Zymol doesnt do what it says on the lid!
Discussion
Well I know it has been discussed a zillion times, but Having used this stuff zymol (as instructed my the mfg) I think its cr*p.
My guards red 911 was treated to the full works..ie auto bathe..then I clayed it with mguires clay/spray, then hd clense then carbon wax. If you get up close the car has lots of swirls, but the finish left is not very good at all.
I am no expert but I have always used autogylm in the past on classic cars and that gave a lovely deep shine. Maybe red is a bit of a tricky colour to bring up? That or the water based paint is very very fragile on new cars, it seems to mark up very easy. Anyway anyone got any thoughts..I looked in Halfords today and they sell orbital polishers for 29 quids, would this get rid of the scratches?? Any comments..Thanks..
My guards red 911 was treated to the full works..ie auto bathe..then I clayed it with mguires clay/spray, then hd clense then carbon wax. If you get up close the car has lots of swirls, but the finish left is not very good at all.
I am no expert but I have always used autogylm in the past on classic cars and that gave a lovely deep shine. Maybe red is a bit of a tricky colour to bring up? That or the water based paint is very very fragile on new cars, it seems to mark up very easy. Anyway anyone got any thoughts..I looked in Halfords today and they sell orbital polishers for 29 quids, would this get rid of the scratches?? Any comments..Thanks..
I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder, but if the car is covered in light swirls/scratches it's not going to make too much difference what you use IMHO, it's all in the prep work to get the paint smooth and swirl free before you use any final cleaner/wax.
I'd be loathe to try a rotary on a Porsche if you've never used one before as it's meant to be quite easy to get it wrong and burn through paint, especially on edges.
Your best bet is a random orbital such as a Porter Cable, Cyclo or Smartool, it may be worth finding out how much it would cost to have it detailed and then you should be left with little to do other than wash it properly.
I'd be loathe to try a rotary on a Porsche if you've never used one before as it's meant to be quite easy to get it wrong and burn through paint, especially on edges.
Your best bet is a random orbital such as a Porter Cable, Cyclo or Smartool, it may be worth finding out how much it would cost to have it detailed and then you should be left with little to do other than wash it properly.
It sounds like the paintwork is in a pretty bad shape to begin with. The wax is good but it's not magic, it won't make a bad surface good no matter how good the wax is.
With some paint correction where you take off a fine layer of the paint you can get rid of the swirl marks and fine scratches, and get the paint surface as shiny as you'd want it, then protect and deepen the shine with the wax.
You have to be very careful with paint correction 'cos obviously you don't want to take off too much paint, and ideally you'd want to know how thick the paint is to begin with and how much you're taking off!
Some detailer will use a very aggressive polish to do the paint correction and do the jpb quickly, taking a big chunk of the paint off! That's what scared me off before about paint correction.
I had my RS done a few wks ago by this chap www.elitedetailing.co.uk and the way he did it reassures me completely. I wouldn't let anybody else touch the car now! He'll measure the paint depth with a digital depth guage, ten polish a little at a time, untill most of the scratches and swirls are gone, checking with a guage all the time. I had @120 micro of paint, he took away less than 1 micron! He spent a whole day just to paint correct the car!
Before the wax even got near it, the car was shinier than anything! The wax ( he now uses Royale, cost £7k a tub!!) just makes the shine much deeper!
It's all in the preparation!
With some paint correction where you take off a fine layer of the paint you can get rid of the swirl marks and fine scratches, and get the paint surface as shiny as you'd want it, then protect and deepen the shine with the wax.
You have to be very careful with paint correction 'cos obviously you don't want to take off too much paint, and ideally you'd want to know how thick the paint is to begin with and how much you're taking off!
Some detailer will use a very aggressive polish to do the paint correction and do the jpb quickly, taking a big chunk of the paint off! That's what scared me off before about paint correction.
I had my RS done a few wks ago by this chap www.elitedetailing.co.uk and the way he did it reassures me completely. I wouldn't let anybody else touch the car now! He'll measure the paint depth with a digital depth guage, ten polish a little at a time, untill most of the scratches and swirls are gone, checking with a guage all the time. I had @120 micro of paint, he took away less than 1 micron! He spent a whole day just to paint correct the car!
Before the wax even got near it, the car was shinier than anything! The wax ( he now uses Royale, cost £7k a tub!!) just makes the shine much deeper!
It's all in the preparation!
