Wash as often as you can, try not to allow stains to stay too long on the paint, or else it can be imprint into your clear coat, polish only when needed (deep scratch or like you said stubborn dirt).

Personally I had tried turtle wax's wash and wax shampoo, the result wasn't as good as spraying wax separately (barely have any water repellant effect). So in the end I just stick to PH neutral shampoo that doesn't contain wax.

I will spray wax my car once every 2 washes, usually its just 2 sprays for each panel.

This post has been edited by more2teayap: May 10 2023, 01:11 PM

I used soft99 12 months every year then top up with IGL enhancer after every 2 washes, usually I parked under shade. For polish I used Osren's

Just an update, I recently sent my car to Ceramic Pro for maintenance, no charges required. Not too sure why they are charging you RM150 for.

If you are thinking of protecting your paint from rock chips, PPF would be good, but advisable to go for reputable brands like XPEL, you wouldn't want the PPF leave glue residue when you remove your old PPF when changing it.

Since you are parking outdoor, I wouldn't suggest ceramic coating, as they are really prone to leave watermarks/spots when water residue not removed promptly. With grey color, the watermarks and spots will be very noticeable.

I think simple wax would be suitable in your case, wash weekly and top up with spray wax whenever necessary would do.

I don't park outdoors all the time, only during weekends and only when i needed to. I only able to wash every week, even so I still get some water spots, but due to my car color is white water spots won't be very obvious, only parts that are in black are obvious.

Ceramic coating will make your cleaning easier due to its sleek surface, but you still will need to keep it clean as much as you can. I feel the biggest advantage of ceramic coating is it could give longer period of sleek look (provided you clean it often)

Yes can be done by your self but depending on the type of wax, paste wax require some effort to apply, spray wax are the easiest, just spray on the surface and wipe it off.

For first application it is advisable to have your surface clean, you will need to wash it, decontaminate either with clay bar or strong cleaners, polish if necessary then only apply wax. if you don't have the time to prep your surface, you can send your car to detailer for polish and wax then later on you can just top up with spray wax periodically.

Usually, these 2in1 shampoo won't be anywhere as good as separately applied wax.

During your rinse after step 2, you should be able to determine if the existing protection is still present on the surface, if you felt that the water repellant effect is not as good as before, then go ahead with your preferred product.

I personally use IGL enhancer on every wash because firstly it helps to pre-moist and soften up the tower before i go onto the paint, secondly it add abit of protection to the paint.

what shampoo do you use for rinseless wash? I'm gonna move to a condo without a car wash bay soon

Ah yes, worst nightmare of white car owners.. I'm one of them too

The best way to keep your white car spotless is to wash the car everytime after the driving in the rain, but lets be real.. Most of us have better things to do than washing the car right after the rain, so at the very least wash weekly with stronger shampoo like carpro reset or gyeon restart. But even with that my car that's ceramic coated still get some very faint grey stains after 6-8 months, so usually after a year I would return to the detailer for coating maintenance (as I still have coating warranty with them). They will usually use an even stronger shampoo either more alkaline or acidic shampoo to wash off the stain, if that didn't work, they will spot polish the stain out then recoat the whole car.

As for your water repellant situation, did you do the coating yourself? Did your shampoo contains wax? It felt like the coating wasn't done/cured properly and it was washed away during the rain or your washing session or it could be the wax create another layer that promotes sheeting covering up the ceramic coating effect

This post has been edited by more2teayap: Oct 18 2024, 11:39 AM

Soft 99 Ultra Glaco
Turtlewax Clearvue

Both I'm currently using on different cars, both can last quite well (at least 3 months). Soft99 is way easier to apply as it already have a built in applicator in the bottle, but I'm leaning towards Turtlewax purely based on its performance, both beads up quite well but the water on turtlewax glides off faster.