What is your wash and protect rota?
Do you do anything different for each seasons, do you go for full blown protection including headlight UV protector in the summer or just a quick once over with some nice salty washing up liquid in a bucket and leave to dry in the sun?.. (hope not)
I would really like to have a yearly plan with products listed, am I a bit sad…
I was interested what Chat GPT AI said, however I’m cautious of AI responses, I’m a picture framer and use an incredibly sharp guillotine to cut the wood, when I looked up best way to check it’s sharpness? it suggested running my finger along the blade!! doing this would have removed it…
Anyway this is the response, interesting however:
SPRING (March–April) — Freshen and Protect
Goal: Deep clean after winter, remove contaminants, restore shine.
Pre-Wash|Snow foam soak to loosen dirt -Bilt Hamber Auto-Foam
Wilko car shampoo, a shame they aren’t trading any longer, Autoglym super resin polish finished off with with Turtle wax.
I usually polish and wax twice annually, my car was garaged when not in use. Washed probably each week dried with a large microfibre towel, washed with a microfibre mitt.
For the rubber bits and interior plastics I use Autoglym rubber and vinyl spray and Autoglym tyre treatment to finish off the job.
Always looked good, no need for all the fancy named expensive stuff but I’m cheapskate.
BTW I don’t own the two MX-5’s any longer but when I did I attended a few shows with them.
Maybe you can try and get a club discount scheme going
My wash and protect rota is a bucket or two of water with caravan shampoo, and then a hose off at the end. Finally I pour some jugs of water (or on occasion use the hose) to clean out the drainage points under the bonnet as they get clogged with leaves. Sometimes I’ll even manage to do this twice in a year !
Lots of useful possible options already mentioned above, but the final rinse should be with settled stored rainwater to minimise any hints of tap-water-calc upsetting the shine.
We have two rain water butts with filters on these brown butts in front of the car are what we use there is a 12 volt pump that hooks to a spray gun for washing then just spray on the carbon collective and wipe off the jobs done…
Bilt Hamber have great products and sell all you need really without going ott.
No need to over complicate it really, a deeper clean using something like korrosol once a year can be useful if its a daily driver.
Their wheel cleaner and touchless foam products are the best in class, glass cleaner probably too.
You can control the pressure, as I use the car on dry days in winter it’s better to wash the salt off with fresh water.
All MX-5’s rot, it’s the speed of it that you can control and this should be factored into your ownership depending on the age of the car;
New car, keeping max 3 years, why bother… though some will invest in the future life of the car even if they don’t own it long term.
Buying that 3 year old car, check the underside and treat as appropriate in the next 3 years, in particular subframes as they are the first to go.
Buying an older car or keeping one longer then check for underseal hiding horrors underneath and check seams/voids for evidence of rust or previous treatment.
You should aim to get the car up on a lift annually to monitor and plan your protection regime.
Don’t spend £1,000 on getting the top of your car detailed and ceramic sealed for it to fail its MOT on rotten subframes, I know someone who did that recently on an 08 plate NC…
We have a few as well, here are the most recent pair. Each holds 330 litres, but only 300 litres is usable, the bottom segment is for ballast and sediment.
I rinse with the purified water from my van, (window Cleaner) then wipe dry with a microfibre (window cleaning glass cloth)…zero deposits. Every third/fourth wash i follow that with Autoglym resin polish.
