Normally, I just bring my car to the car wash to clean it and every other time I choose the wax option. Yesterday (Saturday) I decided to wash and wax it by hand for the first time. I am very happy with the job I've done on it. When it came to take off the excess wax I thought I needed to wear sunglasses it was so bright. Without any further Ado here are the pictures.
Nice. Mine is the same color. (perhaps I can park in his drive and he will wash/wax mine my mistake...it is worth a shot).
Mine is also Blizzard Pearl. Yes, nice. I’ll have to do the same now. I brought our 2009 in to a detailed about a year ago. I don’t know what they waxed the paint with, but it was pretty amazing stuff!
I use to love to wash and wax my vehicle, when I was younger I did it obsessively. But, I'm just too old and out of shape now. I've gone to the devil, and use the drive through automated car wash...and it's a real compromise. I noticed in the right light, I've got a lot of the proverbial swirl marks, and I'm sure it's from years of now using a drive through. This thread reminded me that either I need to really try to wash and wax myself OR I need to pay detailer to do it for me. I felt that if I had descent coat of wax on my vehicle, I could maintain pretty well using any number of the "instant" spray waxes. But I've gone too long. Now I just need to get REAL finish protection on the vehicle.
In my youth I too used to handwash my car weekly and wax monthly. Now if I take it to the car wash 2X/year it's a lot! But for the first time in years I washed and vacuumed 2 of my car's...at the same time mind you. I was exhausted when done and lost about 4 hours of my day. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ moto z3 ?
About "wax" There are several categories of these products. Not a wax is polish which is actually a very fine cleaner. In all cases below (except the cleaner-wax) the paint surface needs to be cleaned and polished to a high shine. There is no real difference in result of a paste vs. a liquid of the same product. Cleaner-polish. NuFinish is an example. It is a very light abrasive and a finish coating. Good job if the paint isn't badly oxidized, except every application, due to the abrasive, removes a bit of the surface paint. There are real waxes. Fine gloss. Short service life, especially in very hot sun. Polymer coatings. Very good gloss. Service life good for a few months. Semi-permanent clear coating, also called ceramic or nano. Very good gloss. Service life a year or more. Spray-on coatings or detailer. Service life in days.
Huskers, you made my day! Anyway, in my youth, I had cleaning my cars down to a science. I still like doing it, but now time is so much more precious (not enough time to wash and clean the way I want to without sacrificing time with family, work, etc) that I go to a hand wash place and pay the "Wednesday Senior Discount" of $21 (includes $5 dollar tip). I wait till the weather is right and every 4 months, hand wax my car. I don't like the type of wax the car wash place uses. Ah, to be young again......................
Looks great. For those who don't have the time to wash & wax any more....consider a ceramic coating. I put one on just a week after getting my Prime. No more wax necessary. Extremely hydrophobic as well. If you don't have hard hard water that can leave spots, simply hosing the car off goes much further than you'd expect.
I use this: Meguiar's® Ultimate Fast Finish, G18309, 8.5 oz., Aerosol | Meguiar's Twice a year (before and after winter).. very easy/fast and last very long. Lots of Youtube video about it.
