What wax and or sealant do you use? How often? I use Zaino Z-5pro with ZFX as a sealant. I always top it with Pinnacle Souveran. I always buy black cars and I think this is the best combo for protection and looks that I have found. The Zanio goes on with a cotton pad and comes off with Pak Shak ultra-smooth microfibers. A little Z-8 helps get it off evenly. Souveran goes on one of 2 ways. First is with the included foam pad by hand. The second is with the Porter Cable and a red Edge 2000 flat pad. Both are done in the spit shine method and removed with Pak Shak ultra soft microfiber towels. I use a little Chemical Guys Pro-Detailer or Finish Kare 425 to assist in the removal.
I use: Meguiars mirror glaze 9 Swirl Remover 2.0 Meguiars mirror glaze Show Car Glaze 7 Black Magic Wet Shine Spray Detailer Black Magic Wet tire shine Microtex Detailing cloths Microtec Glass Cleaning cloth
I will almost always use either Meguiars or Mothers... i never did like BM stuff...it always left residue on the car that the other stuff never did...
:moon: haha...it could me being overly critical of it...i used it on my mustang which was black so it had to be PERFECT or i was like "it sucks" hahaha but the wax left the paint a little bit cloudy looking...something the Meguiars never did which is why i like it...if its good for black, its good for anything haha
Ya know, I am a FIRM believer in use the FORUM's Supporting Vendors. Since we have a Supporting Vendor in Tropi-Care, why not look into their supplies? Tropi-Care has some awsome products and great pricing for SRTC members.
i'll be sure to give them a try i just gotta use up my Xmas stuff i think i'll be done with it before the summer starts :hmm:
Tropi-Care should jump in and say: Hey XYZ user, try our 123. Here are pics of the results in a side by side comparison. We are sure that you will be pleased with the results. I wrote up a step by step guide to getting the best results on a customers black SRT8. These products don't sell themselves. You need to promote the heck out of them and be prepared to answer questions about the competition if you want to sell product.
Then i will ask you, are you a salesman for the products you are promoting? I ask because this is all you seem to be doing. No worries, there is no anger in my question, just something I have noticed since you joined.
I contacted Troip-Care prior to posting in this forum. I told them I will not post in their sponsored forum and I do not sell chemicals or own a detailing garage. They replied within minutes and appreciated my contact to them. They welcomed the conversation and were very professional.
Originally Posted by jdoria Hi, First - I am not a troip-care user. I am an enthusiast detailer. Are you going to get nutty if I mention Optimum NO-rinse and Zaino in the detailing section of the forum? Justin Doria Justin: Thanks for contacting us. Hopefully some day you will take the opportunity to try out our products. Our Tropi-Care product line was inspired and formulated ourselves and detailing pros/enthusiasts in the Dallas area. We sponsor a number of internet detailing forums as you may have seen elsewhere. We have no objections to expressing opinions of product favorites in open forums. As a paying sponsor on these forums, we protect our investment by not allowing hot-links to non-sponsored sites to be posted by forum members. Feel free to contact us anytime. Regards, __________________ Steve Pasztor Tropi-Care Car Care Products www.tropi-care.com
I know this. Tropi-Care actually sponsors this section as well as their own (FYI). Tropi-Care also stated they would like for you to NOT post up hotlinks to their competitors. I have found several already. Again, no worries in my comments... I am still curious as to why you are so much into detail discussion? It is a great thing you are doing, but I am just curious as to why? You seem to be promoting Zaino and some other products that you use in great length. IMO
I just love cleaning cars. I'm sharing knowledge because I personally don't believe there is a dime to be made in detailing, its a shame. If detailing could bring in say, over $500k annually, with less effort than I put into a days work now, I wouldn't be sharing the info. Personally, I'm proud of having a clean car. It takes a lot of work, and there are procedures and methods that if followed, the results are stunning. Its a labor of love. My "day job" is owner of a recruiting company in NYC. I sell project managers to banks to build out global data centers and trading floors. The people on this forum have $40,000+ cars that they cherish and spend a ton of money on modifying. To spend a few hours cleaning once in a while shouldn't be out of the question. I see them all swirled up and dirty, it makes me sick. If my information is not welcome, let me know. Not a problem.
Like I said in my previous posts, please do not take my comments and questions the wrong way... I too try to keep my car detailed daily... lol I did not fork out thousands for a custom paint job to let it look like poop. hehe I was merely trying to figure out your agenda (if any). Like I said, it appears that you are pushing the products that you use. IMO. Your assistance and guidance for ALL on this forum is VERY MUCH welcome and appreciated.
In my opinion, Tropi-Care should be happy I joined. There were 2 posts in this section before I got here and sparked it. I am giving them the opportunity to sell their products to your forum members. If I mention Pinnacle Souveran in a post, there is nothing stopping them from saying, "Wow, thats a great wax, but have you tried our XYZ? Its a paste that works like Souveran and it does blah, blah, blah, here are some pictures and a link to purchase". I sell nothing, I have no links to buy anything in my signature or elsewhere. As stated earlier, I'm just sharing worthless knowledge.
Now that I look like a schill, I hope none of my detailing posts have lost any of their integrity. I just think people want to have a clean car, but know its isn't coming out of a $10 bottle at Pep Boys on a Saturday afternoon. If you are into it, and really want to get involved in making your car look better than the day it was delivered, lets keep the conversation going.
Justin: We hope for the best with this new forum for us. We DO appreciate the fact that you have joined this group. We agreed to become the supporting vendor just a short time before you joined. Product recommendations are necessary to give others an idea of successful treatment products. Products that may be considered great performing for some may be the opposite or under performing for others. As you said earlier, all products need to be promoted to be sold. This is very true no matter where they are marketed. Few have experience with the use of our products in general. For us at enthusiasts and detailers, we formulated and developed these surface treatment products to be easy to use and provide professional series results to all users. In our experience, winter weather makes detailing and surface maintenance a secondary concern unless you're here in Texas or other southern states. We emphasize regular surface treatments with the use of car care products to protect and maintain to the owner's level of enthusiasm. Quality accessories such as microfiber towels, specialty detailing brushes buffing machine/foam pads make the complete maintenance job easier.
I don't think that will be a problem. There are a good number of members on here that show their cars (and win!). Ron being one of them. I love to hear discussions on detailing with tips and how-to's. Just hearing how someone does their car (no discussion) is good. Unless people name specific products it's a lot harder to follow. Someone may use brand x component y to remove light swirls because it has some fillers in it but the tradeoff is it isn't as optically clear as brand x component z which you use with no swirls. Stuff like that. I haven't done much real detailing in the past but have gained a lot of depth in the last 2 years (haha, guess why?). Currently I'm using Zaino so that's my point of reference. Meguiar's is popular with others. I'm not familiar with Tropi-Care so it would be nice to hear some comparison/equivalence type of descriptions/discussions. I have some minimal idea of the general categories like cleaners with mild abrasives, fillers to repair minor imperfections/damage, polish, sealers, etc. Especially for a new product line it would help to hear direct comparisons to the major/popular lines out there now. I'm a consumer. I want the best product, that's easiest to use in the amount of effort I'm willing to put into it, that falls within my budget. I'm sure Tropi-Care has what they think is a competitive advantage or some market differentiator or they wouldn't have come out with a product. What I'd like to see is maybe Steve could do a little "mini-series" of threads maybe addressing the basic steps of detailing and how Tropi-Care has addressed these. If it's done in a section outside of the Tropi-Care forum I'd expect it to be open to direct brand specific comparisons and opinions. If done in the Tropi-Care forum then maybe not, but I wouldn't expect it to have as much impact/value.
