Archive for June, 2007

Mine at last!

Published by Rick on June 30, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

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First purchase in massive debt: Two years of no real grill have gone by, and the first thing we did after moving in yesterday was hit up Home Depot for the Weber Spirit 210 gas grill.  Actually, it was more like last night.

I took advantage of the move-in coupon and the current free propane deal and got this nice grill.  I also took the free assembly Home Depot offered, but I can’t say it was all that great.  I took the unit home and fixed a few things that were obviously installed backwards or upside down.  Most of the bolts and connections were only finger tight, and there’s a bolt missing, too.  It also looks like one of the panels was installed without spacing washers.  I should be able to fix everything alright.  I’d like to think this option at least saved me a little time.

I’m pumped to try it out tonight.  I look to pick up some chunks of meat on the way home from the office.

Zymol Pictures

Published by Rick on June 20, 2007 in BMW and General. 0 Comments

Ok, so now that I found the pictures from when I used the Zymol cleaner wax the last time I detailed, I’m not sure if I can say that Zaino did that much better.  It’s important to note that I used the cleaner wax and not the long, drawn out traditional Zymol wax products.  See for yourself.  These are unedited photos from an entirely different camera, the point being that no foo-foo point-and-shoot enhancers were used.

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Special thanks to Buddha for the use of his garage.  The crack heads in the city do a fine job of detailing a car, but you really need a garage with a driveway to do it yourself.

Final Zaino Pictures

Published by Rick on June 20, 2007 in BMW and General. 0 Comments

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The Zaino Verdict

Published by Rick on June 18, 2007 in BMW and General. 0 Comments

Lots of sweat, water, iced tea, a little beer, and a touch of heat exhaustion later, I finished detailing the car using Zaino’s products. I tried to read the instructions the night before and was met by a lot of babble. Looking online, I finally narrowed down the final sequence to a few options but had to e-mail support for the final answer. The instructions on the Zaino web site are all over the place and even conflict in some places. Touching up the instructions a bit to cut to the chase would certainly add a little more credibility to the product line.

Exterior sequence:

Wash with Dawn –> Z-18 Claybar with Z-7/H2O as lube –> Wash with Z-7 –> 4 coats of Z-5+ZFX, using Z-6 in between coats –> 2 coats of Z-2+ZFX, using Z-6 between coats –> final wipe down with Z-6

Used Z-9 and Z-10 to lightly clean and condition the leather, and then used Z16 to shine up the tires.

Z16 has to be the best tire cleaner/finisher I’ve ever used. It eventually dries and doesn’t stay gooey and splatter like about every other similar product. The leather cleaner and conditioner seem about like the others I’ve used in the past.

Is Zaino better? Maybe 10%, but I didn’t get the obvious difference I was looking for. I really liked the result I got in about 1/8 the time with the Zym�l products I used last. True, I only put four coats of Z-5, but I really didn’t want to spend two entire days on the project. And maybe that’s the killer.

Is it worth it? Well, if you’re lucky enough to con someone into helping you out, maybe. That would greatly reduce the time needed to wipe, wipe, wipe. The simple fact is that I literally spent from 10:30am to 6:30pm Saturday and then added another hour and some on Sunday. It was a labor of love, and I really wanted to try it out, but I probably won’t be doing it again for a long time. If I were able to add a coat each day for a week, then maybe I’d be more up for it. Considering the fine layer black of city dust my car gets each day, I don’t see that happening.

Comparing the pictures from Zym�l treatment to Zaino, I can’t really tell that much difference. We’ll see how the finish holds up over time, though. That’s supposed to be one of Zaino’s selling points.

I’ll post the pictures soon…

Zaino System to be tested

Published by Rick on June 11, 2007 in BMW and General. 0 Comments

 

I’m really looking forward to an extended weekend off for Fathers’ Day coming up, and it truly couldn’t come at a better time.  With all of this condo stuff, I haven’t taken any time off to speak of, and the few weekend days I have been off have been filled with scheduled activities.  Since my dad’s taking off for Holland or Jacarta or some other far-off land for Cat again, we’ll only have Friday night for official familial festivities.  Bummer there–I wish I had more time to spend with him (or even go overseas with him)!  What better time, though, to test out the Zaino Ultimate Show Car Protection Kit than when I have an empty garage, nothing to do, a fridge of beer, and TIME to do it?!

When I got my car last year, I really started to get involved with the online BMW community when I first realized that there are a ton of other hyper detail-oriented people out there.  Great to know!  One of the first things I did when I got my car back in Chicago was to try out a little quick detailer (QD) on one of the fenders.  I freaked out–swirl marks!  I had just flawed my Munich-born beast of beauty!  That’s when I first hit up the auto detailing forum on Bimmerfest and learned a ton of how-to and what-not-to-do.

Now I’ve always taken good care of my cars–I washed the Olds once a week and waxed it once a month while in college, but once I got to the city and had to park on the street for four years, it just wasn’t going to happen.  Then I moved to a de-luxe apartment in the sky and had a garage space.  Better now–at least there’s a roof over the car, but I still don’t have any way to wash and wax myself.  Enter the countless high-dollar car washes in the city.  They do an awesome job for $20.  When you pull in, a team of no less than 10 questionably-legal employees absolutely descends on your auto and practically spit-shines it.  It’s a pretty good deal for $20, especially when I don’t have the means to do it myself.  It does add up fast, though, and the problem is that they just don’t get the car that extra bit o’ clean that I can do myself in a garage.

I’ve used all sorts of cleaner waxes on the Olds and other cars, but it wasn’t until I used Zym�l before this past winter hit when I noted the obvious difference in high quality, multi-step car care products versus the old stuff I used to use.  Wow.  Heidi looked simply amazing.  I’ve never seen anything as sexy as a Black Sapphire Metallic finish with an immaculate coat of wax.  I went on a bit of a stepping stone approach since then.  Once my dad and I found out that the Lady’s Jeep Liberty had NEVER had a coat of wax of any kind, I decided to give the whole clay bar sequence a try (Mothers’ Clay Bar).  Man, I’m a believer.  That thing never looked any better.  Now after reading even more about how the pros really do it (ok, �ber anal BMW freaks like me), I thought I’d test the Zaino System out.  And that’s what I’m going to do.  I’ll also be trying out the Mothers Power Ball, as I hear it’s awesome for wheels and odd areas.  Stay posted for results and real-world findings.

And it’s done.

Published by Rick on June 7, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

10 months of inactivity and a couple hundred bucks later, it’s finally over.

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Just another test.

Published by Rick on June 1, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

Decided to give Windows Live Writer a shot after recommendation by Matt.  I’m fed up with the horrible code put out by every built in editor I’ve tried so far.  We’ll see what happens here, but it seems ok so far.

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Hood ornament?

Continuation of text right here to see if it picks up the formatting on the site like it does in the editor.  This truly could be a Godsend if this works as slickly as it looks.  Holding breath…