Thread: Wax & Paint Care Advice

Originally Posted by Tombie

Mines been washed about 20 times in 8 years.

Detailed every 2 years.

Parked outside, 300 Mtrs from the Sea.

Like new

Washed every 4.8 months. Good to see your doing your bit to save water!

I suggest Bowdens, Meguiars, or Mothers products. Personally I use Meguiars. Use a two bucket wash (rinse the micro cloth in the second bucket). To see if you need to clay bar (or do other surface prep work using Ultimate Compound etc) get a thin plastic bag (eg a thin fruit bag, similar in thickness to the old grey shopping bag), put your hand in it and see if it glides over the paint or sticks. If it sticks then clay bar to get rid of the contaminants. Gives you a better feel than your hand alone. And if you drop the clay bar, then theow it away.
I use Meguiars Ultimate wax (actually a sealant), rather than a carnauba wax. I also have started to use the hybrid ceramic wax.

Originally Posted by John_D4

Thank you very much for your advice Mark, I’ll do that. All though I do have quite a lot of CT20 wash and wax to use up. I’m not convinced that the wax component actually does anything though.

The CT20 you mention make an awesome truck wash. (Without the 'wax') The wax component is just smoke and mirrors. It will just degrade the rubbers and plastics.

Originally Posted by 16PMark

The CT20 you mention make an awesome truck wash. (Without the 'wax') The wax component is just smoke and mirrors. It will just degrade the rubbers and plastics.

I’ll just have to wash more so I can use it up faster, after all I’ve got Tombie’s water allocation to use up!

I give ours a good wash after we've been up the coast on a trip, underneath and on top. Heaps of water everywhere, leathered off then a good wax (Mothers) about 3 times a year. Although we're quite close to the ocean and it is shielded from the spray which drifts far inland, I don't reckon relying on rain will keep it looking good or stop rust.
When I had another vehicle make I read on their forum of a bloke spending 700 bucks on cleaning gear for his pride and joy. That's over the top by about 650 I reckon.
Happy polishing.
AlanH.

Thanks for the help everyone. Just thinking back to teenage years, I used to canubra wax my Toyota Tercel fortnightly. The paint, unlike the rest of the car, was in good condition when I sold it.

IMHO regular washing is important. I wash/wax our cars at least every two weeks. The brands previously mentioned are good. I would add 1Z wash/wax. I wouldn’t use truck wash.

A specialist wax product in addition to a wash is important for paint protection, especially as our cars live mostly outside and are in sea air. Bat and bird crap really bite into the surface. A wax provides good barrier protection and usually means crap will easily wash off, as will dead bugs.

I use a range of wax products, which one depends on how much time I have. The following is my order of preference and most to least time to apply.

- Bilt Hamber double speed wax. An excellent long lasting wax. If I had more time it would be my go to wax every time. Probably as good as the more traditional hard waxes but quicker to apply and leaves a nice finish.
- Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax. Also a very good product, quicker than above BH DSW.
- Auto Glym spray on wax. I buy this in bulk and is what I use most. It provides good protection for about 2-4 weeks. Then protection drops off.

I will clay bar our cars about every 6 months. It doesn’t take long if you wash as regularly as me. To health check your paint put a freezer plastic bag over your hand like a glove and run that hand over the paint after a wash when the car is dry. If you feel roughness it needs a clay bar to more thoroughly clean the paint. Do the same again after a clay bar. It will be a lot smoother. I don’t know why but the freezer bag really highlights the paint contamination.

Interesting to hear about the plastic bag trick. I’m sure that I don’t need to do that though. What stimulates this thread was after washing the D4 the other day I noticed the paint work was still rough. As I intend to keep this car for a while I wanted to get some advice on how I should start a better cleaning regime. The paint work on the D2 was no where near as nice as Alaska’s paintwork. Obviously there’s a 13 year difference between them, but I’d like to start now before it’s too late.