It rained last night so with the dirty rainwater combined with pollen, Cavan was spotted with yellow watermarks. So I gave Cavan his first bath, being the first time I've washed a car by hand in... well it's been years.

Things went well I must say. I didn't go all out becuase I've been short on time today and plan on doing a massive detail Friday after I get my stripes installed.

I did end up with some waterspotting on the windows , so I'll have to be more attentive next time to getting those dried quickly. Everything else came out looking real nice. Opening the bonnet and boot to dry gave me a little suprise, I'll have to remember next time to give those a light shake before fully opening them and having water drip everywhere.

I also had the idea to buy a can of compressed air, like those used to clean keyboards, to help get water out of the seals and hard-to-dry areas.

All in all, 90 minutes of good bonding time with my MINI. I'm definitely lookin forward to Friday's all-day detailing.

 

white vinegar works well for waterspots on glass. Not sure about tint, if you have done that. When you get around to waxing, peanut oil removes wax from fenders etc.

The compressed air idea works well in theory,but a quick spin around the block & a final blotting should suffice. Oh & don't forget to floss your grille

 

be careful with those stripes though - can't remember for certain but it seems i couldn't wash for a few days after they were put on!

 

Get with the Zaino (or Klasse) program. After you build up a few coats, waterspots come off much easier. Try and avoid the vinegar if you can... The acid (which helps remove the water spots) isn't the best for your paintwork overall.

 

Yup, Zaino will be going on Friday, just have to wait for the stripes to be installed before I wax.

 

Waterspots on glass --zaino? not me.

 

Isn't this a new car? Does it look like it needs to be waxed?

 

Thanks for the peanut oil comment, that will most definitely be indisposable. I really like Griots stuff my self, but Zaino is good. I never even thought of using canned air on the hood to dry it- I always pop the hood and lay a towel over the (cool) engine

 

Whoah! Dude... (In my best Keanu Reeves stoner voice)

The purpose of waxing or sealing isn't to try and restore a stained, oxidized paint job... It's to try and prevent staining and oxidation from happening in the first place. Not waxing a car because it is new is like not using moisturizer until you get old... the whole 'ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' thing. The time you really need to wax is when it is new... a regular routine of maintenance will not only keep the finish better, longer but it will also make your car look cleaner between washes and easier to clean during washes.

 

I made the mistake of not waxing when new, that was 2 years ago. I started getting into waxing/detailing after having my MC for about 6 months. I still have some swirls, from not knowing what to do.


YOU can't see them, but I know where they are. The swirls




This forum, will help you get good protection on the car, and make it look great

 

Are you saying that when you picked up a NEW car, it wasn't waxed (e.g., the water wasn't beading?). That is, your dealer gave you an Unwaxed car. If that true, I feel sorry for you!

If your saying your just adding more wax to existing wax, well ... to each their own/

What are you saying?

 

New cars are not manufactured waxed, and some brands (that don't take as long to ship as a Mini) actually come with an admonition not to wax for a few weeks while the paint is soft/solvent is still drying.

You can do a much more careful job than a dealer drone would do so the lack of dealer-installed wax is less of an issue than first appears.

Waxes contain solvents that dissolve wax, hence it is liquid in the bottle and does not build-up on the paint. Applying multiple coats of wax serves mostly to let the polishing compound do its job, not thicken the wax layer.

And if all you wanted was for water to bead, those "wash n' wax" soap products would be all you need. No polishing and little protection, but easy to use and beading for a few days at least.

 

I wish I would have taken my MINI to a wand place after I got it, with a bucket of Zaino Z7, washed it, did a a wax as you dry before I drove it 179 miles back home. Then once I got home, put layers of Zaino on it. I didn't, in fact I waited until late february to wax my car (I got it Jan. 15) so now the paint shows it, I'm planning on getting a porter cable to make my paint look factory new again!

Mikey

 

I am very interested in this and here is why I ask. Take a look at this.



That is me holding the camera after a recent thunderstorm, no sun out. I think the car is very shiny and holding its wax, or whatever, very well. I've had it for four months now and have not polished nor waxed it except using some Pinnacle crystal mist spray carnuba to get rid of some water spots maybe every other week. Maybe I'm wrong but it still seems shiny to me. SO what do you think, it was Zainoed or something before I got it?

 

It is shiny, but it isn't waxed very well (I'm not really trying to be an a-hole... it just reads poorly in text. Please keep reading to see why not)

You want to have more than just standing water on the car. Beading (like in the picture) is better than no beading but the beads in the pic look pretty thin and they are definately irregular in shape (some of it possibly due to rainwater vs. clean water). If the surface of the paint was more regular (ex: claybar-ed and waxed) the droplets would be nice and round. When I first Zaino-ed, I was amazed at how thick the drops were. The water was so repelled by the surface of the paint (nothing for it to grip) that the surface tension of the water drew it into a hemisphere... very cool. If a dealer sealed your car, they would have charged you for a $300 "weather sealant paint protection package" (or some other bunk of a name) and it wouldn't be of the same quality of Zaino or Klasse.

