I picked up my new TL-S about a month ago (LOVE THIS CAR!) but have only washed it with a mild car washing detergent because I have been waiting for my wax and clay bar to arrive. (Should be getting here by this weekend.) What I did notice was that after a week of dust, I can see all my shipping tape lines! The lines where the shipping tape ended are visible and a little sticky to the touch. They are all over the car... now ... my question is this:

Will a blue Dawn wash get rid of these? Or should I clay bar them out? will that remove them? Or should I just contact the dealer and tell them they did a crappy detailing job on delivery?

Any ideas would be appreciated. I want to wax this weekend, but definitely can't unless I can get all those out. I did try washing with my car wash soap and my mit and tried to get them out, but no luck at all... one of them actually smeared a little and just wouldn't come out with that kind of soap and super soft wash mitt.

Thanks!
-RafConTLS

 

Wash it with liquid dish detergent, that should do the trick.

 

Use the clay bar. You're gonna want to do it on the whole car anyway to get rid of contaminents before you wax/polish.

 

I was going to use the liquid dish detergent, but didn't want to until i have the wax to cover up the 'exposed' vehicle. If that works, great!

As for the clay bar, I have never used one, read about it here, and ordered it, but wasn't sure just what it will remove. The detailing website said it was for rail dust, and things like that, but it never mentioned sticky stuff, like tape lines, tree sap, or bugs.

So OK to clay bar the lines away? Everyone here now knows what my Saturday will look like.

Thanks!
-RafConTLS

 

I've been doing a lot of reseach lately on detailing the exterior. You should be able to remove sticky stuff with the claybar. Even bug residue may be removed with a claybar. However, after you go through with the clay bar treatment, in the future you are going to want some other products to spot remove without having to rewash the whole car. Afterall I think the most someone would clay their car is once every season. Something like Meguire's Final Inspection is highly respected over at www.autotopia.com -- possibly the best auto detailing forum I've come across. It's a cleaner only and works wonders apparently. I equate that product's respect over at autotopia.com with the level of praise Zaino receives on this board. I think maybe Zaino's Z6 is comparable to Meguire's Final Inspection.

Wonder if there is any harm in using the FI with zaino Z1 and Z2?

 

I checked out that www.autotopia.com site and it was a bunch of pop-ups and a search page. Whatever it was, it isn't anymore. Any other online detailing sites to recommend?

Thanks!
-RafConTLS

 

try this

http://www.autopia-carcare.com

 

Oh man! I'm so sorry. I was in a rush to get out the word on autotopia that I just added the dot com suffix.

Here's the real link: http://www.autopia.ws/forums/index.php?s=

And give it another shot. I have found a wealth of detailing knowledge there. This site should really have a link to that site somewhere -- maybe in the FAQ.

 

Thanks! Looks like that one worked. I will be spending some time reading there...

Thanks again!

-RafConTLS