The Vintage was worth every penny...

SuperBee364

SuperBee364

New member
It's been an ongoing thing, trying to determine whether or not the Vintage was worth the huge hole it shot in my wallet. Today, the verdict was finally turned in: The stuff really is worth every penny.



As I've said before, Zaino was my primary LSP prior to the Vintage. I loved the look and the durability, but I hated Zaino when it came time to wash the car. The stuff holds on to dirt, water spots, and surface contaminants like craaaazy. The bond between Zaino and dirt often seemed as hard as the bond between the Zaino and the paint. It was always necessary to wash a Zaino finish with an MF mitt to get the car completely clean. So one of the primary determinants for Vintage's worth was seeing how well it releases dirt, etc from the paint during a car wash. So I used my Wife's Sequoia as a guinea pig for this experiment. I didn't wash it for two weeks. During that time, it saw 800 miles in travel (we took a road trip down to southern Utah and back) and numerous driving rain storms, and one of the worst wind storms (with the accompanying dust/dirt) I've ever driven through.



The car was an absolute mess. It had water spots, dirt, dust, bugs, road grime, fresh road oil on it... just about every type of contaminant save maybe tree sap. I have never let this vehicle get this dirty in the two years we've owned it. I could hardly bear to look at it.



Today I ran it through a touchless car wash. Afterward, it looked like I had just finished wiping off a fresh layer of Vintage; it was completely clean and unbelievabley shiny. I was shocked beyond words. I spent a good ten minutes going over the paint from every angle in bright sunlight trying to find something left on the paint. Nada. Zip. Zilch. The car was clean! The thing that was so shocking to me was that every water spot was gone. I have never seen water spots come completely off a car from just a touchless wash. I was truly floored.



These results pretty much follow the results I had been seeing with my Charger, but I hadn't let my Charger go more than two or three days between washings, so I really didn't know how well the Vintage would let go of the tough stuff.



Today was also the first time I tried using Zymol's Field Glaze on my Charger. I've always been kinda leery of Zymol's stuff, inluding the Vintage. I really wanted it to live up to the hype, but I was very skeptical that any product could live up to the price tags associated with Zymol. Also, I have grown to truly hate the HD-Cleanse. So out of two Zymol products used, I had hated one, and still hadn't decided on the other. I was truly impressed with the Field Glaze. It made the car look even better than it had after it's last coat of Vintage. It adds a Zaino kind of gloss, which, over the top of the Vintage, just really adds to the depth and overall quality of the look. Imagine carnauba depth with Zaino shine. I just stood there and stared at my car for ten minutes. The Field Glaze has better than Z8 gloss to it.



Then all of my new found joy was completely shattered. I had taken my car to the dealership for some work last week. Being the knucklehead I am, I forgot to tell them to not wash it. So of course they did wash it. Today was the first chance I got between work and last week's road trip to really look at the damage. After I had applied the Field Glaze, I got out the Brinkmann and the halogens. It's unbelievable to me how this car can have such an unbelievably hard clear coat and get so freaking swirled up from one dealer car wash. Not just swirls, but RIDS, too. Some of them deep enough that I don't dare try and remove them.



So today I'm gonna break out the SIP 3.02, 106ff and the edge line of wool. I'm planning on one pass of 3.02 with Edge green wool, one pass of 106ff with Edge blue wool, then one (possibly two) passes of 106ff with Edge white wool. Going to follow that with an IPA wipedown, then I'm going to try a new experiment. Did I mention how freaking bad I hate HD-Cleanse? I'm going to go over the car with Menzerna Final Touch Glaze instead of the Zymol recommended HD-Cleanse, then a hand applied layer of Vintage.



It'll be interesting to see if the MFTG affects the durability of the Vintage. Which, by the way, has been extremely good so far. The Sequoia only has one layer of Vintage on it which is almost 30 days old. No noticeable decrease in beading. It also survived several 100 degree days in the southern Utah desert. Between the heat, then the driving rain, I was expecting all of the Vintage to be gone before we even got home.



