Nezil

Yes... my car is Black... simultaneously the best and worse colour for a car to be.

Ooh... nasty. I wish there was a better way to remove pollen. I've dreamed about approaches in the future where something in the bodywork of the car actually repels dust, sort of like how sensors in DSLRs have an ultrasonic self cleaning feature these days. Wouldn't it be great if you could just get up to speed (around 30mph), press a button, and all of the dust just blew off and disappeared...

Just thought of a few other points... 1. I have seen some horrific copies of the original California Duster. I bought one once, when I was living in Korea, that was actually held together with very fine copper wires. If you parted the strings on the brush itself, at the base of the head it was more like wire wool! That thing went straight in the trash, so I'm only speaking about the genuine article here. 2. I do also use Adam's Waterless Car Wash, and find it to be superb. I find that I can go for about a week with dusting the car in the mornings, before other more persistent marks start appearing. These might be tree sap, or other dust that is more sticky I suppose. At this point, I'll use Waterless Car Wash to go over the whole car, followed by Adam's Detail Spray (can't wait to try the new formula by the way... which is waiting for me at home; delivered today!). 3. I always keep a small size bottle of Waterless Car Wash in the glove box of my car, along with the appropriate towel. This is to combat bird bombs, which my paint seems to be affected very badly by, even when coated with Adam's sealants and waxs.

I've got my wash down to around 40 minutes now, including a full clean of wheels and wheel wells. The only way that I've been able to do this is by using a foam lance on a pressure washer. To answer the question re. pollen however, back on topic, I use a California Duster extremely lightly every morning before I pull the car out of the garage. It takes me about 5 minutes to go over the car, perhaps a little longer, and I'll only ever do it if it hasn't rained outside. I know that a lot of people complain about the California Duster, but the famous 'Junkman' did a fantastic video on YouTube about it, and I've never had any problems. I always dust with no pressure, not even the weight of the brush itself, and I always go in the same direction. I started doing this to identify any swirls (which would obviously follow the direction I was consistently dusting in), and I've since continued doing this out of habit. I have never seen any swirls from using the California Duster in this way, but I've seen a hell of a lot of problems from people who rub the paint with it.

Since writing that last post, I've been thinking of a better way to describe the Zaino vs Adam's end results... Zaino gives an amazing amount of reflectivity, but that reflectivity is like it's sitting on top of the clear coat (I realize that all sealants and waxes sit in top of clear coat, but I'm describing the appearance here). Adam's, and other carnauba based waxes leave a deeper gloss, that seems to come from inside the paint, as though you're looking into a sea of color. Some people claim that Americana will still bead water after six months, which is pretty long for a wax. I can't comment on this, because I, like others have suggested, gone with a sealant, topped with a wax. In most cases, the last product you apply will have the most prominent affect on the end look. One final tip if you're new to Adam's products, after using Zaino... Make sure to use the Adam's microfiber towels; they're super soft, and I had smearing issues with their Detail spray when using Zaino towels... switched to Adam's towels and the problems were gone.

David, I was a Zaino user for the last few years, but wasn't happy with the reflections it gave on my new pearlescent black car. Don't get me wrong... They were shiny, and wet looking, but the reflections looked almost like a plastic wrap, perhaps a touch synthetic... It's hard to describe. I decided to give a wax a try, and started with Meguiars Gold Class... I was really disappointed with this, and simply couldn't get rid of the smears that it left behind. This is when I got looking for alternative waxes or sealants, and it came down to either Adam's Brilliant Glaze & Americana, or Black Fire Sealant and Wax. I decided to try Adam's first, so I can't comment on the Black Fire combo. I could not be happier with the Adam's combo, or their entire line of products that I've tried so far. I first tried Brilliant Glaze, followed by two coats of Americana, but for various reasons washed this all off and did a single coat of Adam's sealant, followed by a single coat of Brilliant Glaze (after waiting for 24 hours) and then two coats of Americana Wax (12 hours apart). My understanding from reading these forums and the Adam's videos, is that layering of most products isn't recommended. Brilliant Glaze is a beautifier, not a protectant, so you could apply this weekly if you really wanted. Americana can be layered twice; any more could cause clouding, and isn't recommended. In the interests of proving my impartiality, while I do think that Americana is an amazing wax, and far above others that I've tried at that price point, I do think there are better waxes out there, but you have to pay a lot more for a miniscule improvement. I'll therefore continue to use Americana for the foreseeable future. Hope that helps.

