I waxed my car for the first time this weekend. I used two coats of meq's gold class liquid wax, and my black g37x coupe looked amazing. Needless to say ive falled twice as in love with my car as i was before.

If i were to one day not have time to hand wash my car, will i be able to safely take my car to a touchless car wash (such as the ones attached to shell gas stations)? And if so, will any product they use in the wash effect my wax (besides the obvious wear of the water).

 

Did u really find Gold Class wax to be that nice? I used it on my BO g37s and i didnt like it. Even there NXT wax was better

 

really? you didnt like it? I thought it looked amazing. But thats relative, since it is the first wax i have ever used. I left my black g lookin gloss and deep. Im going to try the nxt 2.0 when im done this bottle. How did you apply it? did you prep the paint?

 

nope. the pressure of the water jets will do a number on your paint with or without the wax. I mean you want like 15PSi pressure washing your car... those brushless ones are like 500. which can pretty much rip vinyl off your car. I do like one aspect of the automated washers. it's the dryers. Man how nice that'll be when I put one in my garage one of these days... will never have to "dry" my car ever again.


I mean shoot put a microfiber in hot water and then let it dry, the "clean" microfiber can micro-mar the crap out of your car (microfiber is a polyester weave; you only want to wash in cold water or else the heat will cause the polyester fibers to "melt" and harden)

I mean realistically, if it matters for you, just leave it dirty... rather than risk going through an automated. if it doesn't matter.. well no need to spend the time waxing your car.

I don't know how much time you need to wash your car tho. After protecting my paint, I can can bust out washes in 20-30 minutes. and it's still glassy smooth for 2-3 months (I wash every 3 weeks.) and then I re-apply the wax.

 

One thing worth noting is that touchless cars washes use strong detergents (along with recycled water). Those harsh detergents will reduce the longevity of your paint protection. A typical Carnuba only lasts about 4-6 weeks to begin with, so that number will be less if you use the touchless car washes.

 

I've used the touchless car wash once or twice and I'm not overly impressed. It's fine if you want to get the bulk of dirt and salt off the car but it will never remove the dirty film that can only be cleaned with a soapy mitt or cloth. The end result is good enough for a basic "refresh" but you'll be disappointed if you want it shiny and clean.

Also from my experience the water pressure is not an issue but I agree that the detergents need to be harsher and if the solution is too strong it's not great for your car but I would think that these detergents have improved over the years.

 

I guess if its the first wax you used it'll look better than nothing. I have applied with by hand and by orbital buffer. I usually clay bar the paint between waxes.

 

3 words ....."Don't do it"...use ONR instead

 

fair enough, ill just wash the car myself, its cold here right now, too cold to wash and i do not have a heated garage, ill wait a few days till it warms up and wash it myself.

 

yeah there really isn't a good way to go about it. some of the no rinse stuff is pretty good but they dont' work if it's really dirty.

 

ya, with the all the sand and snow on the road, the car gets dirty very fast (its also black so it gets visibly dirty instantly). It pains me to let her sit there like that, but i guess i have to.