What is the best way to keep the paint looking new? I want to avoid
getting those fine scratches in the paint. What is the best way to keep
the paint in good shape when washing my new VW?
-Drew
LizardC…@aol.com
"I Love my VW" 96 GTI VR6, Surf Green
26
Feb
Washing my VW?
LizardCrap wrote:
> What is the best way to keep the paint looking new? I want to avoid
> getting those fine scratches in the paint. What is the best way to keep
> the paint in good shape when washing my new VW?
> -Drew
> LizardC…@aol.com
> "I Love my VW" 96 GTI VR6, Surf Green
Don’t go through a car wash, and always hand wash it with a soft cotton sponge.
I asked my favorite service guy what he recommended to keep my ’85 Cabrio
pretty. He said to use a cotton cloth and Woolite (and yes absolutely
no runs through automatic carwashes!). By the way, he also recommended
the kitchen "BonAmi" to keep the soft top clean.
I follow his advice religiously, and the only ‘automatic carwash’ I
use is to ask Honey to wash my car for me…..!
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** ** MULDER: "The truth is out there, Scully."
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** ** SCULLY: "Yeah, and so are lies."
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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -
On Sun, 2 Jun 1996, Charles T. Collier wrote:
> LizardCrap wrote:
> > What is the best way to keep the paint looking new? I want to avoid
> > getting those fine scratches in the paint. What is the best way to keep
> > the paint in good shape when washing my new VW?
> > -Drew
> > LizardC…@aol.com
> > "I Love my VW" 96 GTI VR6, Surf Green
> Don’t go through a car wash, and always hand wash it with a soft cotton sponge.
In article <31B12DBC.6…@iglou.com> "Charles T. Collier" <ccoll…@iglou.com> writes:
> LizardCrap wrote:
> > What is the best way to keep the paint looking new? I want to avoid
> > getting those fine scratches in the paint. What is the best way to keep
> > the paint in good shape when washing my new VW?
> > -Drew
> > LizardC…@aol.com
> > "I Love my VW" 96 GTI VR6, Surf Green
> Don’t go through a car wash, and always hand wash it with a soft cotton sponge.
Ditto. Never, ever go through an automatic carwash. Touchless or not,
there is always the possibility of contaminated water (sand, chemicals, etc).
Wash your car at home by hand with a real sponge, i.e., the ones from the ocean.
When selecting a soap, you really can’t go wrong. Never buy the powdered, el
cheapo stuff — always buy the concentrate liquid. You’ll also need to get
a high quality chamois…make sure it’s genuine leather. The synthetic stuff
traps way too much dirt.
Here’s a quick run-down of my procedure (other’s will vary):
– Place car in shady area.
– Hose down everything including wheel wells, under carraige, etc.
(Try not to use the highest pressure setting of the nozzle, as
the added pressure w/ sand can induce scratching of the paint.)
– Fill up a spotless bucket with soap and water. No need to produce
a bubble bath.
– Try to match the water temp to the car’s surface temp.
– Soak sponge, and proceed to clean roof, hood, hatch, and sides
in that order. Chances are you won’t be able to do it all in one
shot without having the soap dry up. Instead do a section at a time,
then rinse thoroughly and repeat. Make sure you frequently reapply
soap/water to the sponge…see next item. (Note: Do not use sponge
on the wheels!!)
– Always dip the sponge back into the soap and squeeze it under water
in order to eliminate as much dirt from the pores as possible. That
way, the dirt falls to the bottom of the bucket.
– Make sure sections of the car do not dry up, as it will produce spots
if you have hard water.
– When car is soaped and rinsed, dump soapy/dirty water and refill
bucket with clean water (no soap). Insert chamois and let sit until
it softens (if it is hard to start with).
– Proceed to chamois the car (in same order as the soaping) with long
smooth strokes. No need to use a circular motion, and keep the force
to a minimum.
– Wring out the chamois every few passes.
– Occassionally re-submerge the chamois in the clean water to eliminate
any fine dirt particles.
– Your car should now be spotless, except for your wheels.
– If you wash your car every 1-2 weeks, the brake dust which accumulates
on the wheels will wipe off with ease. No soap, no chemicals. Simply
use a damp cotton rag with a dry cotton rag to follow. Do not use
the rags for anything else other than cleaning your wheels.
Pheww…there’s a lot more that I’m not even going to attempt to write
out. Waxing is an art. Use only the *best* wax. I like Zymoel the best, but I
also like Mother’s and Raindance (back in my experimental days…it was definitely
not bad for a cheaper wax). You’ll want to wax your car every 4 months depending
on the environmental conditions in your area. Long exposure to the sun (UV rays)
is very bad and good waxes give pretty good protection (not 100% though). Also,
we all know what sand and salt does in the winter. Use your best judgement, and
remember that a good coat of wax can never hurt.
One other thing. Many people like to use Armor All products. I just have
one comment. Use at your own risk. I never use them, as there are *much* better
protectants out there. (Believe it or not Raindance is an Armor All product…one
of the very few I liked.)
Wow…what I thought would be a quicky paragraph turned into a thesis.
Sorry for the length…feel free to email.
Keep it clean…
Jonathan Zimmitti
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