Car care / cleaning products for time poor people

[DiscoveryMe]

I've spent the last couple of hours on this forum reading up on cleaning your car but prior to that, all I've ever done is brought my car to those DIY hand car wash places and rinsed it, used the soap brush and then rinsed it again! I don't even bother to use a chamois. :X

Anyway, next month I'll be taking delivery of my new car so I want to make sure I look after it. Unfortunately I don't have a garage or a carport - it'll be parked under a tree on the street. I don't have a lot of time (or frankly the interest) to detail my car like some of you enthusiasts so I wanted to get an idea of what I should be doing as a minimum.

From what I read, I should be:
- Washing the car, two bucket method, with something like Dodo Juice supernatural shampoo and using a Mint microfiber mitt. Am I allowed to do this with Melbourne water restrictions?
- Wipe down dry with the Mint waffle towel.
- If I choose to go down the wax path, apply Dodo Juice Lime Prime and then something like supernatural wax. Can I also use the purple haze wax or will the grey not be dark enough? How often will I need to wax the car?
- If my wheels are dirty, I can use the residual water from the wash and a vikan brush.
- If I do a sealant instead of a wax, I should use Nanolex premium paint sealant or Duragloss Aquawax. Is the Nanolex cleaner a similar thing to Lime Prime?

Some questions:
- How often should I be washing? And waxing? Is it ok to go to a car wash and use a high pressure wash when it's mildly dirty vs full wash?
- Is a clay necessary? How often do I need to do it?
- If I apply 303 protectant to the interior, how often do I need to reapply?

Sorry for all the questions, and if I come across as an airhead, but hopefully it can help some other newbies in the future! Thanks in advance!

[Dyldo]

mate great questions. I'll be watching the replies with interest cause it is a deep swamp of info and i'd love to have it cleared up a bit and your questions might go a good way toward doing that.

[hooba]

Time poor and get a new car? Then Optimium Car Wax is your friend. 15 minutes after a wash is all it takes and the result you get is excellent.

[gavs]

I'll leave the product specific questions up to DMS Dan or Mrk Mickey as they're actual detailers but i'll try to clear up a few of your questions from my lay-person point of view.

- Washing the car, two bucket method, with something like Dodo Juice supernatural shampoo and using a Mint microfiber mitt. Am I allowed to do this with Melbourne water restrictions?

No, unless you have a water tank or access to tank water. If you are using tank water, make sure it is filtered prior to washing your car with it as the outlet is generally at the bottom where all the dirt and grit sinks to and you will just end up scratching your car.

- If my wheels are dirty, I can use the residual water from the wash and a vikan brush.

You can, but you will probably just scratch your wheels if the water is dirty. If you're not worried about scratched wheels, then it would be fine.

- How often should I be washing? And waxing? Is it ok to go to a car wash and use a high pressure wash when it's mildly dirty vs full wash?

If you stick to high pressure rinse, then generally it is clean water with no aditives so this should be fine to remove surface dust and the odd bird turd. In regards to frequency, it depends on how dirty your car gets. I live opposite a garder supply place and I detailed my car yesterday. This morning, even under the carport, there was a fine layer of dust over the whole car.
If you use a high quality wax, you could probably get away with once every 2-3 months, depending on how often you rinse any muck off the car. Cheap waxes like turtle or kitten will be lucky to last a few weeks.

- Is a clay necessary? How often do I need to do it?

You only need to clay your car when you can start to feel grit in the paint that stays there after washing, something that shouldn't need to be done for several months at least if you keep up wax protection.

- If I apply 303 protectant to the interior, how often do I need to reapply?

I generally get 5-6 weeks out of each application, generally dust settles over the top of the protectant before it loses it's shine.

hope that helps a bit.

[DiscoveryMe]

Thanks so much for the responses, especially to gavs for his detailed reply!

I don't have a water tank unfortunately so looks like I'll have to do my washing at the local self car wash. Might see if I can get buy bringing my own buckets if I do it late at night/early in the morning when the car wash is empty.

Thanks for clearing up my question about the clay.

I now have to try and rope hubby into doing the hard grunt work while I stand there and supervise!!

[Mrk_Mickey]

*Chime!*

I'll answer a few of these for you.

- If I choose to go down the wax path, apply Dodo Juice Lime Prime and then something like supernatural wax. Can I also use the purple haze wax or will the grey not be dark enough? How often will I need to wax the car?

The dodo waxes are only colour-charged to ''suggest'' what colours to use them on - if you have one for a light car and use it on a dark car, you're still waxing it so it doesn't matter - you just want optimal looks and protection. So, purple haze should be fine for grey. As Gavs said, 2-3 months for good quality wax like dodo. The hard wax lasts longer, and naturally it's a little harder to apply. I'd recommend the hard wax every time though!

- If my wheels are dirty, I can use the residual water from the wash and a vikan brush.

You can, but you will probably just scratch your wheels if the water is dirty. If you're not worried about scratched wheels, then it would be fine.

To be honest, you won't do much damage at all with the water in the bucket, especially if you're using the wash bucket and not the rinse bucket! Vikan brushes are very good at what they do so they make cleaning wheels very easy even without optimal conditions.

- If I do a sealant instead of a wax, I should use Nanolex premium paint sealant or Duragloss Aquawax. Is the Nanolex cleaner a similar thing to Lime Prime?

Aquawax is just a minimal protection! It lasts about a month. It is very easy to apply, as it only takes about 5-10 minutes to spray on and wipe over after you've washed the car. I'd suggest it if you didn't want the hassle of sealants or waxes, but then again if the car is outside and you're time poor then I'd go with a sealant. The Duragloss 601 polish prep and 105 total performance polish are a two-part sealant that work very well for cars that are exposed to conditions similar to yours. The Nanolex works well also, with the ability to last longer than Duragloss, but it's very hard to apply and buff off properly IMO. I'd recommend the Duragloss.

- How often should I be washing? And waxing? Is it ok to go to a car wash and use a high pressure wash when it's mildly dirty vs full wash?

So long as you're not drying the car after only rinsing it, that's fine. Getting the light dust and stuff off the car is okay - as gavs said - with a pressure washer that doesn't have additives in the water (like, washes and soaps - these will strip the wax because they're designed to be quick). If you want to dry the car, you'll need to wash it properly so as not to scratch dirt across the surface when drying.

Washing I'd recommend once a week/fortnight if you have the time. If not, keep your car protected with a sealant or wax and then once a month is still okay.

I mentioned waxing above

- Is a clay necessary? How often do I need to do it?

Absolutely. Claying gets rid of bug guts, tar, road grime, spots, dirt that has stuck to the car, and just about anything else that's similar. It preps the surface of your paintwork so it's smooth enough to polish, or apply sealants or waxes, without scratching dirt and contaminants along the surface, thus scratching the car.

Your car being new is almost 95% guaranteed not to need a clay so it'd be fine just to wash (with a de-wax wash to get rid of delivery wax) and then apply wax or sealant. However - I've seen some new cars that did need claying! It's best to wash it first and gently feel the panels while it's still wet to see if you can feel any bits that are stuck to the paint.

- If I apply 303 protectant to the interior, how often do I need to reapply?

Gavs' advice is pretty spot on; about 5-6 weeks before you'll need to do it again.

I don't have a water tank unfortunately so looks like I'll have to do my washing at the local self car wash. Might see if I can get buy bringing my own buckets if I do it late at night/early in the morning when the car wash is empty.

Should be fine I used to do it heaps, and I know a few of my mates that still do it all the time. Nighttime is best

Hope I've covered everything, and thanks Gav for the accurate responses!