surface prep?

[Carbon04]

What is the best surface prep to do before applying Zaino? They say to wash with Dawn dish soap and apply their clay bar. Is their anything else? Will doing those 2 things remove any/all the remaining wax that is on the paint? Thanks in advance.

[tubafeak]

As long as there are no LSP`s on the surface, that should work. If there are, you`ll want to use a very light polish like AIO or Pro Polish.

[MS22]

The clay bar will strip any wax that does remain on the car after washing along with other contaminants. However, I am not a fan of washing with Dawn, invest in some dedicated car wash like 4*, Adams, Poorboys, or NXT which are all popular here and are very cheap, especially when only maintaining a few cars. Also you do not necessarily have to use the Zaino clay but that is completely up to you; they do not have a companion lubricant and the bars are probably small due to a total shipping weight of bars and container weighing 0.35 lbs. I prefer Wolfgang and 4* clay, TOL`s is nice too and its big; as for a locally found bar Clay Magic can be found at Autozone and Walmart and any QD can serve as a lubricant. Hope this helps, good luck!

[liam]

i`m quite sure that clay will remove a slight layer of wax... but if you have several layers of a sealant... then i doubt clay will remove it all... i would use AIO anyway cause it cleans away any clay residue plus any minor oxidation.

[TDMAN]

Clay is designed NOT to remove any wax or sealant. That is the beauty of clay. It removes suface contaminants that are not removed from a wash. True, it may remove some wax, but the Dawn is the product that is meant to be doing all of the removing. However, a very well know detailer says something that I agree with: Dawn is for dishes. Use a quality car wash soap.

[dalmore]

Actually, I think clay will pretty much remove any wax or sealant you have. Clay works by a mechanical action - pulling contaminants out of and off of your paint. I can`t imagine a wax or sealant surviving a good claying.

From Bettercarcare.com car care guide. (I`m rather surprised they say that some sealants may not be removed.)

"Q6. Will clay remove my wax?
A6. In most cases, clay will "scrub off" wax protection. Some paint sealants are hard enough to withstand being cleaned with clay, but most are not."

[TDMAN]

http://www.web-cars.com/detail/clay.php
I guess it depends on who you listen too. Although, it would make sense that clay MIGHT remove wax (as that sits on top of the paint), I stand by my orignal statement. Of course, if it did remove all of the products used to protect cars, I suppose there might be a reason or some "demand" created to buy products. Hmmm.. Ya think?

[RedondoV6]

What is the best surface prep to do before applying Zaino? They say to wash with Dawn dish soap and apply their clay bar. Is their anything else? Will doing those 2 things remove any/all the remaining wax that is on the paint? Thanks in advance.

Carbon04: You do not say what kind of paint you have and what condition your paint is in, but one of the following should work for you:

1) Wash-clay-polish-Zaino

2) Wash-clay-aio-Zaino

If your paintwork is in fairly good condition, just go with using Klasse AIO before Zaino which will clean your paint and leave a surface that the Zaino sealant will bond to OK.

If you have swirls, scratch marks etc. you will need to polish them out before applying the Zaino. Look for polishes that do not contain oils, fillers, or wax, three examples of that I own and like include Poorboy`s SSR 2.5 and 1, 3M PI III RC and MG and the Sonus SFX polishes. If you do decide to use a polish that contains wax etc. just rub down the paint after polishing with a 50/50 water and IPA mix before applying Zaino.

What you are looking to achieve is a swirl free, oil and wax free paint surface that the Zaino can bond to. Wash with whatever shampoo you like, using a suitable polish or AIO before applying the Zaino, should remove any wax or oils and that might cause probelsm with bonding.

Good luck!