Washing and polishing your car

[hademall]

We have had our 2017 VF Calais Sportswagon since new (well almost, as it had 450Ks on the clock when we got it).
It has never been garaged or under cover. I have only ever washed it with warm water using a sponge, then drying it off with the 30 year old Kanebo Plas Chamois Leather. I have never used any detergent or polished the duco.
As far as I’m concerned, there is no difference in the paint finish on our car from the day we bought it.
It begs the question, do all these fancy polishes and detergents really preserve our cars? Or are we just being conned into believing they do?

 

[panhead]

Yes many of the fancy products do work and they don't cost much if anymore than the mass market stuff..

Lucky you have a silver car, all the swirls that sponge has added to the finish are harder to see, heaven help if it was a black car.

In the photo your paintwork looks dull.

This is the only silver car I own and admittedly it's garaged in a shed but this is what silver looks like when a microfibre cloth is used instead of the hazing affects of a coarse sponge.



.

.

 

[mpower]

Car still looks decent but a polish will help along with an application of a sealant to give it a bit of depth.

Please do yourself a favour and stop with the sponge - bad news, sponges hold grit in them. You are much better off with a microfiber noodle mitt or something similar.

 

[Forg]

We have had our 2017 VF Calais Sportswagon since new (well almost, as it had 450Ks on the clock when we got it).
It has never been garaged or under cover. I have only ever washed it with warm water using a sponge, then drying it off with the 30 year old Kanebo Plas Chamois Leather. I have never used any detergent or polished the duco.
As far as I’m concerned, there is no difference in the paint finish on our car from the day we bought it.
It begs the question, do all these fancy polishes and detergents really preserve our cars? Or are we just being conned into believing they do?

Yes, they work for sure ... if you can't see the difference then don't try to look too hard, as the rabbit-hole you can go down can very much consume a LOT of your time & money.

However I'm with @mpower regarding the sponge, it will cost you very little to use a microfibre mitt (doesn't need to be a mitt but they cost no more & are simpler/faster to use) and a non-soap cleaner like the pink stuff Maguire's sells is not that expensive either. Rinse thoroughly after each time you use the mitt.
Going one effort-related step further, instead of the scratchy chamois you can use a microfibre drying-cloth. However that is somewhat more of a pain to use so takes longer, and you need at least two for the Commodore (as you don't wring them out). They also need to be rinsed out, I do it about every 3rd time I use it, and unless you dry 'em in a dryer you need to fluff them up once they've dried.
The combo of those two made a noticeable difference to the arrival of swirls & those reflecty/refracty oddnesses that appear in the paint over time (Regal Peacock may as well be black for the purposes of seeing paint defects).

 

[hademall]

Lucky you have a silver car, all the swirls that sponge has added to the finish are harder to see, heaven help if it was a black car.

In the photo your paintwork looks dull.

I know your right about the sponge and the forgiving silver colour when it comes to swirls and scratches. I’ve owned many darker coloured cars including black, so I am quite aware of the hardship keeping them clean and shiny as opposed to lighter cars.
I am quite fastidious when I clean my cars (you know, soft tooth brush in those crevices). I guess over the years I have become a bit more ho hum about it, especially when you do all you can to maintain them, only to have some careless fckwit run a shopping trolly into it or just open a door on to it etc.
I used to be the kind of person who would break down in tears if someone dinged my car, and I’d want to get it fixed straight away.
This particular car (which by the way is more my wife’s, coz she drives it more) was only twelve months old before someone dinged one of the doors in a shopping centre.
I’ve sadly become resigned to the fact that no matter how much you look after your car, someone else will always fcuk it up for you. And I guess that’s where my fastidiousness and enthusiasm wanes.
In the picture, your car paint looks no better than mine! Although I’m pretty certain it is

 

[Forg]

^ The picture looks better to me, but it looks like it's the pictures causing that rather than the comparison between the cars.

 

[hademall]

Car still looks decent but a polish will help along with an application of a sealant to give it a bit of depth.

Please do yourself a favour and stop with the sponge - bad news, sponges hold grit in them. You are much better off with a microfiber noodle mitt or something similar.

Hi hear you and have all the gear you and Forg mention, the polishes, the creams, the waxes, the soft cloths, the micro fibre cloths, the sheep skin buffers etc, etc.
You see it’s not that I haven’t been down that path myself after 47 years of owning well over thirty cars.
I guess my question was going to bring a certain response which assumed I didn’t understand the intricacies of car paintwork preservation.
I believe at the end of the day, we spend all that time and money on our cars for our own satisfaction and nobody else’s really! I mean ask yourselves the question, how many times after spending two or three hours on cleaning and polishing the car, can you remember your missus or hubby for that matter coming to you and saying “Wow the car looks fantastic darling, well done you!” Lol.

 

[Derekthetree]

Its been said above. There is clean paintwork, and there is great paintwork.

Using a sponge and flat leather chamois will have put swirls and streaks in the clearcoat. Look at it obliquely under a bright source and you'll see them.
Microfibre noodle mitts, two buckets and microfibre towels are so much better. Plus a separate set of stuff for wheels/undersills.
I remember going to a car show and some guy was cleaning of the driving dust witha dry chamois. We all winced.

The car may be clean and free from major scratches and dings, but great paintwork will have a depth of colour and no hazing and swirls. There is a fairly normal VW Estate down my road that is immaculate, and it pops whenever I see it.

My poor dark green (black in the shade) car was not cared for in its previous life, looks like some automatic car washes,. and a bit of un finished polish. One day I'm going to treat her to a proper polish to see what comes out.

 

[chrisp]

I see the waxes and polishes as a sacrificial coating that bear the blunt of atmospheric damage, so they breakdown rather than the paint finish.

It might be different in different places, but my stock-standard car does attract unsolicited comments from friends, family and strangers. Generally it questions about how come my car is so shiny, or just very general comments of what a good looking car. One of my theories is that it isn’t so much about clean and shiny paintwork, but having clean contrasts, such as clean inner wheel arches, clean and black tyres and rims.

 

[Pollushon]

I miss paint. Caring for a wrap is seriously demanding but it's where I've come to understand good cleaning and sealing products go a long way for either finish