Black 4runner owners

[josh220]

I'm probably going to order some Zaino products tonight. I'm going to get their Z-PC Fusion for my swirls, then layer 2 coats of ZFX infused Z-5 to help cover the rest of the swirls, and top it with a coat of Z-2 for shine, using Z-6 in between each step. So i'll probably be spending around $75 +shipping.

 

[SCA]

I'm probably going to order some Zaino products tonight. I'm going to get their Z-PC Fusion for my swirls, then layer 2 coats of ZFX infused Z-5 to help cover the rest of the swirls, and top it with a coat of Z-2 for shine, using Z-6 in between each step. So i'll probably be spending around $75 +shipping.

And unfortunately probably quite a bit of time too.

 

[rook]

Having painted and detailed cars to work through college, I have a few comments.

Maintaining a swirl or spiderweb free finish on your dd will drive you crazy. Orbital polishing with a foam pad is the best way to eliminate them. you must follow up polishing with a hand glaze, which fills in the finest surface imperfections and then add a durable wax.

My preference is 3M Perfect-It line, available at local auto parts stores, or body shop supply stores. You will find the price to be competitive or less than pricey consumer products such as zaino or rejex. 3M machine glaze has formulations for dark or light colored paint and the hand glaze leaves a perfect finish. For waxing, I use 100% carnauba wax, the type without any solvents in it. It leaves a very durable and glossy finish.

 

[josh220]

Well the reason I'm going to try Zaino is because it's polymer, not carnuba. I'm going to try their Fusion to remove swirls since it's abrasive, then use their Z-5 which fills them in just like a sealer. The Z-2 will just add depth and shine.

I have a huge problem with dust here, so using mother's makes it a giant dust magnet. Carnuba does nothing except attract dust, polymer repels it. I've heard nothing but good things about Zaino's, so even if the minor swirls don't get covered up as well as they say, the extra shine and dust repellent will be worth it.

 

[BenSD]

I have very very very few swirl marks on my 4R. Yes, it's white, but they will also show it, especially if you're looking for them. My truck is going on 4 years old, and it has less swirl marks than my Mom's 08 Highlander. My secret? Mr. Clean Auto Dry Car Wash. I have never had to towel dry my car, so that's one less way to pick up swirl marks.

 

[josh220]

Does that stuff work very good? Since I have a black one, if it leaves any residue or spots behind, it will show. Also, is it safe on the wax, or does it take some off?

 

[rook]

Well the reason I'm going to try Zaino is because it's polymer, not carnuba. I'm going to try their Fusion to remove swirls since it's abrasive, then use their Z-5 which fills them in just like a sealer. The Z-2 will just add depth and shine.

I have a huge problem with dust here, so using mother's makes it a giant dust magnet. Carnuba does nothing except attract dust, polymer repels it. I've heard nothing but good things about Zaino's, so even if the minor swirls don't get covered up as well as they say, the extra shine and dust repellent will be worth it.

sounds like zaino$ marketing has you convinced. be careful using an abrasive. given how new your truck is I doubt you need it.

detailers spray like meguiars final inspection will remove any residual surface charge causing dust attraction

 

[BenSD]

Does that stuff work very good? Since I have a black one, if it leaves any residue or spots behind, it will show. Also, is it safe on the wax, or does it take some off?

I live in San Diego where the water is very hard. The filter in the Mr. Clean is still good enough to get rid of it all. The soap is designed not to strip the wax, and to make sure the water sheets off the vehicle. I wash it in the driveway, then after I spray it down with the filtered water, I will pull it into the garage to keep it out of the sun.

I find that if I leave it in the sun to dry, I'll get some spots, but that's just because wind blown dust will hit the water spots, and that will be left as spots. When I pull it into the clean garage, it dries spotless.

 

[endus]

Thinking about buying a 4Runner and will soon be posting a thread full of dumb questions for people to answer, so I'll try and give something back first...

Keeping a car swirl free is definitely difficult. You can polish the swirls out with a buffer, but they will keep coming back if you don't work hard at not reintroducing them. On dark cars your washing technique is absolutely key to maintaining a swirl free car. Here are some tips...

- Wash using a chenille pad and use the two bucket method: Sponges are junk and just grind the dirt into your paint. Chenille will allow the dirt to be lifted up into the fibers of the chenille and not scratch the paint as you wash. Use one bucket of water to rinse the chenille pad, and then dip it in the other for soap. You should be rinse/resoaping the pad every time it gets dirty which could be twice a panel or more if the truck is really dirty.

-Wash from top to bottom: Avoid wiping down rocker panels and other dirty spots before doing the upper doors or hood or anything.

