A little Help Please

[tedora]

Hi Everyone,

I have used Mequiars products on older cars, always with great success.... I do have a little concern, and a general question....

Firstly, I have been reading the forums, and read posts about people spending all day waxing and buffing thier car, only to get some water on the car and having water spots on the car... then having to spend hours redoing the waxing/buffing etc to get it looking good again...

I just don't understand... Why would water do so much damage... It doesn't do that much damage to a non-waxed car.. So would I be weakening my car's paint by using Mequiars products?? That doesn't make sense, but it seems to be what people are talking about, but it also might just be that I don't understand the context...

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The second question related to the order of using products.... Assuming that waxing is a good idea based on the answer to the above question... Am I right to use the wax first, then the gloss? I've got a brand new car and wanted to start by keeping the paint in excellent condition... I was going to use the number 26 yellow wax, followed by number 7 polish...

Thanks everyone for the help!

Al

[the other pc]

Re: A little Help Please

Hi tedora, welcome to MOL!

... Why would water do so much damage... It doesn't do that much damage to a non-waxed car..

It sure does. Big time. Maybe your local water doesn’t but tap water is different everywhere. Some areas have water with really high levels of nasty minerals.

The problem isn’t that waxed cars are more susceptible to hard water etching it’s that some hard water will overcome any wax. So will some bird bombs. In the real world there’s no such thing as a product you can wipe onto a car that will protect it from any and all forms of chemical attack.

Wax will reduce the effects of environmental exposure, not eliminate them. A car that’s kept clean and waxed will hold up better over the long run.


PC.

[gollums_friend]

Re: A little Help Please

Normally, you use polish before you wax, so switch those two steps around. There's many links around here to the 5-step system. I don't know how to do links though, sorry.

[grover]

Re: A little Help Please

In my experience, rain doesn't do much damage to the car. But water from the hose definitely will as was mentioned it is often hard and has many minerals in it. In reference to a recent thread, I think that thread specifically mentioned it was water from a sprinkler, which can be even worse than water from a hose. In Florida, our sprinkler water comes directly from a well and has a lot of sulphur in it which can oxidize any paint very quickly and leave etchings.

This is what sprinklers did to my car in a matter of six months (before I became a Meguiars fan and Car Crazy):

[tedora]

Re: A little Help Please

Thanks for the quick response...
Regarding the order of the steps, thank you... It's nice to have it clarified.

As for the water damage... That's very interesting to me.. I suppose the water here is very harmless compared to water elsewhere... We do have very nice drinking water coming from the tap, with very few minerals...

So just to be really really clear...
If I were to compare two cars, one waxed, and one not, the one that wasn't waxed would have the same water etchings that you find with your water, only it would be even more difficult to remove?

Thanks very much!

Al

[Graeme]

Re: A little Help Please

So just to be really really clear...
If I were to compare two cars, one waxed, and one not, the one that wasn't waxed would have the same water etchings that you find with your water, only it would be even more difficult to remove?

Thanks very much!

Al

The car you don't protect by washing, polishing and waxing will over time deteriorate faster than the car that has been washed, polished and waxed.

Graeme