I have 2 FD's, one is my street and track car and the other is a perfect condition vintage red 94 touring fd with only 28k miles. Well I have decided to store the 94 fd at my vacation house or public storage because i have kids and they go through the garage every day and im afraid of them scratching it or denting it. I will be storing it in the garage with a car cover on it. My question is should i just wash the car with soap and water and store it, or should i do a full detail before i store it? The paint is in perfect condition. If i do detail it before storing it i will first wash the car, zaino clay bar, 2 coats of z5, 3 coats of z2 and then finish of with z6. If you could please tell me witch would be better in the long run and also im trying to avoid swirl marks.

Thanks

 

As an added measure of protection against dust and contaminants, I would detail and wax the car before putting the cover on. Swirl marks are inevitable, but to minimize getting them, polish and wax by hand (no machines or buffers) using 100% cotton cloths.

 

I would probably do multiple coats of carnuba wax. Zaino is nice, but it's just a protectant polish. It's not a very thick layer. With the multiple coats of wax, if there were to be any kind of movement of the cover, it'll scratch the wax first, then the paint (hopefully).

 

yeah, i would detail if fully before storing it.

 

I heard that carnauba wax will eventually evaporate, but synthetic polish like zaino and klasse protects the car a very long time, also you can apply multiple layers.

 

Plain old Turtle wax (or similar product) is good. People selling wax for $20-30 are just stealing your $$ and telling you it is much better.

Wash it and wax it. Your done. If the car is stored inside and hardly driven it doesn't really need to be waxed more than every few years. If your worried about rust it won't rust where you wax it anyway...

 

If the car is covered and in a garage, then it's pretty safe and the cover won't move around too much to scratch anything. So, waxing would be optional

If the car is covered but out in the open, I would definitely wax and detail it.

Regular wax residual might dirty your cover and doesn't last very long. I would put multiple coats of Zaino.

 

If your concerned about your cover scratching your paint you need to buy a cover that won't.

I just Zaino and cover.

 

waxing will help prevent oxidation and help with the scratches from the cover if i remember correctly. I would always do a full detail. The expensive waxes dont provide more protection, they just outshine the turtle wax and X brands, and give ur color very nice depth.

 

ok thanks guys, im going to clean and detail the whole car before storing.

 

I wouldn't clay bar the car unless you really need to. Feel the paint, if it feels like glass, leave it alone. If it feels even remotely rough, clay bar the sucker.

When you say its going into "storage" aren't you supposed to drain oil, disconnect battery, blah blah blah...

 

you should ALWAYS clay before wax. No matter how smooth the paint feels, it needs to be de-oxidized. This garuntees the wax adhering to the paint.

 

Like others have said, I'd say layer some wax on it and rinse off whatever can cause oxidation over time (ash from the fires!). And wash the cover. But I wouldn't worry about getting a perfect mirror finish or anything just yet.

It's going to collect crap over time and you'll just want to "clean" the wax later with slightly abrasive wax cleaner. If you want it to look pretty during storage, that's a different story.

 

Hey, you know about Klasse too! I love that stuff, applying is easier than washing the car. It's definitely not snake oil!

I've noticed Klasse goes on pretty thin. I'm not even sure the sealer does much more than the all-in-one. I like it because it's easy enough to wax every month (or more) to keep it in shape. But for long storage I'd put klasse on it and carnuba on top of that, like the Meguiars yellow carnuba. Unless you've been using Klasse for a long time and are sure you built up a good layer.