TRM

better car to try it on is my wife's however. hers sits outside year round. the STi is in the garage most of the time. i had not waxed it since August and it really didn't need it this time but i wanted to get all of the R compound rubber marks off from last years track events.

i did try Zaino years ago with the Z...hated it actually.

it's a good time to start. i just washed and waxed her car last weekend with Kit. should i track how many months it goes before water stops beeding on the hood and roof?

does frequency of washes affect life of the wax?

RKA

so I can recommend P21S. You can pick up the paint cleanser and the wax (~$25 for both) at your local harley davidson dealer. It's sold under the S100 label (for motorcycles) but by all accounts The S100 stuff is the same, just cheaper than their car products. I'm not sure what you didn't like about the Zaino (a lot of people don't like the method of application, drying time, etc.), but I can virtually guarantee you that you'll like working with the P21S stuff.

Also, if you're in a spending mood, get their Total Cycle Wash. It's a citrus based cleaner that works well on a lot of stuff (inside and out). Might be useful for those rubber bits from the track (not really sure). In most cases, I dilute the stuff down in another spray bottle. 1:3 dilution for heavy grime, and ~1:7 for general purpose.

The P21S doesn't last very long, so for an outdoors car, or a daily driver, I wouldn't recommend it, unless you like to wax the car regularly. Since your car is mostly a garage queen, I doubt this will be an issue with you. Once you get 2 coats of wax on the car, I suspect you could go 3 or 4 months between waxing. Not sure if that is acceptable though. Also, to answer your question, yes, washing the car does wear down the wax layer slightly. I think exposure to heat/sun/washing are probably the three things that wear down the wax most significantly.

If you prefer something that can go 1 year between waxings (again, on a garage queen), I would stick with a synthetic like Zaino, Klasse, etc. Zaino won't give you quite the shine that P21S will. When I had my silver A4, I could actually see the difference when parked under a street lamp at night. When I switched to Zaino, the car seemed to have a little extra *pop* to it, that it never had after 2 years of Zaino. Silver is a tough color, but somehow P21S seemed to make it dazzle just a bit.

Also, if you haven't already, pick up a handful of good microfiber towels. You'll be surprised! 5 or so should be more than enough to handle and afternoon with the paint cleanser and the wax. I use the best ones available from www.microfibertech.com, but there are other cheaper sources (don't know them off the top of my head). The one's available from PepBoys, Walmart, etc., seem cheap/thin to me, so I don't bother with them.

TRM

if it's going to last only as long as the Kit Wax why spend the bucks? she doesn't care what it looks like.

i might try the PS21 next time i wax the STi...probably won't be until early summer now though.

i still have a good set of those cloths you gave me a few x-masses ago.

RKA

Yeah, I still like those clothes...those are the microfibertech.com one's.

Yeah, for the wife's car, if I switched to anything, it would be a synthetic. Wax it once or twice a year and forget about it. If the Kit wax is working for you...just keep using it on her car.

Hey...any interest in doing VIR in last Apr? ACNA has a mon-tues event the last week of Apr. A few of us are thinking about doing it.