/Car wash/- General

this underrated as FUCK youtube channel gives some really good tips on how to detail cars. if you can't handle his nasally liverpudlian scouse twang then fair enough to you, but his videos are damn good.

this one talk about cleaning and detailing a car if you don't have access to a hose
youtube.com/watch?v=k0019TbJKd0

Wash your car with a scotchbrite pad and simple green.

Then wax it with WD40.

Works fucking wonders.

Wtf.

Take care of your paint faggot. It must be swirled to shit.

It looks like my demented grandma threw out all my mf towels and wash sponge. Now I get to buy newer and better shit

If you're new and not sure if you want to dump a bunch of money into detailing/car washing yet then just find two buckets (any buckets, make sure they're clean before the wash), a mf sponge or wash mitt, car wash soap, a cheap cleaner wax and some mf towels for drying. Two bucket method, blah blah blah
Some diy car wash places let you bring your own stuff so you can just do everything there, but DON'T use their scrubbers or whatever because that shit will scratch your paint. If it's been a while since your last wash make sure you rinse your car thoroughly before touching it to get as much shit off as possible
If you find some products lacking and feel like you want to make this a regular thing, only then upgrade accordingly. I started off with stuff from walmart and got more things as needed, it's easy to dump money into this, it becomes a hobby for some people.
And then afterwards you can start looking into claying and polishing the car and all that jazz. Future washes actually becomes easier once you put some wax on the car

That's how I got into this anyway. It's kind of amazing how much better my shitty car looks after wash+wax. You also start to notice how "nice" cars actually look like shit because their owners never take care of them
I haven't even touched my interior yet, that's a whole other monster, maybe someone else can help with that

Swirled?

OP here (not the guy who says he only washes his car with water btw)

what wax should I use? is there really any difference between certain wax products? is there a difference between wax, polish, and sealant?

Do you have any self-wash places around?

I just give my shitbox a little rinse every once in a while.

>Do you have any self-wash places around?
Not that guy but he'll have to carry in his own water in the buckets, provided they don't spill inside his trunk and make a huge mess. The self-serve wash places don't have water faucets in order to force people to pay for the timed water spray.

Because it takes time to rub suds in and clean the sticky grime off the paint, that means two sets of washes. First set is washing to get rid of grit and then sudsing up the car and wheels. After the time runs out, take the mitt and soapy water bucket to rub the car down. Now run the 2nd set of washing to rinse off the suds and use the no spot rinse.

A lot of the wash places require a minimum of 3 minutes per wash which is 9 quarters at 20 seconds per quarter or 12 quarters at 15 seconds per quarter. So that means at least 18 quarters used. My closest self-serve is 15 sec/quarter, 3 minutes minimum. The automatic wash costs $6.50 final; they set the price so that after tax it comes out to be an even $6.50.

There can only be one.

gr8 b8 m8

No I'm serious user. I mean, what more can you possibly get out of using more than just water to clean your car?

Whenever I notice my car is dirty or whatever, I just spray it down with a hose, and sometimes use a wet cloth or something to scrub it, then I just dry it off with a cloth. And what do you know, my car looks good as new.

I haven't washed my car since probably November. It's been raining off and on, every day or two. Do you guys wash your cars knowing its going to rain the next day or two down the week? I feel like it's a waste of my efforts

any tips for cleaning the inside of my windows without smudges?
what should I use? I don't want to get my seats wet with any cleaning fluids
Tried a dry microfiber cloth, worked really well for the first swipe but once there's any kind of dirt on it it just leaves invisible smears that show up later
plus it's always leaving dust behind

>go to car wash
>spray my baby clean AF
>hand dry it with rag from the vending machine
>detail my interior
>use the $5 touchless auto wash every other week until it needs a legit spray and hand dry again

I'm not a picky autist, and I don't have a driveway to use buckets.

I have a gay SnowJoe Electric Pressure washer. assload of microfiber towels, Meguiar's liquid soap, claybars, paint sealant and new leather scented air fresher.