Edited by butzi on Sunday 25th March 23:20
hutchingsp said:
I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder, but if the car is covered in light swirls/scratches it's not going to make too much difference what you use IMHO, it's all in the prep work to get the paint smooth and swirl free before you use any final cleaner/wax.
I'd be loathe to try a rotary on a Porsche if you've never used one before as it's meant to be quite easy to get it wrong and burn through paint, especially on edges.
Your best bet is a random orbital such as a Porter Cable, Cyclo or Smartool, it may be worth finding out how much it would cost to have it detailed and then you should be left with little to do other than wash it properly.
I'd be loathe to try a rotary on a Porsche if you've never used one before as it's meant to be quite easy to get it wrong and burn through paint, especially on edges.
Your best bet is a random orbital such as a Porter Cable, Cyclo or Smartool, it may be worth finding out how much it would cost to have it detailed and then you should be left with little to do other than wash it properly.
great post!
I dont wish to sound..well a none believer but I find it odd that a car should swirl mark so easy..I have had many new cars, and older classics that have been fine (first porsche however) I rinse the car down with buckets then sponge from the roof down (twice then rinse/leather. It cant be rocket science this cleaning a bloody car surely..who but a crack pot would spend 7k on a tub of polish..sorry wax!? Maybe I am looking at my car with to critical an eye? Its not coverd in swirls though you can see them on close inspection...maybe I try a small area and wash etc the try autoglym see if that looks good! The zymol thing just seems a long winded way with not very good results..but heay maybe its me! Thanks..any other thoughts welcome though.
Short term use of Autoglym appears to give good results, but I found that on my 944s2 when i owned that a few years ago now, that prolonged use of Autoglym has a detrimental effect on the paintwork.
Anyway, i've decided not to bother with Zymol etc on my GT3 when i get it next week - i'm going for the lazy option of having it permaguarded!
Anyway, i've decided not to bother with Zymol etc on my GT3 when i get it next week - i'm going for the lazy option of having it permaguarded!
9hellheaven said:
I dont wish to sound..well a none believer but I find it odd that a car should swirl mark so easy..I have had many new cars, and older classics that have been fine (first porsche however) I rinse the car down with buckets then sponge from the roof down (twice then rinse/leather. It cant be rocket science this cleaning a bloody car surely..who but a crack pot would spend 7k on a tub of polish..sorry wax!?
Think of it this way:
If you use a sponge and a bucket you pick up grit/dirt with the sponge and drag it across the car.
You rinse off the grit/dirt into the bucket.
You pick up soapy water (complete with grit/dirt) and drag that across the car along with grit/dirt you're still picking up.
It all sounds a bit anal I admit, but for the sake of £20 get a sheepskin wash mitt or a shmitt (fancy sponge) and a second bucket and a "Grit Guard" which is a plastic grill thing that sits in the bucket.
Have one bucket full of shampoo and another (with the grit guard) just with water. Wash a panel, rinse the mitt into the rinse bucket, pick up more water from the wash bucket and repeat.
It hardly takes any more time to do a car this way, and you'll certainly save time/money in the long run because you won't inflict the swirl marks you currently have.
As for the £7k wax, agreed IMHO it's hard to justify if you're Joe Public with a nice car, however if you're a professional detailer and you're detailing high end cars most people expect (even if it is out of ignorance) you to use things like Zymol/Swissol because they are what they see in the high end car mags.
Buying a £7k tub of wax (that will probably give 50 applications, and is refilled free for life) probably works out as a sound business investment.
997gt3 said:
Short term use of Autoglym appears to give good results, but I found that on my 944s2 when i owned that a few years ago now, that prolonged use of Autoglym has a detrimental effect on the paintwork.
Anyway, i've decided not to bother with Zymol etc on my GT3 when i get it next week - i'm going for the lazy option of having it permaguarded!
Anyway, i've decided not to bother with Zymol etc on my GT3 when i get it next week - i'm going for the lazy option of having it permaguarded!
Why would long term use of areputable make polish/wax affect your paintwork in anegative way?
And ask any of the detailers on here I've never seen anyone with ahigh regard for the long life finishes
freedman said:
997gt3 said:
Short term use of Autoglym appears to give good results, but I found that on my 944s2 when i owned that a few years ago now, that prolonged use of Autoglym has a detrimental effect on the paintwork.
Anyway, i've decided not to bother with Zymol etc on my GT3 when i get it next week - i'm going for the lazy option of having it permaguarded!
Anyway, i've decided not to bother with Zymol etc on my GT3 when i get it next week - i'm going for the lazy option of having it permaguarded!
