Panoz Esporante - Complete Detail by Unique Car Care!!

[imported_doug]

I'm lucky. I live in Sunny California. So I can easily wash and care for my car, outdoors, all year round. Some of my East Coast M5 brethren are asking questions about what to do in the winter.



In reading their questions and others' answers, a common thread was "A decent coat of wax will protect the car's paint for most of the winter".



I find this very hard to believe, particularly if the car is washed frequently (which I would recommend - I have to believe that all of that dirty, salty spray has to be really bad for your car and that no wax is going to protect you for long.)



SO - how long do you think the best protection lasts - say Zaino, SG or other polymer - with and without frequent washing? And is it better to wash less to save the wax, assuming it is doing a reasonable job of protecting your paint, or better to wash the car often, acknowledging that this is going to accelerate the demise of whatever wax you have on?

 

[Lemonxxs]

I am snow deprived here myself but I would say washing the salt off is very important since it would eat through anything plus a dirty car gets on my nervessssssssss!

 

[Redcar GUY]

I would have to say that Z will last a few months in the winter, I use it on my daily driver (99 Saturn) I think that it holds up pretty well. The longer you let the Salt/sand mix set on the car I think the worse it is.... I wash the 99 at least once a week in the winter by hand. I hate to wash it up all nice then pull it out in to the snow for it to get all trashed in about a city block. I dont think that any wax/polish/sealer will hold up to the winter with out some care..... I have lived in Indiana for 24 years, and I like winter. I had a 97 Neon that used Zaino on a few years back, I didnt keep washing weekly over the winter abd I think that it didnt last as long as it could have.. This is just my .02$



Here is the 99 SC1 33K mi daily driver, not cared for its first year of life, no garage ,no wash, no wax. now Thats changed!! 4 coats of Z5

 

[YoSteve]

good question,



Compare a unwashed car all winter with Klasse and without (or just plain wax). No competition, you wash in the spring and you'll notice the lack of slickness and shine and protection in the unKlassed car. That's how you know the Klasse is protecting your car all winter long. It'll also take a longer time to wash it and it would take longer to come all clean.



In a similar way, many use Klasse on their wheels and notice how much easier it is to just wash away the break dust, that's Klasse working. If it was not Klassed, I'd have to break out the strong cleaner which is a pain and probably does damage over time.



Klasse's durability is definately top notch as far as winter is concern. I would advise any polymer in that sense. HTH-Steve

 

[imported_doug]

redcar - how often are you washing in the winter?





Yo Steve -



Thanks - how long woudl you expect Klasse to last assuming weekly washings? And am I correct you're talking about SG over AIO, or do you mean just AIO?



Thx again

 

[Redcar GUY]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >

<em class='bbc'>Originally posted by carguy [/i]
<strong class='bbc'>redcar - how often are you washing in the winter?


Thx again [/b]</blockquote>
Try to do it weekly, but most of the time week and a half or so. Depends on the weather.

 

[YoSteve]

The cars that I did in the fall with AIO only are still going strong, I expect them to last all winter. IMO, the SG adds extra shine, smoothness and extends the protection. The the Klasse (3xSG) on my car from April was still holding up in fall when redid it. I did notice it took some effort to remove the "old" Klasse.



One thing I did notice on here, is that I have more ideal conditions than most everyone here. We don't have dust, the weather isn't extreme, except cold (Ron said that colder weather makes for less marring) so it might be even more of an advantage. So Klasse on my car lasts longer than most, about 9 months I would imagine. I have yet to see the degrading on my car that is just an estimate, judging how good it looked after before I stripped and rewaxed.



But I know that you have a few 24 hour garage queens so, IMO Klasse would last on your car for well over a year. I would recommend that you strip and recoat as acrylic itself will start to break down over extended time.



My favorite thing about Klasse is that it truly is a twice a year "car wax". Take a full weekend twice a year and you car will look awesome all year long in any conditions in any weather. People think I wax my car every week and warn me that I'm going to rub the paint off. I tell them April or September and they're like really? I'm like yup and then smile I like going off on this stuff because I like it soo much, it makes my life easier and gives me more time to do other things while my car looks great.

 

[We&#39;re Here]

Its dark at our latitude at 4:30pm and I'm up at 3:15am so as to be on the road at 4:30am. There isn't much left at the end of the day so my winter protocol is as streamlined as I can make it.