My car is a 2015, paint is in good shape since it's near brand new with little to no defects, I see no swirls so no need for polishing. Am I gooood?

how the fuck do you clean the underside with a bucket and sponge?

>Do you have any self-wash places around?
Find a friend with a hose and wash up there.

If anyone is looking for a touchless way to dry their car, get this. amazon.com/Metro-MB-3CD-Master-Blaster-Motorcycle/dp/B0002SPCGC

The best car detailing investment I've ever made. The price is high, but god damn this thing is amazing.

>Find a friend with a hose and wash up there.
The home and hardware stores such as Lowes, Home Depot, ACE Hardware, and even Harbor Freight, have pump sprayers. You put 2 to 3 gallons of water and you can then pump pressure into it and spray. Use that to do the final rinse if you don't have a hose. It doesn't take much water quantity if you make use of the pressure to blow/push the suds off the horizontal surfaces of the car.

>SnowJoe Electric Pressure washer
GOAT

Don't use a pressure washer on paint chips.

ive been lazy as fuck for the past few years, no serious detail at all. it really shows too.
but in lazy mode i wash with ONR (if its not super dirty) and seal with zaino like every third wash.
i really need to do a complete cleaning.

>how the fuck do you clean the underside with a bucket and sponge?
The same as if you only have a toothbrush - you don't. You are supposed to use a spray for the bottom of the car. And don't be stupid and spray upwards into the engine compartment.

>I don't have access to a car wash area at my apartment
If your apartment area doesn't have enough parking spaces available for you to put out your buckets, then you are still in the same predicament. Washing too close to other cars can get them dirtied by splash.

5 gallon buckets are cheap (as low as $3.49 each). But if you don't have a hose, they weigh about 40 pounds when full of water to carry them to your car.

Zaino is too difficult to use by lazy people. It's also from the 1990's. Newer things have been developed since then that are easier to use.

>ive been lazy as fuck for the past few years
Some waxing is still better than none. Protecting the clear coat stops it from getting damaged to the point where it falls off the paint. The other thing is to avoid polishing the clear coat as that makes it thinner.

>28 years of original paint
>no one has detailed it afaik
>washed the car
>see this
fuuuuuck...

>no one has detailed it
There are different schools of thought. Generally elitists polish off damaged surface and then apply sealand and wax because giving you a "correction" is the method until you finally decide to repaint the car. Some prefer to conserve by applying sealant/wax without polishing off the damaged surface and let the liquid wax soak in and hide any blemish. This is the less ideal "good enough" approach for those who don't intend to repaint the car later. This method lets you limp along longer, but you get somewhat less perfect shine.

Regardless, don't panic. The synthetic waxes do a lot to hide scratch and crazing marks in both paint and clearcoat.

The sealant protects what little you have left. It doesn't need to be one of the fancy elitist ones, so something like the turtle wax ice sealant is good. That's an actual sealant as opposed to other retail store waxes and silicone oil products that also advertise themselves as sealants on their labels. Using something expensive on damaged goods is waste of money so turtle wax ice sealant is plenty good enough.

After the sealant is applied, let it have enough time to cure on. Then follow with a synthetic wax such as turtle wax ice wax. Instead of the paste wax version, use the liquid version for ease of application.

As you've seen, sunlight shows up faults. But the synthetic wax will cover it up. They've come a long way in making synthetics easy to apply and non-tedious to remove. Unlike carnauba, the synthetics don't leave white residue on your trim.

>It looks like my demented grandma threw out all my mf towels and wash sponge.
Then put the dirty ones in a open top bag elsewhere until you get enough to wash gentle cycle. Or wash them several times by hand.

The pump sprayer is what I use in the winter to spray the salt off the sides and bottom of my car. I fill it with hot water.

>wax is the final step
>polish is to remove minor scratches after the compound step
>sealant is just like wax except it lasts longer.

just get meguiars gold glass wax and you be fine

you can do waterless wash

>just get meguiars gold glass wax
That's good if you have a color that shows depth such as red metallic, darker purple, or dark blue metallic. But pale colours and bright colors don't benefit from the main difference of Meg Gold Class, so it's better to use a more modern wax product.

