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THE MORE WORK YOU PUT INTO YOUR CAR’S SURFACE,
Proper care is vital to the health of a car’s finish (reprinted with permission from AMI Auto World Magazine, 4/2/02)
Washing Never, ever use a dishwashing detergent to wash your car. Craig Burnett, chief chemist for Mothers, a leading manufacturer of car care products in Huntington Beach, Calif., cautions, “Do not confuse kitchen soap with car wash. Dishwashing soap strips away grease and removes wax.” Wash the car in the shade with a quality non-detergent car wash soap. Rinse it first with cold water. This will help cool down the surface. Start at the top and wash down. Rinse often with a stream of water, not a spray. Never let the soapy lather dry on the surface. Use one sponge or wash towel for the roof, hood, trunk and fenders u to the belt line or peak molding in about the center of the doors. Use a different bucket of soap and water and a different towel, sponge or mitt for the area below the belt line. The reason is simple: More dirt and grit accumulate closer to the ground. Using the two-bucket method assures you will never grind dirt or grit from the road into the roof, hood or fenders.
Bennett uses two hands to wash. While the left hand holds the wash cloth or synthetic cut sponge, the right hand moves along the surface ahead of the wash towel. The idea is to feel for bonded contaminants – tree sap, road tar, insect splatter – on the surface that may require extra effort to remove. Such contaminants must e removed before waxing. Burnett advises that the wheels be rinsed and then washed with a good quality wheel wash to remove brake dust and grit. Never wash hot wheels. Use a brush to clean the inside of the wheel well. DANGER AT THE CAR WASH However, such condemnation of car washes is not a universal opinion. Mike Pennington, chief trainer a Meguiar’s of Irvine, Calf., says some car washes are “quite good.” Pennington believes hand washing is best, but says it depends on the car wash and hat methods they use. Obviously, brushes scratch and those long felt strips can carry the dirt from the dirty car ahead and grind it into the finish of your car. The important thing, Pennington points out, is to wash off road salt, dirt, bug splatter, exhaust missions and other contaminants before they damage the car’s finish. CLEAR COAT The import thing to know about clear coat is that it must be treated differently from older finishes. Abrasive polishes that worked very well on ld cars can dull and possibly ruin the clear coat. Check your owner’s manual to see which you have on your car. Or, you can test y putting some cleaner on a clean cloth and rubbing the painted surface in a hidden place. If the color comes into the cloth, you do not have a clear coat finish. PAINT CLEANERS Meguiar’s CEO Barry Meguiar tells professional detailers, “Unlike (claims made in) car wax commercials we see on TV, there is not any one product that will produce the best results on every car. What will work on one car may not work on another.” Meguiar says feeling the surface with a dry, bare hand is the best way to make a judgment about the smoothness of the finish. Meguiar says the surface must be as smooth as glass o et the best shine. Some defects can be removed with polish. Others may require professional buffing or even repainting. POLISH Bissett suggests wiping in the direction of the air as it flows over the car’s surface. Work quickly and do one area at a time. Never polish or wax the whole car then go back and wipe it off. He advises that you work on an area you can reach without moving your feet. Finish it and move on to the next area. Never use an abrasive polish on clear coat surfaces. Read the label carefully to make sure the polish you have chosen is right for your car. While you need to wash before every waxing, you may not need to polish every time if the surface is shiny and smooth. Professional auto painters warn against the use of silicone products on a repainted surface for at least 30 days. Once the paint is dry, silicone based products may be used.
How often you wax the car depends on conditions. Garaged cars are better protected from acid rain, tree sap and other contaminants; cars parked near an airport are subjected to emissions from planes. Near the ocean, the problem is salt spray. Wax should be applied quickly using a special pad. Never leave the wax on until it dries to a white glaze. Bissett wipes on, then wipes off with a light touch. Burnett warns to never use a natural chamois skin to damp towel a waxed surface. Burnett says it will actually remove wax. Burnett also advises that only 100 percent cotton terry cloth or micro-fiber towels be used to buff the wax coating. Whether you use a carnauba wax such as Zymol or blends like those formulated by Meguiar’s , Mothers and other companies, you need to do your homework about the products that will work best for your car – and follow the instructions carefully. You can best protect your car by hand washing when it is dirty o at least once a week, and by cleaning and waxing at least three to four times a year – more often if conditions are poor. For car care tips, check these Web sites: |
The tender loving care you give your car’s painted surface may be doing
costly damage to the layers of paint and ruining the shine you are trying to
protect. To find out what cars owners are doing wrong and what they should be
doing right, AMI Auto World interviewed several experts in car surface
protection. We discovered that while the experts don’t agree on many aspects of
detailing, the do all agree that washing the car correctly is the key to a long
lasting finish and a brilliant shine. 
Burnett warns that mitts, towels and sponges must be thoroughly cleaned
between washes. Chuck Bennett, CEO of Zymol Enterprises Inc., believes that all
wash mitts should be thrown away along with natural sponges and molded sponges.
“mitts hold the dirt and scratch the clear cot surface as you wash,” he says. 
WAX