Your Daily Driver: A Simple Wash & Wax Regimen

[akimel]

So you wax your vehicle every three months? Well, that puts you way ahead of most people. Keep up the good work.

As to the question, "How often should I wax my car?" I like this rule of thumb: apply a fresh coat of wax whenever a characteristic that you value--gloss, slickness, beading, wetness--degrades to an unacceptable level. Besides, it can never hurt to apply a fresh coat of wax, and the car always looks better.

[ffboy]

Waxing is good, it seems we can never wax to often. It's always nice to have a car that's just a bit shinier than the next car and it is a good way to relax and clear one's mind.

A good car wash followed by a spray wax that can be used as a wax as you dry in my experience is a good practice for maintaining that newly waxed feel though it doesn't really last as long, which is expected. Nothing beats application of wax in shine and slickness.

[Cavalier_Man]

humblepie....Ive been told by alot of detailers at autogeek, mothers, and meguiars that you want to wash the car in sections and rinse. While washing the car, its also recommended to keep the car wet, even if ur washing ur car at night time. Mainly bec this prevents the water from starting to dry while u wash, and gives much less water spots on the finish. Heres what i do, and this should help you and anyone else on here who wants to know how to do this a good way:

I use the 2 bucket method.
1. fill one bucket with 2 ounces of ur choice of carwash solution for every gal of water.I personally love using meguiars ultimate wash and wax, or mothers wash and wax carwash soap. (i add this much to get more suds. U can get by with 1 ounce for every gal of water). One bucket with plain water.(to rinse the wash mitt out frequently). Add a wash mitt of ur choice as well. I recommend meguiars wash mitt, genuine sheepskin or genuine lambswool wash mitt for handwashing.
2. Spray down the whole car loosening any dirt, and debris before washing.
3. Take wash mitt with soap and start washing from top to bottom, side to side. (washing roof, front window, back window, and all side windows) Rinse completely. Id go ahead and rinse your mitt out thoroughly. Trust me lol.
4. Depending how dirty ur car is, if its mild to severely dirty, id wash half the top part of the car on the sides(fender, doors, and qtr panels first. Id do both sides of the car this way and even do the hood).Rinse off both sides washing and rinsing one side at a time of course =]. Reason why you would want to do this is because since the bottom parts are prone to more dirty water and things like that is bec you dont want to wash a cleaner part of the panel with the other half being really dirty and transferring that much more dirt onto the next panel and risk swirling or scratching. Then once youve done that, go ahead and wash ur front bumper, rinse. Wash ur back bumper and trunk, rinse. Rinse your wash mitt out after 2-3 panels to minimize the risk of swirling and scratching. Now move onto the bottom portions of ur fenders, doors, and qtr panels, washing and rinsing them one at a time. Remember to keep car wet throughout the washing process. Id spray the whole car down atleast every 1/3 of the way through. This helped me out i found out.
5. Once whole car is completely washed and rinsed off, take ur nozzle off ur hose, and let the water free flow run over the car starting from top to bottom side to side.
6. Dry car off with meguiars water magnet drying towels or do what i like to do, which is soon as i do my final rinse using the free flowing method, i will get in my car and rush to the carwash and do a spot-free rinse there so i can just let the car dry on its own. Then the only thing i dry is the inside of the door jambs, around the hinges, (everything that gets wet inside the door) trunk, and dry the inside of the hood. If you have wax protection, i wouldnt do this, id just dry the whole car with the water magnet drying towel the best you can. Carwashed=].

This is pretty much the same methods meguiars, mothers, and alot of other detailers use. I just altered it my way after doing a little experimenting. ANy qs please ask. Thank you