waxing new vehicles...

[Auto Spa]

doing a detail saturday for a friend of the wife's. her husband said he did not need anything for his truck because he just got it 4 months ago. my question is how long should you wait to wax a new car or truck? i have not seen this vehicle yet so i do not know the condition of the finish but if the paint is in good shape( no swirls) should i still try to talk him into a wash & wax?

[rusty bumper]

Re: waxing new vehicles...

Originally posted by Auto Spa
doing a detail saturday for a friend of the wife's. her husband said he did not need anything for his truck because he just got it 4 months ago. my question is how long should you wait to wax a new car or truck? i have not seen this vehicle yet so i do not know the condition of the finish but if the paint is in good shape( no swirls) should i still try to talk him into a wash & wax?

It's safe to wax a new car, because the paint is cured in an oven before the car is assembled.

If I bought a new car, I would wash, clay, and do a 2 or 3 step detail to the finish, due to the fact that a new car picks up a lot of contamination from factory to owner.

4 months is a long time to go between waxing....If the owner wants to keep that new car look, he needs to maintain the finish more than just 4 months apart!

[Mike Phillips]

From Meguiar's FAQ


10. How soon can I wax my new car?

A new car with a factory paint job can be waxed the moment it is rolled out of the manufacturing plant. Cars that have factory paint jobs are cured at much higher temperatures, sometimes as high as 300 degrees in special baking ovens. At a factory level, the car goes through the painting and baking process without any of the rubber, plastic, and cloth components installed. This is why they can expose the car and it's fresh paint to such high temperatures. These high temperatures and special paints used at the factory level insures the paint is fully cured by the time the car is completely assembled.

After-market paint finishes however, are cured at a much lower temperature to ensure the method of baking or heating the paint doesn't melt non-metal components such as wiring and vinyl. For this reason, it's best to follow the specific paint manufactures recommendations for care and maintenance of fresh paint. Most paint manufactures that supply paint to the refinish industry recommend that you allow anywhere from 30 to 90 days curing time after the paint is applied before you apply the first application of wax.

To maintain your cars fresh paint during the recommended curing time you can safely use any of the below Meguiar's pure polishes, which are not only safe for fresh paint but help to enhance the curing process while making your paint look it's absolute best.

* M-03 Machine Glaze

* M-05 New Car Glaze

* M-07 Show Car Glaze

* M-81 Hand Polish

* A-21 Deep Crystal Polish

Another product you can use to maintain fresh paint throughout the curing process and even afterwards is Meguiar's M-80 Speed Glaze.

Speed Glaze is a cleaner/polish that also contains a unique paintable polymer that will extend the durability of the product while offering protection to the finish closer to that of a real wax or paint protectant.

Speed Glaze contains a high level of pure polishing oils and only a small amount of very fine diminishing abrasives for cleaning/removing surface imperfections, blemishes, and surface stain. The amount of diminishing abrasives contained in this product are not enough to scratch the surface when applied by hand or machine.

They will instead ensure that the surface is completely clean, enabling the rich polishing oils to penetrate into the surface creating deep, dark, wet-looking gloss while the paintable polymers provide a small but important level of protection to preserve your finish from attack and deterioration while it cures.

(end of FAQ)

Hope this helps...

Mike