How often should I polish, seal and wax?

[Richard99]

Hi all. Am planning a marathon clean as soon as I get my car but wondered how often I should fully clean my car. I plan to wash, clay, polish(x2), seal and wax my car as soon as it arrives. I will then wash weekly after everyday use (car is garages at night). Just wondered how often I should top up wax and how often I should fully clean (wash, clay, polish, seal).

Thanks all

[alanstead]

Personally, I would only clay once a year, and only if really needed, and I polish my car twice a year, and wax it about every 4 months, but this all depends on the finish on the paint, sometimes it lasts longer, sometimes it doesnt! And I snowfoam the the car every week, and every fortnight I give it a good doing over with the wash mitt after I foam it. I think alot of people wash and polish and wax there cars too often and end up causing damage, which defeats the purpose. I washed my old car every week, and frequently mid week too, it was black and a right pain! But after two years of doing this the swirl marks were out of control! I've learnt from my errors, and when I got the roc I polished it and then HD waxed it, and it really didnt need claying as the paint was smooth as glass anyway. That was two months ago and the rain still beads perfectly on it, so when that stops, I'll wax it again, but not polish this time. But then probably polish the next time. And Im sure lots of people will tell you there routines too!!! I just feel that every time you rub the paint and wipe things over it that you chance damaging it as its so soft nowadays, and I'm lucky because I live in the country so dont suffer from much in the way of airbourne contamination.

[Richard99]

Thanks Alan. I was thinking about waxing each quarter and anticipating a full clean once a year so sounds like I'm not too far off the mark. Obviously water beading will be the giveaway! Have lambswool mits to wash with using 2 bucket method to hopefully keep swirl marks to a minimum.

[alanstead]

Good man, stay away from the terrible sponge, agh! I loved my black car, when clean it looked amazing, but I just couldnt deal with another one, so went for a blue Roc instead, it seems to keep cleaner looking, so far! We'll see when the road salt starts tho.

[Evil Derboy]

Wax away as much as you like but remember that polish is cuts the paint.

[autoperfection]

Hi Richard,

How often you wax the car depends on how well the car is prepped to start off with, and what sort of wax you're using. From the sounds of it, you have a pretty thorough prep planned for when the car arrives, so that should set you off in good stead. With the wax, you could get away with waxing once every six months if you're using something like Swissvax Divine and the car's maintained properly. Not all of us can afford to wax our cars with Divine though, so for most, it's good to aim to top up your wax about once every month - three months. This keeps the wax levels nice and high and makes sure the paint's as protected as possible.

Alan's right though - the more contact you have with the car, the more chance there is of inflicting damage, so a thorough wash regime and a good selection of high quality products are essential to keep the swirls at bay!

Hope this helps

Taryn and Jim

[Richard99]

Thanks Taryn and Jim. I'll be using r222 Wax which appears to be good(from reviews) but not that durable. So guess I may have to top up wax about one a month after a thorough wash.

[autoperfection]

R222 is a good wax - Jim rates it quite highly but you're right, it doesn't tend to last very long so you will need to keep it topped up well. As long as you enjoy getting outside and waxing your car a lot, that shouldn't be a problem!

All the best

Taryn and Jim

[wongy008]

for a more durable wax collinite 476 is worth a look. Hard wearing wax.

i use to use p21s/R222 but as you said it dont last long. But does give a good deep shine

I've been using 476 and the car still beads very well. Over the last week the dirt is still sliding off the paint

476 for the winter and im gonna save the r222 for the summer

[autoperfection]

Couldn't agree more Wongy - in terms of durability, there's not really very much that could compete with Collonite - one way to get the best of both worlds is to layer the products... get a couple of coats of collonite on to get a solid foundation on there, and then just keep topping up the R222 on a monthly basis to keep the gloss levels up

[wongy008]

yh i used to just use p21s. ive been buildin up the 476 now. everytime i was the car it gets a coat of collinite.

Its got 6 coats of the stuff now. the beading is awesome. Water just falls off the car. when the weather gets warmer ill add a few coats of R222.

For the winter i cant see much matching the collinite esp at the price it retails for