Polished Bliss + Vintage vs A4 Cabriolet (Zymöl Training)
 

As many of you will already know, last week Clark and I travelled to the far south to spend a few days at Zymöl Europe’s HQ in Dorset. The purpose of the trip was to receive professional training on the Zymöl range of products and on how to run a successful high-end detailing business. For those of you that have an interest in the course and our experience with Zymöl so far, be sure to check out this thread…

https://www.scoobynet.com/car-care-3...ml#post6606469

However, if all you want to do is see some Vintage results then read on! The product training was done on Lynn Binns’s (one of the director’s of Zymöl Europe) lush Audi A4 Cabriolet. The car is only a year old and in great condition, so no correction work was required, meaning we could focus purely on the clay, cleanse and protect steps. After washing the car carefully and drying off, we proceeded to clay all of the exterior surfaces with Lehm Clay; this clay differs to most of the clay we normally use, as it is natural clay rather than synthetic (i.e. made of kaolin rather than polybutene), and utilises crushed quartz as the abrasive. The clay performed very well, and was noticeably softer than many of the other clay bars we have tried. Even on this car though, it removed a fair amount of contamination, so thumbs up for sure. After the clay, we then further cleansed the paint with HD-Cleanse, which smells great (think chocolate and vanilla) and seems to glaze the paint beautifully at the same time as cleaning it (it also worked very well on the glass). One thing we had to try was machine application, as many people have reported that this does not work; we tried it by PC using a soft black glazing pad, at speed 2 and no pressure, for just 2 overlapping passes, and it worked fine, so I think we’ll be attempting this again. Whilst HD-Cleanse is a great preparatory product, and provides a superb key for subsequent coats of high-grade carnauba, it’s use is not always required. For example, if you top up the last step product after only a month or two there is often no need to prepare the paint again.

After the cleanse stage, the fun and games began, with Vintage. We had the option of experimenting with the various different waxes in the range, but to be honest we don’t intend on using anything other than the Carbon, Vintage and Royale glazes, and seeing as we’ve had some practice lately with Carbon, we opted to complete the detail with the Vintage, and get used to dealing with a high carnauba content wax. Almost immediately the first thing that surprised me was how soft the Vintage is; I had assumed it would be hard and require effort to use, but it turns out it’s like soft icing, and melts easily between the fingertips. Using a marble sized lump per panel, you simply rub it between your fingertips to warm it, then apply it hand over hand to generate more warmth and elasticity, and spread it as evenly and thinly as possible. You then leave it for around five minutes to cure, and then buff with a plush microfibre; amazingly, it buffs off as easily as any other LSP I’ve ever used, so no fear of causing marring on soft paints, which I had initially feared. Here’s some pictures of Clark and I warming the wax and applying it…

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...abvintage1.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...abvintage2.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...abvintage3.jpg

After applying a single coat to the whole car, we then went back around the car applying a second coat to all sharp edges and lines. This was then left for an hour or so to fully harden before being buffed off. This method is known as highlighting, and noticeably sharpens the final look of the car. If you look carefully in the pictures below you will see wax curing on the edges…

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...abvintage4.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...abvintage5.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...abvintage6.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...abvintage7.jpg

After completing the waxing stage by applying wax to all exterior surfaces bar the windscreen (and by all exterior surfaces I mean all; paint, windows, plastics, rubber – it works on everything without leaving any staining) we then finished off by dressing the tyres, and cleaning the soft top. After defluffing it with tape we protected it with Field Glaze, working it in gently by hand; this deepens the colour and allows the wax to penetrate the fabric, making it more water repellent. Finally, after another hour or so the whole exterior was lightly misted with Field Glaze and then gently buffed down, to remove any last traces of oils rising from the final curing of the wax layer. Here’s the afters…

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...abvintage8.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...abvintage9.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...bvintage10.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...bvintage11.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...bvintage12.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...bvintage13.jpg

Not the best light to show off the final results, but the amount of depth and liquidity was pretty awesome, and certainly right up there for a light coloured car. Roll on the solid black S2000 we’ve got coming up soon, just have to hope our pot of Vintage arrives in time – fingers crossed!

:)

Thats got to be the most loved Audi in the UK i think!

Is it easy to tell the difference between the Zymol stuff and slightly cheaper alternatives? Can you tell the difference, as a professional?

I hope so for the price of it :eek: - looks :cool: though

Wondering if it "looks" better, just because its applied to all the plastics and stuff ?

Nope, as the owner of a silver car who's tried a lot on it, I can honestly say the level of depth in this finish was the best I've seen. I can't wait to get it on the Leon now! :)

Looking good...as usual

while he was down here,could of had my car done,only down the road from where he was :)

so is it better than jeff`s

Would like to see it used on a older car or maybe one with a slightly worse finish to start off with, no offence but on a prestige car like an audi thats painted well to start off with would expect cool results with most polishes/waxes never mind a stupidly expensive one,like the threads best with cars like scoobys in as they dont start off with a great finish and its easier to see the difference, if i were paying stupid money the finish would need to be stunning,an ok i may not be easily pleased but im not blown away by that,based on the price of the wax.

what experiance have you had with zymol before the training

as i use to own a P1 but got an aston now and might be keen on a zymol detail

Well, as always, as we get cars in we'll post the results here, so you can see for yourself. However, here's a few things to remember; getting an older car in that's in a worse initial condition won't necessarily mean much, as it's the polishing process that will turn the paint around most... we could post pics of a lot of the cars we do after the polishing stage and very few would think they weren't finished. Also, with high-end wax finishes, pictures just don't show the real effect of the product; sounds strange, but the difference in the flesh to the pictures on the following thread was unreal... to the point where I was actually disappointed with the pictures!

https://www.scoobynet.com/car-care-3...lid-black.html

As soon as the new unit is open in late spring we'll be holding open days for various car clubs and the public, and at these I will demonstrate this effect by applying various high end waxes as part of set demonstrations. :)

:( I thought the same