Well let's not forget that body shops almost always use a rotary buffer and compound after painting anyway, so I don't see any logic at all in waiting before polishing. If the paint is not fully cured, it might be softer and more sensitive to polishing, but if you're careful, there shouldn't be any problems. Not sealing does have some logic to it, by letting the paint fully cure, but even this is questionable. Most paints these days (to my understanding) do not air dry, and cure by a chemical reaction process. There might be some gaseous by-products of the chemical reaction still taking place for a few weeks after it appears cured.

I've always found it to be a matter of some debate about when to wax a freshly painted panel. Some body shops say that you can wax it from day one, and some say to wait. Others still will actually wax the panel for you before they give it back! When you talk to different detailing product suppliers, you also end up getting different answers. I heard that Sal @ Zaino, who used to be a painter, said that it's safe to apply their sealants immediately. Some of the staff at Meguiars say to wait, some say it's fine. My personal opinion is that it probably depends on the paint that was used; hence the reason that it's best to ask the body shop, or better still the paint supplier if they'll let you know who that was. Obviously the safest solution is to wait for about 60 days, since even if it wasn't necessary, you won't have done any harm that can't be corrected with a very light finishing polish. Watch out for bird bombs though, because they can eat into even protected paint within hours, and you don't want that on your nice newly painted panel!

Jim, I didn't realise that the Zaino Blondes were cotton and not MF. In fact I was so convinced otherwise that I did a quick search and you're absolutely correct! I also discovered some confirmation that the towel is in fact only single sided, with a different weave on each side; something I had suspected, but never seen confirmed before. John, I had a chance to try the Adam's Single Soft Towel that I received with the recent 24 hour special of detail spray. I have to say that I am very impressed, and yes... no streaking at all! . If only they weren't so expensive! I hadn't used the Single Soft before because I had three clean Zaino Blondes that were just sitting there, and I didn't want to start using a new towel un-necessarily. It seems as though Jim has a point about the absorption rate of the two towels making a difference to the streaking of the finish. As I said, I hadn't noticed this before with Zaino detail sprays, but I guess that's to be expected from their own towels. As time goes by, I'm noticing more and more that if you stick to all Adam's products, and use them exactly as the videos tell you, you get 100% good results. Deviate much from that, by using other company products, and your results can be varied... You may have success, but the chance is far lower.

So believe it or not, after posting last night, I went over the whole car with (apologies, but I just can't afford to buy every Adam's product yet) Meguiars Ultimate Polish, which is a combined fine polish and glaze, using my Porter Cable. I then did an IPA wipe down to leave a totally clean car. Following this, I applied a coat of Machine Super Sealant, again using the Porter Cable, and then after waiting ~30 mins, buffed off and called it a night (around 11.30pm). This morning, I buffed over the whole car again in case I missed any bits, or the machine sealant had further cured. It's looking very shiny now, but not deep like the Brilliant Glaze / Americana combo does. I'm going to leave it to cure until later tonight (~18 hours since the MSS was applied) and then hit it with a coat of Brilliant Glaze and first coat of Americana. If all goes well, I'll do a second Americana coat on Tuesday morning before work, and I'll be back to the state I was in yesterday afternoon, only now with MSS underneath it all! I hope this works better, and as Tim & Michael suggested, I'll get some Waterless wash to keep in the car for just such an occasion. It seems a shame to use the Adam's waterless microfiber to go at a bird bomb, but I suppose it's better than having it etch into the paint. Thanks for the tips guys!

