I'm finding less and less time to spend 2 hours cleaning my car. I use to enjoy it but now I enjoy wrenching a bit more. My new car really needs a full clean and I'm thinking of going with a spray wax. As opposed to something I have to apply on then buff off. What are your favorites?
I use Sonax Polymer Net Shield. The stuff I think is really expensive but one of the few spray waxes that I can say makes a noticeable difference on black paint. They say it lasts six months but I have never kept track to see. It does go on and come off easy and water just seems to bead up and roll off car. I buy it on amazon where it is a bit cheaper. YMMV!
I meant to add it is about $25.00 for a 7.1 oz spray can It will probably do a mid size car a couple times
It's funny, I'll spend hours online researching actual waxes, but for the spray stuff I usually just grab the Meguiar's stuff because it seems to be as good as any.
I've never been able to see a difference in the spray waxes. I bought and now just use it as a lube for my clay bar.
https://www.amazon.com/HONDA-08732-SCP00-Spray-Cleaner-Polish/dp/B004FSEJZA
I typically take a Sunday every 6 months or so to wash, polish, and wax my car. Meguiar's Ultimate Polish does a good job of getting out scratches when used with their drill-mounted Dual Action system. I can wash, remove scratches from, and wax a Crown Vic in about 3 hours. Then just use their relatively cheap Deep Crystal car wash every two weeks, and the wax will continue to bead consistently for several months. Amazing to think that I still have immaculate beading despite the fact that I last waxed my car in mid October.
G_Body_Man wrote: I typically take a Sunday every 6 months or so to wash, polish, and wax my car. Meguiar's Ultimate Polish does a good job of getting out scratches when used with their drill-mounted Dual Action system. I can wash, remove scratches from, and wax a Crown Vic in about 3 hours. Then just use their relatively cheap Deep Crystal car wash every two weeks, and the wax will continue to bead consistently for several months. Amazing to think that I still have immaculate beading despite the fact that I last waxed my car in mid October.
The Mequiar's drill mounted system pretty good? I'm on the fence thinking about getting that, as I don't wan't to store a harbor freight buffer (super limited space here). Although my prius really needs a good polishing / buffing. I'm also tempted to just pay for a pro to do it, as I never polished/buffed before and don't want to mess it up on a newish car. Anyways, when I had my Crown Victoria I loved to wash / wax it. I actually enjoyed it, something about the way that car shinned up, especially with the sport wheels.
PORTER-CABLE 7424XP 6-Inch Variable-Speed Polisher, velcro backing pad w/ Chemical Guys Hexlogic 7 pad set works great from heavy compounding to polishing. Retired the 7" Norton Ice 3 pad set (wool, med./ finish foam), while it was good it's just too big. P-C is right size and won't break the bank.
fasted58 wrote: PORTER-CABLE 7424XP 6-Inch Variable-Speed Polisher, velcro backing pad w/ Chemical Guys Hexlogic 7 pad set works great from heavy compounding to polishing. Retired the 7" Norton Ice 3 pad set (wool, med./ finish foam), while it was good it's just too big. P-C is right size and won't break the bank.
+1. The PC 7424 is da bomb!
Eagle 5 min detail, seems to release bug guts better than Meguiars.
I have the HF 6" random orbit polisher with some foam pads I got from AutoZone, and I like it a lot. I got mine for around $50 (pads are about $20 but can be had cheaper elsewhere), and that's not much more than the drill-based systems out there and it will actually work. I usually do 3M rubbing compound (or a clay bar treatment depending on the severity), Mother's Sealer/Glaze, and whatever decent wax I have on hand at the time. Lately, that's been Meguiar's Gold Class paste or Zymol liquid.
I did try Eagle One's Wax-As-U-Dry last weekend to get something on the car before the snow flies, and it worked well enough. It's no substitute for real wax, though.
Coldsnap wrote:G_Body_Man wrote: I typically take a Sunday every 6 months or so to wash, polish, and wax my car. Meguiar's Ultimate Polish does a good job of getting out scratches when used with their drill-mounted Dual Action system. I can wash, remove scratches from, and wax a Crown Vic in about 3 hours. Then just use their relatively cheap Deep Crystal car wash every two weeks, and the wax will continue to bead consistently for several months. Amazing to think that I still have immaculate beading despite the fact that I last waxed my car in mid October.The Mequiar's drill mounted system pretty good? I'm on the fence thinking about getting that, as I don't wan't to store a harbor freight buffer (super limited space here). Although my prius really needs a good polishing / buffing. I'm also tempted to just pay for a pro to do it, as I never polished/buffed before and don't want to mess it up on a newish car. Anyways, when I had my Crown Victoria I loved to wash / wax it. I actually enjoyed it, something about the way that car shinned up, especially with the sport wheels.
The drill system does the job way better than my old random orbital. The pads are really small, but polish and wax just go on like butter. If it's a new-ish car, I wouldn't really recommend polishing unless you're spot polishing scratches. What would really be good every 3-6 months or so would be a pass or two with this. It does what a clay bar does, just much faster and much easier. You have to use it with their surface lubricant so it glides nicely, but it takes all the extra fine surface deposits out of the paint before you wax so you're left with a glass-smooth finish.
Also, below is a bit of an expensive toy, but I'll never go back to a full hand wash again. I can wash the Crown Vic in 6 to 8 minutes with one of these!
I have always been afraid to use a pressure washer on car paint! What kind of pressure is being used and with what kind of nozzle to wet down and rinse? I have used the lower pressure electric pressure washers to clean fiberglass boat deck non skid but thought a pressure washer would eat any wax on a car or boat hull. Tell me more!
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