Help choosing> Paint Sealant for Auto

Does anyone have experience with paint sealants for autos?
I have tried to research it but everyone claims to have the best product!

Any input would be appreciated.

Steve /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Steve, by paint sealant do you mean a clear coat that will go over the paint? or do you mean a wax sealant to protect the finish of the paint, if you mean an automotive clear coat, than any automotive clear coat is good provided it was applied correctly and allowed to cure correctly.
I have worked at an auto finisher and when restoring old classic cars, they dont put on a clear coat, but rather many layers of the original paint colour and then use liquid polisher/very fine cutting compound to bring out the shine in the paint rather than rely on a clear coat to provide the shine.
You will find a lot of help if you ask a shop that is a supplier to automotive finishers and restorers, they have the best advice on the many different types of finishes available as well as how to apply it and to care for it.
hope this helps
cheers
Des

Yes, please describe further what you mean.

I know they have so many different ways to descirbe themselves, but do you mean, something that is applied by hand and removed by hand?

Further, do you have a new car, or a freshly repainted car, or looking to restore your weathered paint?

I went gung ho into researching car waxes, polishes, polymers, "sealants" etc, and was mail ordering a bunch of them, but the pain of waxing quickly got old on my larg GMC Sierra Truck.

I would say, in general, stick with Meguiars professional products

And if you can't /don't want to go to the extra effort to find them, use the meguiars store brand.

Note, that in February, Meguiars will offer NEW Meguiar's NXT Generation Tech (car) Wax!!

If you have a new car from a major manuacturer, just use a simple, totally non abrasive wax, such as
#20 Polymer Sealant
#26 Hi tech yellow wax
Medallion Premium Paint Protection

The deal is, #20 will protect longer than 26, but, if you have the time and effort, NOTHING will shine like CAREFULLY putting on 3 or 4 coats of # 26.

There is something about Carnauba wax that automotive buffs love. Of course there are better protectants than the natural Carnauba wax, and pure Carnauba wax is hard to apply and remove, but there is nothing like touching a car that has a properly applied coat of Carnauba wax! And it beads up when wet like nothing you have ever seen! Of course, it does not last long, and is hard to apply, but people still buy it.

I did this once, and after the third application of # 26 in the same day, the difference was very noticable! BUT, it was not worth the 4-5 hours that it took to do this!

# 20 goes on and comes off very easily.

Factory paint jobs are pretty tough, so don't go rubbing all the finish off the paint.

Wash it, rinse it, I found that a final rinse with distilled water in a sprayer yielded almost NO spots with no polishing.

Oh, I meant to say why I would stick with Meguiars. I would be concerned about the long term life of your paint job, as well as getting the ultimate shine. I am concerned about some products that might be designer products, but might not do the research on long term life of your paint.

I would hate to see you spend top dollar on some high end product, only to find out, that your fantastic shine was coming at the expense of wearing down your paint.

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roguesw said:
Steve, by paint sealant do you mean a clear coat that will go over the paint? or do you mean a wax sealant to protect the finish of the paint

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a new car 2003 Camry and a 98 Acura. I am tired of waxing regularly and wanted to know if any of the paint protectant/sealants are worth using. Some have the ptfe resins and claim to only need replacement 1-2 years to maintain protection.

Thanks

I would suggest, using a good automotive wax like meguiars range is more than adequate to protect the paint. the key is to use the range of products supplied by meguiars from the wash to wax to sealant, which is like the 3 step process, this may take a while to apply but once it is applied, then giving your car a rinse every month will remove most of the dirt and dust deposits and still keep the wax underneath. A wax once every 4 months is adequate during dry summer times, however, in winter with rain and salt on the ground, more wax is required.
Cheers
Des

StevieRay,

I would say, for your 2003 Camry, get Meguiars #26, and apply a couple of times a year. Make no mistake, this is really good stuff, and really is designed to protect your paint, and will make it shine. You will be suprised on how easy it goes on and polishes off.

#26 is designed to protect your paint, has NO polish or abrasives, and is perfect for new cars.

For your 98, depending on how the paint is, I would consider using a light polish/wax once or twice. NOT a rubbing or polishing compound, just something that will take out light oxidation and slight swirls. Meguiars has several different options on this, then follow it up with #26.

(Now, you might want to wait until they release their new product, I know I will be buying it when it comes out)

Now, if you want to "make love to your car" every other weekend, or once a month, #26 Hi tech yellow wax is what you want, but still do a base of # 20.