>clean wheels
>brake dust
>clean wheels
>brake dust
>clean wheels
>brake dust

Pretty sure I should just give up but fuck the car looks so much better with clean wheels.

good posts. thanks.

>Hubcaps
Problem solved.

>I haven't even touched my interior yet,
Tinted windows are hard to deal with. Most chemicals shouldn't be used on them. Even the aerosol can ammonia-free spray cleaner that foams up says not to use it on tinted windows.

I find the easiest way is to just gently wipe a tinted window with a dry clean microfiber towel. Wash your hands before you touch MF towels or they will be gummed up from your dirty hands or skin oils. Too many people believe in eating pizza with their hands, then stirring paint with their hands, then cleaning out wet nuclear waste at chernobyl with bare hands. Then they grab a hold of MF towels with those same unwashed hands and wonder why the windows aren't clean.

If any dried-on residue remains on the tinted window, dampen that debris and it will come off into the MF. Use the fluffy side for dry wiping and the less fluffy side for wet wiping.

Thinking of doing this
Wash, rubbing compound errywhere, liquid wax
If I follow these steps will i reduce the micro scratches?

>If I follow these steps will i reduce the micro scratches?
You are decreasing the thickness of the clear coat down to the level of the scratches. If you aren't repairing an accident type scratch, why not just use wax? Many of the better waxes like the liquid turtle wax ICE will cover up scratches for quite a while.

Tfw don't have a car worth cleaning

What are some good long lasting waxes guys? I usually use Turtle wax but it doesn't seem to last very long.

>spend 3 hours meticulously detailing car
>car looks brand new
>decide to go out with the gf for dinner
>not a cloud in the sky
>get hit by a dust devil on the way home
>car is black
Sometimes, just sometimes, I fucking hate living in Arizona.

If you're just going to hide it, the choice of wax helps. You'll just have to wax more often than someone who has no scratches. Use a detailer spray in between waxes if there is a hint of scratches showing up because the wax has been worn off.

>I usually use Turtle wax but it doesn't seem to last very long.

The regular turtle wax is the old tech approach just like meguiar's gold class.

Meguiar's Gold Class last the LEAST LONG for me. Gold Class wears off fast, but it does have the deepest shine though. The synthetic waxes last the longest for me. The two main choices for full synthetics are Meguiar's Ultimate and Turtle Wax ICE.

>get home too late to wash car in driveway
>coming weekend is going to be freezing

JDIMSA

Then you can save time by using one of the automated washes if the one in your area doesn't scratch. Then you can do a cursory wash at home to get rid of any driving dirt and grime before you dry it off and wax it in the warmth of your garage. That will save on your fingers.

>Do you guys wash your cars knowing its going to rain the next day or two down the week?
Acidic grime with embedded salt and other chemicals can weaken the clear coat, so removing it is good. But even if you didn't care about that, a clean wet car still looks better than a dirty wet car.

thats like saying "i'm not gonna wipe my ass because its gonna take shit again later"

hmm...

mmm watching rain bead off a freshly waxed/sealed car

well since you waxed it (right?) everything should be able to just rinse off

collinite 845 my chingu

>Meguiar's Ultimate

I've found a liquid version and a spray wax version. Which one should I go with?

I have not tried the Meguiar spray. So I don't know how it compares to the liquid, but the liquid works.

As for the turtle wax ICE, the liquid version is better than the spray version in terms of cutting through water spot residue. It even removes water spots on the shiny chrome finishes.

As the instructions say, use it sparingly. After all, only a thin coating of the polymer wax sticks to the surface and the rest is wiped away. If there are water spots, pay attention as you gently apply the liquid wax over the spots. After awhile, you'll know how much gentle rubbing (a few wipes) will remove the spots. If the spots were baked on by the sun, they will be stubborn though. In those cases, you might apply a very slight bit more liquid or use the detailer spray before rewaxing it again.

I have both meguiar's and turtle wax ice detailer spray. The turtle wax ice detailer is a bit better than the meguiar's detailer in terms of removing spots off glass or chrome.