- Microfiber towels: Microfiber is better than cotton for keeping swirls out of your truck. I had a lot of swirl issues until I switched. I use waffle weave MF towels to dry my cars, and smaller MF towels for buffing wax, etc.

Zaino: I have never been a fan of zaino because I believe that some of their products are intentionally mislabeled. They label glaze (which hides swirls) as polish (which removes swirls). Many people swear by them but there are products that are just as good if not much better.

High speed buffer: High speed buffers do not introduce swirls, they remove them. They can introduce some marring if you use a wool pad and if you are being to aggressive with them. In general, high speed buffers are better used by people with a lot of detailing experience because ONE SECOND of inattention can lead to you burning right through your paint (I've done it). Random orbital buffers such as the Porter Cable 7424 are completely safe and are incapable of burning your paint, but polishing using these can take forever.

ScratchX - ScratchX is a good hand polish, but I would hate to polish an entire car by hand. I would go so far as to say that polishing all the swirls out of a car by hand is pretty much impossible. You need a buffer to make it easier. Great polish, but I would definitely go with a buffer and something like Menzerna FP/Powergloss/etc (depending on the paint condition).

For my cars here is my routine...

Maxima - Menzerna Final Polish on rotary buffer topped by Pinnacle Souveran in the summer and Klasse AIO/SG in the winter

Grand Cherokee (owned for less than 6 months, getting sold to buy a t4r) - Menzerna FP with Klasse AIO/SG all year. Klasse is VERY durable and does not need to be reapplied that often.

I saw above someone mention that you have to glaze. That's not exactly true. Many many detailers use glaze to help hide imperfections but I prefer to polish them out completely. Glaze will wear off after a short time. This is why almost anywhere you bring your car to have it professionally detailed will *appear* to have taken the swirls out, but they will reappear after a month or so.

Keeping a DD swirl free is definitely a lot of work but the key, beyond anything else, is NOT REINTRODUCING THE SWIRLS. Constantly polishing the car is not an option, so what you want to do is avoid putting swirls in the paint in the first place. Chenille, two bucket technique, MF towels, NEVER bring it to a car wash (except touchless or spray car washes and never use the brush), try to keep it from getting too dirty, etc.

If people are interested here are a few of my favorite links...

http://www.autopia.org - Detailing board

http://www.pakshak.com - Excellent MF towels, autopia members get a discount

http://www.properautocare.com - Sells all kinds of detailing products.

 

[endus]

I haven't had a problem with swirl marks. When I wash/wax, I use a back and forth motion, not a circular.

This is another good tip. What this does is keep the swirls or even any accidental scratches from being visible from all angles. Instead, they're only visible from a few angles. Whenever you detail, any time you wipe the paint (washing, buffing polish) you should wipe in a straight line. There's this myth that you should wipe in cirlces and it's just not true.

 

[endus]

Well the reason I'm going to try Zaino is because it's polymer, not carnuba.

If you're looking for a sealant you might look in to Klasse All in One and Klasse Sealant Glaze. The AIO is a prep for the sealant glaze.

I can't tell you that I haven't heard good things about Zaino, as much as I would like to, but I have always disapproved of how much marketing hype they put into their products. From what you were saying it almost sounds like they have finally stopped lying to people and calling glaze polish, but still....I wouldn't use them.

Klasse is polymer sealant and is said to last like 8 months or so on the package. I will get 2-4 coats on in the fall and then reapply in the spring (wanna get the cars detailed for summer anyway, so what the heck). To get the swirls out, the 3m polishes or (my favorite) menzerna FP are good choices. You can apply all those products with a buffer and foam pads, which makes working with them easier. The AIO is just a quick step...you don't need to use a lot of pressure or time...just apply and buff. The Sealant you apply and then let it dry for an hour or so before buffing.

Just a suggestion.

 

[Jaebster]

oh man, you guys have a lot of time. When I got my Black 4R, I was thinking about giving her a proper wash every 1-2 weeks and wax twice a year. I've had her now for almost 8 months and I've only washed her 4 times (the first 3 months). I haven't washed her since. Although, I'm kinda afraid to clean her off ever since I drove her through a wind storm on the way to Las Vegas back in early October. It felt like she was being hit with a sand blaster!!! I think she now has pock marks in her paint which I'm gonna cry if I see them. I'm pretty sure they're there cuz even the headlights have tiny dents everywhere.
Anyway to get rid of the pock marks?

 

[josh220]

I've had mine around 4 months, and have washed it once a week, and waxed it every other week, since the day I got it.

Endus, I use a lambswool washmit, and micro fiber towels for drying, and buffing. So that's not it. I'm going to just try the products I ordered, if I don't like them, then oh well.

 

[endus]

I've had mine around 4 months, and have washed it once a week, and waxed it every other week, since the day I got it.

