Well I have 99 B. Black A4<p>Products used: 3M and Zymol (The expensive stuff)<br>1) 3M Imperial Hand Glaze<br> a) This stuff is good.. much less harsh <br> than HD-Clense from Zymol.<p>2) 3M Wax (The one in the bottle)<br> a) Carcareonline.com said this stuff may<br> cause "clouding" on German finishes.<br> He was right, the finish seemed to leave<br> a funny look after buffing..<p>3) Zymol Carbon.<br> a) Smells good.<br> b) Seems to apply easy.<br> c) HOW the heck do you get it OFF???<br> I buffed and buffed and the stuff<br> seems to be pretty thick stuff. <br> When looking directly at the paint<br> looks great, but when you are off to<br> one side you can see the wax in the<br> direction you buffed?<p>4) Black cars suck like hell, when it comes<br> to keeping them clean.<p>5) Conclusion. 3M Hand Glaze (Thumbs up!!)<br> Zymol Carbon (sideways thumb)<br> 3M Wax (Thumbs down)<br> <br>6) Now I have a good polish, I need to find a <br> good wax that can be applied and removed easy<br> granted that I will have to wax more often<br> but since my car is a daily driver It would be<br> hard to find such a magic wax to stand up to the Texas summers and bird crap. Because the bird crap is bigger in Texas.<p>-cE<br>99 1.8QTM APR<br>

I've had the same problem with Zymol's Carbon Wax. I have a heck of a time trying to get it off. It seems to just leave a hazy smear.<p>I have used One Grand Blitz Wax and lot this wax a lot. It leaves a clean, slippery finish. It doesn't have as deep a shine as I would like, but it's still very good. And it does last a good long time. I bought it from www.carcareonline.com.<p>I just bought some Pinnacle Soveran wax from http://www.autopia-carcare.com/autopia/index.html. The owner of this store says that it leaves a smear and streak free finish with tremendous depth and richness. I have it, but haven't yet used it. I'll post my thoughts on this wax after I use it.<p>Terry 2.8 QMS, Brillient Black with Xenons

With 20 years of being in the sales, service, detailing business I thought I might be able to help. 3M Imperial Hand Glaze is an excellent product for a very limited purpose, it is really only a swirl mark filler and has no polishing properties what so ever. Bodyshops use it as a final application after polishing fresh paint. It's almost impossible to polish fresh paint to a swirl free finish and applying wax is not a option until the paint has cured a while, so the hand glaze presents a swirl free look to the customer until the first time it gets washed then its gone. Now I know some people will laugh but over the years I have bought and used every wax on the market and finally settled on NU-FINISH. It is by far the easiest wax to apply and remove and provides the longest shine and beading of water, as long as 6 months in my experiance. I'm speaking of the liquid type thats available at any Walmart for about $3.99 a bottle. Pure Carnuba and most others only last a couple of washes and are totally gone. Good luck

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When i did my brilliant black with Zymol carbon, it was a real pain to get off. Even after a lot of buffing i could still see swirls of wax in the paint. I have since heard from people (who swear by Zymol and won't use anything else) ) that you need to use VERY little, and do only small areas at a time. I'll probably give it another shot.

Go to either Autopia (link below) or http://www.carcareonle for help.<p>But it is possible. Use a product like 3M Imperial Hand Glaze or Meguiars Swirl Remover. Both should work. The web sites I gave you have a more detail instructions.<ul><li><a href="http://www.autopia-carcare.com/autopia/index.html">Autopia</a></li></ul>

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My A4 is my second black car and most likely my last. I love the looks of a black car when it's clean, especially the way all the black trim (splashguards, rocker panels, window trim etc.) blends in. But black is a bitch to keep looking nice because it shows every speck of dirt and scratch. In the summer the paint can get to over 200-f and will cook any carnauba wax in a few short weeks.<p>I don't mind doing the three-step mega wax in the fall (clay-polish-wax) when it will last for a while, but I have not found a carnauba wax that will last more than two months in the Mississippi summer.<p>I have been on the look out for a decent one-step cleaner /wax to use since I'll be doin it again in a few weeks anyway and I havn't found one yet that is worth a damn.<p>A few days ago I tried Meguires "Gold Class" and it turned out to be a real headache. I washed, dried and applied the wax as per instructions. The good news is that it did not leave any swirl marks (some one-step products are too aggresive and will leave swirlmarks in black paint). The bad news is that it left a foggy film on the hood that would not buff out. Thank goodness I only applied the stuff to the hood and not the whole car.<p>I got out my favorite wax (Auto Magic Yellow Carnauba Paste) and waxed over the Meguires and it looked much better. I then finished the rest of the car with the Auto Magic (Auto Magic has no cleaners, it's just wax). The next day, the car looked great, except the hood. the Meguires 'funk' had returned.<p>Today I re-washed the car and used Griots fine polish to remove the streaks from the hood and rewaxed with Auto Magic. There were still very faint streaks from the Meguires. I finally resorted to an old trick that always worked on my previous black car. Buff as much of the funk off as you can using several very clean towels. Mist the area with some water (I keep a spray bottle with distilled water handy) and buff dry. Repeat as necessary. It looks good now, but the funk may return in a few days after exposure to the sun (I'm keeping my fingers crossed).<p>Since polishing and waxing, even with the cleanest of towles and finest products, wears the paint, I am still looking for anything that will last a long time and reduce the number of times I have to polish the car.<p>Any ideas? E-mail me for an address to send samples to :-) .<p>Robert Jordan<br>'97 1.8t<p>"Robert can't come to the phone right now, he's waxing his car....again."