How often do you wax?

[Felt_Rider]

I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning my wife's Mazda 3 and now have a changed perspective on cleaning and sealing. I've never really made much of an effort on past vehicles and not much on her car. I used her car as practice and to try out a couple of sealants. Since I am a newbie at detailing my effort was probably not great in comparison to the pros, but I am fairly content enough now to at least do this at last twice a year and then wash on a fairly regular basis. The convincing point was claying the car and feeling the rough texture of the paint working the clay over the surface go to a silky smooth feeling. After washing and doing the clay I tried Wolfgang Sealant 3.0 as a test on the hood and the rest was done with the cheaper Meguiars Ultimate Wax (liquid).

Besides the typical wear on the car from parking lot dings, small rock chips on the hood and some old hard water spots that did not come off with the clay the majority of the paint look so much better.

I hope to do much better with the CX-5 than past vehicles. I've had the front covered with XPEL film and now hope to apply sealant at least twice a year. The Wolfgang Sealant is supposed to last 6 months so maybe if I clay and apply a good sealant then wash and carnuba wax in between sealant applications the paint will continue to look good for a while. I am doing this because it is my hope to keep the vehicle for a long time. The Mazda 3 has been a very solid car so far. Just wished I had done a better job now keeping the paint in good shape. The sealants went on easy and came off easier (IMO) than carnuba wax.

 

[sylva143]

I used to wax with Meguiar's Ultimate every three months. Since I've started using Meguiar's Quick Wax every couple of weeks, I think I may be able to stretch out the proper wax job another month or two. Meguiar's Quick Wax is doing a great job in keeping my base layer wax looking and feeling great. It is also much easier to remove droppings and bugs with a well maintained finish.

 

[vroom]

^ Made me remember... In addition to waxing every 2-3 months as mentioned in my previous post, I do wash every few weeks using a car soap containing Carnuba wax. It does help in restoring/mainaining the finish and water beading untill the next waxing job.

Man... All this talk of waxing makes this look like a bodybuilding forum!