I spent much of the past two weekends using the Zaino polish system on the Ford GT. I'd heard good things about this product, and after a year-and-a-half of ownership it seemed time to treat the GT to a worthy polish system. I've cleaned it at least once a month, but no polish except what it came with from the Ford dealer when purchased. The Zaino system is pretty involved. First clean with water, then use the Z-18 clay bar and clean again, then ZFX polish, then Z-6 detailing spray (a secondary bonus of this system is the bulking effect it has on your shoulders). The paint is glass smooth now, and cleaning it like this after 7,300 miles makes for a great opportunity to check the road rash level and the overall condition of the paint. Happily, the GT is fairing well in both areas. There are a few small pits in the expected areas on the front end. How small? After repeated attempts I gave up trying to capture them on film (or in pixels). Without an extremely careful and dedicated inspection you'd never see them.
The same holds true along the lower rocker panels. Where the body bows out to meet the rear wheels there are definitely some small chips, but again you'd never see them without a close inspection, and capturing them in a photo is not gonna happen. For a car with 7,000 miles (more than a few of them at, umm...highway speeds plus...) this is pretty impressive. There were some paint issues when production of the GT began in the fall of 2004, but it appears they ultimately got it right.
Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief, Edmunds.com @ 7,290
desmolicious says:
01:26 PM, 01/22/07
Using the clay bar is the key to any polishing/waxing process. Does anyone know where you can buy just the bar? It seems that every time I need to buy the entire kit, whether it's from Mothers, Clay Magic or Meguire's. My clay is looking pretty nasty and needs changing...
graycat says:
03:02 PM, 01/22/07
I'm not sure if this is allowed, if not please delete and sorry, but des' you should check out autopia.org its for car detailing, and they could def. tell you where to get just clay.
desmolicious says:
06:07 PM, 01/22/07
Kool, thanks graycat
johnnyturbo says:
11:23 PM, 01/22/07
I just found some on eBay, both just the clay bars alone and some kits that include spray lubricant and towels too. Just type in "clay bar" in the eBay Motors search box.
desmolicious says:
01:02 AM, 01/23/07
sweet johnnyt!
playdrv4me says:
03:55 PM, 01/23/07
Im glad your GT is holding up well. I know there were some quality issues with the paint on that car so hopefully the Zaino will help protect it over the long term as well.