I don't usually get the water spots since I thoroughly dry the car in the shade so I'm fine for that. I might go Meguiar for the wax, if it's anything like their car wash then the results should be pretty good I hope.

The rain and eax also makes bird crap fall off easily. The crows are already starting to caww and hop around on cars now.

>I thoroughly dry the car in the shade so I'm fine for that.
Even in the shade, the water dries off fast in some areas, so I always have spots on the chrome. Before I wax, I remove the chrome water spots with the detailer spray. If your detailer doesn't remove spots, then switch to a different product that actually has some cleaning ability and isn't just water and wax emulsion.

Use a duster like other Arizonians do. Not one of those california dusters. But a static duster.

I have a truck, white Tundra, 2003.

I've washed it maybe, oh, 20 times since 2005?

Paint still looks good. Not bad for spending its life outside.

I use turtle wax ice liquid wax and their ice detailer spray for the past 2 years. It works well for me and hides scratches and swirl marks for a long time.

Some jerk rubbed a shopping cart across my clear plastic headlight. Using the ice liquid wax covers up almost all the scratches to where you can't see it. That synthetic wax is good stuff. I don't get that effect from meguiars gold class wax so I stopped using it. The ice wax is much better.

>Do you guys wash your cars knowing its going to rain the next day or two down the week?
I washed the salt splash off the car and bottom each day even though I got more salt on it every day.

wew mf towels are actually kind of expensive. Think I'll just get a good drying towel and those shitty terry towels

>work at autobell
>free washes and extras for me and whoever i want
>profit

>wew mf towels are actually kind of expensive.
They are cheap when you buy them in a warehouse shopping club like Sam's Club. A bundle of 36 or so MF was very low priced compared to buying them individually or 2 or 3 packs at a normal retail store.

If you use them for drying, it's good to make the water sheet off first. That leaves less water on the surface of the car. One way of reducing the amount of water left is to not spray a mist at the very final rinse. Instead, get the water to flow in a non-aerated smooth stream of water from the hose. Let that smooth stream of water run across the surface and you see how it carries most of the water off. If you had sprayed a mist, your roof top would have a thousands of big fat water droplets instead.

Fuck salt!

Id rather crash my car than watch it die a slow agonizing rust death.

>Fuck salt!
Salt plus calcium chloride can be your friend too. After rinsing the salt off the car, to stop the driveway from being a sheet of ice, I spread a small amount on the drive way after I finish washing.

After I arrive at work, I use the 2 gallon pump sprayer to rinse off just the sides and the bottom of the car before going in to work. I don't leave the core of the pump sprayer in the cannister, but set it aside in a small plastic tub in the trunk. When I get back, it's all frozen, but it goes home and will melt in time to be filled with water before I leave for work again the next day.

I try to give salt as little time on the car as I can and it is working pretty good. I'm not the only one that does that too. A few other people also rinse with their own sprayers.

Anyone do interior detailing? I see that there are cleaners and then protectants, is the protectant part necessary?

>Anyone do interior detailing?
I use a static duster to pick up dust in the interior. It's much better than a damp paper towel at picking up all the dust and skin flakes. Cheap ones are sold at the Dollar Tree dollar store and I also saw a similar one at Rite Aid. Those don't have much fluff and if you can get a fluffier one, that would be better.

>live in housing with no access to hose to wash my car
>poor as fuck and can't afford self washes that charge per minute of use
>post ad on CL in the platonic section (m4m, m4mw) saying "if you let me wash my car in your driveway ill wash your car as a thank you"
>lady fucking replies saying its sounds like a deal

Is this real life? Holy shit this is hilarious. Can't believe this worked. Free car washes bitches.

this is actually a great idea

Don't spray the top of your doors though since you don't want to ice up all the seals and have a hard time opening the door.

>Fuck salt!
>Id rather crash my car than watch it die a slow agonizing rust death.

Then rinse the car off. This is not washing the car with soap. Use a stick something to push the thick ice out of the wheel wells and to knock off hanging chunks at the bottom edges. Then rinse the sides and bottom with a spray attachment. Be sure to drain your hose if you store it outside in freezing weather.

