Best wax / polish for cars ?

force_ten

I use a clay mit on my car twice a year to strip all old polish and treatments off then polish with super resin polish followed by extra gloss protection takes about half a day to complete

then every time i wash the car i use a quick detail spray after the car is dried it adds shine and keeps the paint slick and it is much easier to wash the next time by doing this and keeps the car looking nice and mine is a silver car as well

Iceweasel

Another vote for Autoglym.

There are better products - but they cost heaps more (the sky is the limit with these kind of products) and they are usually more difficult to apply.

For great results with the minimum of hard work I think AG is great.

I've never used the clay - instead I go over the car with AG Tar remover where I can see the black spots - usually only the lower panels and the rear bumper.

AG Super Resin Polish followed by AG Extra Gloss Protection.

I use AG Shampoo & Conditioner followed by a quick once over with AG Rapid Detailer.

How long itlasts depends on how careful you are in applying the EGP - done right it still beads water very well for up to 6 months

I do it every Spring and Autumn when I change over from Summer to Winter wheels.

But beware - these car cleaning antics can become addictive - and expensive.

Car_54

EssexExile wrote: »

I wash my car every spring, whether it needs it or not. That is all.

I put mine through an auto wash when it needs it. Life is too short to be polishing cars.

As for "protecting my investment", I've never found it makes a difference at trade-in time.

Iceweasel

Car_54 wrote: »

I put mine through an auto wash when it needs it. Life is too short to be polishing cars.

:rotfl:

Life is too short for lots of things - but we still do them.

I find it therapeutic to polish mine.

almillar

I've never found it makes a difference at trade-in time.

How would you know unless you're trading in a dirty car and a clean car?
Try selling your car privately and you'll see the difference.

Ebe_Scrooge

Car_54 wrote: »

I put mine through an auto wash when it needs it. Life is too short to be polishing cars.

As for "protecting my investment", I've never found it makes a difference at trade-in time.

Thanks for your input. Just to put forward my point of view - I never use car wash machines, I distrust them horribly. Probably irrational, but I just always have a nagging doubt that they'll cause damage. Don't get me wrong, I know thousands of people use them every day, and it's only once in a blue moon you'll hear a horror story about how they ripped the trim off or whatever. But still, to me, a quick once-over with a bucket and sponge is safer, and costs pennies :-) Like I said earlier, I'm not one of these perfectionists

"Protecting my investment" - yeah, I've spent a lot of cash on this. Well, it's probably peanuts compared to what some people spend on cars, but it's a lot to me. I'm not interested in "trade-in" values, I tend to keep a car for 10, 12, 15 years, until it basically dies. They gave me £200 P-EX for my old car against this one - I reckon if I'd spent about £800 getting all the faults sorted, I could have sold it privately for about £500, so it's a no-brainer. I'm really more interested in protecting it so that it will last another 10 years at a minimum. Most mechanical stuff I can deal with myself, but once rust sets in and the bodywork starts to rot, that's a different matter. Stitch in time and all that.

Sorry for the waffle, just thought I'd try and clarify where I'm coming from

EssexExile

The nice bunch of chaps down the road who's only English is "Hello, how are you today?"wash the car by hand for less than those machines charge. We keep our cars for about 10 years & by then the quality of the shine is irrelevant. Having said that they still look fine without any fancy polishing. I didn't know cars still rust, my 16 year old Astra has no sign of the dreaded rot & that really does only get washed once a year.

photome

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

Thanks for your input. Just to put forward my point of view - I never use car wash machines, I distrust them horribly. Probably irrational, but I just always have a nagging doubt that they'll cause damage. Don't get me wrong, I know thousands of people use them every day, and it's only once in a blue moon you'll hear a horror story about how they ripped the trim off or whatever. But still, to me, a quick once-over with a bucket and sponge is safer, and costs pennies :-) Like I said earlier, I'm not one of these perfectionists

"Protecting my investment" - yeah, I've spent a lot of cash on this. Well, it's probably peanuts compared to what some people spend on cars, but it's a lot to me. I'm not interested in "trade-in" values, I tend to keep a car for 10, 12, 15 years, until it basically dies. They gave me £200 P-EX for my old car against this one - I reckon if I'd spent about £800 getting all the faults sorted, I could have sold it privately for about £500, so it's a no-brainer. I'm really more interested in protecting it so that it will last another 10 years at a minimum. Most mechanical stuff I can deal with myself, but once rust sets in and the bodywork starts to rot, that's a different matter. Stitch in time and all that.

Sorry for the waffle, just thought I'd try and clarify where I'm coming from

No need for the clarification...the only way to avoid paint damage is to wash the car yourself, properly, by hand.

Mechanical car wash will cause swirls in paint if nothing else, and who knows what the side of the road gangs have got in their water,

I mentioned earler having a read of a detailing site, this one is a good place to start

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/index.php

dont get too carried away though

tykesi

photome wrote: »

url]http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/index.php[/url]

dont get too carried away though

It's bloody dangerous that site. I was looking yesterday and nearly bought £30 worth of products for the leather seats because of the good reviews on DW. I've only got two seats! It's a great site for reviews of products, I saw some wheel cleaner cheap at the weekend and didn't know whether it would be up to the job, quick check on DW and found out it's pretty good for the price so I picked some up.

Some of them go way too far in my opinion but each to their own, it's as much a hobby for some of them as the car itself. Personally I'd like the car to look half decent and drive it more.

neilmcl

Some people like to go about nicely turned out others couldn't care less about their appearance. Just saying