Maintaining your paint with washing and waxing
Nothing adds as much value to a car as a nice paint job: NOT a new engine, new interior, or even fancy wheels. If you maintain the finish and keep it shiny and beautiful, you maintain the value of your car for years and years.
Both Commercial Car Washes and Laundry Detergent Are Destructive on Paint Jobs
I rarely use commercial car washes because I’ve seen first-hand how plastic bristles pound on the finish, and harsh detergents further the damage to a cars finish. Spray-on car wax in the rinse cycle is also almost useless as it only washes off later.
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Park your car on the lawn and spray the car & wheels with fresh water to soften the dirt.
Prepare a warm soapy solution of dish soap - DAWN or JOY are best.
With soft wash mitt, begin on the roof, doing both sides, and the all the windows.
RINSE off with fresh water, flushing out around window trim and moldings.
Now wash the hood, fenders and front bumper and grille.
RINSE with fresh water and rewet the front & rear wheels and tires
Now wash the trunk, quarter panels, rear bumper.
RINSE with fresh water.
Now wash the door(s) and RINSE with fresh water.
Now you can use your remaining soapy solution on wheels and tires, using a tire brush
RINSE
Hand dry with chamois or soft towel
IMPORTANT; Lightly run your wash mitt under the wiper blades by lifting them up and locking them in the upright position. (The upright position you place them to protect them from ice and snow)
Using your hose sprayer, spray into the wheel wells to remove debris and muck
Wash wheels and tires at the end so you don’t transfer gritty dirt to the nice finish.
With a clean, damp towel, open your doors and wipe out the jams on both door and jam sides
Maintaining your paint with washing and waxing
Wax, Polish and Rubbing Compound
WAX: Car wax works by filling up the pores of your paint and when dry, the whitish residue removed—leaves you with a shiny, beautiful finish. The proof is that now water beads up on the finish. This is a good test throughout the year, look to be sure water beads up on your paint finish and when it doesn’t, get out the towels and give your car a good coat of wax.
Polish is a “cleaner” and does not protect like wax does and the reason you must apply wax after polishing your car. Most polish-cleaners can be applied by hand or by a ‘buffer’.
Rubbing compound is a form of polish but more aggressive than most polishes we buy. Rubbing compound is used to remove scuffs, light scratches and oxidized-faded paint.
Because most cars are now ‘clear-coated’, be certain the compound you buy states on the label they are safe for clear coats. Or something to that effect, implying that the compound won’t damage your paint finish.
Rubbing compound is fabulous: you can remove fingernail marks, light scratches and even shine wheels and chrome, and aluminum too and even polish glass with it.
QUALITY WAX: with the explosion of waxes on the market–Polymers, Teflon and assorted products all claiming to produce a “high tech finish”, good old carnauba wax still remains one of the best, lasting waxes you can use. But carnauba wax is hard to remove, so variations have come out to make the job easier.
I have used many of them and my faves are: RainDance, Blue Coral’s Blue Poly One Step, or any wax that contain carnauba–the mother of all great waxes. Also, I’ve found, without fail, ‘Meguiar’s’ products are outstanding products and worth the somewhat higher prices.
OVER-SPRAY AND ROUGH PAINT SURFACES: If you discover the finish has over-spray or roughness after you wash it, you may need to clay-block the finish, and if so, a tip from my students was Meguiar’s “Final Inspection” the solution and a soft clay block. AMAZING how well this removes over-spray and debris that accumulates on the paint surface, leaving the now smooth finish slick as glass.
