Holy Crap, I finally get it why people can spend hours cleaning their cars.
 

You poor people, I have been misunderstanding you lot for decades now. I always thought spending hours washing cars was a waste of money and time, turns out I just lived in car care nirvana. I didn't need to touch my car and it was always clean, because there was nothing to actually make it dirty.

Well I've moved, and holy crap my car can't stay clean. It doesn't help that I have to park it under a gigantic tree of some sort that spits crap on it all the time. I finally understand what waxing is meant to do. It is to the point I might actually try and figure out what car soap to buy and all that other stuff. I never thought I would ever get to this point. It wasn't even this bad when I lived in central florida, but it seems NC is just dirty. I don't want to do this but it beats spending $40 every few weeks paying someone to clean it for me.

Mine gets washed at least twice a week through the summer and sometimes as much as 3 a week in the winter (winter ones are just a drive through the touchless).
I just use the Turtle Ice line of products and have been very happy with them.

You probably remember my Yaris/Vios and the whole write up I did on detailing cars (sucks that was thrown out with the Micro Image forum). If you happened to have archived it, look back and see what products I suggested.

You can't go wrong with Sonax. If you do the bucket wash method, make sure you get grit guards for the buckets. A foam gun is also nice to have.

I'm a huge fan of Detailer's Domain.
https://www.detailersdomain.com

The water here is terrible, so I got an inline water softener from http://www.purewaterproducts.com

To offset the length of time spent during a full wash (everything besides polish), I wash it less. I've only washed my car 3 times this whole year, compared to maybe 10-11 times last year (bought the car in June '15).
Then again, I'm not as caring toward how my car looks now vs how it runs.

If I have a free weekend and have a buddy alongside, then 4-5 hours go by pretty fast. :D

Now that the weather is nice I have to wax mine. The sun here will destroy the clear coat, wax pays big time in the long run. I'm thinking I might clay bar it and wax it.

I washed my car this weekend. This time of year we get less rain and when we do get a sprinkle, it just deposits black grime and tree droppings on my car. Plus the morning dew makes her dirty too. I use Garage One Gold, it has a soft wax in the soap and works really well for a regular car wash. If I really want to get her clean, I do the interior with Garage One plastic cleaner, chrome polish for the tips, tire cleaner and armor all the plastic outside.

I recommend getting a gallon-size of Meguiar's "Shampoo Plus", which is a bulk detailer shampoo, and mix it with a squirt of Chemical Guy's Citrus Wash and Gloss. Makes a really cool green color soap when you mix the two. This combo saves me a ton of money in the long run because I wash a lot of cars.

Also the Chemical Guy's 5-item detailing bucket kit is perfect if you need some starter wash products.

I think I actually remember the thread. You are very much in the 6 hour super detail team, and your car always looks amazing. Of course you are also an excellent photographer too, so that helps.


I am in your camp. My Yaris I might have washed twice in the decade I've owned it, and that was because of love bugs in Florida. Kaotic probably remembers some of my epic rants towards people who spent 5 or 6 hours cleaning and detailing their cars on Yarisworld. My car was just literally never ever dirty. I use to make fun of them a lot.

But here if it is not tree sap, which it almost always is, it is flower petals or just dirt and dust or bird droppings or some other disgusting thing I just cannot identify. It really is an entire different world. I don't really care what people think about how it looks, but I don't want to damage the paint job. Maybe it just means I need to save money and carbon fiber everything. Hmm, where can I find an extra $50k? I've received more compliments about this car since I've moved down here. Really funny stuff.

Holy Crap, I finally get it why people can spend hours cleaning their cars.


They've been married for more than three years?