Can I wax my car without washing it if kept clean?

[jojellybean]

Hi everyone! I have a new Mercedes GLA 250.

Once a week, I sweep off any light dust with a dust sweeper that is really soft and then I clean up the rest with Meguiar's Last Touch Spray Detail with a great quality microfiber towel to keep the car clean and not have to wash the car all the time.

I have wax called Colinite 845 and would like to apply it to my car. My question is:

1) Would it be okay to wax the car if I just swept off dust and cleaned the car with a Last Touch Detail spray and microfiber towel? Or would I have to completely wash the car first?

2) It's new and really smooth. Would I need to clay?

3) What is the talk about Mercedes paint being harder and a little bit more scratch resistant? Is that true?

[Nick Winn]

Re: Can I wax my car without washing it if kept clean?

Hey jojellybean,

1) Yes it is perfectly OK to wax the car after your method of removing the dust with a duster & using our Last Touch Spray Detailer. We would like to mention that our Last Touch Spray Detailer and all of our other spray detailers are designed for light dust removal by themselves, spray on, wipe off. But if you prefer using an automotive car duster first and following with our Last Touch, that is OK also.

2) Although many users do clay new cars to ensure no contaminants are present, if the paint is smooth, you do not have to clay.

3) When you see discussion regarding a particular paint being "soft" or "hard" this is typically referring to the "polish-ability" of the paint. When attempting to remove defects from automotive paint using a compound or cleaner/polish, especially by machine, if a paint is "hard," this essentially means the paint is more resilient to this process or the defects do not come out as easy. Although it may be easier to remove defects from "soft" paint, they typically can be more difficult to get to "finish" or in other words there is more difficulty making that paint perfect & glossy during the finish polishing step.

We have found that when a paint is determined as "hard" this does not necessarily translate to being more scratch resistant. The process of abrading an automotive paint surface to remove defects is very different than the process of inflicting a scratch into paint. For example, lets say your clear coat paint was a stick of butter, using a compound or cleaner/polish would be like shaving off an extremely small amount from the top of that butter stick. Scratching the clear coat paint would be more similar to putting a slice in that stick of butter with a butter knife.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask more questions.