mightyslash

How often do you wax it? Can I wax it every two or three weeks (I wash my car every week)? Or is that too often

richelesro

I wash my car every 1-2 weeks. I wax the car when the water doesn't bead completely. About every 4-5 weeks.

lone wolf

I wax it every 6 months.

mightyslash

?

1stand3rd

I give a full blown polish and wax twice a year ,and too many 'quick detailing' sessions to keep count.

Toadman

Beading is when water forms bubble-droplets(cohesion) and rolls off the vehicles hood, roof and hatch. Wax seals the paint and "resists" the adhesion of water.

Didn't they teach you that at the carwash??

mightyslash

It's been two weeks since I detailed my car and now I feel like waxing it, LOL.

richelesro

If you dump water on your car and it slides off, then the wax is good. Not all of it will come off, however, and if the wax is good, it will "bead," meaning that it will form generally round puddles or bubbles. If you have long streaks of water that is more of a film than a bubble, you need to wax.

rxrx7

About every 4-5 months.

mightyslash

ok, I'll dump water on it now

Johnny

I ZAINO every other week..sometime every week on my other car that is black

evel333

I wax every two weeks, and no less than once a month.

TailHappy

Of course now they're trying to market the new wax that prevents the water from beading, claiming that beads form little magnifying glasses that cook away your paint.....plus it's not supposed to cause spotting as bad. So everything we once believed about waxing may not be true!

I wash after every rain, but I'm a little worse about waxing...maybe once a year. I really don't think you can do either TOO frequently.

richelesro

You can wax too much. By doing so, you wear out the clear coat on the paint. It's unlikely, but possible.

As for the "magnifying glass effect," there may be some truth to it. However, beads slide off a car in motion while a film does not, meaning that less water will be on the car in a beading scenario. Besides, if it rains, the sun isn't really shining much, right?

rynberg

I think waxing more than 4-6 times a year is a bit excessive. Most good quality waxes last longer than 2 weeks! I also use the water beading trick as a good guide. Also, if you use a quick detailer (maguier's or other) between waxes, I find this helps.

silver93

be careful with wax -
the bulk of waxes out there contain silicone which will destroy your paint job -
if anything, just use polish -

Want2race

i have someone wax it twice a month.. Im a plan so for $40 a month i get unlimited washes and up to 4 waxings per month

All done by hand

7-sins

Over the summer it was Meguires 3 stage every month, wash it every week to two depending on how much I drove. Now its just in the garage When the weather starts to get warm I plan to get my hands on some Zaino Bros wax, hurd that stuff is the best.

capt. bill1

I never wax. I use Zaino. zainobros.com
Three or four times a year.

JONSKI

I think it's called Durashine. Has anyone even tried it? Anyone here use Rain-X? I'd like to here some opinions on both of these. I washed my car with a little dishsoap and waxed it with BMW Autowachs (highly recommend, very easy to apply and remove, dries quickly, but it's $$$). You should wax your car everytime you wash it with soap, because that is what detergents (surfactants) do: bind with oily, non-polar molecules at one end and bind with water at the other. In essense, you will be washing away your wax (or at least a great deal of it, depending on how much soap you use and how much wax was there).

KZ1

I didn't think 3rd gens had clear coats, or maybe jus the metallic paints. I coudl be way off here. I use celaer wax every week on mirrors back bumper and front bumper clip. wax and polish whole damn thing every month. unless I am not driving it like now, and it just sits in garage with cover.

thatoneguy

I polish and wax it about once a month.

the_glass_man

iTrader: (2)

I have some Durashine and that $hit really works. I wax my car as much as its needed, probaly did it 4-6 times last year. I use zymol, its the best wax for the price bar none! That and it smell good too!!!

DeNguyen

i wax every time i wash...

so thats either once a week or once every 2 weeks... depends on the weather too

richelesro

My car is vintage red in color. I've heard that part of the process to get that color (and why it can't be matched) is that the clear coat has a little bit of a red and/or blue tint to it.

All cars have clear coats of one kind or another, unless it's matte.