How soon can I wax new rx8?
 

Hello, just got a new rx8 and was just curious if I should wait a couple months before waxing? Don't want to damage the nice new paint.

I once asked that somewhere and the answer is you can wax it tonight. The car was actually painted at least several weeks ago—probably months.

check the door jam to see when your car was made.

wait 5 minutes










actually if it has swirl marks do it soon.

you can wax right away.

Looks like it'll be getting a wax job this weekend! :icon_tup: I think I see some swirl marks if I look real close, but it's hard to tell.

auto repair shops say that you cannot/should not wax over new paint for 6 months!!!

What?!? Thats a new one.

Before paint was baked on that was true.
Your '8 was probably made months before you received it.

wax dat ass!

why not the whole car?!?!?!?!?! the front deserves attention too!!!!! :rock:

HUmmm..

must people at body shops don't know the industry standard. they just grab a gun and start to spray. oh by the auto shops use diff quality of paint. so six months would be for really cheap paint .....

I just got my 8 about a week ago, and decided to do a wax on it. Really didn't do too much for the shine and smoothness of the paint.

Then I decided to Clay Bar it followed by a few layers of my favorite wax.......... Bam, as smooth as marble and as shiny as glass. It removed all the fallout and over spray that was on the car from the factory.

I would go all out and wash it first with alittle dish washer soap, next clay bar it, then zaino the thing. Your car will look better then the one's a the dealers show floor.

OEM paint is cured under a quartz lamp for 1/2 hour or so. It is completely dry by the time they are installing the interior.
You can be sure it has already received some sort of "gloss enhancement" before you even signed the paperwork.

Modern, 2 part catalyzed urethane paints - even if they are air cured - usually can be waxed 48 hours after delivery, though I'd wait until it shrinks, which is 6 to 10 days depending on climate.
Really, there is no need to wax paint at all these days. The body shop will have cut your paint before they deliver it to you (sometimes as soon as 12 hours after it was shot) and there is no more solid paint surface than the paint itself.
Most modern clear coats already have UV protection in it as well.
Wax is a feel-good product, though you could make the argument that they act as a "sacrificial" layer of protection against environmental contaminants.
Polishes and compounds on the other hand actually remove the top of your paint by design.

BTW - Paint, like glass, is really still a liquid even after it is hardened.

yeah MM, cut it looks sooooo SHINEY when I'm done! :D:

^^ Just remember you can only do that so many times over the life of the paint.
I like the newest 3M Finesse-it products because they remove almost nothing. Its amazing stuff.