I'll quit rambling now and get to buffin'. Did you really read all the way to this point??? :)
 
You really had to do that didn't you? Now you have me thinking....



It's great that it met your expectatations as it would have been a minor letdown if vintage didn't perform as it did. Do you use the Zymol wheel products and interior products also, if so could you elaborate on how you feel about them?



FWIW, I haven't had any trouble with Zaino holding grime, I have found it to release the road grime quite well, but not any better than other products that I use.



I may just have to spring for Zymol...thanks.



I appreciate the review and the time you have taken to describe your Zymol experience(s).
 
but I hated Zaino when it came time to wash the car. The stuff holds on to dirt, water spots, and surface contaminants like craaaazy.
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I've not had that experience at all. Do you use Z-8? I find that makes Zaino superslick so I get a lot less dirt to deal with on the next wash.



The problem with Zymol is that I have tested every one of their waxes and I find Pinnacle Souveran is just as good and a lot less money and no monkey business with HD Cleanse or hand application. My issue with carnaubas has been the lack of durability.
 
NSXTASY said:
You really had to do that didn't you? Now you have me thinking....



It's great that it met your expectatations as it would have been a minor letdown if vintage didn't perform as it did. Do you use the Zymol wheel products and interior products also, if so could you elaborate on how you feel about them?



FWIW, I haven't had any trouble with Zaino holding grime, I have found it to release the road grime quite well, but not any better than other products that I use.



I may just have to spring for Zymol...thanks.



I appreciate the review and the time you have taken to describe your Zymol experience(s).
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You're welcome! I don't want to be the only one around here that's completely broke! :p



The only Zymol stuff I've tried so far is the HD-Cleanse, Vintage, and Field Glaze. I'm going to wait til all my other interior detailing products are used up before I blow the cash on Zymol's interior stuff. I am considering their wheel products, though, cause my wheels need a huge amount of work. Get this...



Several months ago, I was driving my car into my favorite touchless car wash. The wash is adjacent to a detailing shop. As I'm turning into the parking lot, I notice a camera crew and lots of eye candy at the detaling shop. On my way out, one of the camera guys stopped me. He said that they were shooting a TV commercial for the detailing shop. He said he loved how clean and shiny my car was, and would it be possible for them to use my car in the commercial. I said sure, no problem. I told the detail shop owner that I did not want them to touch the outside of my car. He said that he'd love to do something for me in appreciation of letting them use my car for the commercial. I told him that an interior and wheel/tire job would be great, but that was all. They turned my wheels into swirled up messes. I have no idea what the best way to go about fixing them is. I'm considering the Zymol stuff, but really at this point I'm pretty clueless. : /
 
I have never had any problems getting a car clean that has a zaino LSP on it when using a wash mitt. But that's the problem; I don't want to use a wash mitt. I want an LSP that releases dirt well enough that the car can be completely touchless washed, or washed with a BHB. The last time I used a BHB on a Zaino LSP'd car, it did not remove any of the stuff on the car. I had to use a wash mitt to get the car clean.



There is a huuuuuge difference in how Vintage releases dirt compared to Zaino. Please don't get the wrong idea here... I realize that Zaino LSP'd cars can come completely clean with a mitt.. that has never been a problem. It is not possible, however, to get adequate touchless or BHB cleaning with Zaino.



And yes, I always finished my Zaino LSP sessions with Z8. I also used Z8 after every wash.
 
Their interior products look tempting as do their wheel products. The Zymol wheel brush, gel cleaner, and possibly the spray shield (don't recall the name) look nice and gentle. For interior mainly the leather cleaner and conditioner (treat).



As far as your wheels, I'm guessing their clearcoated, and if so, one of those mothers powerball mini's that attatch to a drill might work (w/ SIP, 106ff, etc.). How appreciative of the detail shop! Complimentary swirls, yay!
 
If you want a good glaze, I would say that RMG, CG WMF, and danase wet glaze are better than menzerna's. Also, not really a glaze but slap on some victoria wax lite cleanse after polishing and it sort of acts like a glaze, very classy look.
 