I do have some Adam's towels, both Single and Double actually. I've not tried the single one yet, but I have tried the double, and found it to be a bit difficult to work with because it was so 'puffed up' for want of a better description. I chose to use my Zaino towels because they were a premium towel, and thought they were more suited to a detail spray role than Adam's towels which were more general purpose. Of course I'll give the Adam's towel a go soon, but wasn't so much asking for advice, as offering it for anyone else who'd had my issues.

I used a Zaino Border Free Blonde towel. It's an extremely soft towel with quite long fibers. Zaino recommends them for detail spray rather than removing polish residue, and I'd agree with that. Do you think I'd have less issues with Adam's towels?

I recently moved to Adam's products after using Zaino for the last few years. I'm loving the way that Brilliant Glaze / Americana looks on my pearlescent black car, but have recently run into an issue... About two weeks ago, I detailed my whole car, removing all swirls and then protecting with Brilliant Glaze, followed by two coats of Americana. Since that time I've been dusting off the car after each drive, and hitting it with Detail Spray every morning before I leave for work; it's been looking great since it's not rained here in Northern California for ages. Today I went for a drive with my family, and noticed a bird bomb when we came out of a restaurant after eating lunch. As soon as we got home, a couple of hours later, I cleaned of the bomb but it had already etched into the clear coat! I have tried polishing out the etching, but it's really very deep. I've been able to improve the appearance quite a bit, but the bigger questions are 'How did this happen?' and 'How can I prevent this in the future?' I realise that Americana is a wax, and therefore lasts for less time before needing to be re-applied, but I didn't think that it protected any less; was I wrong about that? Should I be applying Machine Sealant under the Brilliant Glaze / Americana Wax combo? Would that have prevented this?

I've recently moved over to Adam's products from Zaino, and I'm loving the way that the Brilliant Glaze / Americana combo looks on my car. Although I'd read really good things about Adam's Detail Spray, I really couldn't get on with it, despite having bought nearly two gallons of the stuff in all. Basically, I couldn't seem to stop it from leaving a streaky, patchy finish on my black paint. Before anyone asks, yes I did try in direct sunlight, out of direct sunlight, cool panels, warm panels, hot days, cool evenings etc... Nothing seemed to work. Today I tried a new technique, and solved all of my problems: After spraying the Detail Spray onto a panel, wipe the panel with one side of a folded microfiber towel. Don't stop wiping until the product disappears leaving no streaks. Only when there is no streaking, flip the towel to a dry side for a final wipe. My problem was that I'd wipe the Detail Spray into the panel just once, obviously leaving streaks, and then switch to the dry side of the towel too early, effectively setting the streaks into the paint! I hadn't noticed this problem with Zaino Z6 or Z8, but I don't see it as a flaw in Adam's product, just a different application method. I'm posting this in case anyone else has these streaking problems... hope this helps someone

Samers, I have tried some M************* in the past, and that got rid of some of them. I'll give a finishing polish a go and see how I get on. I have quite a few polishes from other brands, and I've already spent hundreds of dollars with Adam's over the last few weeks. I can't justify getting a set of Adam's polishes just yet... but I may have to give in to the urge sooner or later.

Lenny, I have a 2012 XF that I've been doing correction on recently, and that plastic between the doors (B Pillar) is really irritating. As Samer pointed out, they're really really soft, and I haven't found anything yet to get rid of all the swirls - I've not yet used Adams polishes, only cleaners, glaze and wax so far. Which product did you use for that plastic?

That's a great shine you've got Don, it looks simultaneously plain black, and metallic. It's often difficult to get metallic black cars to look deep and dark. What combination of products did you use? Brilliant Glaze, followed by Americana?

No problem Len, If you have a way of pumping the water, the RO unit makes perfect sense in my opinion. A lot of professional window cleaning companies use them to fill the tanks on their trucks. As I said, if I were to run a mobile detailing business, and this is the original poster's question, that's what I'd do. Since he already has a tank, I figured he must have already solved the pump part of the equation. For those that need a pump, the whole Karcher electric line is able to draw from a nearby tank, and they start very cheap.

