Basic Question - 1st wax of the season

[Kgear]

I have a really basic question.



My car (71 Mercedes 280sl) recently came out of winter storage and has spent three weeks in my mechanics garage. I went to check on her last night and noticed the car was really dusty and dirty from being in the shop.



It was looking great last year, after clay, and waxing a number of times.



When Iget it home where do I start? Obviously a good wash is first but afterwards can I just clay and wax? Or must I remove the old wax from last year first with some sort of paint prep?

[togwt]

Whenever I remove a car from winter storage (after a wash and clay) I use a paint cleaner to ensure none of the dirt has discoloured the paint (especially white / light paint) and then evaluate the paint surface.



FWIW (non-paint finish)-

·When time comes to start the engine, pull the fuel pump relay/fuse and crank the engine without it getting any fuel for a while to prime the lubrication system/circulate the oil. This will avoid washing down dry the cylinder walls with fuel before it starts up.

·Assuming you heated up the car to full operating temp after changing the oil and filter (pre-storage) at start-up there should be only minimal deposits and contamination.

·Fill the stored car with low viscosity oil during storage and start the engine occasionally to ensure the oil and water gets a chance to circulate

Drain the oil system and before replacing the oil and filter fill it with oil as this will enable oil priming upon start up and prevent dry cranking

JonM

[Lowejackson]

I agree, wash, clay, paint cleaner and then evaluate

[Accumulator]

Yeah, see what you have after the wash and clay. Most vehicles need *something* else as part of the spring cleanup before the LSP goes on whether it`s a paint cleaner or a mild polish. My XJS is in about the same boat and I`ll use something like Pinnacle PCL, or Autoglym SRP, or 1Z WPS on it before the Souveran goes on.



Cool car, BTW :xyxthumbs

[Kgear]

Can someone explain to me why I wouldn`t wash, paint cleaner, then clay?



My thinking being that the painjt cleaner would get any heavy deeposits off and the clay would clean up the smaller deposits?



Is this wrong?



Thanks !

[the other pc]

I see it the other way around. The clay will remove the tall deposits and the cleaner removes the low deposits, stains, oxidation and (if it`s a leveling cleaner) swirls. Some percentage of those beneath-the-surface defects may continue under the tall deposits and wouldn`t be addresses without claying first.



Plus, you can combine the wash and clay by using the wash solution as the clay lube.



Also, much of the stuff that clay does well is gunk I wouldn`t want stuck in my foam pad.





PC.

[togwt]

One removes imbedded particles (clay) which are often metallic from brake rotors and are best removed by encapsulation (clay) so they are not `pushed` around the paint scratching it. The paint requires `cleaning` done best by a cleaner type product, after these to you can see what you have to deal with as far as paint imperfections

JonM