpainted) plastic part of the mirror, which I use polishes and AIOs on all the time, the ZAIO *REALLY* hazed it up. Under magnification is was obviously scratched up from the ZAIO's abrasives. To correct it I had to do three passes/applications of 3M PI-III MG 05937 followed by two passes of 1Z Pro MP (old version). That brought it back to where I was before the ZAIO. Note that I did the other side's mirror with KAIO as a comparison, and the KAIO did *not* haze/mar the black plastic.



2) I next tried the ZAIO on some uncleared/basecoat-only areas of the '97 M3. It cleaned and smoothed these surfaces, and also removed some minor marring. Needless to say, there was significant pigment transfer to the polishing medium.



Admittedly, those are two weird tests, nothing like testing on normal b/c paint. But they *did* make ZAIO seem sorta abrasive to me, well, at least for an AIO product. In a *good* way IMO...but it's something I have to be more careful with than products like KAIO.