Cleaning a regular driver

[thigger]

I'm still relatively new to the world of Proper Cars with my Z4MR (sapphire black). I've seen a fair bit of advice about how to clean, care for and wax them properly but I get the impression a lot of this is for people who rarely take their cars out.

Mine's a regular driver and as such has been getting pretty filthy pretty quickly. I've been giving it a rinse and sponge down (usually water only, occasionally with one of the all-in-one "wash-n-wax" jobs) and have once waxed it properly with the liquid wax.

My question is, how often should I be waxing it? Does washing it remove any protection or am I alright to just wash as I have been and wax it every few months?

Thanks for any advice.

(Also: does anyone have experience of the Turtle Wax soft-top kit; it doesn't seem to make my roof water-repellent at all)

[E21_Ross]

thigger said:

I'm still relatively new to the world of Proper Cars with my Z4MR (sapphire black). I've seen a fair bit of advice about how to clean, care for and wax them properly but I get the impression a lot of this is for people who rarely take their cars out.

Mine's a regular driver and as such has been getting pretty filthy pretty quickly. I've been giving it a rinse and sponge down (usually water only, occasionally with one of the all-in-one "wash-n-wax" jobs) and have once waxed it properly with the liquid wax.

My question is, how often should I be waxing it? Does washing it remove any protection or am I alright to just wash as I have been and wax it every few months?

Thanks for any advice.

(Also: does anyone have experience of the Turtle Wax soft-top kit; it doesn't seem to make my roof water-repellent at all)

i usually wax my car every time i wash it, which is about once a month or so. though this may be overkill. and my E21 is my daily driver as well. you know when to wax it by how the water runs on the car....with wax on it, the water beads, when it needs wax, it doesn't. ideally...as long as it's raining etc, the water should bead. that way you know it's always waxed. just spray it with a garden hose and if it doesn't bead then wax it

i prefer the thicker wax, but the autoglym aquawax seems ok, though i find it doesn't last as long. i normally use meguirs carnauba wax. not the most expensive but it does a pretty good job.

hope this helps!

[Mattt]

I spend a good few hours once every couple of months cleaning it, claying it, cleansing it, polishing it, then waxing it. Gives a great finish, and makes cleaning for the next month or so really easy - water and dirt just falls off. It works out that it saves me time doing it that way, than a half arsed clean once a week.

I use Dodo Juice wax on mine, great stuff.

Check out detailing world for tips - beware it can get expensive. I spent about £300 within a couple of weeks reading there.

[thigger]

Mattt said:

Gives a great finish, and makes cleaning for the next month or so really easy - water and dirt just falls off.

How do you clean it in the meantime? Water only, or do you use one of the shampoos?

[Mattt]

I use Maxisuds II - from Motorgeek. I also use the two bucket method, and have 2 Chemical Guys buckets with a gritguard in each (well, 2 in 1 and 1 in the other).

I also have snow foam and a foam lance, and sometimes use that first.

Detailingworld has discount codes and more info

[LocoBlade]

I don't think it's a good idea to sponge it down with water only, I thought one of the reasons you use shampoo is to lubricate so when your sponge encounters dirt and grit, its less likely to scratch the paint.

I've only recently become vaguely interested in car washing myself, having previously owned an old Leon with peeling lacquer that gave me no incentive to wash it at all. I've no intention of it becoming a time consuming hobby as it is for some, but these are the basics Ive picked up so far:

Try and rinse off as much dirt as possible using the hosepipe or pressure washer beforehand. The "pros" use special shampoo put into a foam generating hose/pressure washer attachment (a "lance") to cover the car in shaving foam which is left then rinsed off to virtually wash the car without touching it. This seems a quick way of getting a reasonably clean car so I might look into this so I can avoid a proper wash when its not that dirty.

A sponge isn't recommended, its better to use a wash mitt as any dirt it picks up is held deep down in the fibres so less likely to scratch than a sponge that will hold dirt on its surface. You can get these from Halfords for under a tenner.

Use 2 buckets - 1 with bubbles, the other clean water. Rinse the sponge/wash mitt in the water first, then into the bubbles before washing, then rinse again before more bubbles, so most of the dirt goes into the plain water bucket.

As your car is black (like mine), you'll probably notice a lot of fine swirl marks/scratches in the lacquer when its sunny which are generally caused by poor washing procedure. You can remove some of them with lots of elbow grease using a suitable polish (Autoglym Super Resin Polish gets good reviews for scratch removal), although getting a proper detailer to do this with a machine polisher is the easier and more effective route if you want the perfect finsh.

[belleair302]

A decent wax such as Collinite or Dodo Juice...there are many more too, should give you around 8 weeks of protection. Wax will not usually wash off the bodywork of your car each week or two but just top it up as and when the rain stops forming 'plump' droplets on the flat surfaces and just forms puddles or runs straight off the car!

Decent tools, a little time and your car can look good with three hours every eight weeks.

[mpaul0055]

Mattt said:

I spend a good few hours once every couple of months cleaning it, claying it, cleansing it, polishing it, then waxing it. Gives a great finish, and makes cleaning for the next month or so really easy - water and dirt just falls off. It works out that it saves me time doing it that way, than a half arsed clean once a week.

I use Dodo Juice wax on mine, great stuff.

Check out detailing world for tips - beware it can get expensive. I spent about £300 within a couple of weeks reading there.

I do exactly the same, with dodo products too (Damn that st smells good. lol)
I never use a sponge though, only a wool mit, and only every couple of months when its waxing and detailing time.

I use Snowfoam with a foam lance weekly.. Eats away at dirt and film thats builts up, and then you give it a good jet wash off and the muck flys off.

Heres a linky to the one i use, there are others, and better ones i think.
http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/elite-foam-lance-6-t...

As you said, the dirt just falls off with the inbetween washes. The key is staying ontop of it.

The tyresmoke detailing forum used to be busy. But like someone else said. Can end up expensive real quick. Nothing like a Showroom clean car though.. they go faster too

Edited by mpaul0055 on Monday 23 February 01:24