I will be taking delivery of my Z as most of you know in about a little over a week. I want to do a really great detail job on her before I take her out for registration etc. So, my question is this.

How do you bring back the shine in older paint. Most of the car is very glossy, but parts are starting to look satin to flat. I would like to bring back the luster to the car.

My plans were just to do the basics.

wash

claybar

polish with buffer

wax with buffer

Anything else that I can use to get back the new car shine.

The "polish with buffer" part is where the greatest variance is. There are many different polishes with different amounts of abrasive. Another thing you didn't mention is wet sanding. You might try some 1500 or 2000 grit wet paper on some of the trouble areas to see what a difference that would make. With all of the above I'd start with the least aggressive option and go to more aggressive only as needed.

If you are dealing with original paint as shipped from factory you need to be careful not to overwhelm the paint with muscle, either manual or mechanical. My original paint is rather sensitive to waxing with 2008 cleaners / waxes and paint is gradually removed to the application cloth.

When my car was ready for a detail, i looked into all sorts of options. When I researched, I found there were almost as many opinions as there were people.

I opted to start with a wash (naturally), 3M finishing glaze, no clay bar, hand applied, hand buff-out and 3M wax. very slick!

As has been stated, be firm, but gentle. I if the paint is original, you don't know how deep it is, especially on raised contour changes. I get a bit of oxidation every time I glaze.

You might like seeing this video. These guys visit Jay's garage and "restore" the paint on one of his cars and they explain and show their process. http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_player.shtml?vid=201475

After watching that great video I looked up the web site. The kit shown in the video costs about $100. All the various stuff is also available individually.

I may have to try this stuff... anybody have any experience with it. It appears to be the ticket for my current paint issues.

I caled System One this morning. They're located in Anaheim, Ca. They don't have any distributors yet so you have to order direct from them. The 8oz. X3 polish is $15.95, the 32oz. is $30.75, and the gallon is $108. I didn't ask about anything larger. They sell it in sizes up to a 55 gallon drum! Anyway, I ordered an 8 oz. to try it out and I'll let you know how it works.

Thanks, I certainly look forward to hearing your opinions of it.

Well, I'll give System One credit for one thing, they're fast! I ordered from them at 10:30 am yesterday (Tuesday) and at 3:30 pm today (Wednesday) the product arrived! Albeit it's only coming from the Anaheim/Santa Ana area to San Bernardino, about 55 miles, but that is quick! I haven't had a chance to use it yet, probably Friday and I'll let you know what I think. I'm going to use it on my DD 810 which sits in the sun all of the time. If it works on that, it'll work on anything.

OK, I'm curious.

Stephan, do you have any scratches, or just oxidation on that 810?

Both.