Do you spend too much time polishing your car

stratos

This is something some people might find interesting, I really like to keep my car looking polished. As I live in the country and its wet here most of the time its a losing battle.

My usual routine is wash the car and chamois it dry at weekends when I get a chance, this takes about an hour and a half to two hours. The car is clean but thats about it.

Every second wash I try to clean chamois dry and polish. This can take four hours. The car looks really good for a few days and maybe through to the next wash.

I tried a new route to use a sealer I chose "Carplan Nanomeric". The idea is you absolutly attack the car shampoo chamois dry deep polish and then you apply the sealer. The sealer coats the car and stops dirt from sticking to it for up 6 months I think it said. The sealer is like water and just wipes on with a supplied towel the final act of sealing took about 5 minutes.

The car after this process which took hours looked fantastic, I mean awesome with a deep wet looking shine. 3 days later the car was filthy again, however I had forgotten to coat the rear alloys which were black with muck but the fronts were much cleaner. The car also had just a lighter coat of muck on it than usual.

The next wash I washed the car and just let it air dry. When I came back it was clean with a lot of white streaks (my Tap water is very hard) and looked ok but not great. I was kind of dissapointed. So I thought I will give it another go of the sealer maybe it will remove the streaks and bring back the shine.

Five minutes later the car is gleaming again with a shine that is so satisfying I can't describe it.

The great thing now is I can wash the car let it air dry come back and take 5 minutes to rub the sealer over it. The whole thing takes about half an hour, the same result would usually take me hours.

I wash the car with turtle wax extreme nano tech. My car is 5 years old a dark colour and lives a bramble rubbing muck covered life, so maybe the effect would last longer on a city car or a brighter car.

I think it's important to get the car gleaming for the first coat of sealer as it just seals whatever is under it, the sealer is about 22 euro's I think. Its a bit expensive but well worth to me if this keeps working.

Anyway hope this helps anyone else who spends hours washing their pride and joy.

bennyx_o

When washing my car, I use two buckets, one with the cleaner in it, and one with just water to separate the dirt from the cleaner. Don't use a sponge. They create swirl marks (not saying washmits don't, but sponges make them alot more of them) It's always good to dry the car after washing it, again to stop the water drying into the paint and damaging it.

If you polish your car you should really put a coat or two of wax on top, it'll help protect the paint and cause water to bead and run off the surface (Alot like RainX on a windscreen) Some wax will wash off when you next wash your car, others (more expensive ones) will last 3/4 months. Also worth noting claying your car every 6 months is a good idea. Takes all the "invisable" dirt away. If you rub your hand along your paintwork after washing it and it's not as smooth as glass, it could do with claying. Kits are ~€30 in Halfords.

gyppo

As Benny said, a sponge is not a great thing to use. I started using a very soft wallpaper brush when washing the car, and it works very well.

CrowdedHouse

I've spent about 2 hours polishing my car since I bought it about 15 months ago

mike65

Are you sure you mean polish? True polish is an abrasive anything else is a wax.

Since I got a silver/grey car I've hardly cleaned it, tis a great colour for hiding muck.

Mike.

stratos

yea silver is cool. I once went to buy a bmw a silver one and a black one was advertised. The silver one looked awesome but was sold when I got there so I bought the black one. bad bad bad descision was a true lemon. nothing to do with the colour though.

Seth Brundle

stratos

kbannon no pictures can convey the shine i achieved with this product. Can I just say there are probably many sealers and nano tech stuff for sale now. I am old school shampoo and polish was my way so maybe everyone is using this stuff now but it's new to me.

Anan1

I spend perhaps 20 minutes washing my car, once a month max. As long as the lights and glass are clean, who cares if the rest of it isn't sparkling? I can't see it when i'm in it.

zod

gonna see if I can get some of this "comma Top Gloss Car Polish"

see here http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/06042006/45/polish-mega-test-0.html

seems to be available here : http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Comma-Top-Gloss-Car-Polish-AutoEXPRESS-Winner_W0QQitemZ250087326847QQcategoryZ72201QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

ZiabR

I do the inside of my car at least once a week if not twice. I only wash it in Summer and Spring because it is pointless in Winter.