How do you guys keep your cars so clean?

[TheBestCow]

You guys live up in the cold north, obviously salt on the roads and generally not as easy to wash your cars I would assume, and yet your cars look gorgeous compared to mine.

What am I doing wrong? I've got a soft mit, Meguiar's soft car wash gel... I hose the car down, grab the mit, do one panel at a time... and yet, it looks like crap.

I guess I just need new paint ... sigh, that'll never happen.

[Gamite]

Has your car been exposed to a lot of sunlight? Do you keep yoru car in a garage?

[TheBestCow]

Thanks for the response-

I've only had the car for a year this July ... it sits out in the sunlight while I'm at work, school, normal activities, but has been in the garage almost since I've had her.

The previous owner either didnt care about the car, or something, or maybe the hood was egged, because something has eaten through the clear coat in small spots. There are some white spots about 1 cm in diameter on the trunk/roof too, but not a lot.

I generally meant whenever I wash it, it just doesn't look amazing. Slightly annoying...

[Softy]

Washing is only 1/10th of the battle. Polishing is the most important. Then waxing to protect and really bring out the shine. I hardly ever wash my car without slapping on an addition layer of glaze on it since most washes wash away parts of the protective layer as well as the dirt.

[e36_freak]

i tend to wash my car every other day (unless it's raining)

i then wax my car once a week.......

[Dirtyman]

i do the same as e36 freak, wash it weekly and after i dry it with my shammy, i give it a quick spray on, wipe off wax. I prefer Eagle One 'Fast Wax w/ Carnauba'. keeps me shinin

http://www.maxbimmer.com/forums/show...=&threadid=345

all i used was that Eagle one!

[HaBiTaT]

i hog the garage, so keeping it in the garage helps a lot.

[TheBestCow]

Rob -- really? Wow... interesting!

I've posted that problem on several boards and never gotten a response on what it was! That's very interesting .. of course I didn't do that (heck no)! I take it there is nothing I can do other than repaint? I was thinking jet black... then I thought, heck, not alot of people have modded boston metallics...

[AzN_E46]

my car is never waxed or polished


i wash the car when i kno(weather forecast) that it wont rain and if it's clean it usually wont be driven in the rain.......wanna keep it clean.

[Dluxazn58]

thebestcow....

actually this is quite simple...

all you have to do.. is
only take pictures of your car right after it has been washed and waxed and polished... and even then, only take pics from angles which your car looks best in...

next for those not so great angles.. try to do it with direct sunlight on the... "blemishes" so that when the pic comes out.. theres that nice shine right on the blemish... so people will never know...

my car looks like shit too..

[330DTM]

Now that winter is over, I usually wash my car at least once a week or every other week.
In addition, I clay, polish then wax. After that No need to wax the car for another 4-5 months because the wax i use stays on for that long

Therefore I just wash it every week or other week.

Same process all over again when I feel that the wax has worn out and I can feel some nitty gritty on the body.

[Furious]

Originally posted by TheBestCow
You guys live up in the cold north, obviously salt on the roads and generally not as easy to wash your cars I would assume, and yet your cars look gorgeous compared to mine.

What am I doing wrong? I've got a soft mit, Meguiar's soft car wash gel... I hose the car down, grab the mit, do one panel at a time... and yet, it looks like crap.

I guess I just need new paint ... sigh, that'll never happen.

i think most of us are pretty car crazy in here,, i wash my car at least every other day or every 3rd day,,in the winter time i still try to find at least twice a week to wash,, i wax my car about every other week,, and try to put my car in the garage as much as possible,,,