Took the afternoon off to get my 04 Z06 ready for Saturdays Vette's doing Charleston corvette show. Already had several layers of Zaino and added a coat of Z6 spray followed by a coat of CS followed by a final finish with Z8.

 

Nice!! I hear good things about Zaino! Enjoy the show and post pics of the event!

 

Your car looks really sharp. Good luck at the show.

 

Very nice! Have a good time at the event. Best wishes!

 

What is this Zaino of which you speak?

 

Legendary finishing products from Pa/ NJ

 

Dayum!! Looking sharp!

 

Heh, not exactly a need to tell ET what Zaino is.... I think he's part owner in the company as much as he raves on it... ET has been pushing Zaino products for as long as I can remember. He was just joshin' us with that line....

 

Smarter than the average bear. LOL

 

I used Zaino years ago, didn't feel it did it he job on the black like I hoped.

 

Great looking rides.

 

Looks like my shop. ET always love seeing pictures of your car.

 

Back in 1998 Sal Zaino and a close relative ( A DuPont Chemist ) developed Zaino in his garage in North Jersey. It was specifically designed for a black car. It was designed to be applied in bright sun light, in temperatures in excess of 140 degrees F. in the Nevada desert. The application is simple and removal is easy, with no chalking ( white dust ) Zaino was designed to molecularly bond to the surface with unsurpassed protection from UV rays ( very important with all colors but more so with black. It is also 99.9 % optically clear, which means it has no Carnauba in it. Carnauba is yellow in color and does not reflect as well.

I got to know Sal when I was working at GM...I heard about the product through a trade magazine, so I decided to call him on the phone we talked for 30 minutes, maybe longer . he made some bold statements and was very passionate about the product... I have a great BS meter, and could tell he was very sincere and on to something.

Sal said his stuff was Not for an abused finish, but to enhance and already good finish and keep it protected from the harmful UV rays, bond to the clear coat, and allow almost every ray of light to enhance the color.

Sal was a former Show car, and NHRA funny car painter. I've used a lot of products over the last 71 years of my life.. I've used nothing but Zaino for the last 18 years. IM still blown away by the finish on my car... It does exactly what Sal said it would... I've never let my finish get bad , and have never had to look for a product that will correct a bad finish

The finish on my car looks " WET " all the time... its one of the reason my car get so much attention on the street. Its as clean as any new car, but the finish looks like it just came out of the spray booth.

Sal has come a long way from his garage, where he didn't even have a credit card account, and the only way to get his product was to send him a check or money order, and wait for it to clear the bank before he sent you his products. Today Sal in an international mogel, with many different products both in finish and correction.. IM not sure if he has the same passion , I have not talked with him in atleast 12 years. I have nothing to do with Zaino products, but I know what the stuff does for me... None of this wipe on wipe off stuff that you have to apply by the gallon, at a cost of 60 or 70 dollars.... Anytime you have to use gallone of anything, it has chemicals in it that make you car a junkie for its use. A product that has to be used daily or weekly.

I use four product from Zaino, all are superior to anything I've ever used, and my car speaks for itself. !7 years old and 100,000 +miles
I use the polish, gloss enhancer, tire shine, and leather in a bottle. One bottle of Zaino polish. 9 oz. is 13 dollars, and I can get 8 or 9 full car applications ( good for about 2 years. ) When I was very sick, and first diagnosed with Cancer, I didn't touch my car for over a year being in and out of the hospital and to sick to lift a pencil...IM still recovering and have not touched the finish. yet it looks like a new born baby,. still looks wet, and when I take it out, it gets noticed.. so much that it can be embarrassing at times. I only use cold water from the hose, and a blow dryer, takes about 15 minutes... only to get any dust particles or silica off the finish from sitting.

There are a lot of products out there. Many are very close or a clone of the Zaino formula.. there are no secrets to formulas anymore, technology has made that possible with a Mass-spectrometer.

I remember talking with a Maguire's chemist one day, around 1999 and he told me they knew all about Zaino and had it in the research lab.

