Up until now I was one of the ignorant masses. I just washed the car with whatever once in a while, and waxed it once in a while...with whatever. Now that I've gotten the S and have been enlightened by all the great info here I'm turning over a new leaf. I've read tons of info in here, but it gets confusing. Please tell me if I'm headed in the right direction and answer a couple questions for clarification.

I have a '02 Suzuka Blue, paint and top look very good, but I can feel plenty of bumps and there are a few chips and scratches. I'm going with Zaino, I've ordered ZFX, Z2, Z5, Z6, Z7, & the Z18 clay bar. The plan is wash with Dawn, clay bar it, wash it again, fill and wet sand the chips. (I've read the wet sand/Langka debate)

Polishing is where I'm getting lost. Am I right in thinking that the cleaning/polishing part of the process is seperate from the Zaino sealing/conditioning part? Can I use whatever products I want for polishing, then when everything is cleaned and polished, apply the Zaino process? Other than the wet sanding part, I want to go with the least aggressive polishing method/product that will get the job done in order to preserve clearcoat. I was thinking of getting a PC and going with just blue pad and something like Paintwork. Obviously I'd have to work up the wet sanded parts with something else...if I sand down to 3000 will swirl remover do it? Is the PC overkill? What do you guys use if for when not polishing? Do you buff with it using a bonnet after Zaino?

Thanks for any help or comments!

 

1. welcome to the car and to this forum!!
2. sure you need to wet sand?? can you post up pics?
3. yes, you can use whatever products you want- even with zaino... i do that all the time.
4. i agree that you need to get a pc for the job you are describing
5. rather than taking a whole page to describe what you need to do, i will give you an article that i think will give you info to think about (and post back any questions that you might have!):

http://www.bettercarcare.com/articles.php?articleId=28

 

This car is inspiiring isn't it. Just a year ago I was in your shoes, thinking washing and waxing is all a car ever needs because basically it's just a car. That thinking goes down the toilet with this car.

Claybar/zaino is a good start and will get you results you have never had before on any of your other cars in terms of silky smooth finish, shine, and color depth. HOWEVER, prepping your paint with a pc gives you a color depth and POP that you could never get by hand as well as a swirl free finish.

Chip repair is very time consuming and should be approached with a modicom of planning since you have to let the chip cure at least a week if not fir several weeks. You have to approach my technique in my scary chip repair thread with the fallback that you are prepared to repaint anyway and things will go smoothly when you do it.

Happy polishing

 

Thanks for the responses. As far as the wetsanding, I was just talking about very localized just at the repairs. 99...you're thread was primarily the reason I think I want to go with that method....those pics are scary as HELL though! In looking at Langka posts, it seems like there were a lot more negative results than positive. Has anyone had any Langka experiences specifically with Suzuka Blue? In reading about Langka I couldn't help but thinking that this was just some type of simple solvent repackaged and marked up about 1000%. I wonder what it's composed of.