It still looks like its beading pretty darn good for 5 weeks.

 

I'm a Zaino nut too. A magazine did a comparison and Zaino looked best after a bit of time had passed. Zaino says 3-6 months for one product or 6-9 months for another but I think those are conservative numbers. It still shines after the time is up.

I'd show pics but my car is old so it's just "hey, that's not bad for an old car". Maybe I could see about getting pics from friends.

 

^^^^+1 I am a Zaino-holic myself. I see what it does with my rides, I have no garage and my cars sit out all year. My car still beads up after each cold Canadian winter so I need nothing else, and no reason to change.

 

In my research, Zaino did come up a few times as a durable sealant. I don't think you can go wrong with it. Collinite came up the most in my searches over at autopia and autogeek forums. Lots of buzz about this stuff with the autopians. Only time will tell though. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

Thats great info thanks TheTick. Keep us posted.

 

Week 9....

6 car washes with turtle wax car shampoo. Car gets alot of grime from all the driving I do so it takes some rubbing with a microfiber mitt to get it clean. It just started sprinkling today. Paint still feels very smooth and waxy.

 

Definitely solid beading...nice!

I'm a huge Zaino fan myself. Not only do I think it is extremely durable and has a great shine, but the beads are different. Very nice tight beads which for some reason makes me think its better. No justification for that.

 

^^^^I agree with the Zaino.
I Zainoed my G last Fall and I just give it a quick hose down at the local DIY and the harsh salt and road grime roll right off. It is very impressive. It still beads up beautifully.

 

Looking good

 

Actually the beads are tightly grouped because the pic was taken shortly after it started sprinkling. After a while the small beads became huge beads with less space between.

 

put just 1 coat of Jet Seal on my G35 i think it was ~Late Nov, Early Dec (the instructions say to use 2 coats btw) and i can still tell the sealant is on there.... Very easy to wash, dirt has a harder time sticking on to it, and feels real slick when clean...

 

I think it's been about 19 weeks now and maybe a dozen washes. Got the car back recently from the body shop and they seem to have detailed the car. I can tell because I can now see swirls in the paint ( It was swirl free before the accident) and I felt a fresh coat of wax on car. I washed the car yesterday and whatever wax they used came right off. Now the hood and roof fell pretty naked. Not sure what they used to wash and detail my car, but it killed the collinite. Maybe they polished it?

The collinite was still going strong before the accident, but it definitely was fading after each wash. If I had to guess, it would take about 20 car washes before you can get the collinite off the paint. I put a coat on my explorer around the same time and haven't washed it once since. It feels like I just applied it last week.

So the number of car washes seems to be the determining factor here. I tend to use a LOT of soap and wonder if I could get more than 20 washes if I used less. Either way, I'm very pleased with the durability of this stuff. Sorry the accident ended the experiment early.

 

Let's say this:

The sealant that lasts the longest has the best chance of survival on a properly prepped and maintained surface.

Opti-Seal?
Zaino Z5pro?
Z-CS?
Poli-Seal?

I apply them way too frequently to comment honestly.

 

FWIW I'm at 10 months since the last coat of Zaino and still shiny on my old RX-7. And with my old paint you could easily tell when it had no wax. There are some minor swirl marks, but nothing that my friends' newer cars don't have. I put on 2 coats last time, 1 the time before that, and 5 the first time way back when. It was 6 months between coats both times and it was still shiny before both new coats. I'm overdue for another coat, just haven't had time. I wash with the Mr. Clean car wash kit, and park outside.

When I did a friend's newer BMW I went to put on another coat after 6 months and she said she didn't want to trouble me, that it still looked good. I still did, though. She parks outside and goes to commercial car washes, albeit infrequently.

 

Yeah..the collinite on my explorer has shown no signs of wear. It's parked outside, gone through several rain storms and its holdiing up great.