Second time with Zaino (Now with Opti-Seal on top)

With a shine like that you will certainly dazzle other motorists.

 

Your car looks beautiful! I too, have a black Prius. I have tried to be carefull with the paint. I waxed it for the first time with Klasse, and ended up with a swirl marks all over. I have since rewaxes and am still left with swirl marks. I used new, washed once microfiber clothes from the "pak shack". I am frustrated, and thinking of trying Zaino. I know Zaino is the best, but I thought Klasse was good too.

I have never had a black car before. I am willing to go the extra mile to be carefull with it. I actually thought I was doing everything right. Oh well.

 

I've been following the Zaino site's recommendation to not use swirls to wash/wax/dry. Straight line wipes, down the hood, down the sides, and the length of the car on the roof.
I do go across the bottoms of the doors (the textured part), and on the way low part of the front and back bumpers.
So far, so good.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Winston @ Sep 4 2007, 11:21 AM) [snapback]506846[/snapback]</div>

The paint was probably already swirled before you started, unless you applied sealant to a dusty/dirty car. Most sealants will make swirls more visible. Four or five coats of Zaino Z-5 Pro will hide very minor swirls. To fill in swirls with a single coat, try Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax, it's loaded with fillers.

Personally, I prefer to remove swirls by polishing with a rotary polisher, but I might feel differently if I owned a black car, given the amount of effort required to keep a black car looking perfect.

 

I purchased the car brand new. There were no swirls when I purchased it. It is all my fault. I just am not sure what I did wrong.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Winston @ Sep 4 2007, 05:17 PM) [snapback]507012[/snapback]</div>

Some black paint is so soft you'd swear just looking at it causes swirls.

A few precautions you can take when washing your car to help avoid swirls (I'm assuming you already know the basics, if not, check out detailing web forums like detailcity.org, roadfly.org, or autopia.org).

1) Use a second bucket filled with clear water to rinse your mitt off before you put it back in your soapy water, or use a grit guard in the bottom of your bucket. This helps prevent paint swirls by insuring you aren't re-depositing dirt back onto your wash mitt.

2) Absolutely do not allow anything that has touched your wheels to go into your wash bucket until you're finished washing the car, and even then, make sure to rinse the bucket out thoroughly. Even though you might start by spraying wheel and tire cleaner on the wheels, and agitating it with a brush, don't let that brush touch your wash water until you're finished with the paint.

3) Do a final rinse of the car with a stream of water from the hose with the nozzle removed. This will cause most of the water on the car to sheet off, and you can finish drying your car by drawing a microfiber drying towel across the cars surface (no need to wipe back and forth to dry the car). You'll also find that a small (12" x 18") microfiber towel is plenty big enough to dry a Prius if you rinse your car this way.