IMADreamer

I feel stupid asking this because I feel like I am a very good detailer and my cars have always been spotless and get compliments, but today I washed my car for the second time this week and a girl I work with said I was washing it too much. Normally I wouldn't think anything of that but she said her father told her not to wash a car more then once every two weeks and I respect his opinion because he is a car nut and has one of the best looking GTXs I have ever seen.

So can you wash your car too much?

Kurupt Rican

I dont kno i wish i could help. I wish i knew cuz i wash my car every other friday. I jus love seeing it shine wit the rims. 0:-)

blown06

dont know either i wash mine every friday dirty or not got to make it look good for the weekend lol

SilverSS/SC

As long as your using products that dont damage your paint ....the answer is no , your not hurting a thing . Washing it is not hurting it a bit . Her father may have had a point for cars back in the 80's and prior . Paint didnt last as long , it wasnt as durable , especially when clearcoating started to become commonplace . Automotive paint technology has come a LONG way .

I handwash mine 1-2 times week , and polish and wax ar least once a month . Ive done that with all my cars since I can remember .

455rocket

I think if you are scrubbing on it with a stiff brush or using a dirty sponge or chamois it can be a problem. I remember some of my cars that got scratched up faster from too much fussing around and not knowing any better.
But my feeling is who cares if it gets a little knicked up these cars are made to be used and its not like they are goingn to last forrever anyway.
I wash my every week even if I know its giong to rain, people say thats stupid but I don't stop taking showers just because I know Im going to get dirty!

plyboy-illest

i dont think you can... unless you dont know how to wash a car then it will..
but if you know what your doing then i dont think wasking you car too much is a problem

blown06

i know what I am doing mcquires gold class soap, microfiber mit, the absorber drying towel, lol

OniMirage

you just have to use quality products. non touchless car washes are even safe if they regularly clean and replace the tumble brushes but places like that are far and few in between. as far as do it yourself the only real way of damaging the car paint is using harsh towels or dawn. use shammies and microfiber towels but dont scrub when drying, just be gentle and yes soaps made for cars do work without stripping the clear coat.

Kauser

You don't damage anything, but if you see circular patterns that almost look like scratches, then you need a fresh coat of wax.


Also, certain parts stores and automotive magazines treat washing/waxing in the same way most other people treat oil changes, as necessary and periodic preventive maintanence.

suburbanrobot

washing is fine.... polishing too much can be bad! I had a buddy w/ a 67' mustang GT 427 w/ dual quads (very nice car/ fast too), he kept it soooo clean you could truly eat off the motor. He had the car at least 5 years at the time (1979ish) and he actually had polished down the paint in some spots to the factory primer!!!! ARGH

as Silver SS/SC stated:
As long as your using products that dont damage your paint ....the answer is no , your not hurting a thing . Washing it is not hurting it a bit . Her father may have had a point for cars back in the 80's and prior . Paint didnt last as long , it wasnt as durable , especially when clearcoating started to become commonplace . Automotive paint technology has come a LONG way .

so wash away!!!! remember a clean car reduces drag by .25% resulting in quicker 1/4 mile times JK
and on that note racing stripes DO make your car faster JK again

IMADreamer

Ok, you guys are making me feel better. I use only Mequires wash on my car. I use a good clean mit when applying soap and a good microfiber town to dry. I have no paint swirls yet. I do have a chip in the paint from an incident with a girl that I won't get into any more details about. I also use Mequires gold class wax on the car monthly.

Like I said, I feel like I know what I am doing when it comes to my car but when a car guy I respect very much says to do something differently it rattles me a bit. Thanks for all the advice everyone.

SilverSS/SC

.....although dawn is good idea to use every couple of waxings to get all the old wax build up off . It wont harm the paint one bit . I use soapy dawn water and a clay bar every couple of waxings before I polish and wax . Makes a big diff

BLKSS

The only way you can damage the paint is rubbing hard. Especially with the shammy.

Cobalt443

I haven't read every reply so I don't know if this has been said yet, but:

washing too much can actually wear down the protectant (I use three stage mothers and meguires swirl remover 2.0)

It is expected for wax to wear away though, to prevent this from happening quicker, I also use a wax based soap such as "Zipwax" made by Turtle wax.

Florida 76

as long as you wax it often.. you need a good coat of wax to protect the paint....


.

D4u2s0t

keep in mind that alot of the "older" guys, (sorry!) are basing their thoughts off of older cars... their the ones that don't understand how a 4 cylander can be faster than a 6 or 8 cynlander, tell you to change your oil every 3,000, etc... not that it's a bad thing, but you wouldn't ask your retired grandfather who ran a succesfull business for 50 years how to work a computer... he may be a kick ass salesman, but probably doesn't know how to check his email... get my point?

cybcow

Nope, but you would ask him how to spell cylinder.

D4u2s0t

cynlander is not right?? damn it!!