It's $12 for a package of 30 MF towels. Each package is all fluorescent orange, fluorescent light green, or light blue. Each sheet is 16 inches per side. One side is fluffy and the other side has shorter loops that are better for scrubbing than the soft furry nap on the other side.

The amount of maintenance also depends on your area. Do you have acid rain? Road salt and other road chemicals? Hot temperatures. Strong ultraviolet? Road tar or other petrochemical solvents?

Preventative maintenance feels like it is a waste of effort to some people. They do it and don't see any changes. It's not like painting a wall and the fresh paint looks nice and new.

But preventative maintenance does work. There are cars at the 10 year mark that look less shiny (even when waxed) than maintained cars that look shiny before waxing and really shiny after waxing. We've all seen the differences in older cars. So you can think about how well those painted surfaces were maintained.

>Turtle Wax Zip Wash
>Mitt
>2 Home Depot buckets
>Mothers Clay Kit
>Mothers Detailer Spray
>Turtle Wax Ice Spray Wax
>NuFinish Tub

Thats my items boys.

Bought one of those cheap blue clay bars from China on eBay, hope it doesn't give my car cancer

clay bars are like $2? why would you buy a china one

I go to one of those quarter machine places.
Soapy wash, low pressure rinse. I don't use their brushes or any shit that directly touches my car.
Sometimes I use their wax or I use this shit as I hand dry my car.
I really need to invest in a clay bar or something.

What can I do in a hot temperature environment?
t. houston, TX

Wash your car on a day like today or yesterday.
Washing after it rains is ideal because the rain pulls all the shit out of the air, and it being cool and cloudy keeps water spots from forming and lets you apply wax properly.
For the summer, if you can't wait for an ideal day, and you don't have a shady place to wash, then you should focus on one panel at a time so you don't get soap drying on a panel you haven't rinsed yet. Other than that, keep hosing down the car every now and then so the water doesn't have time to dry naturally before you can get to it with a drying towel.
Ideally, don't wash on windy days either. Even when it's cool and cloudy, wind will fuck you up.
I *had* to wash on a day like that last week (I think it was last Sunday when it was sustained 15mph winds with 20+ mph gusts) and the wind seriously screwed me. It took me 3 hours longer than normal because I had to rewash from the wind drying the soap on so fast before I got a chance to rinse, and then I had to go over every inch with quick detailer and plush microfiber because the wind dried on the hard ass water I have here long before I could get to all of it with a towel or compressed air.

I wrote a basic copypasta that I'll post below in a bit.

E X T E R I O R D E T A I L I N G Q U I C K G U I D E

You'll need:
>2 buckets (minimum), with grit guards
>good quality car wash soap
>microfiber noodle mitt/pad
>waffle weave microfiber drying towel
>plush microfiber towels
>general purpose microfiber towels (for use in door jambs, under hood, rims, tailpipes, etc.)
>quick detailer
>all purpose cleaner and/or degreaser

Optional:
>high quality wax
>rain-x or other glass coating
>wheel cleaner
>rim cleaner
>quick wax

>make sure your car isn't warm, don't wash in the sun (water spots are the devil and ignoring this is the easiest way to get them)
>soak entire car to wash away dust and loose dirt and to loosen up caked on stuff
>go over entire car with pressure attachment, wheels first, then top down
>if there's a lot of stuck on shit, spray it with all purpose cleaner and let it soak while you do the wheels
>wash your wheels first with completely separate wash equipment than you'll use for the rest of the car to not contaminate what will be touching your paint
>have a wash bucket with soap and a rinse bucket with a grit guard
>use a microfiber wash sponge (the one with a bunch of little noodles)
>soak wash sponge in wash bucket, go over car lightly (starting from the top down, rocker panels and bumpers last) lifting away dirt. Do not apply much pressure to the sponge, anything still stuck on you should remove with an an all purpose cleaner or a quick detailer spray. DO NOT use circular motions. Go over horizontal surfaces in a front to back motion, vertical surfaces in up and down motions.
>clean one panel (or less) at a time and rinse your wash mitt in the rinse bucket after each panel or section. Use the grit guard to get all the dirt and particles off your sponge and let it safely fall to the bottom under the grit guard. Then soak again in the wash bucket. Your wash bucket should not be getting dirty with this method, only your rinse bucket should.

