Zymol?

[mattjpreston]

I recently bought my SL (first Mercedes, v. exciting) and about to have a small amount of bodywork done and was thinking of buying a complete zymol kit to tidy up the rest of the paintwork, which is in pretty good condition already. So just restoring a bit of shine. The cost of this kit is going to be about £250-300 which I'm prepared to pay, but was wondering if anyone had any other/better suggestions. I've seen on the site that quite a few people use glipstone for the leather, so presume this is good. What about the outside if I go for that for the leather?[/B][/B][/B]

 

[nigel cross]

Have a try at Mequiars,their products are prety good and give a good shine, eay to put on and take off. but not cheap. I have tried lots of other makes and theirs takes a lot of beating. Zymol as you have mentioned is good but do you really want to spend 3 hours waxing your car,using just your bare hands and no cloths?
Auto glym is also pretty good but my preference is Mequiars.
Having said that I am allways on the look out for new good products and have just ordered some Mothers products. You could try the Zaino route which gives amazing results but that is really a labour of love, spending hours a week to get a mirror like shine.:bannana:

 

[mattjpreston]

I've always used autoglym before but have found the dust left to be a bit of a pain. think I'll try the meguiars. Also thinking of getting a power polisher as discussed in another thread

 

[david_h]

I've used Zymol on my paintwork for at least 5 years.

The HD Clense, autobathe and Zymol Creame wax is sufficient.

Gilptone is better than the zymol equivalent.

Meguirs is not as good as Zymol especially on dark cars.

I'd only consider the hand glazes ie.g. titanium wax etc if you're planning to show the car and it's been resprayed professionally and is 100% mint. If it's out the factory paintwork it's never as good, it's orange peel like due to the paint being tooo thin and on dark colours a proper wax will only magnify this effect.
I still use zymol on the merc even though it's only been partially resprayed, and it does look stunning.
P21-S is almost as good as the zymol creame stuff, and a lot better than meguirs, but 1/2 the price of zymol. Worth a look.
Oh and first thing you should do with any second hand car is clay bar it (meguirs do a great kit for about £17 in Halfords of all places) it takes all the stuff off the paint, and truly gets rid of all the traffic film.

I'm obsessed with having a clean car as you can see, have been for years.

Very difficult to capture the level of shine in a photo, but this is the Merc a few weeks after a wax.

 

[mattjpreston]

Car is tourmaline green metallic with mushroom leather

 

[stats007]

I spend an awful amount of time cleaning my car - found nothing better than Meguiars waxes (Gold Class / NXT) for ease of use and shine for the money. I used to use Zymol but creates a lot of dust and takes four times as long to apply! The kit you refer to is nice but I don't think it's worth the money unless you're entering street concours events or similar.

The clay bar is good, Halfrauds is expensive though - you can buy online cheaper. Gliptone again highly recommended, as is Hindsight for the plastic windows on the soft top.

Try here for some ideas:

http://www.performancemotorcare.com/

 

[david_h]

I spend an awful amount of time cleaning my car - found nothing better than Meguiars waxes (Gold Class / NXT) for ease of use and shine for the money. I used to use Zymol but creates a lot of dust and takes four times as long to apply! The kit you refer to is nice but I don't think it's worth the money unless you're entering street concours events or similar.

The clay bar is good, Halfrauds is expensive though - you can buy online cheaper. Gliptone again highly recommended, as is Hindsight for the plastic windows on the soft top.

Try here for some ideas:

http://www.performancemotorcare.com/

Be careful, there are several different types of Zymol.
Zymol licensed their name to a POLISH last year that is sold through halfords, polishes like Autoglym create white dust and have water dispersants etc added.

The real deal Zymol is a WAX, very different, NO RESIDUE LEFT, no swirl marks on dark paints, 100% natural, you can eat the stuff should you so wish, and starts at about £40 for the Creame Wax alone. It should always be used after using the chocolate based HD clense.

 

[mattjpreston]

Zymol say creme for lighter cars and carbon for darker cars? Any real difference. Both same price at £42. Did you use creme in the c-class? Looks to give a good sheen, especially as a few weeks post waxing.

 

[mattjpreston]

Thinking of starting my zymol experience with this:

http://www.vertar.com/product.asp?n...ria=&PT_ID=75&P_ID=120&submit.x=25&submit.y=7

Any opinions about power polishers?

 

[stats007]

Zymol make a lot of products like all companies. The wax I used was Ebony (I had an Obsidian Black SL) - came in a round plastic pot. If you've never tried Meguiars give it a go - they do a money back guarantee if you don't think it's good.

The Zymol Vs Swissol Vs Meguiars Vs Autoglym is a lengthy debate

 

[david_h]

Zymol say creme for lighter cars and carbon for darker cars? Any real difference. Both same price at £42. Did you use creme in the c-class? Looks to give a good sheen, especially as a few weeks post waxing.

I've only got the creame as my show car VW Golf is silver grey, I use that on the merc.

If you're buying it for your Merc, you should definitely buy the Carbon Zymol.

Remember to get some HD Cleanse (this runs out much quicker than the wax), I've only needed to buy a new pot of wax after 2.5 years!!!! So in the long run it's sooo much cheaper.

 

[mattjpreston]

All the zymol dealers appear to be about the same price. Is this true. Also do you think the kit is ok value at £99 for: 226g Carbon Wax, 250ml Clear Autobathe, 250ml HD-Cleanse, 150ml Leather Treat or Vinyl, 2 x Pre-Wax Applicators, 1 x Wax Applicator, 1 x Microwipe & full instructions.

 

[stats007]

A further thought - ask C43AMG (Peter) what he uses on his car (displayed in the Feb GTG) as it's always the shiniest car on display!

 

[nigel cross]

Yes thats true the wax is made from all natural componets and smells like you would love to eat it. But you have to apply it with your fingers to melt it and takes an age to do the whole car. Which is ok if you want to spend hours waxing it. The prices start at about £42.00 for the crem type and go up to about £2500 . In the end of the day you pay your money and take your choice.

 

[mattjpreston]

What do you recommend then? are you more in favour of a polish? If so which?

 

[stats007]

Polishes are completely different to waxes. A polish is abrasive, a wax isn't. If your paintwork is dull you need to have it compounded or polished and then waxed. There are further options such as A-Glaze, Diamond Bright etc which are polymer long term coatings that are applied after polishing which you can then wax for a deeper shine. The coating stays on the paint / lacquer and is another level of protection.

 

[mattjpreston]

My car just looks a bit dull and could do with a lift. Paint in good condition generally, so what is the recommend?

 

[stats007]

Personally I'd spend the money on a professional machine polish and get them to apply Supaguard or similar - kits can be bought on eBay for £20. Realistically Zymol Carnuba based wax is a waste of money for normal use - your car is dirty again in a day or so in England and the new polymer waxes (Meguiars / Mothers etc) are far more durable and easy to work with.

A friend of mine prepares vehicles for McLaren, from F1 to SLRs and he got me onto Meguiars and Sonax polish.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Sonax and Meguiars do have excellent reputations.

Zymol are known universally as the best, and I would like to have my cars done, just to know it's had the best. If I ever decide to go for it, I'll probably get a Zymol authorised detailer to do it for me. I think the start at around £150/£200 and some list on ebay. I'd probably go for this guy: http://www.sportscarprotection.com/

I'll stick with Autoglym while I've got it on the shelf - my valet uses it too.

 

[mattjpreston]

Ho wmuch is machine polishing going to set me back/ is it worth inverting investing in something like Goldfish11 is suggestimg?

http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=6997