What's your bodywork maintenance routine?

Iceweasel

motorguy wrote: »

Both cars washed, dried and tyres slicked every week.

Hoovered out usually every other week.

Polished every 2-3 months. Usually a two or three stage polish.

Any stone chips touched up as soon as i spot them.

Same here - but we seem to be very much in the minority on this subject.

droopsnoot

The trouble with never cleaning your car is that you can't know what's starting to bubble up underneath all the much. Stonechips and the like can be addressed before they start to cause trouble if you spot them early enough, and one of the best ways to do an inspection of your cars bodywork is a decent hand wash. It's frustrating if you have to drive along dirty and muddy roads every day that will undo your hard work, but that kind of road is more likely to be throwing up stuff that can cause damage.


That said, I don't clean my daily driver anywhere near as much as I should, and in particular the wheels now look quite shabby.

m0bov

Weekly wash, clayed, polished and then sealed once a year with Cquartz. That's it.

Geodark

Depends on which car - my Astra gets the following when its dirty... a snowing, followed by Autoglym shampoo and a jetwash to finish. Where as my freelander gets the following every month...

snowed
Jetwash to rinse
washed with autoglym shampoo
jetwashed
Hand dried
polished using autoglym super resin polish and a dual action polisher
buffed
Autoglym extra gloss protection
Autoglym rubber and trim care on all plastic and rubber

Yeah, I am a bit of an autoglym fan by the looks of it...

fred246

I remove any large lumps of moss before the MOT. Sort of makes it look a bit more looked after.

Jackmydad

It gets washed when it rains.

oldagetraveller

Washed about once a month in summer, more often in winter when it is covered in salt and mud.
The underside is pressure washed (underbody lance, less pressure) once there is no more salt on the roads.
Waxed twice a year with DoDo Juice.
Vacuum out the interior as necessary.
Lights and numberplates kept clean.