jonmerrick
Member
Reading the forum over the last few months I realise that I have not been looking after my cars (A2 and A6) as I should.
The forum has persuaded me to stop visiting the automatic car wash and I am pleased to relate that both cars are virgins in this respect. I did mistreat my A4 (now sadly gone) a few times in this regard and I did notice that the paintwork suffered.
How do I wash a car? From experience the only thing I have learned is never wash it while the metal is hot because you end up with watermarks – not a problem on say a silver car but definitely a problem where your car is black!
I use Teflon Simoniz as a shampoo (on the car that is – I prefer Head and Shoulders) which I like. I use the Turtlewax Canoba wax treatment for bodywork and wheels (the more expensive one – about £10 a bottle) and Autoglym glass polish for the Open Sky and all that glass. I have Autoglym high resin polish and Extra Gloss but have never opened the bottles (except once to polish up my old Omega) as I was told that polish thins the paint. I was told you should only use polish when the paint needed "livening up" – very rarely. I also have Autoglym alloy wheel cleaner but I have never used that either because I am worried it will strip the alloy coating.
It is clear from the Forum that a lot of contributors polish their cars as soon as they get them home from the showroom – so I think the advice I have received earlier may have been dodgy.
Any advice gratefully received and thanks.
Jon
The forum has persuaded me to stop visiting the automatic car wash and I am pleased to relate that both cars are virgins in this respect. I did mistreat my A4 (now sadly gone) a few times in this regard and I did notice that the paintwork suffered.
How do I wash a car? From experience the only thing I have learned is never wash it while the metal is hot because you end up with watermarks – not a problem on say a silver car but definitely a problem where your car is black!
I use Teflon Simoniz as a shampoo (on the car that is – I prefer Head and Shoulders) which I like. I use the Turtlewax Canoba wax treatment for bodywork and wheels (the more expensive one – about £10 a bottle) and Autoglym glass polish for the Open Sky and all that glass. I have Autoglym high resin polish and Extra Gloss but have never opened the bottles (except once to polish up my old Omega) as I was told that polish thins the paint. I was told you should only use polish when the paint needed "livening up" – very rarely. I also have Autoglym alloy wheel cleaner but I have never used that either because I am worried it will strip the alloy coating.
It is clear from the Forum that a lot of contributors polish their cars as soon as they get them home from the showroom – so I think the advice I have received earlier may have been dodgy.
Any advice gratefully received and thanks.
Jon