OK, so... I was finally able to carve out a few hours on a sunny day to devote to my new FX35, and thanks to speedy order processing and shipping from Zaino, I had the products on hand only a few days after I ordered them.
This was my first Zaino experience AND my first washing of the car since I picked it up from the dealer 10 days ago.
My procedure and observations:
1. Washed the car with Dawn, then rinsed and blew it off with my leaf blower. As I was toweling it dry, I realized the side mirrors were still draining lather, so I had to rinse them off again. Note to self: Soap suds like to get back into the mirror housing, so give it a good spray in there next time.
2. Masked off the black plastic trim all the way around the car as a precaution. (Does anyone know if Zaino will collect in the plastic texture and be a problem to clean off?)
3. Clay-barred it (is that a verb?). When I was ordering the Zaino, I passed on the clay bar, thinking the car was too new to have a lot of contaminants on the paint. But then I had second thoughts, so I popped into a Checker Auto Parts store and picked up a Mother's clay bar/polishing spray package. The clay barring went fairly quickly, because other than a few remnants of adhesive from the protective plastic used in transport, the car's paint was exceptionally clean and smooth.
4. Coated the car with a mixture of Z2 Show Car Polish and FX Accelerator. The trickiest bit is figuring out how big of a batch to mix up. I went through one ounce of polish after doing about a third of the car, so I mixed up two more ounces. But as I worked, I realized that I had gone through a disproportionate amount of polish in the beginning due to the dry applicator, which had soaked up quite a bit in the process. As the pad acquired more polish, it took less out of the bottle to coat the car. I ended up with almost an ounce of mixed polish left in the bottle, and because there wasn't enough daylight to start on a second coat, I had to dump it down the drain. Ouch.
So, note to self: One two-ounce bottle should be enough to do the whole car.
5. Allowed the Z2/FX coat to dry. Humidity was moderately low and temperatures mild. It dried in less than 30 minutes and wiped off easily.
6. Applied Z6 Gloss Enhancer Spray, wiping off as I went. I don't know what's in this stuff, but it wipes off so cleanly that it didn't even streak the windows where I oversprayed. Weird.
7. Shot some photos of the end result.
Having had the opportunity to pore over every square inch of my new car, I have to tip my hat to Infiniti, its dealers, and even the transport companies. My new FX is as perfect a product as I have ever seen off an assembly line. I found absolutely no blemishes, dings, imperfections, or even tiny scratches. The downside, of course, is that when the inevitable flaw does show up, I'll know it happened under my watch. :x
So here is my newly Zaino'ed Liquid Copper Perfect 10 FX35. What a thing of beauty...
Devon
This was my first Zaino experience AND my first washing of the car since I picked it up from the dealer 10 days ago.
My procedure and observations:
1. Washed the car with Dawn, then rinsed and blew it off with my leaf blower. As I was toweling it dry, I realized the side mirrors were still draining lather, so I had to rinse them off again. Note to self: Soap suds like to get back into the mirror housing, so give it a good spray in there next time.
2. Masked off the black plastic trim all the way around the car as a precaution. (Does anyone know if Zaino will collect in the plastic texture and be a problem to clean off?)
3. Clay-barred it (is that a verb?). When I was ordering the Zaino, I passed on the clay bar, thinking the car was too new to have a lot of contaminants on the paint. But then I had second thoughts, so I popped into a Checker Auto Parts store and picked up a Mother's clay bar/polishing spray package. The clay barring went fairly quickly, because other than a few remnants of adhesive from the protective plastic used in transport, the car's paint was exceptionally clean and smooth.
4. Coated the car with a mixture of Z2 Show Car Polish and FX Accelerator. The trickiest bit is figuring out how big of a batch to mix up. I went through one ounce of polish after doing about a third of the car, so I mixed up two more ounces. But as I worked, I realized that I had gone through a disproportionate amount of polish in the beginning due to the dry applicator, which had soaked up quite a bit in the process. As the pad acquired more polish, it took less out of the bottle to coat the car. I ended up with almost an ounce of mixed polish left in the bottle, and because there wasn't enough daylight to start on a second coat, I had to dump it down the drain. Ouch.
So, note to self: One two-ounce bottle should be enough to do the whole car.
5. Allowed the Z2/FX coat to dry. Humidity was moderately low and temperatures mild. It dried in less than 30 minutes and wiped off easily.
6. Applied Z6 Gloss Enhancer Spray, wiping off as I went. I don't know what's in this stuff, but it wipes off so cleanly that it didn't even streak the windows where I oversprayed. Weird.
7. Shot some photos of the end result.
Having had the opportunity to pore over every square inch of my new car, I have to tip my hat to Infiniti, its dealers, and even the transport companies. My new FX is as perfect a product as I have ever seen off an assembly line. I found absolutely no blemishes, dings, imperfections, or even tiny scratches. The downside, of course, is that when the inevitable flaw does show up, I'll know it happened under my watch. :x
So here is my newly Zaino'ed Liquid Copper Perfect 10 FX35. What a thing of beauty...
Devon
