This is how i take care of my current BABY....
This short guide is written for all my friends who, like me, take pride in driving a gorgeous car. Not sometimes, or only for special occasions, but every day. While this can be difficult, especially here in the rainy northwest, it's all made worthwhile when you walk to your car at the end of the day, and get that "just brought her home yesterday" feeling all over again. As such, this will seem a little over the top to Joe Average Driver, who may get around to washing his car (usually at the gas station drive-through) twice a year. This is definitely for the enthusiast, so be forewarned.
Herein we will discuss the five fundamental steps of car care, they are as follows: 1) Wash & Dry, 2) Clean, 3) Polish, 4) Wax, and 5) Maintain. Each of these steps is unique in its purpose and execution. We'll also take a look at details and interior care, but before we start, NO jewelry! No rings, watches, bracelets or belts.
1. Wash & Dry - This is the single most important thing you can do for your car's finish. You should try to wash your car once a week if at all possible. It really doesn't take much time and the rewards are many. First, it keeps the car looking nice, second it prevents contaminants from sitting too long and becoming bonded to the surface, and lastly because it's a lot easier to take off a week's worth of crap than a month's. This step alone is 80% of total finish care. There may be rare times in the summer when the car can manage two weeks at a stretch, but more often it'll need a mid-week touch-up.
Wash your car in the shade, preferably in the morning or evening. The surface must be cool, so don't simply drive home after a day in the sun, park in the shade and start washing. Use cool water and be generous with the soap. You should have two car washing mitts, one for wheels / lower body and one for the upper body. My favorite mitt in the world is a REAL sheepskin mitt available for $25 from K-Mart. Whenever I replace my wash mitt, the old one becomes the new wheels / lower body mitt. I recommend against washing with cloths or sponges, as they have no pile, so you're just moving dirt around on your paint. I also don't like washing with brushes, not even $60 Boar's Hair brushes. You should also have a dedicated car-wash bucket. Don't use the same one you mop or garden with. If the car is only dusty, with no really dirty parts, you can wash without soap. The main advantage here is that it won't strip the wax. All soaps strip wax, even the ones that claim they don't. Usually though, soap is a necessity. I prefer Meguiar's Gold Class soap. Don't wash with dish detergent or laundry soap, as these will immediately and completely strip every bit of wax off the car. On the other hand, if you're planning a full detail, this stripping can be handy.
Begin by rinsing the car thoroughly, as this will clean without touching. The wheels should be cleaned first so that any brake dust or other slag that splashes off them will be washed off the paint later. There are many wheel cleaners on the market, however, if the car is washed regularly, and the wheels are kept waxed, they should clean up with water alone. Jet off the disc and other parts behind the wheel too, lots of brake dust hides back there waiting to get on your clean wheels.
The car should be washed in straight lines, never in circles. Front to back with the airflow is preferred. This will keep swirl marks straight and visible from only one angle, as opposed to circular swirl marks, which are visible from any angle. Use plenty of soap and keep the mitt clean!! Look at it often. Start on the roof and work your way down, rinsing often. Try to keep the car wet to prevent spotting.
To begin drying the car, wet it down once more. Sound strange? It's really not. The technique here is to take the nozzle off the hose and let the water run out at medium flow at a low angle to the surface. This will create a sheeting action and the amount of water left on the car will be greatly reduced. I use the California Water Blade to get the bulk of the remaining water off, then finish with the chamois. I personally use the Absorber
synthetic chamois. Supposedly the cod
oil in natural chamois will strip wax. I balanced this against the fact that synthetics streak a little worse and decided to go with
synthetic. I figured I'd rather take a little longer to dry than attack my wax with every drying. The Water Blade is a great tool and highly recommended as it greatly reduces the time & trouble of drying the car. You can also use a blower or vac-n-blow to dry the car and blow out hidden water. Learn where water hides on your particular car and get it ALL out before waxing. If it starts running down the paint once the waxing has begun, it's a huge PITA. Common hiding places are the fuel-filler door, side-marker lights, underneath outside mirrors and where they attach to the car, under door handles, bottoms of window seals, beneath any moldings or trim, bottoms of light housings and any horizontal panel gaps. It's truly preferable to wash and dry the car in the evening, let it finish drying overnight in the garage, then detail it the next morning, but this is usually not practical.
After you're done drying the outside, get a terry towel and wipe down all the door jams and sills, and the leading edge of the rear door that backs the space between it and the front door. Use an old towel as it will get dirty, not wash well, and probably live out its days doing this duty and none other.
It bears mentioning here a few pointers concerning steps 2-4. I use and LOVE my 6" Porter-Cable random-orbital buffer. It's considerably faster and easier than doing it by hand. Done carefully, it's just as nice to the finish as hand work too. Buy multiple pads, both polishing (white) and finishing (gray) though, because it only comes with one crappy white flat pad. Coastaltool.com has the best price on the buffer while properautocare.com is the place for pads. I use hand application in tight spots and for spot jobs that I don't want to get the machine for, so a few terry applicator pads are in order. Also, NEVER mix products on a pad, or on the car for that matter. The results are unpredictable and may vary from harmless and ineffective to really unsavory and damaging.
2. Clean - Washing the car will remove non-bonded contaminants like dirt and grime. Once the car is dry, dry your hands thoroughly and run your fingers lightly over the surface. Feel those little specks? Those are bonded contaminants (BCs). They are things like sap, tar, bugs, bird etchings, diesel and exhaust particles, rail dust, etc. Look at the paint under good light and from different angles, a shop light is handy here. Is it hazy or dull? Haze and BCs are the reasons for cleaning. A cleaner will remove them with either chemicals or abrasives. There are many levels of abrasive available from none to heavy. A new car shouldn't require any abrasive, unless you get something really nasty on the car and neglect washing it off for weeks. An older car may, but work your way up the scale, trying to use the mildest product that will do the job. Cleaners will also begin to reduce the appearance of swirl marks that will disappear in the next step. Cleaners prepare the surface for polish and wax. If the BCs are not removed by chemical cleaning, mechanical cleaning may be called for. For this, a clay bar is in order. Read and follow the directions VERY carefully, and work even MORE carefully on the car. While clay can be a savior for really tough cleaning jobs, it can also ruin your finish in a heartbeat. If you drop the clay bar, don't even think about trying to salvage it, just throw it away. Trust me.
3. Polish - Polishing is what I call the money step. This is where the ooos and ahhhs are created. Polish will restore vital oils and nutrients to your car's finish that are lost to the environment, either from evaporation, off-gassing, or UV degradation. It will also fill swirl marks making them disappear (or nearly). Most polishes will say to work them until almost dry, and this stage is pretty easy to achieve. If the polish seems to go from wet to completely dry very quickly, it means your paint is thirsty, polish more! The paint can only be polished so much though, kind of like leather shoes, so don't over do it. Again, you should be able to tell by working the product when the polishing is sufficient. Some polishes also contain micro-abrasives. They work wonders at removing swirl marks and other minor surface imperfections. I use S100 Shine-Enhancing Cleanser followed by 3M Imperial Hand Glaze. If your finish is swirl-free, skip the IHG. For bad swirls or scratches that aren't coming out with SEC or IHG, 3M Swirl Mark Remover is what you need. Use it first and then proceed with the routine above. I normally "de-swirl" and polish my car twice a year, and do an additional two polishes alone, for a total of four polishes annually. Any glaze or polish will strip wax, so always wax after polishing. I've recently picked up the Menzerna auto polishes and so far I'm very impressed.
*The terms Glaze and Polish are used interchangeably and in different ways by different companies, so don't use the name to judge the abrasiveness of a given product.