Alright, heres the deal. I bought my car with 80,000 miles on it and the paint wasnt so hot. It was pretty good, but there were some chips in the paint on the hood. Its also got some swirl marks. I know these cars dont have the best paint to start, but, what would be a good way to go. I really dont have any money to do anything big right now, but i was wondering if you had any ideas you felt like throwing out. thanks

 

Go to the show and shine forum and read up on zaino

 

Yeah, i have heard great things about Zaino, but will it really help that much? And what is the best way to go about dealing with the scratches and paint chips? Will a paint shop just do that and will it look good?

 

heres what you can do. To all the scratches do some light wet sanding with some 1500wet paper. the use like a medium cut compound on a foam pad follow that with a fine cut, then use all the zaino products like the swirl reducer and gloss enhancer and all and see what happenes. if that doesnt atlest mke the paint look better and the scratches less of a isore the only thing to do is repaint the scratched panels and possible the whole car

 

I wouldn't worry about using the zanio, it's way too expensive. It winds up being like $75 just to get the basics and it's really complicated to use, there's like 5 steps and you must do them in a certain order and wait a certain amount of time. Just did like he said and use mequires or something similar, it will do a good enough job. And save yourself alot of work and time, get a $20 buffer to compound and wax it with.

I love these people who buy this zanio stuff and put on there brand new car and then come on here and say wow this zanio is great, look how nice my car looks, and then i say your car looks nice because it's got new paint, not because the zanio performed some mirecal.

 

well ill tell you what. Those zaino products are really good. With that said you dont neccesarilt ned those to do a comprable job. You could just use some buffing compounds like i originally said and then go to auto zone and use some of there like meguiars or 3m or whatever. As far as getting a 20 buffer you will have bought what you paid for a POS. Try to find someone who can loan you a profetional style buffer the 20 dolar things do nothin but waste time. i use Perfect2 at work on a foam pad to buff after i wet sand new paint and it works fine. The Zaino stuff is probally more for that person that likes to always use the best and are willing to put the time and money into it, definitly not a cheap way to go.
heres a step by step.
1. wash car.
2. get some touch up and use it in all chip and deep scratches.
3. lightly wet sand scratches with 1500wet paper(be carefully if you get carried away you will sand through the crear then paint) also due the same to any are that you used touch up that may have ended up outside the chip but again be careful.
4. Use a high speed buffer that does like 1000 or more rpm and first buff the sanded areas then the whole car(to be easy you could just use the perfect2 or like product).
5. if your not satisfied yet and it looks swirly use a swirl reducer
6. then wax it.
if its not looking good by then, theres not much else you can do.

 

the $20 buffers will do 1000 rpm they just don't let you press down too hard, I guess they are for waxing and not really for buffing,

 

In my opinion, using sandpaper is your last resort (2000 grit). Try using a 3m's fine rubbing compund. Then finish up using a hand glaze to remove the swirl mark left from the rubbing compound. You should alway start, in my opinion, with the least abrasive compund then work your way up, because once you take it off you can't bring it back without repainting your car.