Continued from previous post... Initially I had the output from the DI filter going straight into 5 gallon drinking water bottles, but this proved to be pretty dangerous, and I had it overflow a couple of times because I forgot that I'd left it on - 50 Gallons per day means that it takes about 2.5 hours; slow enough to be tedious, but fast when you're not paying attention! The solution to this was a 5 gallon bucket with a float valve installed that shuts off the system when it's full. I then syphon this into my 5 gallon bottles when I remember, without having to worry about flooding the kitchen! The final piece of my solution was to get this de-ionsied water over the car when it's stored in multiple 5 gallon bottles. This came in the form of another 5 gallon bucket fitted with a hose spigot on the bottom, and a hole for the neck of my 5 gallon bottles in the lid. I use a Karcher electric pressure washer that is able to draw water from a standing source to pump it to clean and rinse my car. Washes now take about 35 minutes, and I just pull the car into the garage, soaking wet, to let it dry overnight. By the time I'm up in the morning, the car is all clean and dry, with no waterspots anywhere. I usually go round with some detail spray, but that's primarily to increase gloss a bit. For reference, it takes between 15 and 20 gallons of water to wash and rinse the whole car, including a foam cannon pre-wash and rinse, followed by a foam up of the whole car. The final rinse uses the most water because you have to make sure that you've got rid of all of the soap and dirty water from all of the cracks and panel joints. Any drips that contain soap or dust will leave a water spot or streak, and that's what we're trying to eliminate. If you're trying to be really frugal, I think you could probably do only a DI water rinse and use between 5 and 10 gallons. I'm travelling right now, and won't be home until the 15th August so I can't share any photos now I'm afraid (hence the long description). I'll try and remember to follow up after this trip, but do feel free to ask more questions if you have any. Neil.

Haha, my setup isn't exactly pretty... And it's not all in one place. My motivation was to find a way to speed up a weekly wash. My wife and I have an 11 month old son, and we've argued in the past about me not helping enough with him and spending too much time doing other things (like car detailing). A wash and dry was taking me upwards of 3 hours, because I was having to work on a panel at a time. The California sun is so hot at times that I had to do that to make sure I didn't get any water spots. At the same time, I was also conscious that wiping a towel across the surface to dry a black car could cause swirl marks, though I think a Detail Spray to assist drying would take care of this to be honest. I looked at a CR Spotless system, which is basically a large De-Ionisation Resin filter that your hose passes through to remove all of the dissolved solids. It's a nice system, because it allows you to have nearly a full hose flow rate, but with 400 ppm TDS water, it would cost me a fortune in new DI resin to run, not to mention the expensive initial outlay. I had installed a Watts Premier WP5-50 undersink 50 Gallon per day RO unit (~$170) for drinking water, which feeds a sink top faucet, as well as a water cooler / heater. So I already had a way of getting 10 ppm TDS water, albeit at a rate of only 50 Gallons per day. I did try using this 10 ppm water to rinse the hood of my car, leaving it to air dry overnight, but this did leave water spots behind by the morning. To be fair, these water spots, although noticeable, wiped off with a detail spray very easily, but I wanted more... A few years ago I was into marine fish keeping, and knew about De-Ionising resin from the days of mixing my own sea water. I found a single stage DI resin filter add-on kit from 'The Filter Guys' (Do a google search if you're interested) for $38, and bought a few valves and connectors as well. I basically added a 'T' connector at the point where the RO water enters the water cooler, and put an inline valve on there as well. When I want to make some 0 ppm water, I connect in the DI filter, and open the valve.

