mark8855

If you don't know about my saga with Z-CS, please go to this thread first.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1740562

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their ideas and suggestions. I just applied a coat of Z-CS, and it went on silky-smooth, I was easily able to see where it was being applied, and it spread just fine. I was able to do my entire car with just a few squirts, as advertised. It's drying now, so I don't know the final results, but the application issue has been solved.

In the end, the problem wasn't with me, my application method, or even the brutal Phoenix dry heat. The problem turned out to be my towels. Now, I had just bought these brand new, 100% cotton high quality made-in-USA towels, just as Sal recommended. I cut the trim off, just as Sal recommended. I even have a special bottle of tide original that I use ONLY on these towels, and I always wash them alone, never using fabric softener or drier sheets, just as Sal recommended. Ever since I got this black car, I was having difficulty getting all of what I assumed to be Z5 to come off of the car. I figured that the problem was that I put a bit too much on, the black paint was less forgiving, it was a new product (had never used ZFX or Z5Pro before), and so I just assumed my technique needed refining. Last night, I put two coats of Z5 on the car. The two coats together consumed ~0.5oz of ZFX enabled zaino, so I was putting it on plenty thin. I had just finished putting a second coat of Z5 on the car last night, and it was smearing when I went to remove it. I let it sit in the garage overnight and I laundered all my towels, just to make sure they weren't loaded with Z5 and Z6 from the first coat.

This morning, I went out, and the Z5 was STILL smearing when I went to take it off. I tried all of my cotton towels, and even an old t-shirt with the same result. Luckily, I had a cobra MF towel that I used to get it all off. The Z5 came off easily, and left no streaking or greasiness behind. Right after taking off the Z5, I applied Z-CS with fantastic ease. The whole car took maybe 15 minutes with Z-CS.

I was thinking about it now, and wondered if maybe there was something wrong with my washing machine. Prior to laundering the towels last night, I ran a wash cycle with nothing in the machine to 'clean' it, then ran a load of clothes (no fabric softener), and finally ran my towels. I figured that the machine should be squeaky clean. After removing the Z5, I rubbed the paint with one of the 'clean' towels, and it greased up the paint right away. The grease spot was easily noticeable 3 feet away. The washer or drier has to be screwing up the towels somehow....maybe a bearing is leaking oil into the water or something.

So while I'm still not convinced of the value of Z-CS (I haven't seen the final dried result yet), my problem has been solved, and I would agree with everyone that Z-CS is by far the easiest of the products to use. Except maybe Z7, haha.

Has anyone had issue with cotton towels and removing Z5 before? At this point, I'm pretty convinced that the issue I had with Z-CS stemmed from an improper removal of Z5 or an oily towel-residue being left on the paint the first time I tried it, and this residue screwing with Z-CS. Any other comments?



Cliff's Notes:
Z-CS problem was root caused to be an issue with an oily residue being left on my towels, even after laundering them. The oil caused improper Z5 removal and left oil on the paint, both of which reacted negatively with Z-CS. Removing Z5 with a brand new microfiber prior to Z-CS application remedied all Z-CS application problems.

gwayne

Thanks for that update - might save one of us some trouble some time.

steve8

That is a strange one.
To answer your towel question, no I have never had a problem removing any Z with my cotton towels.

mrosa65

Mark

Glad to hear you partially solved the problem.

Question for you - Do you have a water softener on your house ? I had replaced an older one on my house a few years ago and never bothered to read all of the directions, especially when it came to laundry instructions. It seems that I kept using the same amount of laundry detergent as before the replacement. With the new softener it stated to use less because of the soft water. The washing machine wasn't removing all of the detergent during the rinse cycle. Since I now use less detergent, I don't have that problem any more. Hope this helps.

mark8855

Thanks for the suggestion. No, I have very, very hard water here at my house. No softener system. I also always run the rinse cycle twice on my car towels, just to be sure that the detergent is all gone. I guess it's possible that there still might be some residue.

I just hand washed one of my towels. When it's dry, I'll see if my car still gets all greased up by it.

mark8855

I just checked the quality of the shine that Z-CS left. Honestly, it doesn't look any better than it did with just Z5 on the paint. The ease of application was a definite plus though...I could see myself using Z-CS after each wash, just because of how easy/fast it is to apply. I guess time will tell how the durability works, but Z2/Z5 was never exactly 'hurting' in that department. Z2/Z5 alone lasted far longer than I ever let my car go between polish sessions, so durability isn't an issue for me.

So while a nice product, I don't see it as being an integral part of the zaino process. IMO, for paint, all you really need is Z5/Z2, Z7, and Z6. The Z16 tireshine is also a 'must have'. The rest of the products, I'm neutral on. They work as advertised, but are not necessary.