first off, loving the nordic green 2005 8 gt 6sp i picked up yesterday; went down to the beach and felt like a full movie star (keep in mind, i have been driving a pos honda for 8, thats right, 8 years; anyway, driving down the strip and every single head turned and stared; i loved it!!!!!!;
sorry about the rant, heres my question and sorry if there is already a thread on it; like i said, my car is only a day old (it was in dealers showroom for 6 weeks) and is in mint condition;
lots of big fat bugs flying around here so the windshield and bumper needs a cleaning; is it ok to use regular glass cleaner on the exterior of the car, for little jobs like bugs, to clean glass and metal?; or should i use something else?;
do i need to wax my new car to protect it?; ive heard diff opinions on whether or not to wax new car; how long should i wait to do it? any thoughts or mention of previous threads would be great;

michael

 

wax the car after it has been exposed to the element for at least 30 days to allow the paint to completely cure since you said its been on the showroom floor for most of its life. Check out this subforum's previous threads for waxing tips.

As far as cleaning out bugs click here for the most recent thread.

Congratulations on your new 8.

 

I would go ahead and wax it now. If you keep a good layer of wax on the car, the bugs will wash off easily with regular car soap and water. If not, they will stick and be harder to remove. You really don't have to wait to wax your new car from the factory. You only need to wait if the car is freshly painted by a body shop.

Have fun!

 

Mazda uses a water-based paint system at the factory which dries slower than spray-paint used at body shop. In fact, various threads here discuss why the RX-8 paint seem to be comparatively soft and prone to chipping and chemical burns. I guess there is no harm waxing it now instead of waiting for a few more days, but what's the harm??? :o

BTW, remember to remove any bird crap or insect splatter on the car's finish ASAP to avoid clearcoat burnthrough.

 

Look at your build date on the plate in the driver's door jam. It will tell you how long since the car was manufactured/painted. I bet you will find that the paint has had several months to cure. Go ahead and wax that baby.

Before you wax, you might want to clay bar the paint to remove any surface contaminants. Search here or on autopia.org for "clay bar". Doing the clay bar will give you a nice clean/smooth surface for the wax.

 

i waited a month before waxing mine..I now have 74 coats on mine. (Ofcourse I stripped it each time and reapplied). I probably have the smoothest feelin 8 in cali...

 

thanks for the advice people; gonna wax it tomorrow, hopefully it wont be as hot (33c with direct sunlight) today;

zoom zoom

 

blue87; good advice; bot a meguires clay today and will use it to take off all the crap thats been sitting there before i got her;

 

miker2005 - good move to go with the clay first. This will definetely make any wax job look 100x better!
Check out my NG after the clay/Zaino treatment.
http://www.pbase.com/apotocki/image/43477707
http://www.pbase.com/apotocki/image/43477709
http://www.pbase.com/apotocki/image/43477708

 

Modern car manufacturers use a heat curing system that will fully cure the paint by the time it leaves the factory.

Yes, it is okay to wax.

 

apotocki; wow, those pics look great, well done with the shine;
im not using zaino, i just droppped a lot of coin on this car and to be honest, im hoping to get decent results with meguires; ill post some pics when im done;