When was the last time you gave your car a polish?
I took some pictures of the wife car and the youth car tonight after changing to winter tires and polishing both cars. It is not easy to take good pictures in a half-dark garage. With the camera set to ISO 3200, the images become a bit grainy.
There are many opinions about what constitutes proper car care. You could say that the more time you spend, the better the result. Because it's not just about making the paint clean and shiny, but also making it withstand sun, rain, salt and pollution until the next time you have to treat the paint. If you choose the shortcut, drive through the car wash with a polish programme, it will only last until the next time you wash the car. If you apply liquid polish by hand to dry paint, it will probably last all winter.
Real car enthusiasts swear by the "full package". First, the paint is cleaned with cleaning fluid, possibly with light rubbing on small scratches and matted surfaces. Polish is then applied which cleans, refreshes the color and gives shine. Finally, the car is rubbed in with protective wax. In this process, all operations are important. If you apply wax without cleaning and sanitizing the varnish properly, you only encapsulate the impurities. If you clean the paint with a paint cleaning product without applying protection, the paint becomes more vulnerable than ever. Full package requires you to set aside a whole day per car, depending on how good the drying conditions are.
I have tried several car care products over the years. Polish from Turtle Wax easily leaves streaks - small, but annoying enough that I have to redo parts of the job. In addition, it cleans so poorly that you need pre-treatment with a lacquer cleaner. I also cannot recommend car care products from Biltema, even if they are cheap. It doesn't matter much to save a couple of hundred on the products, when it's actually your own effort that is the most expensive part of the job.
I think Autoglym gives good results without being too labor intensive. But unfortunately none of the remedies from Autoglym last very long. I prefer Autoglym Super Resin Polish. It is basically an all-in-one product that cleans the paint from oxidation, dirt and salt, as well as containing abrasives and preservatives. It is recommended to seal the treated varnish with Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection, which, among other things, contains quail and smells quite good. The sealer works, but the effect is so short-lived that I don't think it's worth the extra effort to apply it. If you have your car parked outside a lot, I would still consider adding a layer. You can possibly refresh the seal after a couple of months.
For the youth car, I often use pennies from spring boat cleaning, preferably products that both clean and protect in one. They work well on car paint too, and give a good shine that lasts a long time - longer than the usual car care products. But I don't want to use it on new cars.
There are no shortcuts to polishing a car. It must be washed and dried so that the drops do not leave lime stains. Then you need to apply the polish with smooth circular movements. In order for it to give the best possible result, the polish should dry properly before it is rubbed off/in. Here it is quite important that the car, or parts of the car, are not in direct, hot sunlight - although the low autumn sun is not very dangerous. Remember that it must be at least 10 degrees in the air, otherwise you must stand indoors.
The last part of the job consists of sifting over the paint to find areas where the polish has not been rubbed in properly. I keep going until I can't find a single spot. I consider this last part a pure reward, quality time with the car, because you get plenty of time to enjoy the result. And then you can do like me, take some pictures of the donnings before they roll out into the muddy autumn weather again.
🙂 A freshly polished car is guaranteed to rain - never fails
See