Why would long term use of areputable make polish/wax affect your paintwork in anegative way?
And ask any of the detailers on here I've never seen anyone with ahigh regard for the long life finishes
Autoglym SRP is a very mild abrasive, I used this for many years on a Black Ford I had with mixed results
it looked and worked great apart from on rubber seals and bumper plastics but did need re-applying after 3-4 washes. The most negative effect it had was that after many years of use it eventually wore the paint away around the edges of panels 
leaving the undercoat visible in various places. Admittedly I was young and naive by today's detailing standards, and from earlier experience would only recommend Autoglym SRP as an alternative for dull or badly marked paint due to its abrasive nature.
C.
BliarOut said:
Did you polish in straight lines or a circular motion? Zymol is usually excellent but you should always apply and remove in straight lines 
don't you then just get the fine scratches in a straight line instead of swirls? WHat's causing the swirls will also cause the same in straight lines.
silver993tt said:
BliarOut said:
Did you polish in straight lines or a circular motion? Zymol is usually excellent but you should always apply and remove in straight lines
don't you then just get the fine scratches in a straight line instead of swirls? WHat's causing the swirls will also cause the same in straight lines.
IMHO almost impossible not to have fine swirls/scratches/marks on a car more then a few years old that is used on a regular basis (all weathers). All this talk about fine dirt particles on sponges etc. just think for a moment what is happening every time you drive down a dirty wet country lane at any sort of speed. Many of the consumer waxes and polishes also contain fillers which hide fine marks (rather then actually polishing them out). This is probably why the car looks better after SRP. I used to use SRP but after polishing with farecla g10 on a rotary polisher and sealing with TechWax I will not be letting any autogylmn near the car again. Still have plenty of panels to fully sort though but thats another story.
P.S. I also have areas on the car where repeated SRP use has worn through the paint such as around the roof trim piece on me 944. IMHO SRP on a rag used firmly seems to take off more paint then g10 on my polisher set at 1500 rpm!
hutchingsp said:
I'd be loathe to try a rotary on a Porsche if you've never used one before as it's meant to be quite easy to get it wrong and burn through paint, especially on edges.
Masking tape does the job, need it on all edges and to cover trim. Spray some water onto the sponge head after each section and bead in with the fingers. Spin up machine on full speed to shake out excess. This seems to do enough for me to keep the sponge cool. Easiest mistake with the rotary is to put buffer trails and holograms all over the place. First time I did it I got all kinds of fine marks that only showed up in bright sunlight. Number of passes required to fully work polish (break it down to tiny beads that blow off the car) seems to vary. On my bonnet it needed a lot of passes, this is probably due to the paint being very hard after years of being cooked by the engine. Still though I feel much more comfortable using a soft finishing sponge head with a fine polish then the hard sponges and heavy polish, not enough guts to go at it with the G3 again! Scary stuff. Also less messy since G10 can be spread on finely with a rag.
hutchingsp said:
Buying a £7k tub of wax (that will probably give 50 applications, and is refilled free for life) probably works out as a sound business investment.
I think they announced that they weren't going to do free refills of the Royale now.
Carnuba waxes like Zymol are all well and good, but will never offer the same paint protection that a polymer-based protectant like Zaino can. And Zaino will last three times longer on the car too. Use the carnuba wax on top.
Something baffles me about this detailing lark...
If you read the Zymol instructions (and most others) they say to apply and polish with horizontal strokes; but I read on here that 'professional polishers' use random/orbital polishing devices. So how come when you DIY it's straight lines, but when the 'pro's' do it, it's arcs & round circles?
If you read the Zymol instructions (and most others) they say to apply and polish with horizontal strokes; but I read on here that 'professional polishers' use random/orbital polishing devices. So how come when you DIY it's straight lines, but when the 'pro's' do it, it's arcs & round circles?
police state said:
Something baffles me about this detailing lark...
If you read the Zymol instructions (and most others) they say to apply and polish with horizontal strokes; but I read on here that 'professional polishers' use random/orbital polishing devices. So how come when you DIY it's straight lines, but when the 'pro's' do it, it's arcs & round circles?
You put on in straight lines and take off in circles..thats why Zaino say anyway.. If you read the Zymol instructions (and most others) they say to apply and polish with horizontal strokes; but I read on here that 'professional polishers' use random/orbital polishing devices. So how come when you DIY it's straight lines, but when the 'pro's' do it, it's arcs & round circles?
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