Zaino vs. professional detail on a 12 y.o. daily driver?

**capricho** · 05-13-2009, 10:33 PM

I`d like to get some feedback regarding my dilemma. I have a pretty nice dark green 1997 Acura TL that is my daily driver. Okay, the car isn`t a chic magnet, nor is it flashy or new, but it still looks great and I drive it every day. It has 188,000 miles. I want to keep this car and maintain it and want it looking sharp. It has some minor defects: a cheap mobile bumper repair with orange peel graces the front end, a repaint on the passenger side shows more orange peel, and a few other really minor blemishes. Overall, the paint still shines well except it`s 12 years old and has been through the swirl-o-matic more times then I wish to admit.

So, here`s what I`m faced with. I can take it to the very best local detailer in town who will wet sand some of the offending orange peel, do some minor paint spot repair, restore the headlights, polish, glaze, and wax the exterior for about $500.00. Or I can get some Zaino and go to town buffing it, filling the swirls, for less than $50.00 on a Saturday, without my girlfriend, who just doesn`t understand.

Keep in mind this is a 12 year old car but I am married to her.

Is spending $500.00 on a 12 year old car worth it?

Please don`t tell me to buy the buffer and pads and do all the elbow grease myself, I am just not wanting to start that discussion.

Any advise appreciated.

**g35_coupe** · 05-14-2009, 07:31 PM

$500 is a bit much in my opinion. I would save it for tires or something else. In the end it`s your money but a quick wax/polish yourself would reap more benefits than a professional detail/orange peel removal on a 12 year old car with close to 200k on the clock.

**Setec Astronomy** · 05-14-2009, 07:39 PM

Presuming that the detailer is actually an Autopian-level one and not a hack, it will be a night-and-day difference compared to what you do by hand for $50. Your Zaino treatment will do nothing for the orange peel, you`ll have to work really hard by hand with Z-PC to do any defect removal, and Z-5 will not have any noticeable filling effect on your "swirl-o-matic" marks.

So basically IMO you`re comparing apples and oranges. You can, for $50, use Zaino, another brand, or OTC products, spend your saturday claying, polishing, and waxing, and you will make a HUGE difference from where you started...but it will be another huge difference from that to where you will be after having the car professionaly wetsanded and machine polished.

**cptzippy** · 05-14-2009, 08:50 PM

Or you can spend a bit more and some time on here and learn how to do what you`re going to pay the cat $500 for.

**Thats Fresh** · 05-14-2009, 08:53 PM

yup. alot of reading on here and youll see that you can spend way less with buying your own materials and see how easy it is DIY. and with the materials, you can detail the rest of the cars in your driveway and make em all look clean.

**PerroneFord** · 05-14-2009, 08:58 PM

Originally Posted by cptzippy

Or you can spend a bit more and some time on here and learn how to do what you`re going to pay the cat $500 for.

But in all honesty, by the time he buys a polisher, pads, compound, clay, finishing polish, sealant, etc., he`ll be $300-$350 in, still unable to achieve half what a real pro could, and have a lot of gear that probably won`t see much use.

It`s a tough spot to be in.

**Darkstar752** · 05-14-2009, 09:06 PM

The pro will do all of that and still have to use a glaze? That`s filling in swirls. Post up your location, and you will probably be able to find someone here to do a better job for less, especially if you become an autopian and learn how to keep your car swirl free. :spot

**termigator** · 05-14-2009, 09:19 PM

Going the DIY route, I would only use Zaino as the LSP. IMO, there much better swirl-removing polishes out there (Meguiar`s M105/M205 and Menzerna polishes come to mind), especially if you`re planning on doing it by hand.

I`m also going to be working on a 97` TL soon. I`ll be taking it off my brother`s hands for a while, since it`s just sitting around outside his house collecting dust and accumulating sun damage as we speak.

**Mobilejay** · 05-14-2009, 09:48 PM

For 500 bucks he is going to wetsand, restore the headlights, rid the paint of swirls and what ever else you said. In my opinion that costs A LOT more. Wetsanding OP is not an easy task and shouldn`t just take 5 min. Paint correction to remove swirling will take atleast 8-10 hours to get it nearly perfect(this alone would cost 500 if not more) and then what ever else hes doing. I would charge way more than 500 and it would take probably 2 days if I bust a$$. Then again, I`ve never wetsanded but watching Josh(vette) do it to get rid of scratches on a hood took a very long time. I don`t mean to burst your bubble(I may not even know what I`m talking about) but I say do some more research, see the other cars hes done and make your judgement from that. My 2cents

**dan46n2** · 05-15-2009, 03:02 AM

Keep in mind that if you have the car wet sanded it may shorten the life of the clear coat. If this person does not have an accurate paint gauge to measure thickness he is just guessing and you may have a peeling clear coat in a year after this is done. Also unless the orange peel is really bad it may not be that much of an improvement. If it was my car and it was a daily driver I would live with some mild to moderate orange peel than have to worry about repainting the whole car later.

**MarcHarris** · 05-15-2009, 02:06 PM

^ right on dan. also what if the orange peel is in the base coat? or in one of the layers of clear (if they put more than one layer or clear down) ? wet sanding can`t help that.

Might want to find a decent detail who can do a light correction on the vehicle (a one-stepped can do wonders!), and concentrate on those bad areas for u. of course a good detailer can bring the car back to live, but it`s a matter if you`re willing to maintain it from there on out

my 2 cents

-Marc

**charlesaferg** · 05-15-2009, 03:21 PM

500 for that? No. For none of that unspecified "paint repair," it shouldn`t be more than 400 for a sedan of that size, with the procedures you outlined.

Also, just skip the glaze. Find an Autopian through the local forums, they will help you. Overall, you get peace of mind, because you will find a very high quality detailer here.

**capricho** · 05-15-2009, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by Setec Astronomy

Presuming that the detailer is actually an Autopian-level one and not a hack, it will be a night-and-day difference compared to what you do by hand for $50. Your Zaino treatment will do nothing for the orange peel, you`ll have to work really hard by hand with Z-PC to do any defect removal, and Z-5 will not have any noticeable filling effect on your "swirl-o-matic" marks.

So basically IMO you`re comparing apples and oranges. You can, for $50, use Zaino, another brand, or OTC products, spend your saturday claying, polishing, and waxing, and you will make a HUGE difference from where you started...but it will be another huge difference from that to where you will be after having the car professionaly wetsanded and machine polished.

I appreciate your response, and all the others as well. Yeah, $500. is a bit much especially in today`s economy. The detailer, Manuel, has been detailing cars for 15 years and he also restores classics. He knows what he`s doing. I am, however, in agreement that wet sanding is probably too risky and the orange peel isn`t really all that bad, except at the front bumper which I really should have repainted anyway.

I will probably just buy a second hand DA polisher and some pads and do it myself. I would like to use the $500.00 for other purposes, such as tickets to Paris for my gf.

**mborner** · 05-16-2009, 08:15 AM

Originally Posted by MuttGrunt

^ right on dan. also what if the orange peel is in the base coat? or in one of the layers of clear (if they put more than one layer or clear down) ? wet sanding can`t help that.

Might want to find a decent detail who can do a light correction on the vehicle (a one-stepped can do wonders!), and concentrate on those bad areas for u. of course a good detailer can bring the car back to live, but it`s a matter if you`re willing to maintain it from there on out

my 2 cents

-Marc

Base coat very rarely, if never, orange peels. Even if it did, it is only the last coat of clear that you need to worry about. I`s the last coat that is sanded smooth and polished out. You can`t see orange peel underneath a perfectly sanded, buffed, and polished surface.