Ziebart "Diamond Gloss"??

GoodnClean

New member
I thought you all would appreciate this. I ran a search on Ziebart and for the most part it confirmed my suspicions, horror stories of dirty rags and isopropyl alcohol, undercoating on tires, swirls and junk. I manage the forums over at the US side of the Lexus Owners Club. There was a discussion going on about "Whats the best wax for my Lexus?", you know the kind of thing that gets continuously posted over, and over, and over again. Well, we're kind of chatting back and forth, I mentioned Autopia and tried to pass on what I've learned about all the different products out there, pros and cons and such. This guy posts and says basically "Throw it all away, Diamond Gloss is it. It is an exclusive spage aged material, not a wax or silicon polish, blah blah blah, you'll never wax again blah blah blah, no more swirl marks ever blah blah blah" I posted that in my opinion something like this was nothing more than a polymer sealant that was sold for an outrageous price, and that I reccomend people keep their $400, just a number I made up, and buy a bottle of Klasse SG or Poorboys or something.



Well, the guy posts back quite upset, telling me not to speak of what I don't know, and quoted a whole bunch of stuff on the

Ziebart website, swore it wasn't a polymer, but a polymetric resin! ( :rolleyes: ). He also emails me and confirms my suspicions, he owns a franchise. He talks it up on the board and in the email, and I decide I'll bite and discuss it with him. I ask him what he would charge me for a bottle to try, or if he would part with a free sample. He immediately says, "Well, you might be able to find somebody to sell you some, but its much to difficult for a novice to master, it must be applied with an "orbital" and there must be specific steps taken to ensure that the finish is free of swirls. He also told me that the Ziebart store would do ALL THIS ("chemical bath" (dawn wash) remove swirls (SMR) polish to maximum gloss (polish or glaze) and machine spread the polish, oh and of course dress the tires) for the low price of $395 (My guess was right). I just about fell off my chair. Doesn't include the interior, thats extra!



So sad, all the talented people on this board get less than half of that for the quality work that they do, and these hacks get $400 to spread a polymer sealant on a car.



Any new experiences with these guys to share?
 
GoodnClean said:
I thought you all would appreciate this. I ran a search on Ziebart and for the most part it confirmed my suspicions, horror stories of dirty rags and isopropyl alcohol, undercoating on tires, swirls and junk. I manage the forums over at the US side of the Lexus Owners Club. There was a discussion going on about "Whats the best wax for my Lexus?", you know the kind of thing that gets continuously posted over, and over, and over again. Well, we're kind of chatting back and forth, I mentioned Autopia and tried to pass on what I've learned about all the different products out there, pros and cons and such. This guy posts and says basically "Throw it all away, Diamond Gloss is it. It is an exclusive spage aged material, not a wax or silicon polish, blah blah blah, you'll never wax again blah blah blah, no more swirl marks ever blah blah blah" I posted that in my opinion something like this was nothing more than a polymer sealant that was sold for an outrageous price, and that I reccomend people keep their $400, just a number I made up, and buy a bottle of Klasse SG or Poorboys or something.



Well, the guy posts back quite upset, telling me not to speak of what I don't know, and quoted a whole bunch of stuff on the

Ziebart website, swore it wasn't a polymer, but a polymetric resin! ( :rolleyes: ). He also emails me and confirms my suspicions, he owns a franchise. He talks it up on the board and in the email, and I decide I'll bite and discuss it with him. I ask him what he would charge me for a bottle to try, or if he would part with a free sample. He immediately says, "Well, you might be able to find somebody to sell you some, but its much to difficult for a novice to master, it must be applied with an "orbital" and there must be specific steps taken to ensure that the finish is free of swirls. He also told me that the Ziebart store would do ALL THIS ("chemical bath" (dawn wash) remove swirls (SMR) polish to maximum gloss (polish or glaze) and machine spread the polish, oh and of course dress the tires) for the low price of $395 (My guess was right). I just about fell off my chair. Doesn't include the interior, thats extra!



So sad, all the talented people on this board get less than half of that for the quality work that they do, and these hacks get $400 to spread a polymer sealant on a car.



Any new experiences with these guys to share?



Unfortunately they exist because the saying "there's a sucker born every minute" is pretty much true. I find it best to ignore people like that as I also follow another saying "If it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is". It is kind of fun engaging in conversation with people like that though. It makes you wonder if they actually believe their BS or if they are just full of BS.:D
 
Ziebart has pretty much taken a monopoly here in Manila in terms of paint protection "services" until Valugard (an AutoInt partner or something) came in a couple of years ago.



