Which wax?

[DavidL]

I'm intrigued. Either I'm missing something or you lot have more spare time and/or dedication that me.

I'll admit I've never been a great car cleaner but I did clean one last night. I had some autoglym cleaner for xmas so used that.
Took the car for a quick spin afterwards to dry it a bit and the lower half was covered in dust to the point where I rinsed it off again.
Maybe its where I live which is quite rural and had it not been dry and sunny for the last few days then you could swap dust for mud.
The pics in this thread look great but the finish would last precisely half a mile around here and by the time I do a 20 mile work and back trip a clean car is no longer clean. Ok its not plastered but it would take more than a few minutes to return it to its former state.

And no I have neither the time or inclination do that. In anything like inclement weather all my cars are 2 tone unless they get cleaned very regularly. I clean under the cars far more than the sides - to my mind that will keep the rust at bay far better.

The only good thing I have to say about product is I have some wheel wax which I used on my CS alloys as soon as they came back from Lepsons. These wheels do clean easily now but they still get as dirty.

So is it just the environment, my desire (or others) for a clean car, the wrong products or what?

 

[supersport]

Personally I really enjoy cleaning my cars, always have done. I am slighlty OCD about a couple of things, and seeing a dirty car is one of them. This means that the daily is washed every week just to keep it clean.

Generally I give each car a once a year treatment where they are properly washed, clay bar, paint clense and then two coats of wax, wheels off and the same treatment, leather treated and plastic cleaned.

For the two Porsches this is fine as they live in a heated garage and it takes little effort to get them gleaming again, not that they ever get that dirty. The 911 is my p&j and so isn't used all winter and so only ever gets dusty. The 944 was a family car until recently so can sit dirty for longer and is used all year round if required. The daily lives outside.

The daily was done 8 months ago and now just requires a power wash and the clean with car bath and then drying off with a couple of micro fibres and even now she still looks fantastic. So if nothing else the wax makes cleaning easy.

I normally send the wife of for a weekend to her parents and then spend the two days doing the 911, the others I can do over a couple of days in the garage.

At the end of the day you have to enjoy these things, sadly I do []

 

[Motorhead]

The OPC gave me a Swissvax kit when I purchased the Cayman which included their "cheapest" Onyx wax. I'm not really into detailing as such but I like to keep the car looking good and I must say that I've enjoyed using the product (it smells terrific) but can't see me purchasing a replacement at £65 a throw. And although it's quite a large tub, it contains only 200ml (there's a false base!).

On fleaBay I found a (3.2 Carrera-owning) chap in Devon who imports a carnauba wax from the US called Harly Wax, which comes in a large 400ml tin. He includes a decent terry cloth applicator pad and, as a fellow Porsche enthusiast, threw in a couple of decent quality microfibre polishing cloths FOC, so I'm going to check it out this weekend. The only downside that I can see is that it's unscented and, presumably, just smells of......carnauba wax!

Here's and interesting value-for-money comparison:

Swissvax Onyx (200ml) - £32.50/100ml

Dodo Juice Hard Wax (250ml) - £13.20/100ml

Harly Wax (400ml) - £4.63/100ml

As Cliff Wilkins says, "use which ever one works for you and your budget".

Sound advice.!

Jeff

 

[CLIFFWILKINS]

Yes as said not nessasary but does go the extra mile if one so wishes or a
client insists on a glaze. Some glazes have a filler which can hide some of the dreaded swirls that all modern water based paints suffer from.
A good wash method is critical to avoid swirls.

 

[andy watson]

ORIGINAL: supersport

Personally I really enjoy cleaning my cars, always have done. I am slighlty OCD about a couple of things, and seeing a dirty car is one of them. This means that the daily is washed every week just to keep it clean.

Thank god! It's not just me []

Thanks for all your replies, very interesting I have been very happy with Zymol and the pot of wax has lasted me 10 years so really not that expensive.

I think I may have a try of the Dodo, seams to get good reports, certainly cheaper which all helps these days, especially when I have to help out doing the Tesco run[]

 

[Mike_Pollock]

dreaded swirls that all modern water based paints suffer from.

Saw a 997 C2S today with a double digit and single letter plate in Wellingborough in a nice metallic blue, but the swirl marks could be seen from 5 metres!

 

[kasspa]

R222 Carnauba Wax P21 was recommended to me & gives superb finish.... cheaper than Autoglym HD wax which I found to be good too!!

Purchased from cleanyourcar.co.uk

hth

paul

 

[Eldavo]

Permanon Platinum applied after a machine polish by rotary with Menzerna polishes.

 

[Copperman05]

I'm a strong believer that a clean car looks after itself so much better, although I too can get a bit OCD with it all. For me its a way of trying to preserve what I like about owning older cars whilst still using it as much as I can and wherever I can.

The only good thing I have to say about product is I have some wheel wax which I used on my CS alloys as soon as they came back from Lepsons. These wheels do clean easily now but they still get as dirty.

If you wax the car aswell it will also clean so easily next time round, and this is why we do it, what it wont do though is stop it getting dirty in the first place. (Wheel/car waxes/sealants that claim otherwise is marketing BS)


Edd