Ill stick with the originator, it has served me well. Yes I do know about Zaino, I was being ...well you know. An ***....

I don't know anything about Zaino correction products, but then why would I, I don't need them.

 

I don't buy into the whole "spend 3 days adding coat after coat". I work for a living, but their Z6, ZC-S WOWA, and Z8 are good products for someone who only wants to spend 20-30 minutes. I usually strip it all off with a wash and re-apply every couple of weeks - because easy.

Optimum has some good products too but I don't feel that Optimum provides as good a shine as Zaino, but I keep a couple of back-up bottles just in case I run out of ZC-S.

 

I can apply a coat of Zaino to my car in under 45 minutes , start to finish. including the time my take off towels spend in the dryer. A very important trick. Towels, especially cotton towels absorb moisture. How can you tell? take a towel and put it to your face, if it feels cold, is has absorbed moisture... this moisture reactivates the dry Zaino and smears it, making it more difficult to buff off. A warm soft take off towel fresh out of the dryer, will make your finish glow. I use the panel by panel method...apply to the first panel, and the second panel...get a warm towel from the dryer, buff off the fist panel only... put the towel back in the dryer... go to the third panel, apply the Zaino, get another warm towel, buff off the second panel, return the towel to the dryer.. go to the forth panel, apply the Zaino. etc... sound like a lot of work?? but its very easy... everybody has 45 minutes to invest. this also includes a panel prep.. testing for surface contaminants, some claying if necessary, and a wipe with gloss enhancer before using only 2 or three drops of Zaino on a panel..

At my age, I don't look at the whole job, I only look at the panel. when I look to polish my wheels ( twice a years ) I only look at one wheel, not all four....I may only do one wheel in a day, maybe two, but no more than two in one day.. just some things I do.

When I do a wheel, it comes off the car, the rotor and caliper are detailed, the wheel well is cleaned, to brand new condition. That whole corner is completely detailed. Then of course the wheel itself and the tire.

 

Nothing like that Z shine!

 

Kind of rained on Fast Cop's thunder... your car looks great.... good luck at the show... I sometimes become way too passionate, sorry...
Bill aka ET

My excuse is that I want everyone to have the same excitement as I do with their car.

 

I know a lot of those bottles very well Bill! I used to buy from Sal when the only place you could get it retail was a parts place in Howell, NJ. I called him and tried to buy with a credit card...well we can guess how that came out.
Looks like you only use a few of the products. My problem with multistep processes is that they get pretty old for me. Zaino had just a few products, but then one became a substitute for another, then the AIO came out, then Z8, and I wanted something simpler. Of course, what did I do at my first Carlisle? I went to the Adam's booth, told them I wasn't happy with the Zaino and they had me bring the black Z to the booth and this the 'half hood' test and sold me. I was convinced that it was better than Zaino. (btw, there's a lot of rabid Zaino users around here...all with red cars) Then Adam did the same thing with new products that combined 2 steps, but I hadn't used up the old stuff yet! I struck out on my own and found Mother's California Gold did a great job on my dark gray Challenger, with Surf City spray carnauba as an enhancer. I now use Aerolon, a wet applied 'finish/wax"? that does a great job. They have a polish that I'm going to try too. Or maybe I'll go back to Zaino with this Pewter car. I just don't want too many steps. Doesn't seem like you are waxing every week.?

 

What ever makes you happy, makes me happy...

 

Howdy! Don't check my email all the time so I'm late responding to you, I do apologize for that. Morristown always had a cool aspect, I don't know, like a shrunk down NYC I guess. Used to have a good friend that grew up in the big white victorian mansion that sits dead center in the middle of the road by the old Governor Morris Hotel, near where you live. Don't know if its still there or not. I was last there on a visit in 2007 and it was transforming fast back then, can't imagine what it looks like now! Well, I can honestly say I don't miss NJ/NY winters and the cost of living, Texas is much milder and cheaper! I do miss all the great food in Jersey and the City, dcoesn't exist in Texas. Best wishes to you and family, Sincerely, Mike P.