Questions on new sedan's interior maintenance ~
 

Hello all, So far I'm running well with new G37 ~ :coolio:

Now just a few little questions on do I really need to condition the leather for brand new car? also the 303 protectant? I know these will be useful against paint aging but do i give it couple thousand miles then apply to my car?

also the parking lot at my work filled with birds and trees, so i tend to park somewhere further , will the sun damaging the paint in the long run? is it necessary to park in a shady area?

Bird drops for sure will damage your paint. Don't let that happen.

so I'm taking 15 mins break, and I just use some bathroom hand papers to wash off those bird drops haha

I am a hardcore G37 owner..

taking care of my G37 is like taking care of a business, a woman, to me

You might end up scratching your paint doing it like that. I made that same mistake when I first got my G. Now I have a spray bottle filled with water and all I have to do is wet the bird poop and spray it off. The bird drops are very acidic, do not touch it or you will end up scratching you car.

Thanks for the advice!

Yes you should use a leather cleaner and conditioner. I have had my new G 2.5 months and done the seats 2 times. I had my 07 G four years and the seats where like new.
I recommend you keep (in your trunk) a bottle of quick detail spray or diluted ONR in a spray bottle with some clean, soft MF towels. Using gas station paper towel, even wet, will not be very good for wiping off bird poop. Water is better than nothing but not nearly as good as using a QD spray.
The 303 is good for rubber and vinyls. I used to use it but now opt for the, much lighter, Meguiar's interior detailing product. Obviously there are many others. Don't put either on the leather.
The key is to use the right product for the different surface materials. No short-cuts.

thanks for informative reply~ well for 303, when do you think a good time to apply? i heard new cars if you apply too early it will increasing the aging of plastic? true?

Wax your car as soon as possible as it is much easier to get that bird poop off and will better protect the car from poop acid. Keep parking in the sun because the tree sap from parking under a tree will do alot more damage than the sun will. Tinted windows make parking in the hot sun alot more tolerable as well as protectiung your interior. Waxing 4 times a year will protect your paint and easily done if you have nice weather all year round. if you're unlucky like me with harsh winters then now is the time to put on a good sealant or wax to protect it from road salt which is a killer for the paint.

One piece of advice for those who have to go thru cold winters and actually this applies all year round as well. Never and I mean never use commercial car washes at the gas station. Soft cloth is bad for obvious reasons but even the touchless car washes are a bad idea. These places use very harsh soap detergents that is not good for your paint or your clearcoat and will strip any wax you have on the car. So a clean car from these places also means a unwaxed and unprotected car which is not good for the winter.

If you don't have a driveway to wash it then use those coin op places and use the 2 bucket method (if they let you) so your mitt doesn't touch dirty water. For the winter I wouldn't even wash it at all because it's hard to clean the ground in salt without scratching the paint unless you can hose off the mitt after every panel. The 2 bucket method just won't do it. Use the coin up power washer to vigoriously rinse the salt off the worst spots and the rims and rinse underneath the car and pray that there's a warm spell where you can pull out the hose at home and do it properly.

If you waxed or sealed it properly then the salt won't hurt the paint. It will never look really clean in the winter but in winter it doesn't matter how clean you wash a car it will get dirty in 10 minutes with splashes of road salt from other cars. Better that than a bunch of swirl marks and tiny scratches on your car that will take hours to polish out in the spring.

Thanks~ Yeah, I live in California so it's all year sunshine which I was a bit worried that its bit over abundant.. but I've a moonwhite exterior which essentially decreased the chance overheating my leather seats..

my top concern whcih I've tried to figure out for over a month now , is where in the world can i park my car without dealing with bird poop hassle? .. i wish winter coming here very soon so the birds will fly south haha.. anyways, thanks guys for kindly advice!

I liive in Toronto and I still get bird poop in January. I have no idea where these are coming from. Must be from birds too stupid to fly down south. I've had cars of all colours and I've noticed the lighter the car the more bird crap you get. My last car was silver and I was getting crapped on almost daily but with my black G37 I've only been crapped on once in 3 weeks (but it was the dried stuff that's a bitch to get out). Someone told me once that's it's because the lighter cars blend in more with the ground while dark cars are too much of a contrast and deters birds from crapping on them. Don't know how factual that is but it seems to be working with my black car so far.

John is a post whore

Don't park under anything a bird can stand on. Birds will still stand on your car and poop on it, but you can't really avoid that. Just keep it waxed (monthly) and wash it quickly in the evenings to keep the bird poops off. A good wax will go a long way for you.