Waxing Your Car For The Summer

As the weather warms up, many car owners enjoy taking their cars out for a nice drive during a bright, summer day. Summer is the time for vacations and road trips for family and friends to get together. With all this travel comes a bit of ‘wear and tear’ on your vehicle and it’s exterior.  Most of us love a nice coat of wax in the Summer to bring our vehicle’s paint to a brilliant shine when the sunlight hits it.  However, there are a few important notes when it comes to washing and waxing your vehicle during the summer months.

Wash Your Car First

Throughout the summer, you will probably see one car lover, or another, washing and waxing their car in their driveway. However, you need to take into account certain factors, before you wash or wax your car during these high temperature months. Washing and waxing in high temperatures can lead to water spots, because the sun ends up drying the car before you have a chance to dry it by hand. This will leave noticeable spots on your car, which can then be sealed in by the wax, marring the look of your vehicle.

So, when washing your vehicle (before the waxing) make sure that you are not directly in the sunlight, especially during particularly warm days. You can try to wash your car in the evening, when the sun starts to go down. During this time the temperature will cool down a bit and you will not have to worry about the water drying before you have a chance to dry it up. Even if you have a large shady tree next to your driveway, you should be able to wash and wax your car whenever you would like, as long as your vehicle is kept out of continuous sunlight.

Remember to dry your vehicle completely, before you apply any wax. Gently wipe down your car with a soft microfiber towel, in order to get the water off quickly, before the sun creates waters spots. This way you can be sure that your car’s finish looks amazing when you seal it with wax.  There’s nothing worse than going through all of the effort of waxing your vehicle only to seal in blotchy and dirty areas.

The Waxing Process

Like washing, you also want to wax your car in a shaded/covered area, not in direct sunlight where the wax can ‘bake’ on the surface and not provide optimal results.  Now that you know when to wash and prep your vehicle, here’s a bit about the process.

When waxing your car, you want to add wax to an area, then come back to that area, once the wax is dry, and remove it.  Even if you’re familiar with the process, we still advise you read the instructions for any product you apply to your paint.

Think sequence when waxing and performing this process in stages. Start by applying wax to one portion of your vehicle, then move to the next part, until you make our way all around the car. Once you are finished, you can go back to the first section, which should have had time to dry, and be ready for buffing.

There are many techniques for applying wax to your car. First, you want to get a soft applicator (made for applying wax, not some rag laying around your garage), one that will not damage the paint when you apply pressure. Then you need to apply a very thin layer of wax to the car. While you have heard of the famous Karate Kid “wax on, wax off” technique, this way can lead to swirl patterns in your finish. So, you may want to choose a different way to apply the wax. Straight lines tend to leave fewer streaks, and give you a better shine in the end. Just remember that if you drop your cloth or sponge on the ground, get a new one. You do not want to rub grit into your car and ruin your finish.

When you are finished applying the wax, then it is time to remove it. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how long the wax should sit before removing. In order to remove the wax, you need a dry, soft towel, microfiber or 100% cotton seems to work the best. You are going to want to do the reverse of what you did to apply the wax. For instance, if you applied the wax left-to-right, then you are going to want to remove the wax right-to-left. So, remove the wax doing the opposite of how you applied it. This helps to reduce streaks, and gives your car that one of a kind, just waxed shine!

There you have it! Those are the basic fundamentals on waxing your vehicle during the summer months.  Looking for professional car waxing services?  Contact M&M today!

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www.MMAutoDetailing.com
(860) 430-1889