I have a 2008 Suzuki SX4, silver color. Is it a good idea to wax it. What should i use if the answer is yes and is it a one or two step process.
Thank you
Yes.
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. Yea, that’s the answer. Nothing you list would be a good reason not to wax it. I would recommend it. With modern car finishes, you can go a long time without waxing it with no damage to the car and only a small decrease in appearance and reduced protection.
Good Luck.
Wash it with car wash soap. Get it as clean as possible. Apply wax, let dry, remove dried wax with clean cloth. Do this at least twice per year to protect the paint. More often if it isn’t garaged.
The liquid wax, the cheapest brand you can find. Or Turtle wax, Rally (regular wax), Armor all if they still sell wax. Do wax it but it isn’t a Rolls.
- wash it
- dry it
- clay bar it (Mother’s is good product)
- Use any brand name wax on sale (Mother’s, Meguiar’s, Nu Finish, etc.)
- repeat every six months
Twotone
So much depends upon exposure. We live in the north and the cars are always kept under a car port when not driven. I can get away with “cheap” spray on car wash wax job and a once in a while “real” two step wax care. Otherwise, in the south with high sun exposure or coastal climates and city traffic and the like with more exposure, 6 month wax is more likely to be beneficial. It’s all about the exposure.
For show-room appearance…
. Wash and rinse.
. Use a polishing compound to remove any oxidation.
. Clay-bar to give it a good quality finish.
. Apply a good wax. I like a Carnuba wax…Seems to last the longest.
For a decent job.
. Wash and rinse.
. Apply a Wax/Polisher.
For a cheap job.
. Wash and rinse.
. Apply a spray-on wax.
I usually do the Quality wax job in the spring…then either the cheap job or decent job a couple of times throughout the summer and fall.
When asking what the best wax is, ask 50 people, and you’ll likely get 100 answers
I’d only recommend against two kinds of wax: first, anything unusually expensive, they work fine, just not much better than the regular stuff, and second, any wax/treatment/protectant sold by a dealer. Other than than, you’ll be doing better than 95% of car owners if you wax your car.
Be very careful with the polishing compound. If not done right, you can do more harm than good.
When I was a kid, my dad would give me $5 and I could purchase any kind of wax I wanted to wax his car. I could keep the change, but the $5 was for the wax “installed” on the car and I did the installing. It seemed to me then(back in the 1950’s) and it still seems to me that the least expensive wax seemed to hold up as well as the expensive wax. Back then, the paste wax was less expensive,but took longer to apply. Since I wanted the money and had the time, paste wax was what I used.
The only problem I’ve ever seen with polishing compound is when using a buffer.
polishing wax should not be used if there is not actual damage to polish out. Any polisher (of anything, not just car paint) will grind away parts of whatever you’re polishing. With something like silverware, it doesn’t matter, because the metal is very thick and it would take hundreds of years to polish enough of it away to be noticeable. But with car clearcoat, which is only about .001 inches thick. It doesn’t take nearly as long to wear enough of it away to be problematic.
I’ve used NuFinish for many years now with excellent results, even up here in NH. I do mine about 3 to 4 times yearly. Whether those times are spread evenly throughout the year is highly dependant upon the weather. Once the temp turns cold, if it hasn’t been waxed I’ve often missed my opportunity for the winter season.
We all have aour preferences, but to be honest the important thing is that you wax it periodically. I’m unaware of any brand name wax that doesn’t do a good job. Paste waxes are just more work than liquids.
Fibber McGee always recommended Johnson’s Car-nu and Johnson’s Car Plate. The Car-nu was the cleaner and the Car Plate was the wax. Of course, Johnson’s wax was the sponsor of the radio show “Fibber McGee and Molly”. The show has been off the air for about 55 years, Jim Jordan and his wife are long gone, and I haven’t seen Car-nu or Car Plate on the shelves for about the same length of time.
I wonder if those products became Johnson’s Wax.
Everything is dramatically different now. Fortunately, we have much better products and low-VOC paints and paint systems. I believe they may have even been using laquer back then. Imagine what Fibber McGee would think if he saw the electrostatic robotic paint process in the new Hyundae Sonata commercial.