I've seen the wax jobs that dealers do, but they usually use very poor quality waxes with lots of fillers to cover up their washing mistakes and swirlmarks that they conveniently installed by washing your car with an old rag that they had thrown on the ground between each car.

When I get a new car, I immediately wash it with Dawn to remove the dealer wax (if I even let them put it on there... I specify no wash, no wax and no dealer stickers) and thoroughly inspect the car when dry to check the finish quality. If you don't catch the 'dealer installed' scratch now, they will never want to talk about it and will blame it on you.

Here's a story that convinced me that my dad was right (who taught me this practice):

Last year, a guy down the street from me bought a new BMW 7 series in black. That thing was beautiful when he brought it home from the showroom. He drove it for a few weeks and then washed it. After the first wash, he noticed some swirl marks. A week later he washed it again... even more swirls. The third wash made his car look like someone had hit it with 100-grit sandpaper. Apparently the dealer took a dirty buffing wheel to it when they prepped the car (the grit in the wheel scratched the surface with every revolution), but the high-filler wax they used immediately filled in the scratches. As the wax wore away with washes, the scratches were revealed. He argued with the dealership over the phone for a while and finally drove it down there. Once they saw the hideous state that 70-80k car was in, they admitted that they probably did it and sent it to a professional to have the finish restored (15 hours of buffing).

 

I just took delivery of my 05' MC two whole days ago...I'm trying to get prepped on car care strategies since I'd rather prevent than fix! Is there a recommended time frame for the first waxing?

I live in Southern California, where its usually dry, but lately lots of humidity and the issue of living one mile from the salty sea and the breeze that comes from it. I'm concerned how these factors will play into keeping my paint look great.

Thanks!
Suzanne

 

I understand your thoughts. NP

My question is this though, its been four months and with our without water on it, it still looks pretty shiny to me. If I had a blue sky, it would look just like the other pic
in this thread but we NEVER get blue skies, just "white" haze

do you think what the dealer did was synthetic or carnuba?

 

With a MINI in California, your car has spent a good deal of time on its way to you... no worry about waxing too soon.

The sooner you get a good seal on your car (wax or sealant) the better, IMHO. I usually spend the first weekend with the car getting to know her and getting a good seal (Zaino, in my case) on.

 

The thing w/ the dealer prep is that you really don't know what they've done or applied. It's hard to know how to follow up. What Doogie is doing with Cavan is basically resetting everything...going back to a virgin, wax free, clay-barred paint surface, and starting on a regimen of his own choosing...and a good one from the sound of it. Then he can continue from there. Most (hopefully all) MINI owners have to do this at some point...some may start out sooner, some may wait a bit. Either way, it has to be done.

 

That is no remnant of dealer wax--it is your spray-on wax which is pretty much equivalent to wash-and-wax in that it provides temporary protection. If you use it religiously every week it works fine, and it definitely contains no abrasive polishes (which you don't need on a new car). Don't wait too long between applications or you'll need polish like the rest of us:smile:.

 

I think what we have here is a difference of opinion...

Chows sounds like my mum, whose car would still be un-washed today, had I not cleaned it up for her before I moved ("Well, it's silver, Kelley -- you can't see the dirt. And the dealer waxed it, didn't they???")

Whereas others (myself included) just flat out enjoy the hands-on process of making and keeping the car looking great (which, ahem, you would never know if you saw my poor car's present state... you see, I ran out of all my Zaino at the beginning of summer and have only just now reordered and we have this horrific tree that drops multitudes of creepy things from copious sap to sticky *****... and I apparently feel compelled to confess... )

So, Chow, if you're comfortable living with a dealer wax job then good on ya.

 

Say five Hail MINIs then detail the car and all will be forgiven my son.

 

BFG, I think your right on the money. Its just the spray carnuba doing its thing. No need to clay, surface is smooth as glass. So I washed with dawn and followed autogeeks advice ... sorry no zaino, which is to synthetic first and then carnuba ... so I did Klasse first yesterday, Pinnacle Souveran today and another coat of carnuba goes on tommorow. After the Klasse, you could see that was just a polish while the carnuba mae it much more liquid shine.

Your not going to see any reflective skies, clouds or whatever because in the summer, ALL I ever see is white sky.

Thanks ... you were right.

 

Thanks for being so condescending, I appreciate that.

My question was whether the dealer has originally used synthetic or carnuba since synthetic is supposed to last longer. Not whether or not I was comfortable with the dealers wax job.

Im glad you enjoy spending hours cleaning your car (its a hobby and that is good to have a hobby.)

BFG had the right answer if you had thought to read before posting

 

Chows4us: I don't think that Carnubas will layer... when you apply the second coat, the solvents simply shove the 1st layer around... Synthetics like Klasse and Zaino, however, will layer and the shine should get deeper. Better you do an extra coat of your Klasse than a second coat of Carnuba.