Zaino vs Carnuba and protection -- UV or otherwise

First, I apologize for not posting as often as some. For Steve, Nick, Bretfaz, Wayne, et al, thanx for your work here. You folks provide more good information on this board, than on any car board I know. I wish I read the board more often and had more time to post (it would help if I typed faster) but work is work.

At any rate, there have been a lot of posts recently discussing Zaino, Carnuba, UV etc. I am a Zaino user shifted from carnuba about 2 years ago when ZFX was just coming out. (No relation to my shift.) I must admit I prefer a fresh carnuba shine but the durability of carnuba (no matter the brand of carnuba) is not comparable to Zaino. Thus Zaino is the right system for me. It looks better longer.

I think this is the issue. There have been a few posts about Zaino from a few “experts” that have been a bit off base IRT Zaino and potential problems. While I cannot claim to be an expert and do not want to rehash old posts. The Links at the bottom of the page provide my discussion of Zaino from an earlier post and a discussion of why water beads on a waxed car from an MSU website. Since I posted that discussion, I have spent a few days with an old college Chem. E prof (his wife told me he owned the scratch and sniff patent) discussing and lab testing Zaino and a few other things (including home brew). While a smart chemist would provide or want more detail, he felt my discussion was correct and understandable for a layman.

While that post addresses how Zaino works, it does not answer or address a few of the issues recently presented on this and a few other boards it provides some information that may be useful. However, I want to address some of these issues and what I feel are misleading and perhaps unfounded statements.

1. Zaino does not protect your car only waxes do that. Zaino is a polish because Sal named it a polish. (If he wanted, it could be called Fred – since it is his product.) FWIW it is a polish like pledge furniture polish or kiwi shoe polish. It is confusing to auto guys as polish is usually thought of as polishing compound – an abrasive. Zaino is not an abrasive. For us auto/detailing guy’s benefit perhaps, synthetic car wax would be less confusing but based on the negative connotation those products have I understand his choice of name.

2. Zaino is too hard to apply (part one.) Zaino requires the paint to be cleaned and prepped before you use it. Follow the instructions. Most other high quality carnuba based products require the same or similar preparation. A few “cleaner waxes” do not require the same amount of prep but they are not in the same category IRT shine or durability of Zaino (or most Carnubas.)

3. Zaino is too hard to apply (part two.) Zaino sounds difficult to apply because the instructions discuss how and when to wash your car, the use of clay to clean it, and other cleaners such as GEPC. Most carnuba details involve similar steps but the carnuba wax directions only discuss the actual wax application. Figuring out how to properly prep the car is up to the user. IMHO after the initial Zaino coat, Zaino is the easiest car paint protectant to apply. {For example, I put Zaino on my new M3 in the middle of June. Tonight before going out to dinner I washed my car and dried it well. When I got home (different car for the trip out) I spritzed it with Zaino quick detailer and applied a coat of Z2 (I do not use ZFX for a quick coat per the Zaino website). Tomorrow when I get up I will buff off the dried Z2. Total time to apply and buff about 50 minutes. Obviously it depends on the cars usage and storage but I have found the full Zaino treatment -- dawn wash, clay, etc is required about every 6 to 8 months if you keep your car clean and freshen up the Zaino every 6 weeks plus or minus two.} Important note follow the instructions (recommended for all products – not just Zaino.) My only deviation is the use of microfiber (MF) vice cotton buffing towels. Sal dislikes MF due to quality concerns – I buy good/reputable MF based on this boards recommendations. Cheap MF often means cheap quality.

4. Zaino is more/less hydrophobic then carnuba wax . See the discussion on why water beads on a car and yes when the beading is going away, your wax is going away too.

5. Zaino’s solvents will destroy your paint and Carnuba either has no solvents or they are safer. Many of the solvents in carnuba waxes are petroleum distillates; others use “natural” substances such as coconut oil; a few others use synthetic solvents of unknown composition. Zaino has solvents (I do not know what they are) but to conclude that they are more damaging than those in carnuba waxes is a stretch. (Do you want petroleum distillate or coconut oil on your car?) Particularly when the amount of Zaino you apply to you paint is significantly less than the amount of carnuba wax.

6. Zaino has no UV protection. Well I could go on and on about UV protection. It is the buzzword we all search for in vinyl care, paint protection, wheel dressing, suntan lotion, etc. If you want to sell it say it has UV protection. IRT wax vs Zaino. The most damaging forces on wax are sun and rain. Zaino lasts longer in both environments. Unfortunately, the thing that makes waxes (and zaino) shine is optical clarity, which means that most UV will get through. Finally, all waxes start breaking down so fast in bright sun that even if there was inherently more UV protection in carnuba waxes (which there is not) it would disappear rapidly. For UV protection, park in the shade. (Unrelated note: I use several popular products in my car’s interior there is considerable discussion of the UV protection properties of these products. FWIW, they both have similar UV protection capabilities. If you are counting on these protects for UV protection of your dash apply them frequently – say once a week or so. More frequently for seats or areas that get wear. The ultimate in interior UV protection is parking in the shade and using a windshield screen.) Think about it if auto product makers had developed a magic formula that provides long term UV protection, don’t you think the suntan lotion guys would be all over it so you do not need to reapply your lotion every 30 to 60 minutes (less if you swim or move).

7. Zaino does not let you car’s paint breath. With the alkyd enamels of the 30’s, lacquers of the 40’s and 50’s, newer enamels of the 60’s and 70’s this may have held some water. However, today’s paints are well dry before you get them. They do not need to breath or off gas. The day you get the car, wax it there is no need to wait. Virtually all paints are electro-statically applied and kiln dried -- they do not need to breath. Think about it, there is a clear coat already over your primer and color coat, how are primer and pigment coats breathing. The idea behind waxing is to put a protective layer over the paint. Carnuba protects the same way as Zaino, by coating the paint. If Zaino does not let the paint breath (not that it needs to), how do carnuba waxes let the paint breath?

8. Zaino is doing irreparable harm to your paint. It is unreasonable to expect that your car’s paint will catastrophically fail due to Zaino. If Zaino were damaging your paint, it would be a gradual process that someone would have reported. To date there are no reports that I have seen, thus I would conclude there is no problem. More importantly, If Zaino provides superior longer lasting protection as most tests seem to show, it should be better for your car’s finish in the long run.

9. Zaino is too expensive. Compare Zaino to Zymol. Zaino is not cheap but no quality wax is cheap. FWIW, a little Zaino goes a long way.

I want to make it clear I am not advocating Zaino over carnuba. Which wax (or polish) you use is your personal choice. I like Zaino for its durability. I wish the shine were like some of the good carnubas, by using Z5 and Z2 layered I get close but not quite there. Some of the people here want to wax once a month or rarely drive their cars for them maybe carnuba is the right wax. Without question I would use a good carnuba on a classic Jag, MG, or Aston Martin show car. However, a few recent posts have advocated shifting from Zaino to carnuba and provided various questionable reasons to shift. IMHO these posts are not entirely accurate.

Final note – the GURU Reports attempted a rational/reasonable test to determine the quality of waxes. It is qualitative in nature and subject to the individual opinion of the testers (much like a lot of automotive tests in magazines). However, it did subject similar panels to similar conditions so it is better information than my car shines better than his.

ATB,
Tom

PS I are an engineer so I apologize for the grammar/spelling flubs.

http://bimmer.roadfly.org/bmw/forums/detailing/forum.php?postid=1655234

http://www.pa.msu.edu/~sciencet/ask_st/081094.html