mb12345

Hello,

This was my very first attempt at claying/waxing my '97 ES300 which I had recently purchased. I have never done waxing a car before so I am a complete newbie at this. I live in a high rise building in a downtown area, so the parking lot of an automatic car wash was the only place available to me to do the work.

After the car wash, I used Clay Magic to clean the surface. Then applied 2 coatings on Meguiar's Cleaner wax, with a one hour break in between (I did the interior in that time). I know a lot of you would prefer the more professional method of using a paint cleaner, polish and pure wax, but given the fact that I had to do this in a car wash's parking lot, I couldn't have done that. Morever, since this was my first attempt, I didn't want to mess it up.

So after I finished the complete process, which took me 5 hours at a stretch, I returned home and it started raining heavily. Rain was not predicted in the forecast, else I wouldn't have done this today. Since it is raining barely less than one hour after applying the wax , will it completely ruin everything that I did? Does the wax take any time to "settle in" ? I would hate to see my effort go completely waste. What should I do after it stops raining? Would I have to redo the whole process again.?

Please advice. I had not factored the rain in my calculations

Thanks in advance.

JellyBean

So you're saying that it rained before you buffed off the wax. If that's the case, then you're OK. Just wash the car with a nice car soap or "shampoo" (theyr'e both the same thing), dry it, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. (DON'T use dishwashing detergent, or you'll strip the wax off!) There's no need to reapply the wax again. Good luck.

JB

mb12345

Hi JB,

No, it rained after I had finished the entire process, buffed off the wax, driven the car home and parked it in the parking lot.

Sorry for the dumb question, but I don't know whether there is any time needed for the wax to settle in after it is applied. Would the rain within an hour of finishing the process cause any damage?

Thanks,
MB

JellyBean

You're still fine. The wax wasn't weakened one bit by the rain. Now when you wash the car you'll see how easily the dirt comes off. That means that the wax did it's job of protecting the paint. And by the way, you just found out that the best way to make it rain is to wash and wax your car.

JB