>Don't forget the door jambs
>Rinse the car without any pressure attachment so the water sheets off the car
>DRY YOUR CAR IMMEDIATELY
>DO NOT DRIVE YOUR CAR TO DRY IT
>I like to use compressed air to get off all the standing water and blow out all the water from all the little niches like behind the side mirrors and between panels
>Use a microfiber drying towel to finish drying, waffle weave works best. Chamois is also acceptable, but only if it's the real thing which is pretty expensive.
>Spray your drying towel with a light mist of quick detailer and then with it lying flat against your car, drag it across your panels. Do not apply pressure.
>Use a general microfiber towel to go over things like inside door jambs, under trunk lid and hood. Don't forget to dry under your hood if you care about that looking good at all because you'll get mad water spots there from left over water from the wash getting heated up by the engine.
>THE ONLY THINGS YOU SHOULD BUFF EXTERIOR PAINT WITH ARE *PLUSH* MICROFIBER TOWELS. PLUSH ONLY.
>Take your plushiest microfiber towel with quick detailer spray and go over any spots or streaks that were left over and to gloss up the finish
>If you're going to wax, do it here. One panel at a time.
>At this point you should do anything additional to your glass. I typically just go over it with Rain-X glass cleaner (I find it's the least streaky but you can use whatever) and paper towel.

If you follow these steps you'll have cleaned your car better than 100% of automatic washes and 90% of "detailing" places that use the same bucket and shit towels for everything.

For maintenance, use a plush microfiber towel with quick detailer to dust your car. Anything more tan dust, like caked on mud, should be removed by washing or using a quick wash spray.
If you waxed, using a quick wax spray will maintain your coat in between waxing.
And for the love of god, don't cheap out on microfiber towels. They are not created equal.

I just washed my car and dried it normally, and was about to apply a polish/wax

I realised i had Kitten No 2. Heavy Duty Reguvinator.
Says its for cars with pretty shitty paint.

What i meant to get was kitten No 1, which is for cars with reasonably good paint.
Now, my car is 25 years old but the paint is in very good shape.
Should i still use this heavy duty one, to give it a shine? Or will it damage my paint?

>free car wash
>twice the work
>65 yearold obese woman comes out of home in JUST a tanktop and offers you lemonade

That is the toughest since it combines multiple bad things like ultraviolet and heat to break down the clear coat. A place like that it is worth using a sealant once per year right before the summer season. Then make sure the car is waxed through the summer.

Use a static dust brush to wipe the dust off. Don't use a microfiber cloth because that also sucks wax off the surface. A reasonably good static dust brush is the blue one at walmart.com which you can have sent to your local walmart store to avoid paying shipping. Brushing the dust off with a static brush doesn't seem to remove much wax as compared to the MF cloth.

Depending on how much driving you do, you might have to re-wax more frequently during the summer. The heat softens the wax and makes all the dirt and dust particles that the wax surface hits while driving lose wax that much faster. Each time a particle hits, it can carry off a few molecules or more of wax as it bounces off. That's why you notice the car feels like it has less wax on the nose and hood over time even though it never rained or you washed the car. All those microscopic high speed impacts eventually wore off most of the soft sacrificial wax.

I'm not into suffering to put on wax. So no old school painful stuff like Zaino. I use liquid turtle wax ice sealant and the turtle wax ice liquid wax. It's easy to remove and doesn't turn white when it dries like a lot of those carnauba waxes. The ice wax uses fully synthetic wax, so no more reliance on carnauba.

I used to rely on meguiar's gold class wax, but it was to tedious and painful to remove that I would wax less often. Switching to turtle wax ice, it was much less tedious to wipe off. I use the turtle wax ice detailer spray to remove bird crap and sap.

