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This weekend I finally had a chance to clean my salt covered car and try out the new Auto Armor that is now a ceramic coating. It has a very different application process now. It used to be a wax that you applied and wiped off. Now it is almost like an oil that you spray on and use a clay bar while you apply it. I made the mistake of using the clay bar in our detail shop instead of my synthetic clay bar and once the car dried I had clay bar streaks all over the car. It took another 2 hours to get all cleaned up, but I don't think the car has ever been so shiny.
I am curious to see how this new coating holds up and if it works to prevent rail dust. I thought it would be easy to see how shiny it was in low light with all of the shadows, but this picture does not really do it justice. I might try again tomorrow in the sunlight.
Here is a slightly better pic in the sunlight with some shadows so you can just start to see how glossy it looks on the hood- almost like it is wet or made of glass. I am pretty impressed. I hope this new Auto Armor holds up well.
Waiting for your review. If it prevents those orange speckles from appearing I'll give this a look. Clay barring that crap off every month gets old real fast.
Waiting for your review. If it prevents those orange speckles from appearing I'll give this a look. Clay barring that crap off every month gets old real fast.
No kidding! The old version of Auto Armor worked pretty well. I could usually go a full year without having to clay bar the car. The warranty does pay the labor to have someone else clay the car for you if you prefer. I am curious to see if this new ceramic version works better.
I think the original issue with rail dust is that it is hot brake dust that melts into the clear coat. Original Auto Armor worked a lot better because it worked to about 400 degrees whereas a normal wax will melt off at under 100 degrees, or basically the surface temperature of your paint on a sunny day- even in winter. The new ceramic Auto Armor is supposed to last up to about 1,000 degrees. We shall see.
European vacation update- Big news today. I just booked a hot lap of the Nurburgring with a racing driver in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS! This is one of the few street cars to break 7:00 at the Ring. I am super excited about this and I am paying extra for an in car video of the lap. We have to drive 4 hours each way to get there, but it should totally be worth it.
Well, some huge upgrades today. Last weekend I installed the passenger seat occupant weight sensor emulator. It does get rid of the light on the dash for the airbag. However, it also creates a light on the dash for the seatbelt unless it is buckled in the passenger seat. So I picked up a fake seat belt buckle for $6 off of amazon. Problem solved.
Next step is ordering Bride seat rails for the passenger seat and than another Sparco seat. It's funny to think I originally got the Sparco driver's seat to save weight and hold me in place. Now I am just excited to get rid of the factory seat because it looks heavy and ugly compared to the Sparco seat.
I changed my oil last night and when I went to snug down the Z1 magnetic drain plug it split in half. Of course it happens the one time I only brought the 2 wrenches I need instead of my whole tool box with my oem drain plug in it. So I went home to get the oem plug, but when I got back to the shop I realized I would need a flat head screw driver and a needle nose pliers to get the crush washer off. Luckily, I found one of my tech's tool boxes open and fixed everything. Phew! I got very lucky since those tool boxes are usually locked up tighter than Fort Knox.
I called Z1 this morning to ask if they had any sort of warranty and Jon said he would ship one right out. Maybe he remembered that I have bought a ton of stuff from them or maybe he remembered the disaster of trying to tune my car, but either way I thought that was good service and not what I expected. Thanks Jon!
03-18-2019, 06:19 PM
It took another 2 hours to get all cleaned up, but I don't think the car has ever been so shiny. 
Last weekend I installed the passenger seat occupant weight sensor emulator. It does get rid of the light on the dash for the airbag. However, it also creates a light on the dash for the seatbelt unless it is buckled in the passenger seat. So I picked up a fake seat belt buckle for $6 off of amazon. Problem solved. 
