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So, subsequent to my mammoth wash / clay / polish / seal / lsp session 4 weeks ago, I had hopes that the Sonax Nano lack protect would add a decent degree of hardness to my top coat to reduce scratch and swirl marks going forwards. Have to say, I'm pretty disappointed with it.

Monaco blue has to be the worst colour in the world for showing defects like this. I am not exaggerating at all when I say if you simply wipe the paint with your finger it leaves visible scratches that can't be buffed out easily by hand. Brush against it with a pair of cotton trousers or jeans and the effects are instantly apparent. Admittedly I have 700W of fluorescent lighting in my garage which shows up EVERYTHING, but you can't argue about their existence.

It seems at odds with the fact that the top coat is extremely tough and even the most aggressive pads and compounds still take a ton of passes before they have much effect.

Anyway, I guess it's time to go straight to the pro sealants and not bother with any of the lower end stuff (the labour in the prep work is too high to be messing around with inferior products). So it's time for another round of polishing with the DA and then a go with Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/sealants/ ... _1635.html

I'll top this with the BH double speed wax.

Any thoughts / comments / suggestions before I begin?

My car was treated with Gtechniq Crystal Serum when new by a professional detailer. The result is impressive. The depth of gloss is amazing, washing the car is much quicker because dirt just slides off with hardly any effort and it appears to be very resistant to scratching. The effect is guaranteed to last for 7 years.

Yeh, the CS has pretty much unanimous great reviews. The CSL (light version) obviously isn't quite up to the same levels of protection but I think it's probably about as good as you will get for home application.

I had the CS as well as the Expo applied in July and even now all i do is wash and dry and have not noticed any additional swirls or marks and our Z lives out doors. Big thumbs up for it

So I spent a ton of time last night doing a full stage 2 paint correction on the bonnet in prep for the CSL. Just before application, I panel wiped the whole area and.... WHAT!!!! The panel wipe made all my tiny stone chip touch up's go cloudy?? It was like I had a load of dry water spots all over my bonnet???

Left it a few mins to see if they would go back clear but they didn't. I was really surprised that the panel wipe would react with the touch up paint like that.

Decided that I would fully level all the stone chips down. I tried this previously with the DA on the most aggressive pad and compound I could find but the touch ups are so localised it was never effective. So..time for a wet sand...gulp.

The compound I'm using is Sonax Cutmax which claims to be able to remove 1,200 grit sanding marks. I didn't really believe that and rightly so as I found it's practical limit was around 5000 to 7000 grit. So first I flattened each individual touch up with 5000 silicon carbide, and followed with 7000. I have to say, the bonnet after that looks a total right off!!! But out with the cutmax and after a couple of passes, all back looking good. Final pass with a blue pad and Sonax 04-06 and we are back in business with all the stone chip touch ups completely flattened.

I tried again on a test area with the panel wipe..same thing. Touch up's went cloudy. Not as noticeable now as at least they were all flat but still not something you want to be covering with CSL.

So I concluded that a thorough buff with a clean quality microfibre was the best I could do. To be honest Sonax 04-06 comes off very easy anyway and doesn't really leave residue.

So started the CSL at 1am , only planned to do the bonnet and have to say it was a joy to apply and buff off. Very easy indeed, no more than 10 mins to do the whole bonnet area. Left overnight and very pleased with the result this morning.

It was a lot of work but hopefully this is going to give me the swirl resistance that Monaco blue seems so vulnerable to.