Washing and polishing your car

[hademall]

One day I'm going to treat her to a proper polish to see what comes out.

Yes, I guess I will bring myself to do the same.

 

[hademall]

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

You’re welcome to clean mine if you miss it so much

 

[hademall]

That’s definitely lacking the gloss, at least it appears to in your image, give it the full treatment one weekend and if you can’t see the difference I would be incredibly surprised.

Okay, what polish or wax would you recommend?

 

[Pollushon]

You’re welcome to clean mine if you miss it so much

If I can drive it too, I'm down with that

 

[hademall]

As the pandemic wears on, and I continue to wear clothes while WFH that 2 years ago only got used for making messes in the garden or working on a greasy car, I think my feelings about a clean car are changing in line with my feeling about personal appearance ...

The perfectly glossy perfect-paint thing is like putting on your Sunday Best when going to a swanky restaurant or attending a mate's wedding.
I get there are people who want to be seen in tails & a top-hat whenever they're in public, and yes I do admire them & the effort they put into their appearance ... but it's a lot of effort so I'm just not one of them.

But a clean car is like not having spilled soup all down the front of your t-shirt.

Clever man.

 

[hademall]

If I can drive it too, I'm down with that

Your welcome. Weirdly enough, I’ve driven lots of cars in the past that have excited me more than this one!

 

[hademall]

Polishing is one of the joys in life. Growing up, the guys with the best cars - and pretty much the best advice about everything in general, especially if there were lots of tools and fishing rods in their garage and you could see everything was clean and well organised when they opened the door on Saturdays to bring the car out - were all the old guys who polished theirs every weekend to a resplendent shine. I only ever had money to afford old cars, and the best ones to buy were from those guys. Like the movie Gran Torino, ha ha, it's a good one.

My own dad is an ass, and some of those guys took pity on me cause I was interested in their cars and bikes and fishing. They would help me fix my stuff, and told me where to go fishing, and how to catch good fish, and I can tell you, it was awesome advice. One guy told me to give my trailbike more gas before I changed gears, which I quickly applied to everything in general. Another guy told me to go fishing in this creek where I straight up caught a perch as long as my arm. Mum fell off her chair when she saw it. Solid Australians.

They taught me to be fussy about my car, that if you bought a Holden or Valiant in the first place and looked after it, you would only need one car in your life, and it would outlast the driver. My grandmum is like that too.

There was an old lady in the ABC news a few years back who had been driving the same Holden around since the year dot, and it still looked like the day it rolled out of the factory. They asked for her best secret of preservation, and her advice was get into the nooks and crannies with a toothbrush. For sure it is good advice. It makes the corners of the window rubbers, your windscreen wipers, and around the chrome badges look so fine.

Wax polish makes the biggest difference. More than any modification you could make. It keeps cars looking respectable. A bog standard Holden is all you need if you are polishing it. Hell, I don't feel comfortable if my car is not polished.

Anyway, what else is there to do once everything is fixed?

The Treatment in the steel can is the best one. That stuff rocks. I am going to polish my cars now. A soft rag is all you need, I reckon. But don't look in my engine bay. It is dusty, cause one trip down the dirt road outside here restores it to that condition anyway.

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Ah good story!

 

[hademall]

Photos can most certainly lie and that’s why I said your car looks dull from the photo.

My Clubby shines all the time regardless of the light available.

And I lied when I said I had only one silver car, I forgot I have this sitting in the garage, out of sight, out of mind.

I bought it new over ten years ago and it’s never had any protective coating applied and never been polished, most people don’t believe that but it’s true.

It’s was also my daily drive for five years of its life.

It’s a testament to using the right cleaning techniques, a PH neutral shampoo and soft cleaning and drying cloths.

Keeping a car looking good doesn’t require a lot of the fancier products but they can help you stand out from the crowd, it’s simply a matter of being gentle with the paintwork.

Don’t rub a mark or stain, always have a product on hand that will lift it without using any elbow grease and always remember, no matter what you use on the car to clean and dry it including microfibre, everything has the potential to mark and swirl the paintwork, some worse than others.

Throw the sponge away as they are coarse and pushes debris around and toss the chamois as well because they tend to stick to the bodywork instead of gliding over it, get a PH neutral shampoo, there are plenty on the market, I use Durogloss Car Wash Concentrate and use the two or three bucket washing method and your car will look good.

If it’s dull it may need a polish first followed by a protective layer of wax.

Wash the car regularly and remove containments like bird poo and sap when you see them, don’t let them bake on and etch the surface.

There is a lot more that can be said to go further and there are plenty of owners on here who know care care inside out that may want to add their thoughts.



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All good points. Thank you.

 

[Ginger Beer]

Run your hand over your paint, is it smooth like glass, or slightly rough?

Can you see reflections in it like a mirror?

For an experiment, keep on using the sponge and chamois and see what your paint/clearcoat looks like in another 4 years

But seriously, correct paint care can help your paint last years looking mint, whereas a poorly cared for painted surface will remove alot from resale value, your car is only 4 years old, another 4 years of a sponge and chamois could cost you thousands

I personally couldn't stand the paint mismatch that appears that you have on your front bar

In the end though you do need to be slightly OCD and have time to kill to have that deep mirror shine, it takes alot of prep, cleaning and waxing

And of course you need somewhere to do it, washing, doing corrections, and waxing in the open is like pissing in the wind, without access to a suitable workspace the chances of getting dust on the painted surfaces between wash/corrections and waxing is high

Being locked in a garage with a car or bike for a few hours pumping some tunes is my kind of bliss

Hmmmm, with all this paint talk I think I'm going to give the bike a touch up now

 

[hademall]

In the end though you do need to be slightly OCD and have time to kill to have that deep mirror shine, it takes alot of prep, cleaning and waxing

I have plenty of time to kill, I’d just rather spend it killing other stuff.
Which reminds me, I must get the Round Up onto those weeds.