Endus, I use a lambswool washmit, and micro fiber towels for drying, and buffing. So that's not it. I'm going to just try the products I ordered, if I don't like them, then oh well.

Yea, just making a suggestion. The Zaino will work. The only part of that system that Im not sure will be great is the polish. You may need to get a better polish to really get the swirls out. YMMV.

The lambswool mitt may be part of the problem. Lambswool bonnets are used on high speed buffers with polish for EXTREMELY bad paint...the lambswool itself has an abrasive component to it in addition to the polish itself, though. I would say that the mitt could definitely be causing some of your swirling. You chould check out chenille or something else that's softer and completely non-abrasive. The lambswool is great in that it sucks the dirt up into it, but being somewhat abrasive itself it may be causing trouble.

Also, waxing every other week may be a bit overboard if you're not using some insane boutique wax like Zymol. The polymer sealants like Zaino or Klasse are actually designed to (and really do) last months and months. Decreasing the amount of rubbing you're doing on the paint will definitely lengthen the time between when you need to polish the truck to keep it swirl free. Even washing it is going to give you swirls regardless of using MF towels, so unlesss the truck is getting dirty, you can even slack on washing it that often. Definitely keeping dirt (and especially bird shit) from building up is a good thing, but every time you rub the paint with anything it's going to cause swirls.

 

[endus]

oh man, you guys have a lot of time. When I got my Black 4R, I was thinking about giving her a proper wash every 1-2 weeks and wax twice a year. I've had her now for almost 8 months and I've only washed her 4 times (the first 3 months). I haven't washed her since. Although, I'm kinda afraid to clean her off ever since I drove her through a wind storm on the way to Las Vegas back in early October. It felt like she was being hit with a sand blaster!!! I think she now has pock marks in her paint which I'm gonna cry if I see them. I'm pretty sure they're there cuz even the headlights have tiny dents everywhere.
Anyway to get rid of the pock marks?

Anything that you can feel with your nail is not fixable except by paint. Anything that doesn't go all the way through the clearcoat you can usually polish out, or at least minimize. What you would want to do is use some Meguiars ScratchX (if polishing by hand) or some Meg's or Menzerna or 3m polish if polishing by machine and just polish out the marks. That's a bit of a process...you may want to have it done by a detailer if you're not way into detailng and don't wanna buy all the crap you need.

For the headlights (plastic lenses, right?) you can use this stuff called Novus, which is available at a lot of motorcycle shops. It comes in 3 grades, #2 is probably the one you want. Basically you just take a little hand pad and polish the lens of the light. Won't work miracles, especially for big chips, but it will get tiny marks and any yellowing right out.

 

[Jaebster]

Anything that you can feel with your nail is not fixable except by paint. Anything that doesn't go all the way through the clearcoat you can usually polish out, or at least minimize. What you would want to do is use some Meguiars ScratchX (if polishing by hand) or some Meg's or Menzerna or 3m polish if polishing by machine and just polish out the marks. That's a bit of a process...you may want to have it done by a detailer if you're not way into detailng and don't wanna buy all the crap you need.

For the headlights (plastic lenses, right?) you can use this stuff called Novus, which is available at a lot of motorcycle shops. It comes in 3 grades, #2 is probably the one you want. Basically you just take a little hand pad and polish the lens of the light. Won't work miracles, especially for big chips, but it will get tiny marks and any yellowing right out.

Thanks. I've got to find a detailer in my area. Finding a good detailer is pretty hard. I've seen some cars that have gotten detailed and the black hard plastic and rubber parts usually have the craem wax stains.

 

[endus]

Thanks. I've got to find a detailer in my area. Finding a good detailer is pretty hard. I've seen some cars that have gotten detailed and the black hard plastic and rubber parts usually have the craem wax stains.

Yea, that really stinks. I don't know how someone can call themselves a "detailer" and leave stains like that. There are actually waxes out there that won't stain trim...my Pinnacle Sourveran doesn't, and no polymer sealant I've ever seen does. Definitely look around.

You can try http://www.autopia.org and see if there's anyone posting from wherever you're at. That place is filled with obsessive detailers.

 

[Jeff Kleb]

Yea, that really stinks. I don't know how someone can call themselves a "detailer" and leave stains like that. There are actually waxes out there that won't stain trim...my Pinnacle Sourveran doesn't, and no polymer sealant I've ever seen does. Definitely look around.

That sounds like the brand name of a fine wine -- not a car wax product.
:awais:

 

[snhrph]

That sounds like the brand name of a fine wine -- not a car wax product.
:awais:

It also costs like a bottle of a fine wine :biggrin2:

 

[josh220]

Well, looks like this thread has officially been Hijacked. :cannon: