Polish... how often???

H

heffergm

New member
Now that I'm a bit more serious about detailing, I've committed myself to Zaino, simply because I order all my product online anyway, and I like that it lasts a good long time.

That being said, here's the situation I've run into:

I polished with ZPC for the first time a few weeks ago, and the car looks great. I proceeded to wash in my usual fashion, and discovered that apparently the mit I was using was horrendous, because my car is a mass of swirls again. Mitt is now in the trash.

I re-polished with ZPC to get back to square one. Aside from needing a new wash mitt, I'm wondering:

How often is it safe to use an abrasive polish like ZPC? Obviously twice in as many weeks isn't going to be the norm. I'm figuring maybe twice a year with ZPC, if that, provided I can figure out a good wash method that doesn't re-introduce swirls :(
 
Ya you need to do a lot of searching to get a good process going with your washing techniques. I know that when I started I was not worried about swirls because I was going to rely on the PC to take the swirls out that I created. But the truth is that is starts with the wash.

As far as using ZPC... I have a four times a year regimen that I employ. Mostly because I tend to instill swirls due to way to much QD'ing. Once I start to slow down on QD'ing and employ the knowledge that I have learned for basic wash techiques that will probably be cut down to twice a year. But until then I am a four times a year man.
 
My rule is this: Polish as little as possible.
IMO, this means using a less agressive system more often.
 
PEI Detail said:
My rule is this: Polish as little as possible.
IMO, this means using a less agressive system more often.
Click to expand...

And what would fall under less agressive than a mild polish that still removes swirling (which is really all I'll ever need to deal with)?
 
ZPC is pretty abrasive. Maybe Z5 is a better maintenance polish, but I don't know Zaino as well.
 
PEI Detail said:
ZPC is pretty abrasive. Maybe Z5 is a better maintenance polish, but I don't know Zaino as well.
Click to expand...

Except that Z5 really isn't a polish, it's a sealant. Why Sal decided to name it a polish I don't really know, but it has no ability to remove paint imperfections (Z5 is claimed to be good at hiding swirls, but I haven't found it to be much different than Z2).
 
I tend to polish my vehicles whenever i feel that they "need" it. I can get one of my vehicles probably 99.5% marr free, and by using proper washing & drying techniques, won't really need another polish for around a year. Granted, it will get some marring on it, but I tend to wait until I hit a full detail on it.

As far as what polish goes, I would say that you might want to "braoden your horizons" a bit and see what other polishes are out there. While I don't know too much about Zaino, it seems like they only have one dedicated swirl removing polish. I would like to have several different polishes of varying abrasiveness sitting on the shelf at my disposal. You won't always need the same polish for different jobs, or even different places on the same vehicle.
 
I have found that SSR1 is a great mild abrasive polish. As well as PwC. I know SSR shouldn't be used on a monthly bases, but what about PwC? I started using EX so I want be polishing as often.
 
PwC is a very good product to be used to prep paint surfaces. It has very little corrective properties. Was not designed to be a swirl remover. Poorboy's has a plan in the works for more aggressive one step. PwC will remove old wax and oxidation to prepare the vehicles paint for an LSP. If you are going to be doing it monthly there is a good chance that PwC will give protection for that period of time without a topper.
 
what about paints with single stage ?

are they going to be thinner compared to cars with colour anc clear coat?
 
heffergm said:
Except that Z5 really isn't a polish, it's a sealant. Why Sal decided to name it a polish I don't really know, but it has no ability to remove paint imperfections (Z5 is claimed to be good at hiding swirls, but I haven't found it to be much different than Z2).
Click to expand...

Sorry, my bad.
I use other brands more, but I was just trying to say that use a low abrasive polish to maintain it.
 
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