NSXTASY said:
Their interior products look tempting as do their wheel products. The Zymol wheel brush, gel cleaner, and possibly the spray shield (don't recall the name) look nice and gentle. For interior mainly the leather cleaner and conditioner (treat).



As far as your wheels, I'm guessing their clearcoated, and if so, one of those mothers powerball mini's that attatch to a drill might work (w/ SIP, 106ff, etc.). How appreciative of the detail shop! Complimentary swirls, yay!
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Good idea, thanks :)



I'm gonna pick one of those up and some of the zymol wheel products you mentioned as well.
 
..........What did I say?????? Bump the wash.............just check out the awesome finish!!!!



Letting someone other than you even touch your Vintage finish? (Never allow this!) I don't even allow people to lift the car without me being there (for other reasons!).



Something tells me that you "Aint seen nuthin yet!"



All joking aside.....I want you to observe a couple of things (if you haven't yet....but I'm sure you have). The difference in reflective range vs. Zaino on your paint, and which finish brought out more vibrant color and a wider hue range. It perhaps may be an uneven match between the two, but since you're observing, you want to really see how good (or not so good) each lsp stacks up against one another.



Let's see the new results when you're done!
 
I'll post em up, lbls1 :)



I've been doing quite a bit of polishing today. The correction went very, very quickly with the 3.02 and a green edge wool pad, so I'm able to spend more time on the final polishing steps. So far, I've done the entire car with one pass of 3.02 on a green edge wool pad, and one pass of 106ff on a blue edge wool pad. The car looks very glassy. Tomorrow, the car gets one more pass of 106ff with a white final finish wool pad.



I'll see if I can get some good shots of where the dealership really hammered my trunk bad. I could probably get the stuff out with wetsanding, but I really don't feel like thinning out the clear coat that much, so I'll just live with them.
 
SuperBee364 said:
Ryan, it was $1,852. I get free refills for life, but I have to pay shipping both ways... they sell it in a special "block of ice" that you have to send back to them when you want a refill.[
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I called them on the phone and they were going to give me a discount to around $1,650.00 .... I am still waiting for my ship to come in. It's out there somewhere some how and when it lands I'll be straight on the phone with Zymol.
 
SuperBee364 said:
Good idea, thanks :)



I'm gonna pick one of those up and some of the zymol wheel products you mentioned as well.
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SuperBee,



I knew you’d love the Vintage. It’s nice to see a post on Autopia where someone actually likes Zymol!



Here’s a hint if you’re going to try any Zymol interior or wheel products: I like using Zymol Tyre on vinyl and plastics better than Zymol Vinyl. Zymol Vinyl is a little to shiny for my dashboard. Tyre is a softer satin. In addition, Tyre contains clove oil, therefore, adding to it’s cleaning properties. Happy Zymol-ing! (Is that a word?):grinno:
 
MDRX8 said:
I called them on the phone and they were going to give me a discount to around $1,650.00 .... I am still waiting for my ship to come in. It's out there somewhere some how and when it lands I'll be straight on the phone with Zymol.
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Crap. I should have called them like you did. I just ordered it off their web site. That extra 200 bucks woulda gone a long ways toward a new Metabo. :(
 
SuperBee364 said:
I'll post em up, lbls1 :)



I've been doing quite a bit of polishing today. The correction went very, very quickly with the 3.02 and a green edge wool pad, so I'm able to spend more time on the final polishing steps. So far, I've done the entire car with one pass of 3.02 on a green edge wool pad, and one pass of 106ff on a blue edge wool pad. The car looks very glassy. Tomorrow, the car gets one more pass of 106ff with a white final finish wool pad.



I'll see if I can get some good shots of where the dealership really hammered my trunk bad. I could probably get the stuff out with wetsanding, but I really don't feel like thinning out the clear coat that much, so I'll just live with them.
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Hammered?? Wetsand???? I am really mad for you. To think that I was under the impression that I was the one that used to have bad luck at the dealership. Those guys should pay for the fix.......really. I agree with you, I'd do my very best to try to stay away from wetsanding if its all possible. If the damage is bad, then you've gotta do what it takes to fix it. But yknow........some dealers should know better.
 
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