so i just got my 98 mustang this week and the day after i got it, it snowed. well now its covered in salt and all kinds of stuff. im not really sure how to get it off cause its really cold and i cant wash it. also i dont know what kind of order i should do things. theres a wash a wax idk what to do to polish and or clay bar thing.

some one help what should i do?

 

spray that car off! then dry it right after. man up and brave the cold. do it quick...salt is bad bad bad.

 

yeah i tried that and the car froze. but it was like 10 outside and i didnt dri quick enough

 

just go to the self wash and spray all the salt off, dont matter if it freezes ice isnt as bad as salt, do it at least 1-2 times a week

 

yeah ok ill start to give that a try.

 

so i just washed my car and it looks good now. but it needs really bad, im kinda afraid to do it tho. ive never done a wax be4 and some one told me that if i do it and the car is not clean enough that it will ground the left over dirt in perminatly, is this true and do i have any thing to worry about,
thanks

 

waxing your car is not going to work in the cold the wax is not going to dry. so unless you have a heat garage its not going to dry.

 

1Z Glanz Wax can be applied in temps as low as 0*. It is a synthetic wax.

 

I have to have my stang as a DD so I wash her (spray off salt, snow, ice, crap....) 2-3 times/wk and hand wash once/wk. Damn NY salt and snow!

 

Hi Tristang, I can give you some pointers on keeping your car looking nice.


Now we've all seen the dreaded swirl marks, but a lot of people dunno how they get there! The main reason you get swirls on your car is from washing your car. Yep thats right, cleaning your car will put swirls in it if you don't do it right. You were right Tristang about if you try to wax a dirty surface, you will grind dirt into the paint, thats exactly where swirl marks come from.


Think about it, if you are washing your car and you drop the sponge and then pick it up again, it just picked up all the dirt that was on the ground, so if you go back to washing your car, you are rubbing the surface of your paint with dirt that was on the ground! Now there are several things that you can do to try to prevent swirls from appearing on your car.

When washing your car, soap suds are great, its just like in an engine where the oil lubricates the parts and keeps a thin film on the metal so that the metal itself isnt rubbing and its just "floating" ontop of the oil, I dunno if that made sense, but the foam acts like the oil but on your paint. The more foam you have, the better what you are using to scub the car "floats" and doenst grind into the paint. I think you've already figured it out by what I said so far, but rubbing is bad, you want to just put mild pressure on it. It doesnt take much to losen the dirt from the paint, it really takes no force at all!

Before you take any object to the surface, take the hose (not pressure washer) and spray the entire car down and try to dislodge any dirt thats on the car including in the wheels and wheel wells. Obviously the less amount of dirt you have on the surface, the less of a chance to grind it into the surface!


Heres the proccess I do to wash the car: Tires and wheels first, I use a stiff brissle brush to scrub the tires, I usually just use something like fantastic or some simple green diluted 5:1 in a bottle and then with about 2 gallons of water and car wash mixed up, use one of the cheap walmart sponges to do the wheels. I like this better than using a brush because for one, unless you have cheap-o wheels a brush will most likely scratch your coating on the wheel, and second, the walmart brush is easy to get between the holes in the wheel to do behind it!

Then I spray all the wheels down with the hose and go inside, dump out my bucket of dirty car wash stuff that I used to clean the wheels, rinse it out a few times, then fill it up again with 3-4 gallons and now im ready to do the painted parts of the car. I like to start at the top and work down, so generally in order : roof, all the glass, hood, trunk, then all the sides and then wash it down.


One of the best tools they say to use is a wash mitt made out of wool, or sheep skin (with the fur still on it). Thats what I use, but from what I've herd, the next in line is one of those cheap-o walmart sponges which you can get for like .67 cents at walmart! When mixing the bucket you only need 2-3 cap fulls of soap to do a good 3 gallons of water, I like to keep the water warm just so my hand doesnt freeze ( *cough* this winter) and then stick your hand in and just kinda mix it up.



You have a few choices when drying: one is a shami which could be synthetic or natural, the synthetic ones are made out of stuff that a wet suit that you would wear when diving would have, and a natural one is leather off some animal, I think a cow? I like the synthetic over the natural because its easier to work with. Also a squeegee! I like to use both, squeegee then shami to get everything that the squeegee didnt get.



Okay, that was a lot of typing and I'm not done yet! That was just washing and were not near to being done! Now we have WAX which everyone has herd of and a SEALANT!

Sealant - Pros : lasts 6-12 months!!! Super easy to apply!! Cons: Doesnt look as "warm"

Wax - Pros: Looks better, has a warm look and makes the car look like it was glazed! like you take the car as if it were a doughnut and dip it in the hot pot of liquid sugar and pull it out, thats kinda what the car looks like after you wax it! haha Cons: lasts 1-4 months, harder to apply



You would probably do best with sealant so basicly you should read the directions on the bottle, but it takes VERY LITTLE infact only a few drops can do an entire car!!! I don't want to tell you the wrong proccess on applying sealant so just read the directions on the bottle.

With Wax, its usually the same, (this also doesnt take very much to apply, the more you use, the sooner the manufacturer will make money of the next can of wax you have to buy from them, more wont make it look better) you buff it on and then let it haze and then buff it off.


With wheels you can also use a wax/sealant on to aid in cleaning them next time and also make them look better. With the tires you can use a spray that makes the tires look wet. Its good to use a rubber conditioner on the trim to prolong its life and also make it look better also.


