How do you know its time to reapply base wax again?

[boomie]

I recently bought a used corvette. The last owner had taken extremely good care of it and babied it. The paint still looks like its almost brand new. He told me he had waxed with NXT Generation Tech Wax a month ago and I shoud be good for a few months.

I am now using it as a daily driver. So far, the car looks awesome but I just don't know when its time to redo the base wax. What do you look for to know that its time to do the complete cycle.

Also, how do you remove the existing wax from the car? Will normal washing with NXT Generation Car Wash do it over 3-4 washes or should I use dish soap (which one is safest)?

[RaskyR1]

Re: How do you know its time to reapply base wax again?

Welcome to MOL!

If you're just going to be applying another coat of NXT there is no reason to remove the wax. You can tell when it's time to re-wax by using the squeak test. Or you can just wax every other wash like me!

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6825&highlight=squeak+test

FYI, never use dish soap to remove wax. Clay bar and a paint cleaner, like Deep Crystal Step 1, are the best way to do that.

Rasky

[Mike Phillips]

Re: How do you know its time to reapply base wax again?

Rasky's right, if you want to keep your Vette looking it's best all the time simply wax it often as nothing looks like a freshly waxed car.

And for removing whatever coating is on there now use a light paint cleaner like Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner as it will remove the wax and get you to a fresh base.

[boomie]

Re: How do you know its time to reapply base wax again?

Rasky's right, if you want to keep your Vette looking it's best all the time simply wax it often as nothing looks like a freshly waxed car.

And for removing whatever coating is on there now use a light paint cleaner like Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner as it will remove the wax and get you to a fresh base.

Thanks Mike. So If I wanted to get to a fresh base - I would just follow the 5 step process and #2 (Deep Crystal System paint Cleaner) would remove old wax. That makes sense. Thanks for the pointer to the squeak test also .

Is there another thread which lists what type of micro-fiber cloth, pad whatever to use in each of the 5 steps with details?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: How do you know its time to reapply base wax again?

Is there another thread which lists what type of micro-fiber cloth, pad whatever to use in each of the 5 steps with details?

If you want to keep your Corvette's paint swirl and scratch free, then what you want to do is make sure ANYTHING that touches the paint is clean and soft, basically the highest quality product money can buy.

For applying and spreading around paint care products either foam or microfiber applicator pads, for wiping products off you want to use high quality microfiber polishing cloths, avoid T-shirts, Diapers, Cheese Cloth etc.

Quality Wash Mitt
For washing you want a quality wash mitt, something where the material is soft and gentle to the paint. Here's a tip... if you wash your car often, change your car wash mitt often, a good quality car wash mitt is less than $10.00 and if you ever see the mitt start to look tatty in any way, then simply replace it.

Have a new spare wash mitt on hand should you want to switch from the old one or should you drop the current one, (half way through the wash process), or chose to no longer use it.

Place your back-up wash mitt in a clean, a 1-gallon Zip-lock bag ready to go when you need it as the Zip-lock will keep it dirt and dust free while it's being stored.

All to often people use a wash mitt that's really too tatty to enable them to maintain a swirl free finish and when you go to wash your car if you don't have a new one in a bag ready to go you'll tend to use what you have versus stop and drive to the auto parts store.

Drying towels
Choose high quality drying towels or cloths, we make some very nice ones and you check them out on www.meguiarsdirect.com


If you have someone work on your car, for example wash and wax it make sure they're only using high quality products, especially anything that touches the paint.

[boomie]

Re: How do you know its time to reapply base wax again?

Thanks Mike! This forums and your responses are AWESOME!

[mb911]

Re: How do you know its time to reapply base wax again?

Yeah, if you want to get crazy serious, you can develop a regimen:

more or less mine:

wash with gold class
clay
paint clean with deep crystal cleaner step 1
polish with mirror glaze polish #7
2 coats of NXT 2.0

and then take care of all the little bits of plastic and stuff with other products.

Oh, and I use lots of microfiber towels. ha-ha.

You can get as crazy into it as you want. You've come to a good place. Enjoy your car!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: How do you know its time to reapply base wax again?

This statement is in our Saturday Class Power Point Presentation...

"Meguiar's can show you how to remove swirls but it's better to learn how to avoid instilling them into the paint in the first place"

This is a very true statement as modern clear coats tend to be harder than traditional single stage paints although they still scratch and swirl very easily. Then because the paint tends to be hard it is difficult for the average person and even experienced detailers to remove the swirls.

This is in part why DA Polisher like our G110 have become so popular and that's because people don't like the swirls but find working by hand too slow and difficult.

IF you don't own a DA Polisher you might want to get one down the road...