Stronger solutions of meguiar's gold class car shampoo would remove all the sap. The normal amount was too weak unless I rubbed a lot. Either way, it still removes wax so I always re-wax after washing.

>tfw cleaning your headliner

The word "polish" is misused a lot. So when it is used properly, it can also be misleading to consumer who are used to the other meaning.

In the car care industry, a polish contains a weak abrasive. That is used to wear down the damaged outer layer to expose new undamaged clear coat that can provide a better shine.

I don't like making anything thinner. Since your paint is in good shape now, use only wax and a "rejuvinator" type product. I bet any product that claims to rejuvinate paint will have a mild polishing abrasive in it.

Despite the cute Kitten name, you should switch to a more standard product by Meguiar's or turtle wax ICE. Meguiar's Ultimate is easy to use. Meguiar's Gold Class has a great shine and the "deepest" shine I've ever gotten from an over the counter wax product. But it is quite tedious to remove from all trim, cracks and crevices since it turns into powdery white residue when the solvents dry out.

If your 25 year old car is one of those in that decade with the large metallic flakes, a "deep shine" wax like Gold Class has the best look. It will beat the thinner shine of Meguiar's Ultimate or turtle wax ICE. But Gold Class is not very durable and wears off fast. Rain also takes it off as it doesn't have the resilience of the fully synthetic waxes of Ultimate or ICE.

We don't smoke. Nor do we touch the headliner to wipe our hands after eating a snack. Another sign of inconsiderate or dirty people is those that don't wash their hands. Then they grab all the car surfaces as they get out whether it be the fabric finished pillar or headliner.

I often wondered why people do that. I tried doing the same and it was harder to get out of the car. Maybe it is some psychological trait like their brain makes them feel they are re-emerging into the world as they get out of the car or something. Otherwise, grabbing the pillar or top edge of the doorway to get out seems to be the hard way to get out.

I've given up the two bucket method and gone with a pressure washer. Less time taken and it does the same job as the two bucket system. Now if only they made some way to clar bar and wax quicker.

>every 2 days
probably more detrimental than helping if it's cold enough to inhibit corrosion anyways

I try to be as concise as possible when explaining correction vs. protection with people because polish really is misused way too often.

I break it down it to sections from most aggressive to least:

Correction
>Wet sanding
>Compounding
>Polishing
>Jewelers Polish (way overkill for average joes)

Protection
>Clear Bra
>Sealant
>other polymers
>Synthetic Wax
>Carnuba Wax

As for when to use what, it comes down to:
What is the state of your paint? Is the clear coat coming off? Probably isn't worth the time. If it is in decent shape, what kind of damage does it have, Bad swirls or love marks?

Those kinds of questions determine how aggressive you need to be. You want to use the least aggressive method as possible because you only have so much clear coat.

After damage paint is "fixed" you protect it with layers. Ideally sealant and a couple layers of wax. These take the brunt of abuse while the paint underneath is shielded.

damn i've been buffing wax off with shitty microfibers. i'm in the market for some atm so i'll look into plushy ones too

aren't the quality on those really bad though?

>shitty microfibers
There are all kinds of MF sheets and each has its own purpose. So if you see "threadbare" non-plushy MF out there, it is not because they are shitty, they may be for cleaning, wiping, or scrubbing of hard durable objects followed by wringing.

Also, plushier MF sheets are not necessarily better than less plushier sheets. For example, let's say you have a sheet that is so plushy, the fibers on one side are 1/4 inches long. That is wasteful because only about 1/8 inches of the fibers would touch the paint. The same with the number of fibers per square centimeter. Beyond a certain number, there is a point of diminishing return.

One of the most important things to not forget is the use of a clean MF sheet instead of trying to keep on using the same MF by giving it more fibers per square centimeter.

Another problem exists with MF. Unlike with cotton, tiny sharp bits (metal or ceramic) can embed in the plastic fibers and be difficult to wash out. So having overly expensive MF super plushy sheets can be counter-productive to your wallet. You end up with a MF sheet too expensive to stop using but too contaminated to be used.

The MF packages sold at warehouse shopping clubs are suitable.

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