What I did personally (though not for a business) is to get a 50 Gallon / Day RO water filter system. I bought a TDS (Total dissolved solids) meter at the same time to measure the state of the water before and after. My water was ~400 ppm before the RO, and ~10 ppm after. A 50 GPD RO system will cost you less than $200, and is pretty cheap to run too. A faster system will not be much more expensive either, and the running costs are pretty cheap. Pre 'softening' the water before the RO filter might make the RO membrane last a little longer but isn't necessary at all. It's important to remember that a water softener does not remove the minerals in the water, it simply tries to replace them with less harmful ones (Salt) so you'll still get water spots, but shouldn't get any etching. A softener is far more expensive to buy, install, and run than an RO unit. Is 10 ppm water good enough for a spot free rinse... No, but it is probably more than good enough if you're going to be drying the car yourself as you work, or you're not working on a black vehicle. If you are working on a black vehicle however, you might want to get that water down to 0 ppm - totally pure water. This is possible by adding a De-Ionisation cartridge after the RO unit to remove the last 10 ppm. These are not expensive, but the resin inside is, and doesn't last that long. If I were running a mobile detailing business, I'd set up an RO unit connected to my storage tank with a float valve to stop it once it's full. I'd run this overnight ready for the next day, and probably get a 100 GPD unit so that it would fill the 50 Gallon tank overnight. If I was detailing a Black car the next day, I'd switch in the DI filter that night to give me totally pure water, but only for black vehicles if I'm washing in high temperatures or sun where spots might be a problem. Hope this helps, and if you need more info, please ask. As I said, I have a similar set up myself. Neil.

Another point regarding pressure... For washing the car, as others have said, you really shouldn't be using the power of the pressure washer to do any cleaning. Your wash mitt and two bucket wash is used for that. A foam pre-wash and rinse, to remove loose particles is good, followed by another blast of foam and then a two bucket wash. You could then use the pressure washer to rinse, but the sheeting method with a hose is probably better for most people. I personally use my pressure washer to draw de-ionised water from 5 gallon water bottles. I do this because I find it very difficult to wash a vehicle in the California sun without getting water spots, particularly with my hose water being at ~400ppm TDS (that's super hard). I then just leave my car to dry in the garage overnight, and don't towel dry at all. I'm therefore using the pressure washer as a form of pump to get the DI water over the car, and so I do use it for a final rinse. DI water also has the side effect of producing a lot more foam from the same concentration of wash soap! I could have used a CR Spotless system, but felt it was too expensive both to buy, and to run, so I developed my own cheaper system [please ask if you're interested, and I'll make a new thread about it].

I'd personally be worried too about a pressure washer with more than about a 2000 psi rating. Gas powered washers are indeed more powerful, and have a greater flow rate, neither of which are particularly necessary for washing a vehicle, and can be bad news if you get too close. The MTM Hydro Foam Lance that's listed in the first post of this thread will work fine with an 1800 psi electric washer, and that is what I use (Karcher K3.740). As has been previously stated, the pressure that the foam comes out at will be fairly low, but that's not a bad thing. I believe that the MTM Hydro Lance has a 1.5mm orifice, that is 'tuned' to work with a 2600 psi washer with a higher flow rate if my memory serves me correctly. What this means is that for lower pressure units, we'll be outputting foam at a lower pressure than the lance could work at, and probably using less wash soap as well! The MTM Hydro Lance, and gas pressure washers in general are both designed for cleaning hard surfaces such as the sides of a house, wooden fences, and concrete / paved surfaces. Higher flow rates and higher pressures make these tasks quicker, and more effective. For a car wash, an electric is probably better suited, and will work fine with the foam lance.

Thanks for the responses guys. I've been watching a lot of the Adam's guide videos, and it's already resulted in me ordering the turbo wheel brush when it was a daily special a few days ago. I've also added a load of products to a shopping basket, and am about to bite the bullet and buy all of this kit. There is no rush however, because I'm out of the country for a few weeks anyway, so it's all theory study for now; hence my questions. I think I'm fairly happy with the responses about a weekly upkeep regime. I plan to remove all traces of Zaino with dawn, and then apply Brilliant Glaze, followed by two coats of Americana. Upkeep will be my regular pre wash foam, followed by two bucket wash, De-Ionised water rinse, and no touch dry. Once the car is totally dry, usually the next morning, I'll quick detail the whole car. This whole process will happen about once every week, occasionally two weeks apart, but my car is garaged, and it doesn't rain much in California. The big question I have still remains though... Assuming two coats of Americana will last for about 3 months, I guess I'll start to notice water not beading so well, and the gloss not being as deep as it used to be (this might happen quicker than 3 months, and that's OK too). When this does happen, what should my process be? Can I just re-apply more wax or glaze over the old, decayed wax, after a standard maintenance wash, or should I remove this first with IPA or a Dawn wash? I also had a couple of related questions following the videos I watched: If I use All Purpose Cleaner on the wheel wells and tyres, presumably this will also strip any LSPon the wheels, and on the paint if I'm not careful with the spray. Is this also true of Green Wheel Cleaner? Perhaps if doing a weekly wash, APC is not necessary, and standard car wash soap will be enough to clean the wheel wells and tyres. Will Super VRT also strip LSP? This will obviously affect the order of product application. Will Invisible Undercarriage Spray also strip LSP? Does Adam's not have an LSP for wheels? I guess they assume that you'll be stripping it off at every wash, so they don't bother making anything specific? Thanks, as always, for your help guys! Neil.

