New Car Care

[Guest lonnybaumgardner]

I have recently received my long awaited pride and joy, a new Corvette. My new toy hasn't even saw the road yet, I had it hauled from the dealership to my garage and am now patiently waiting for winter to end. After reading the the forums here and discovering what a wealth of knowledge the members here have I had no doubt about what deatailing product I will be using. My question is what should I do to my car to improve, protect, and retain that new car shine?

[CRQuarto]

Congrats on the new Vette! It truly is a wonderful feeling to get your dream car, I was in that same boat around this time last year. Give that Vette plenty of love from the start, and she will shine and take care of you years from now. Here's what you can do:

 

1) Grab your bucket with grit guard, wash mitt, Adam's car wash, a waffle weave dry towel or two, and detail spray. Give her a bath!

 

2) Once you have her purty, clean, and dry, clay bar everything, and I mean everything...glass, headlights/brakelights, paint, ect. Pretty much all cars are stored in open lots before leaving the manufacturing plants, which are close to rail yards and trains and such. All those trains spew diesel, metal, carbon, you name it into the air, which settles on your unprotected, new paint and bonds to it witha vengeance! Also, being transported by either train or truck adds even more crud. Then, it sits on a dealership lot or showroom, and we all know how well they detail cars....not well at ALL! Claybaring will remove as much as that crud as possible before you start tackling the paint with some Swirl and Haze Remover.

 

3) Swirl and Haze remover + Orange Pad. Some may think this may be unnescessary on new paint, but I beg to differ. Getting rid of all the crud, and getting all of the swirls that you most certainly have on that paint is paramount to getting a flawless detail to base the rest of your work on. Hit everything, the glass, paint, and headlights/brakelights.

 

4) Revive polish, or Fine Machine polish + White pad. Get the paint even slicker and perfect! Once you go over the car with these, your paint will have depth, shine, and a flawless look that will blow most competitors WAXES out of the water, and you haven't even hit it with Buttery Wax or Super Machine Wax!

 

5) Super Machine Wax + Black Pad. I would use the Super Machine Wax over the Buttery Wax on new paint for the first time simply because it is superior in terms of protection and gloss. Give your paint some hydration and resistance to crud!

 

6) Brilliant Spray Glaze everything except your black plastics. At this point, your paint is good to go.

 

7) VRT your tires, plastic moldings, interior (clean the interior with the Leather Cleaner first...see #8 below), ect. All that time in the sun in those lots and such will dry the plastic out. Hydrate it, and get it looking like it should!

 

8) Leather Cleaner/Conditioner. Get your leather squeaky clean before getting it supple and smelling great with the leather conditioner. Again, all that time in the sun and lack of attention dries out the leather. The Leather Cleaner actually also works awesome on other interior parts like plastics and vinyls. Just be sure to spot test it first to make sure it isn't rubbing off the color of the material. If it does, dilute it by 50% with water, then try again. I doubt that you will have that problem though, I have only seen it on cheaper cars.

 

9) Metal Polish if you choose! Get those exhaust tips looking beautiful and shiny!

 

 

I didn't include the engine bay in this, but really in all honestly just watch all of the videos Adam has done, and you won't go wrong. I just mainly spoke about the paint and leather because those are the two things that get abused the most in the sun during storage and such. I'm sure others here will give you great tips and advice as well, so don't take everything I say as the only way to do it. Find what works best for you, and keep that beast looking beautiful.

[NTHEWIND]

Great write up!

One thing you need to point out when someone asks about 'retaining the new car shine'

Using Adams products will 'outshine' the new car shine'

 

 

Later,

[bigred vette]

well charles just about covered it all, nice write up!

 

one thing i could add is to keep the dust off of it and keep it looking good hit it with some detail spray and a MF towel.

[Sizzle Chest]

I have recently received my long awaited pride and joy, a new Corvette. My new toy hasn't even saw the road yet, I had it hauled from the dealership to my garage and am now patiently waiting for winter to end. After reading the the forums here and discovering what a wealth of knowledge the members here have I had no doubt about what deatailing product I will be using. My question is what should I do to my car to improve, protect, and retain that new car shine?

 

 

Welcome to the site! What 'vette did you get? Post up some pics or else we will ban you from this site!!!! (just kidding!) We want to see some pics!

[xcracer48]

well charles just about covered it all, nice write up!

 

one thing i could add is to keep the dust off of it and keep it looking good hit it with some detail spray and a MF towel.

 

And also after all soap is rinsed off spray detail spray all over and dry the car off with waffle weave towel. Makes it somuch easier to dry and prevents water spots.

[Guest lonnybaumgardner]

Thank you for all the tips guys, with all of your help tackling detailing will be much easier than I was anticipating. I am still blown away by the knowlage of this forum and how willing everyone is to help out, thank you!

[FATBOY]

Welcome to the forum and enjoy that new CORVETTE. I STARTED MY NEW VETTE with ADAM'S from day one and it looks as good today as it did in 07. You can't do better than ADAM'S and you can't get better advise than this form.

:2thumbs:

[CRQuarto]

Thank you for all the tips guys, with all of your help tackling detailing will be much easier than I was anticipating. I am still blown away by the knowlage of this forum and how willing everyone is to help out, thank you!

 

 

Our pleasure! Just remember, we fully expect pictures of the finished product, so you better get a camera handy!

[Loud Pedal]

Lonny

 

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the purchase of your Vette

 

And it looks like Charles took care of ya, nice write up