KillerNutz

a friend of mine owns a mobile detailing business, his truck is on 04 1500 on 20's. He washes it ATLEAST once a day usually twice a day. He has done this for 2 years and no problems yet.

YSUsteven

Remember, water did carve the grand canyon, took more than a million years though. Just don't wash it soo much thats all you do.

bluntgasm

haha i'm the same way. i only use meguiars (spelling?) products also so i think im safe.



lol, thats a great point.

LSCobaltlover05

Ya just using like regular carwash is fine, just dont use like clay bars and stuff all the time and u'll be fine, i mean just think of cars that are in places where it always rain, they're fine.

SpecialK

:

Winner. Washing it ofent enough to remove dirt is fine.

One, let the wax wear off naturally. UNless your prepping for a car show there's no point in using harsh chemicals to strip off protectants like wax. If you just need that extra shine use a detailing spray, sparingly.

Two, only use a polish if you have swirl marks. To polish is to remove material. THink a sander. Wetsanding is a last resort version of polishing.

Three, if you gotta wash, use CLEAN shamios and soft terry cloths to wash and dry. Hell if you cna get it lambs wool mitts are the ****.

You guys thinking that you cna't wash enough, yea you can't wash enough if you go touchless. Though using your hand to wash adn dry does remove the wax, if you wanna keep your shine then don't touch it cause that wax will hold small bits of dust and that could, in theory, scrach your paint.

Now to D4u2s0t badmouthign old people. If it weren't for them learning how not to run cars back in the 60's we wouldn't have cars like now. Thank them for ******* up cause we've learned form their mistakes. Aslo the wash it all the time mindset is in line with the, "if five shots of grease is good for that wheel bearing, twenty must be the e ticket." Line of thinking. You can have too muhc of a good thing.

Just don go rambo on car shine, that's how you ruin your paint. If it's not perfect let it slide, it still looks damn good from five feet.

Tofu

It's not about how much you wash your car it's all about your methods of washing it. If you do not know how to wash your car properly then you will cause micro-marring to your clearcoat (swirl marks, even scratches). It is nearly impossible to NOT cause micro-marring to your clearcoat...but you can certainly minimize it so that it's practically unnoticeable to the human eye. Here is a paragraph or two from my car care tips in the how to section to minimize micro-marring when you wash your car:

First and for most before you do anything, what are you using to wash the car w/ and what are you using to dry it with? The first biggest misconception about washing a vehicle is that "any ol sponge or mitt will work since it's covered in soap" and that is totally wrong. I highly disprove of any "sponge" being used to wash the exterior of your vehicle as most are too harsh on your clearcoat despite what the packaging may say. Stick with 100% chenile (sp), genuine lambs wool, or microfiber wash mitts (although I prefer the first two over microfiber wash mitts)...they will do the best job of evenly spreading the suds on your vehicle. And speaking of suds..you definitely want a high quality car wash soap. Don't ever ever use dish soap unless you want to remove any wax and polish to re-apply a fresh layer of the aforementioned stuff. The best "store bought" soap hands down is Meguiars Deep Crystal Carwash or their NXT line up car wash. They have an adequate amount of suds and decent cleaning agents.

With a mitt and car wash out of the way the next important factor is the bucket. May not seem like much but when while you're lathering your car you're basically lifting the dirt off the paint and the majority of it goes into your mitt. What usually happens is people just dump the mitt into the bucket and then re-use it on the paint. The problem is when the mitt goes into the bucket the dirt sinks to the bottom of the bucket...and so does the mitt. So basically your mitt becomes even more contaminated with dirt particles. And that alone is the biggest reason why you get micro-marring (spider webs and swirl marks) in your clearcoat. There is a nifty thing called a "grit-guard" that you can buy online and it'll keep your mitt from sinking to the bottom while still being submersed in the water to get most of the dirt off. Understand though that you will always, always do some kind of micro-marring to your clearcoat...there is simply no way to completely avoid it. You can minimize it by using the grit-guard...or if you prefer not to pay for it you can use the Two Bucket method. Basically you take two buckets, fill one w/ the soap and water mixture and the other one you fill to the brim with water. So now whenever you're done washing a panel (yes wash a panel at a time, always working top to bottom) simply put the mitt into the water filled bucket and shake it around to get rid of the dirt (make sure it doesn't hit the bottom though). That way when you put the mitt back into the soap bucket you've eliminated the majority of dirt particles from the mitt. Always try to wash in some kind of shaded area. This prevents the suds and water from drying on your paint and causing unsightly water spots; the sun also warms up your paint and clearcoat making it more susceptible to micro-marring than when it's cool.


What I do is I wash my truck once a week and use a spray detailer and two high quality microfiber towels every day and wipe her down. I get tons and tons of compliments and in the auto-detailing business that's what counts.

g5mike

Tofus right up is the exaxt way to best sum it up, had my car 6 months now and not so much as a scratch or swirl mark and I follow his words to a science