How Often Polish and Wax?

[Snoopcousins]

Can someone please clear this up for me....
How often should you polish/wax your car?

The reason Im asking is coz im wondering should I just be washing/drying my car weekly (as im doing anyway) but im always tempted to do more, especially when i see swirls. Obviously polishing will remove previous wax etc.?

At the minute I would detail the car properly using all the steps, clay/polish/wax about once every 3 or 4 weeks.

Cheers...

 

[Kam]

The way I do it and from what I have read is that you only really need to breakdown the wax and do a proper clay and polish session about twice a year - Early spring after the winter to remove grit and grime and autumn to prepare for the winter grit and grime. If you do these two sessions properly and apply some good wax protection say every couple of weeks, then that should be enough.

 

[Knigh]

You know when your car needs waxing - when the rain does not bead on the car (bit difficult at the minute I know) but when you wash the car the water should bead up somewhat and not just sit on the car. If it does then a waxing session is in order.

 

[mark@carsparkle]

Hi,

normally most people would polish their car approx every 4-6 months as within that time period a nominal amount of contaminants may have been asorbed into the wax layers and risk adhering to the paintwork.

As for wax, whenever you think its worthwhile really. I normally wax the car the same frequency as I wash the car just to 'top up' the wax and deepen that shine. Normally Carnauba based waxes give a high gloss look from the outset but you can increase that depth of shine by applying successive layers of wax. Also all car shampoo's contain very low levels of salt that while being designed to be wax friendly may still remove layers of wax at the micron level.

Clay barring is something I would do at the same frequency as polishing though to be honest you should really only do it if the paintwork feels rough. This can be further tested by wrapping cellophane around your fingers (ie the stuff that packages CD's / DVD's / ciggy boxes and slowly glide your fingers down the paintwork - the cellophane amplifies the sensitivity you can get a better idea if the paintwork is rough enough to justify a clay bar session.

HTH

Mark

 

[TDi Dave]

Do we still get a discount from Carsparkle? If so could someone point me in the right direction for the code?