Summer and car cleaning.

You might be on to something there, you know.

I get much more satisfaction from polishing the 75 than I do any of the modern cars. I can't be arsed polishing the 156 most of the time, and the Fiat has been polished once since I've had it - and that was only because I was thinking of selling it.

Whereas the 75, bar a couple of rusty bits, looks fantastic when polished. You need sunglasses to polish it, though, 'cos it's the whitest white ever. Think what it would be like to polish a fridge in bright sunlight and you get the idea.

I used to have a white Mercedes estate. That's a lot of white to polish...

I have discovered one break from the tedium this evening. It's a lovely, dry, cool evening, so I dug out the Simoniz wax. The stuff in a yellow tin. I'd forgotten the process for it, so I messed up my attempts to use it on the Sera by getting fed up of it, but I persevered with the wax and have a gleaming RX8 now.

Three coats on the bumper; more to go on the rest of the car later, but the bonnet - which is really hard to polish due to being thin aluminium

- now looks smooth and free of smears.

I'm wondering what combination of waxes works best these days. Back in the day I'd go for Turtlewax (now useless), Simoniz x 2, Autoglym then autoglym high gloss. Really long ago I used to have a blue polish which had a TVR logo on it, but I forget the brand; like whatever it was "Tyne Brand" became (the "No Gristle *thud* Guaranteed" commercials stuck in my head and will never leave).

But. Simoniz. Hard work, but still worth the effort, unless I'm rubbing all the paint off at the same time...

Richard

Always coat a car with at least 2 coats of MER a year, this protects from annoying bird lime and stuff that gets on your car, it will save lots of time in the long run, also coat the alloy wheels with wax, as the paint on the wheels is just as likely to suffer as the paint on your car.

Also older cars tended to be painted with base colours, this makes polishing much nicer as more effort equals more shine, this doesn't really happen on newer cars with new paint procedures and so many metallic's around :(

Chrome plus base colour like a nice red or black will shine like you won't believe with plenty of effort, like the Audi's new Misano Red, this colour is just amazing :)

2 coats of Mer (I can't stand that stuff; most of the dealers used to use it, but I find the finish and smell just... meh) a year? Bugger than, the RX is waxed twice a month! Which is a return to form for me, really (the Beetle would be lucky if it was waxed twice a year, and I always got bored with it) - though the Chevette, X1/9 and Manta (and probably cars in between; the BX16RE always looked like new) always got waxed before I went out, so they'd probably be waxed on a Friday and Saturday. I'd maybe leave off waxing the Manta and Chevette's underbonnet if I was in a rush, but both cars you could study the sides of the engine in the inner wings.

Yeah, clearcoat has killed the quality of finish you get on a car :(

It'll still be clearcoat, though...

Richard

Nah I mean 2 coats plus your regular waxing

Yup

Yeah but you can still make it shine, better than a mettalic colour :)

Also look at a clean Nogaro Blue car, damn fine imo

The 206 been a pearl paint is *damn* shiny when waxed. Granted, I've only ever waxed it once, and that was the other day, but by christ, it isn't half still shiny.

And Meguiars is the best. Although I'm a bit pikey cos I don't really care enough, and use TurtleWax.

Their TechWax in the purpley bottle with green lid is very good i reckon- goes on easy, and more importantly, polishes off easily. :)

Tim..

Mer is no better at protecting from bird lime than any other wax

Clearcoat can look stunning, clay bar treatment followed by a light swirl filling glaze then a good carnuba wax on top.

The trouble with clearcoat finishes is that they never end up looking rubbish even if you never clean them unlike older paints which would visibly degrade over time.

Yea I've used Mer before as well and wondered what all the fuss was about.

Traders like it because it goes on wet cars, and 'can be used on glass' (except it can't, windscreens with Mer on might look good in a showroom but they're foul in wet weather).

Richard

You mean no need to chammy it after washing, just quickly slap on a couple of mer coats and job jobbed?

Basically, though it's not a good finish IMO. Shiny, but no depth. I much prefer the now 4 coats of original Simoniz making my RX8 look shiny. I might give the Meguiars NXT a go, since so many people enthuse about it, but there's something satisfying about properly waxing the car. Maybe the fact that it feels slightly tacky for a while makes you sure you're putting /something/ on the paint.

Richard

I haven't tried the NXT. I use the ordinary basic cleaner wax paste. the paint is pretty chipped so I want a nice simple protecting coat. Works well. beads nicely in the rain, and lasts about 2-3 washes which is usually how often I replace it.

Might try some of the more Hi-tech pastes or creams from megs.