Xzilon

[dano7331]

Hi, just thought I'd post this little tid-bit.

I've never been one to fall for snake oil salesmanship, and this includes the $799.00 Xzilon paint protector the dealer pushes. But after hearing about this stuff I did a ton of internet research and found some pretty interesting info.

It appears that this is some pretty good stuff, but like paint. It's the prep work that seperates the good from the bad, and unfortunately, most dealerships don't have the time to prep the paint for proper application.

Well, I searched and found a 6oz container of this stuff on eBay, it came with the applicator cloth, a micro fiber cloth to remove the excess, rubber gloves, and a container of mink oil for my leather interior. I got it for $25.00 including shipping.

I washed my truck using dawn dish detergent to remove every bit of dirt, oil, wax ect. from the paint then dried it with a micro fiber towel. I applied the stuff using a wipe on - wipe off method, it doesn't take any time at all to apply. The end result is a very decent shine, probably not quite the depth of a good old maguiers or mothers wax job, but very presentable. The surface is ultra slick, I leaned up against the front fender the next day, slipped off and nearly busted my....

The only bad thing I could find so far are a few small areas where I didn't wipe off the excess quick enough and it dried leaving some minor streaking. I was going to try using some mineral spirits to break it down an re-apply but thought these small imperfections would be a good way for me to monitor how long it lasts, so I'm leaving them.

I was told that a 6oz container is enough to do a very large SUV. Well, my Frontier isn't exactly large, but as you know it's no tiny truck either, and mine is a CC. They also say most peoples problems come from applying it too heavily. I monitored my applictation very closely to ensure I was applying it in a nice uniform layer then wiping off the excess. Well, I did my entire truck (not the glass) and included the wheels. I still have over 1/2 of the container left....Oh yeah, I did knock it over once and now have a big spot on my shop floor. As slick as the wheels turned out I'm hoping it makes brake dust removal easier. So if your going to try this stuff on your own, make sure you have two or three vehicles handy to apply this stuff to, once opened it has a shelf life of seven day's so saving it for re-application later won't work.

BTW: I got caught in some light rain yesterday and was shocked, after the truck dried I had no water spots.....this is a first for me.

As time marches on I'll keep eye on this stuff and let you know weather it's snake oil or not.

Dan

Just a little follow on to my previous post.

It rained today and I left the shop door opened. I just went out to sweep out the water and here's what I discovered. The spot where I mentioned earlier that I spilled some Xzilon on the concrete was completely dry surrounded by water. All the water beaded off. You can see the spot in the picture where the Xzilon is, the area to the far right of the picture is of the dry concrete where it didn't get wet.

[masteryoda13]

Interesting, thanks for posting that up...

[redex]

Wonder if Meguiars NXT gen, has that kind of bead off slickness...
but wow... if it does really just bead off the water, my very waterspot prone paint might like it...

[Zero Six LE]

Nice pic of the concrete. How about the truck?

[carphreak]

Originally Posted by dano7331

I washed my truck using dawn dish detergent to remove every bit of dirt, oil, wax ect. from the paint then dried it with a micro fiber towel.

i hope you don't do this often. i don't know nowadays but i have learned a couple of years ago that dishwashing detergents are used on dishes because they completely eliminate grease(duh). this may actually be a bad thing for paints because some of them have some kind of oils in them to help them shine and whatnot. so.... oil(grease) in paint + grease eliminator(dishwahing detergent) = dull paint.

however i am not completely sure on this but its good enough to keep me from taking a dishwashing liquid anywhere near my paint.....

[GraviTitan]

Keep us posted!
It sounds kinda like that 5 Star Shine stuff that you used to see infomercials on all the time!