Also check this product out:

www.autodry.com

This looks pretty cool!

I made a hand made version of this. I put a water filter on my hose, and took spray insectide bottle (that mixes inscectide with a hose sprayer and attaches to your hose), and used "JETDRY", to rinse off my car, I had ok results.

I had GREAT results just using distilled bottled water (NOT spring or drinking water, but DISTILLED water, PURE H2O). I would put the water in a 2 gallon pump up pressurised inscectide sprayer, and after washing and rinsing, my final rinse would be with the pure H2O. This worked out great, and cost very little (I am lasy, I do not want to hand dry a large truck!)

Oh, one more thing:

I might be wrong, but I am very leary of anything that says it will last for several years, short of some sort of paint or professionally applied "final coat". If something like that really existed, auto manufactures would apply it to their new cars, because it would help them out, not haveing to "fix" damaged paint jobs under warranty.

Same goes with oil additives. Pick a name brand regular dino oil, and factory spec oil filter (example, AC/Delco for GM autos) and change it every 3,000 miles, and your engine will outlast the rest of your car.

Want to do something better? Use Mobil 1 Full Synthetic, and a premium oil filter like Purolator Pure ONE, and change it every 5,000 miles.

Want a good value inbetween the two? Use the regular dino oil and regular oil filter, but sub 1 quart of synthetic, instead of 5 quarts of regular oil (if your auto takes 5 quarts) do 4 quarts of regular and one quart synthetic. It is my opinion, that I would stick with the same brand (Like Mobil and Mobil 1, for example).

DON'T add any additive to your engine. Most are just "snake oil". Some, Like Z-MAX actually DO work and do give you a little better gas mileage or a little more horsepower, but do so at the expense of the life of your engine, because the chemicals that they use, while producing short term results, can degrade your engine in the long run.

NO chemical is going to give you that "we added this stuff, drove it for a couple of hours, then we drained the radiator and oil, and ran this car 100 MPH in the Summer Dessert for 6 hours with no engine dammage"!

Again, if something like this existed, auto manufactures would put it in every one of their engines, so that they would have to replace fewer engines under warrantee.

you guys need to check out a product called zaino at the zaino brothers web site This stuff is not a wax, and only needs to be put on twice a year if you park outside, but you will want to do it more often for the incredible shine you get from layering it. I have been using it on my car for 3 years now and it works great. It protects better than wax, and even is spf 40 to protect vs UV.
Lemme go dig around, I have some pics of my car after I used it. I post once I get them uploaded

Thanks to all for your input. That Zaino sounds real interesting.


Steve

Re: Help choosing> Paint Sealant for Auto...pics

I finally got around to uploading pics, of my Contour SVT, my brother's Infinity G35 and my girlfriend's Honda CRX...








My Contour has had Zaino on it for 3 of the 4 years I have had it. That last picture is my reflection in the door panel when I took the pic. It looks great and protects really well. It is also really easy to apply. Absolutly no elbow grease. Just a thin coat on a microfiber tower to put it on, wait for it to dry and then wipe off like you were dusting a table. Once it drys it wipes off really easy.







My brother just bought an Infinity G35 Coupe, and so we gave it the zaino treatment in the 1st couple of weeks to protect it. Boy does it shine, esp for a silver car.



This last one might not seem as impressive, but the paint on this crx is 13 years old. It was waxed less than once a year. This one took some time and elbow grease with a clay bar to remove the oxidization. Once I clayed it and polished with zaino...wow what an improvement.

Re: Help choosing> Paint Sealant for Auto...pics

unnerv----NICE!

BTW -Which Zaino products do you use specifically?

Re: Help choosing> Paint Sealant for Auto...pics

I use their clay bar if the paint is not new, then Z1, and Z5. You only need to use z1 about once a year or so, as it preps the clean paint surface for better adheasion of the Z5. The 1st time you do this it takes a long time to dry because you have both the z1 and z5 drying. I like to use the ZFX because it makes the z5 dry in about 30 min and then you don't need the z1 as long as the car has been clay barred before you do the initial coat.

The leather products, tire black, and plastic polish all work really good, the glass stuff is okay. If you check the website, they have a really good faq of what is involved. While your out there take a look at some of their pics of cars. Some of them are unbelievable. Once you use this stuff you will never go back to using a wax again.