I recently spent a couple of weeks of evenings polishing out swirl marks that were put in all over my car by a body shop trying to 'do me a favour' by washing and waxing the whole car after a respray to the bonnet (hood). For the polishing stage I used Meguiars Ultimate Compound, followed by Ultimate Polish. Both of these can be roughly described as the consumer versions of M105 & M205 which appear to have good reviews. I found them to be really easy to use, and was happy with the results. On previous car, with light pearlescent blue paint (a Honda S200 in Suzuka/Nurburgring Blue), I had used Zaino's system and been pretty happy with it. The problem I had with my new car was two fold however: I was doing a panel or two per night, and wanted to put on an LSP after the polishing work a section at a time. Zaino requires the use of a ZFX activator and after you've mixed up an Ounce of sealant, you've got to use it in 6 hours. This would mean a lot of wasted product. My new car is 'Ultimate Black', a pearlescent Black colour, and I wondered if I'd be able to get a deeper shine with a different LSP. After the success that I'd had with Meguiars Polishes, I decided to give their Gold Class Carnauba Plus wax a try as an LSP, complete with their Gold Class Quick Detailer and Quick Wax... I was seriously disappointed. I simply couldn't prevent the Gold Class from smearing. Streaks and blotches of different depth of colour were left all over the paintwork, most noticeable on the horizontal panels. In bright sunlight, the streaks were not noticeable in the same way, but appeared as greasy sections that almost looked like post polishing haze. In the end I finished polishing the car, and went back to a full 3 coats of Zaino Z5. Zaino's shine is very good, far far better than the Gold Class, but it was a pain to apply and remove, and as I said before, I'd like to try a Carnauba based wax. Besides it's well known durability, I'd been most happy with the care regime of Zaino. I love the fact that after a wash, a quick spray with Z6 and/or Z8 leaves your car looking like it's just been waxed (sealed) for a very long time, certainly long enough until the next full detail session. Now that my car is garaged, I'm not so concerned about durability, and am happy to apply sealant / wax / glaze / quick detailer more often, but I'd like to understand the process I should be following if I switch from Zaino. When I tried P21S on my S2000 before, I hadn't been that happy with the look (hence the switch to Zaino), but more importantly had felt that as the wax coat degraded, fairly quickly with P21S, it became almost dirty. Let's say I went for an Adam's Brilliant Glaze, Followed by Americana Wax. I'd start of course with a full IPA wipe down to remove the Zaino, apply the Glaze, and then the wax... Then what? So here are my questions: When I wash the car, should I use Adam's Quick Detailer Spray to make the Americana last a little longer? What process do people follow between full detail sessions to ensure that their car looks the best? Can I apply Americana by DA, perhaps with a 4" pad? How long before Americana and/or Glaze needs to be re-applied? Should I IPA wipe down / Dawn wash the car when I do re-apply Americana / Glaze to get rid of the old decayed dirty wax? It may be that I've been burnt when trying out the Meguiar's Gold Class, but I'm so nervous to switch from Zaino when I know that it's so easy to maintain. I don't mind a system / process that requires more effort if it gives results, but the Meguiars was just bad in both the maintenance and care regard (QD left more streaks than the wax!) Thanks for your help. Neil.