New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

[Zcar]

New 2011 370Z and sticker on door jam indicates it was built in July 2011. The finish is a bit bumpy when you run your hand over it so it's a candidate for a clay bar, possible polish and NXT wax. Question is, is it safe to do all that to a new car finish that's 3 or 4 months old? Don't know how long it takes to cure out paint finishes on new cars. I clay barred/polished my 07 350Z but it was about a year old when I did it. Any thoughts/recommendations for my new Z. Couldn't find anything relevant with a quick search.

[Shawn T.]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

You're good to go.

Paint that comes from the factory is actually cured at the factory through an intense baking process so you can wax the day you buy the car. It's repaints that need 90 days to cure since they cannot be out through the same baking process as the seats and everything are already installed.

[Zcar]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

Thanks Shawn! Now all I've gotta do is figure out if I want to use NXT or the new(er) Ultimate Liquid stuff I just read about.

[Murr1525]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

Sounds like you'll want to use either Ult Polish or ColorX after the clay, to prep before the wax.

[Zcar]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

Howdy Murr. Just finished claying the top and the hood and getting ready to apply Deep Crystal Polish and I'll most likely follow up with NXT2 to use up stuff I've got on my shelf.

[Tuck91]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

I would just wash, clay, use a cleaner wax or light polish and LSP.

[Zcar]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

Hello Tuck. I've finished the hood with the Deep Crystal Polish and now have a coat of NXT 2.0 on it drying. So far it feels like it would make a baby's bottom jealous.......Not sure what LSP is......

[Mark58]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

Hello Tuck. I've finished the hood with the Deep Crystal Polish and now have a coat of NXT 2.0 on it drying. So far it feels like it would make a baby's bottom jealous.......Not sure what LSP is......

Last Step Protection

[Zcar]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

Ahhhhhh ... OK. Thanks Mark. Looks like I need to make a trip to the auto supply store.

[Murr1525]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

Well, the LSP would most often just be the wax you choose to use.

[Zcar]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

Well, the LSP would most often just be the wax you choose to use.

LOL... I kind of thought that after I did a product search for LSP .........

[Zcar]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

The car is new (had 40 miles on the odometer when I bought it and I put 20 of those on) but it had been at the dealer for awhile. It's silver and I washed it using Meguiars Gold soap and dried it with cotton towels and waffle cloths. Pulled the car in the garage and shut the door after drying was done. I noticed when I was using the clay bar that the quick detail liquid would begin to look dirty as I worked the clay bar and a couple times noticed that the clay itself had picked up a light brown color. The car looked to be clean but I guess the clay was cutting some kind of unseen contamination loose.

[Murr1525]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

Terry cloth can be quite rough.

Yeah, that is what clay is for.

Best to use some kind of cleaner after. Either a cleaner/wax then wax, or a cleaner then wax/wax.

[Zcar]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

It kind of surprised me to see the discoloration of the detail liquid and I even checked to be sure the liquid hadn't changed color in the bottle but it was still clear. I guess that even though the car looks clean and shiny there may still be stuff there that you can't see. I do have a bottle of Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner but since the paint is new and I couldn't detect any swirls or other imperfections I decided to skip that and use the Deep Crystal polish and then NXT 2.0 liquid wax. So far I've got the hood, top and hatch lid done and it looks and feels good. Kind of hard not to run my hand over it when I walk by . Reckon I better get back at it and finish the job this morning.

[zbestwun2001]

Re: New Car What's Acceptable or Safe?

Kind of hard not to run my hand over it when I walk by .

Ha! I do that also.. but I'm worse than you. If I see a nice car in a parking lot I'll kind of walk by it and oh so lightly run my finger over just a bit of it to see how they keep it up. More times than not, it feels rough and in need of some attention.

So don't feel bad about running your finger over your car, but you need to check yourself if you get as bad as me.