A lot of brand new car dealers here are tied up with Ziebart, hence, a lot of new car owners are suckered into the "paint protection" marketing of not needing any paint maintenance for a year...



The price hovers around 6000-9000 pesos here, so that's around 100-170 USD (labor is cheap here hehe)... While the average detailer charges the range of 2000-3000 for a full exterior detail.



Ziebart locally doesn't even detail the car, they just buff the paint with a wool pad or a cutting foam pad, then spray on the "Diamond Gloss" then buffs it off with a rotary again.



They market it in a way like an extra clearcoat or something...



Guess what, so far, my shop has been in operations for 4.5 months and in that timeframe, I have had at least 6 customers with cars aged around 8-15 months who has "religiously" adhered to the once a year reapplication...



ALL (not some, not most) of them had acid rain etches that are as deep as an unprotected car paint... All of them necessitates either a wool pad or compound (or both) to remove... Now where's the protection that they claim?



A wax will not last 3 weeks here in Manila, on a dark car, be glad with 2 weeks...



IMHO it's a fraud the way these companies markets such products... I offer Klasse to my clients and offer then a 3 month warranty as long as they didn't wash it with harsh laundry soap (very common here), rub it with compound (again, another very common "solve all" solution here)...



Diamond Gloss looks quite good, it's obviously a synthetic, it makes the car look like it has 5-10 coats of SG on it... It feels thick (like SG)... But no way it can last 1 year (their warranty is 5 YEARS!!! sure sounds like an infomercial product)...



One client told me that his sister had all 3 brand new cars "Diamond Coated" by Ziebart, all black... All 3 of them had tons of swirls and acid rain etches within 3 months.



Of course... 98% of the car owners out there don't really care about swirls and stuff...
 
theveed said:
Ziebart has pretty much taken a monopoly here in Manila in terms of paint protection "services" until Valugard (an AutoInt partner or something) came in a couple of years ago.



A lot of brand new car dealers here are tied up with Ziebart, hence, a lot of new car owners are suckered into the "paint protection" marketing of not needing any paint maintenance for a year...



The price hovers around 6000-9000 pesos here, so that's around 100-170 USD (labor is cheap here hehe)... While the average detailer charges the range of 2000-3000 for a full exterior detail.



Ziebart locally doesn't even detail the car, they just buff the paint with a wool pad or a cutting foam pad, then spray on the "Diamond Gloss" then buffs it off with a rotary again.



They market it in a way like an extra clearcoat or something...



Guess what, so far, my shop has been in operations for 4.5 months and in that timeframe, I have had at least 6 customers with cars aged around 8-15 months who has "religiously" adhered to the once a year reapplication...



ALL (not some, not most) of them had acid rain etches that are as deep as an unprotected car paint... All of them necessitates either a wool pad or compound (or both) to remove... Now where's the protection that they claim?



A wax will not last 3 weeks here in Manila, on a dark car, be glad with 2 weeks...



IMHO it's a fraud the way these companies markets such products... I offer Klasse to my clients and offer then a 3 month warranty as long as they didn't wash it with harsh laundry soap (very common here), rub it with compound (again, another very common "solve all" solution here)...



Diamond Gloss looks quite good, it's obviously a synthetic, it makes the car look like it has 5-10 coats of SG on it... It feels thick (like SG)... But no way it can last 1 year (their warranty is 5 YEARS!!! sure sounds like an infomercial product)...



One client told me that his sister had all 3 brand new cars "Diamond Coated" by Ziebart, all black... All 3 of them had tons of swirls and acid rain etches within 3 months.



Of course... 98% of the car owners out there don't really care about swirls and stuff...



Man the situation you just described is almost identical with us here.



all the dealerships offer ziebart as an option and I can safely say that %80 of the buyers go for it.



$200 for underseal & $200 for the diamond coat
 
Well, i feel bad because the guy I've been talking to that posted on the LOCUS forum (the franchise owner) is a nice guy, I'm not sure whether he actually believes this stuff does everything that he says it does, if he's just brainwashed or whatever. He lives 800 miles from me and he's still trying to convert me. I told him that if he wants to send me some Diamond Gloss to apply myself to try, then I'd be happy to, but there's no way I'm letting a Ziebart location touch my car. Partly because they'd charge me $400 to do crap I do on a regular basis, and partly because I just dont want anyone touching the finish on my car but me...
 
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