lavo

I was browsing the wash and wax forums and seen how to wash your car the best. However I was curious what is the best products for a full wash and wax and where should I buy them?

Hawhyen51

There really is no best when selecting a product. What may work for someone else may not necessarily work for you. Choosing/selecting a product really comes down to a personal choice. As far as a carwash soap, check out this thread. I think you'll be mildly surprised at some of the choices. The same goes for wax and sealants. Four Star, Megs, Duragloss, Zaino and Optimum are some of the product names used by the members. Megs and Durgloss are available OTC, however not the entire product line. The others are available online. I would suggest and highly recommend Exceldetail, an approved site vendor. He can make recommendations to meet your needs and he carries most of products mentioned here.

exceldetail

(Thanks Danny!)
Congrats on the new NBP! Lets start with what time of time you would like to commit to this, what part of the country you live in, and whats the exposure to the car during the course of a week............The better I can understand the above determines a what variety of products to choose from.....

Jesstzn

Car washing

This is important as improper washing and drying methods is the major cause of scratching and swirling in the cars clear coat.

1. Hose the car down really well first and rinse it of before you wash

2. Washing: Wash your car when it is cool and in the shade. Air drying is the main cause of water spots, and the heat from the sun and the paint surface only amplifies the effect. Invest in a sheepskin mitt and car wash soap. Others will say different but as long as its not an el’cheapo bargain brand most car wash soaps are ok. Wash a panel .. rinse a panel. Its better to wash gently with more strokes than to rub hard and cause marring in the clear coat layer.

3. Final Rinsing: For rinsing, remove whatever nozzle you usually use from your hose, and rinse the car with the open end of the hose, with a low water pressure. You don't need a jet of water pummeling your car now that it's clean. Just let the water "fall" onto the surface, and you'll see the difference! Definitely helps with the drying process as it will pull the water off.


4. Drying: The plush MF drying towel and the Waffle Weave are both popular for drying. I use just the Waffle Weave MF. Before you dry take the nozzle off the hose and with a gentle stream of water run it over the car, it will sheet 90% of the water off for you. I hold the first towel by the corners and pull it over the flat surfaces and it pulls most the water off then I use the MF towel to finish off the body. NEVER use the same Towel to dry the wheels/door edges as you will possibly fill them with crud and scratch the car in the next drying. Same reason to use a seperate wash mitt to wash the wheels. Get a cheapie mitt from WalMart for that.

Couple of tips you might find handy
a) I use the kitchen sponges that are yellow with the green scouring pad back to apply tire dressing. Spray the dressing on the foam side and apply to the tire .. no more overspray on your clean wheels or up on your paint. These are like $1 for 12 at your local dollar discount and at this price disposable when they get dirty.
b) Use Westleys Bleche Wite to clean your tires before applying your favorite dressing. Once you spray this on your tire you will crap when you see the brown crud run down. As with car waxing a well prepared black tire will look better when dressed up. If you have non-cleared alloy wheels protect them from the spray. This step is done immediately prior to the car washing step.
c) To apply your black trim dressing like Back To Black etc try using a foam paint applicator ( Foam wedge shaped brush on a plastic or wooden handle) to put the dressing on. This allows you to get in those hard to reach places and also great for doing straight edges on the rubber around the windows. Just make sure you wipe off the excess so the coat is uniform.

Waxing

The key to a good wax job is the foundation, just like putting on an evening dress.. if the foundation under it is in poor shape the dress will look ok but not perfect. The following will give that good foundation.

a) Wash the car with Dawn dish soap or another paint cleaner to get rid of old wax and any other crud and rinse often and well.
b) Unless the car is brand new use the clay bar on it to remove imbedded contaminants.
c) Use a good polish on it to smooth the paint. What I mean by good is a polish that actually smoothes the paint and isn’t full of fillers that just fill the swirls and scratches and them are evaporated off in a few days and you see the issues through your new wax job. Don’t use a glaze without polishing first . The term glaze is grossly misused in detailing. The term glaze refers to creating a high gloss finish. So, to glaze paint means that you're bringing up the best gloss possible. You glaze paint with a very fine "glaze" paint polish. Glazes are paint treatments used to fill small surface scratches and swirl marks. Most glazes are made from a blend of carnuba waxes or silicones and fine polish. Polymer glazes are also available. If using a wax-based glaze, the glaze's filling ability generally only lasts a matter of days before swirl marks and light scratches reappear. If you’ve ever had your baby professionally detailed only to have swirl marks reappear a week later, now you know why. The glaze will smooth the very fine edges left by the polish. Basically, it is a super-fine abrasive or filler that rounds edges and fills voids leaving an unblemished surface. . A glaze is the step that can be used after a polish, but before a wax.

Once the prep is done your ready, don’t be intimidated by all the words wash/clay and polish are an easy Saturday morning thing and then lunch and apply the wax.


There is a bagillion waxes out there covering all ranges of the $$ spectrum. I would suggest for most cars a polymer based wax will give a good shine and decent life. For darker color cars the carnubas are the way to go if you want depth .. but they will have a short life, the ploymers have a tendency to amplify any issues in your paint but the plus side is they will last a lot longer and can be topped with a carnuba for depth.

You can spent hundreds of dollars on wash and wax products and then find the guy next to you has $40 worth and his car looks 300% better than yours. It’s all in the know how.

lavo

appreciate the responses guys.
-Time to commit: I usually spend 1 hour once a month (on my stratus) Now more like every week in summer and every other in winter or more if it's nice
-I'm in buffalo NY, so the winters are rough and the salt kills the paint (Drive through car washes are good at a quick fix but I hear it's bad on the paint
-Exposure: summer- rain once a week, parked outside, mostly gets dirty from rain
Winter- Snow, Salt everyday

I typically drive 3-4 days a week.

RockOut

bump.

Excel: I think this was directed at you.

exceldetail

Holy cow, three weeks ago??? Where did this thread fall to?
Anyway, looks like your in about the worst of worst scenarios. And yes, salt is not real paint friendly, but theres not a whole lot you can do to avoid it, so we will keep it simple.
For washing, a bucket or two (3-5 gal) and a couple sheepskin washmits or grout style sponges (flip through the pages), a nice wash soap, (and you could go over the counter here), or stick with something that may be a little more sudsier from the shop.
Drying procedures are important, toss the t-shirts and shop rags and dry with a nice waffle weave style drying towel. They absorb extremely well, and used properly wont scratch or mar the paints surface.
As for waxing, you should clean the paint first i.e. PoorBoys Pro Polish, Four Star Pre Wax Paint Cleaner, 1Z Metallic Polish, this allows better adhesion with the synthetic wax (or Nuba if you dare in your climate). Some forum favorites would include:
Four Star Ultimate Paint Protectant and/or UPP Spray
Duragloss #'s 111, 105.
Collinite 476 or 845
Optimums Optiseal
1Z GlanzWax

Of course you need something adequate to apply and remove these products. Shop for some quality microfiber towels or look no further.......
And remember you are eligable for a 10% discount on non discounted items.....some products are ineligable though due to already lower (then most) priceing. Use "acurazine" at the promo if you should decide to make a purchase through us.

lusid

I read this on Autopia - Owning a black car is like a Full time job.

LOL

Have fun and what pat (exceldetail), and like the others have mentioned is prettty spot on