[kflanary]

When should you do your first wax job on a new FX? I just picked mine up last night and the dealer said they put on a coat of "light wax". When do I need my first real wax job - now or wait 6 months? Thanks

 

[bradical]

if its a brand new car, you should wait about 30 days to wax (and i mean if its BRAND new --- check the build date).

you might want to get a clay bar and first dawn wash the original wax off, clay bar the car, and then put on the new wax (or zaino

 

[FromHereToInfiniti]

I've never used a clay bar before, though I've heard many of you mention it. Anything I should know about using one, other than what would come in the instructions? Are they easy/hard to use? Thanks in advance.

Don

 

[bradical]

you want to clay the car to take off all of the surface contaiminants. you would want to do this when you are looking to cmpletely strip the wax and crap off your paint for the purposes of working with a prisitne surface for waxing or zaino. you only really need to do this once in a great while since you are rarely stripping the entire car of wax, etc....

to clay :

(1) dawn wash to get off all wax

(2) clay the car

(2a) make a solution of water and just a touch of NON DAWN soap (or zaino carwash)

(2b) mist it on the clean car and wipe the bar back and forth in linear motions over the wet area. if the bar sticks, then you need to lubricate more.

(2c) do all of the painted surfaces.

(3) re wash off all of the clay bar oils

believe it or not, even tho the bar is small, claying the entire FX will take less time than a hand wash. once you put lubricant down, it slides very easy and you can cover a lot of area fast.

 

[ShadyJC]

I've never used a clay bar before, though I've heard many of you mention it. Anything I should know about using one, other than what would come in the instructions? Are they easy/hard to use? Thanks in advance.

FHTI, WOW, it makes a *huge* difference. Before I did my first clay I was joking with my friends that I would use the Zaino clay on half and my son's Play-Doh on the other half and see if they could tell the difference.... (relax everyone, I didn't use the Play-Doh). I'm a believer now.

It is not hard to use but you do have to be somewhat meticulous to hit every surface of the car, in order for it to work it has to make contact. Clay is maybe a once a year thing so it is an hour well invested. The results are incredible. Post-clay, the surface of my 4-year old Lexus (with 40K miles and having been through northeast winters) is 100 times smoother than my sister in law's 1 month old BMW 745i in sunny SoCal, something we like to rub in everytime we see her...

 

[kflanary]

The car is brand new - just hit the ground a couple of days before I picked it up. So I'll wait a month or so. I see a lot of Zaino talk and I've tried reading up on it. I am way too lazy to put on multiple coats and that type of thing. Is there a Zaino that can be used by itself? So I could just wash it and apply the wax? I think the pics I see here of Zaino look great, I just know I don't have the patience for multiple coats, so looking for a nice compromise. Thanks

 

[bradical]

zaino can be used by itself.

its called Z-2 polish

all you need is a clean car (i.e.. just do a DAWN wash instead of the regular car wash concentrate before you apply).

it goes on like wax, and i think that for a single coat, its faster than wax.

it wipes off just like wax too

the only difference is that you dont put it on or take it off in "circular" motions. instead its just linear back and forth (and it doesnt have to be perfect

 

[kcrudup]

KF- you could also call Sal Zaino and see if he knows a guy out your way who does detailing. That's how I got Zainoed.