Rags - NO!!! dont use rags, the best thing and the only thing you should let touch the surface of the car are "special" rags which are called microfiber! Yes!!!! Don't worry though, they arent 10 bucks each, you can go to walmart and in teh car care section, they should sell some. its like 5 bucks for 12 of them. You can wash these "rags" but dont use softener on them because not only do they not scratch, but they also are good at asorbing stuff. When you are buffing off the wax, using a cotton (another cloth you can use) rag works well too. Walmart also sells cotton ones next to the microfiber ones. You can use a cotton shirt I guess but its your decision!


I think I've went over all the questions you had, a full detail can take 8 hours -5 days depending on the job and size of the car your doing, so if you think this is a long proccess, you dont know long yet!

 

haha ok thanks man, that was really good. im getting much better at washing it, and i guess i have to wait for it to get warmer befor waxing it. thanks,

 

finaltheorem47 not bad info, but it seems its geared towards very FEW products. For example, how much soap to use with how much water, well that depends on the brand. Your statement about wax being harder to apply also isnt true for every wax out there. Same goes for how you said to apply/ remove it.

As far as cloths, you need to use quality microfiber. Crappy microfiber can scratch paint too.

 

When its cold out, this is how I wash my car. I just did it today.

I washed my wheels, used a microfiber pad to scrub out the grime, brake dust etc. Used a teflon wheel cleaner. Rinsed down the car, using Meguiars Gold Glass car wash, I washed from the top down, rinsing after every section with free flowing water (helps aid the drying process).

As you know already, drying a car is a pain in the *** to say the least. I don't do this when its nice outside, but when im pressed for time, and hypothermia is setting in. I use a leaf blower. I use this to get most of the water out of the hard spots, (trunk lid, lugs in the wheels, hood scoop etc) and it gets most of it. After, i use a microfiber drying towel to dry the spots i could get to. I then clean the windows, use my Mothers Back to Black for my chin spoiler, side mirrors etc. Then i dress up my tires using Meguiars Hot Shine Gel, using a microfiber pad. I then use a spray detailer to maintain my wax, and keep up the shine. Looks great for now. It'll probably snow or rain tomorrow. :-P.

 

whenever I spend a decent amount of time makin her shine IT ALWAYS rains the next day. I have the worst luck, but I love keeping her clean!

 

yeah thats my problem now i clean it and then it got frosted and water spoty. i think its not staying clean because it needs wax bad but i guess its to cold for that. and the day after i clean it it gets covered in a fine dust. and it looks dirty up close.

 

Hey man....just do what I do....take it to a car wash. I take my new car to a touchless car wash about once a week to once every two weeks. You won't hurt anything. This is a car you drive and not a trailer queen. Then, in the spring, treat it properly to a proper cleaning and a wax. No worries.

 

I disagree, the soap from car washes seems to be A LOT stronger then a properly mixed soap you'd use on a maintained car.

Like I said in a previous post, there are products out there that can be used in temps as low as 0*.

 

We are talking about a 10 year old car, not a new Ferrari. Sounds to me like the guy is new to cars and just wants to keep it clean. There are good car washes out there and ones that are not so good. Using a decent car wash in between a good wax/cleaning is fine. I use these on my DD's all the time, though not my stang, but my stang does not see snow and get driven only 4k miles a year.

I think it is far better to keep the snow and salt off rather then fret and wait until you can get to it by hand.

If you try to use one that uses Ecolab products you willl 100% fine.

If it is a show-quality car, then a car wash is generally not a good idea.

 

Guess I wasn't clear enough. That statement is not true.

Who cares how old it is, you should still take care of it right.

I never said it wasnt.

 

yeah thanks guys. umm i guess ill keep it clean and wait till its warmer and i can wax it.

 

You must not be reading my posts?

 

oh about the wax u can use in the cold, yeah im looking into that. how do i know a quality miro fiber when i see one. and i use that for just buffing and drying or jsut buffing. ive been useing a shami for drying. and ware should i look for that wax and is it a good quality.

 

oh i just saw that u said the name of that wax. haha

 

Microfiber- you want to know what its composed of, how plush is it, durability, etc. Microfiber is the only thing that should touch your paint. Your wash mitt doesnt have to be microfiber however.

For wax you should look at durability, ease of use, price, what it does it do to the paint, does it have polymers in it, does it have beeswax in it, what is the Carnauba content, etc.

 

Dan, all I am saying is that while you are probably technically correct, you also need to be realistic and consider the time and cost involved. I have three cars and if I took care of them in the manner in which you described, I would never have time to spend with my kids. Yet, my cars all look pretty dam good. There is always a trade-off.

 

wait to wax the car until spring especially if your in a snow climate why waste all that time when the second you take your car out again your going to have sand, salt and dirt on it. Just wash it down and be done with it until spring

 

One of the most important times to make sure you have protection on the car is during winter. Just because salt and sand gets on the paint doesnt mean the wax disappears. Wax isnt only for looks, its to protect the paint too.

 

steeda97 i used a leafblower the other day and figured i was the first one ever.. i guess there are many people out there with the same awesome ideas

 

well i dont care what the grounhog says its done snowing. so it will get nice soon i hope. i have miguiars liquid cleaners wax. ( yes, no, what do u think of it?)
and ive been keepin up with washing it. i guess ill get a micro fiber for buffing and i guess my shammi is fine for drying. 03gt is a shammi ok to touch the paint? i think it is.

 

here is what i do. i try to keep my cars as cleen as i can in the winter and as soon as it gets nice out i take my car to a shop and have a pro. detail done on it inside and out. cousts more but is worth every dime in the long run.