The vehicles are Zaino'd or Klasse'd as late in the season as possible. We leave both outdoors which slows the salt-induced chemical reaction. We brush off snow as soon as possible because to leave any on is to guarantee the remaining snow's side to the paint will freeze like glass. This is bound to scratch when it shifts and/or breaks free.



We WD-40 anything that looks like it might corrode. We sprang for WeatherTech mats for winter use. We keep a suede NeatItems' MF towel for inside window cleaning when they spot fog. We have a California Duster to dust plastic surfaces at long stoplights.



Not a pretty sight I realize but its practical for my schedule and the vehicles look better than new after the spring detail job!

 

[DETAILKING]

I live on the east coats and my cars are outdoor non garaged cars. The winter can be tough. Multiple coats of zaino seem to last through the winter no problem. With zaino, the more youw ash the better, because Z7 wash was designed to strengthen up the polish system. I agree, that washing off salt ASAP will help any polymers life.

 

[imported_RickRack]

This Panoz Esporante was brought in for a complete detail to get the car looking good for resale. Although the car has very low miles, it had its fair share of issues that needed to be addressed. The exterior had some pretty severe scratches and heavy swirling which were visible in the direct sunlight. In order to get top dollar for the car, our main focus was to get the exterior looking as perfect as possible. In addition, the lower section of the front bumper had some stone chips, so the owner asked us to paint it since it was the only section of the car that was damaged.


The following pictures show just how bad the exterior was.

 

[imported_RickRack]

As you can see, it was in dire need of some TLC! Bryan (Jokeman) and I got right to work testing different machine, pad and polish combinations to find out what worked the best on this particular paint. After 20 minutes of testing, we both agreed that Menzerna Super Intensive Polish paired with a Surbuf pad worked wonders on this paint via DA.


Here?s a few 50/50 shots. (fender polished with Surbuf / SIP, hood untouched)

Now that we had our process dialed in, we got right to work. Some panels went pretty quick, but others took multiple passes to get the results we were looking for. It took us two full nights of polishing just to complete this step.


I wetsanded the lower piece of the front bumper after the respray and left a little orange peel so the texture would match the rest of the car?

Henry and Paulo detailed the interior before Bryan and I arrived the following day. Bryan and I decided to give the car a wash to remove any dust and polishing spatter from the previous polishing step before continuing on. Next, we polished the complete exterior using Menzerna Power Finish using an orange foam pad via DA. This step went fairly quick and really brought out the true beauty of the paint.


Since we wouldn?t be finished before the sun went down, we decided to pull it out to take a few pictures and inspect our work. As you can see, we still had more work to do, but you get the idea how well it was coming out.

 

[imported_RickRack]

After snapping a few pictures, we pulled it back into the shop and finished up all of the polishing. We gave it a final wipedown and applied Menzerna Power Lock to the complete exterior. While waiting for the Power Lock to cure, we finished up the little odds & ends (tires, wheels windows, etc). Last but not least, we removed the Power Lock and gave it a quick wipedown with Optimum Quick Detailer and Gloss Enhancer.


Here is the final product!

Thanks for looking!!!

 

[Puckman]

Now THAt'S resale value!!! Beautiful work on a beautiful piece of automotive machinery. Thanks.

 

[imported_RickRack]

Now THAt'S resale value!!! Beautiful work on a beautiful piece of automotive machinery. Thanks.

Thanks!

Definitely a rare car...

 

[imported_CH.Detailing]

Nice work, the car looks good!

Did the owner mention any issues with the car? A friend of mine had one for a while and it was nothing but a money pit!

 

[imported_RickRack]

Nice work, the car looks good!

Did the owner mention any issues with the car? A friend of mine had one for a while and it was nothing but a money pit!

Thank you!

The owner didn't mention any problems, but all I know is that it's WAY overpriced for what it is... Just under $100K brand new

 

[imported_CH.Detailing]

My friend got his for a little under $30K with less than 10K miles on it, and with less than 5K miles later he was on engine number 3! It was a series of freak one in a million accidents rather than anything worrisome for the entire model line though.

Definitely a good looking car though!

 

[grungy]

Rick - did it get washed with tree branches or something? looks awful before you worked your usual :wizard: magic.

 

[michakaveli]

Nice job! Not too familiar with those... but is that a gauge cluster out of a Mustang Cobra?

 

[imported_CH.Detailing]

Nice job! Not too familiar with those... but is that a gauge cluster out of a Mustang Cobra?

Yup, same as the engine.