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I will always recommend you wash your car regularly to preserve its body and paint condition, which is one of the largest contributors to a vehicle’s resale value, along with the presence of any service records for regularly scheduled maintenance, and otherwise several factors to be considered by professional automotive estimators.
Aside from a car wash, it’s important to keep a car waxed to protect the vehicle’s paint from bird droppings, tree sap, uv rays – also known as ultraviolet rays, a combined blend of road salt & road debris, and other harmful elements.
Why is it important to avoid these things?
- road debris & road salt typically contain corrosive elements which will accumulate as rust damage over time. It is best to wash your undercarriage on a regular basis to avoid this.
- UV Rays (Ultraviolet Rays) cause sun damage. Cars often suffer this when stored outside, and therefore are exposed to year round direct sunlight that slowly eats away at your clear coat over the long run. After the clear coat is gone, the paint fades.
- Bird droppings, treep sap, and other corrosive elements, eat away at your car’s paint over the long run. It is best to apply wax on a regular basis to keep your paint job in good shape. You can also apply a ceramic coating to fully protect and avoid rust damage in the case of a compromised clear coat.
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11 benefits of waxing your car
- The Wax Layer Protects Against Small Scratches
- Shields Dirt from Your Paint
- Makes Your Vehicle’s Paint that New Car Look
- Helps Maintain the Protective Layer of Clear Coat
- A Waxed Car Is Easier To Clean
- Repels Water From the Car’s Surface
- Keeps Your Car Clean Longer
- Adds Another Protective Layer to Your Paint
- It will Fully Protect Against Sun Damage
- Keeps Your Car Looking New On A Regular Basis
- Helps Mask Imperfections in Your Vehicle’s Paint
Unfortunately, most times a car owner doesn’t know that most automotive manufacturers recommend that you wax your car regularly along with its regularly scheduled maintenance.
[How To Wax A Car With A Buffer]
Is It Good To Wax Your Car?
Small scratches and other paint imperfections are extremely common and impossible to avoid entirely. The most common scratches occur in the clear coating, which is the outermost layer of your car’s paint.
Although car wax won’t fully protect against all clear coat scratches, it can help minimize them. These light scratches accumulate on your car’s paint over time, eventually becoming very noticeable and covering the entire car’s surface. This is why it’s important to keep your car waxed because the natural oils on the surface will begin to form as rust damage.
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These small scratches are commonly caused by improper washing, holding your keys as you open your door, rubbing against your car, automatic car washes, and several factors otherwise.
Since there are so many causes for car scratches, they occur quite often. Even very light contact with the vehicle can cause scratches. Therefore, it is important to have another thin layer of protection on top of the clear coating. This is the best way to save your car from some of these small scratches along with other harmful elements.
If neglected over time it may be necessary to have your vehicle repainted. Keep your vehicle waxed whenever possible to protect your vehicle’s resale value over the long run.
[6 Common Causes of Car Scratches]
By applying car wax, you will help these scratches occur less often. Without a wax layer providing extra protection, these scratches build up much faster.
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What Does Car Wax Do?
Many people wonder “what does waxing a car do” – in short – car wax, acting as a protective coating, has many benefits for protecting your car’s paint job. Explore the benefits of car waxes below:
Shields Your Paint From Dirt
Car waxing will help prevent dirt, road debris, road salt, bird droppings, and tree sap from sticking to your vehicle’s surface by creating a smooth, uniform layer of wax on top of your clear coat.
This waxed surface makes it more difficult for dirt to stick to the paint. If neglected, your vehicle may begin to accumulate rust damage.
The clear coat layer of your paint has a rougher surface with many small bumps and imperfections that may not be seen by the naked eye.
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A wax layer creates a shield on the clear coat, reducing the stickiness of tree sap, bird droppings, and other particles. Rather, these sticky contaminants will sit on the smooth wax layer, making it easier to clean off on a regular basis. A fresh coat of wax is best at preventing damages caused by neglect.
Additionally, dirt and other particles like road salt can become embedded in your car’s paint. This embedded dirt cannot be removed from the car using a normal washing process.
To remove this type of dirt you must use a clay bar system. This is a much more involved process and can take a while to complete.
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Having a layer of wax will reduce the chances of dirt and other contaminants becoming embedded in your paint.
This saves you time and money in the future, as you will not have to remove them from the paint eventually.
Overall, waxing your car helps avoid rust damage and the accumulation of other imperfections. This makes it easier to clean and saves you from having your vehicle repainted over the long run.
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Makes Your Car Look Shiny
Having a shiny car is something that many people wish to achieve, as it can show off a nice car and make you look good as the driver.
It is commonly understood by most people that waxing your car will give an increased shine and make your paint look amazing.
Natural oils, and other petroleum distillates, in the car wax products help add shine to the paint giving it a fantastic new car look.
Additionally, car wax can fill in minor imperfections in the clear coat, giving it a more uniform appearance.
This makes the paint look like it’s in better condition than it actually is.
A shiny car is one of the biggest benefits of using car wax and is sought after by many car owners.
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Helps Maintain the Paint
Your car’s paint is one of the first things people notice about your car. This can impact you in a positive or negative way.
If your car’s paint is faded, scratched, and beat up, most people won’t enjoy looking at your car (unless they’re making fun of it).
On the contrary, if you wax your car frequently, it’s likely that people will notice – including a potential new car owner if you’re selling yours.
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Paint fades, and small scratches occur over the long run as a result of poor protection and neglect.
Therefore, it is important to keep your vehicle waxed consistently to avoid deterioration. This will help you add shine, and maintain a clean, uniform appearance, throughout the life of your vehicle.
Not only does this affect how others perceive you, but it also affects the resale value of your car. For example, most professional automotive estimators will tell you that the body and paint condition is the largest determining factor in assessing a vehicle’s resale value. In other words, applying wax regularly maintains the value of your car, along with several factors otherwise.
A car with faded and horrible-looking paint will sell for much less than a car with a shiny paint job.
This is not only due to the actual condition of the paint, but car buyers will associate a well-maintained paint job with a well-maintained vehicle. This can be even better when you have service records for your regularly scheduled maintenance and a regular car waxing routine.
Keeping your vehicle waxed is the most important part of preserving, your car’s paint job.
[Benefits of Ceramic Coating]Makes Your Car Easier to Clean
When you have a new coat of wax on your car, you’ll notice that water beads easily. This means that water doesn’t spread out on the vehicle’s surface, it stays together. This is the case when using a high quality natural wax, or carnauba wax mixed with a synthetic base wax.
Waxing will make it easier to clean your car when it comes time to wash.
Many people aren’t aware of this benefit of waxing your car, but it is a very useful property of car wax.
Car wax helps prevent dirt from sticking to the car’s surface by creating a smooth and protective layer around the paint.
This makes dirt and other particles easier to wash off, as it will not stick as easily to the wax layer.
Repels Water
Another great benefit of car wax which many people do not consider is it’s hydrophobic properties.
Wax will cause water beads on your car’s paint, which means that water will slide off very easily.
This may even bring dirt along with it, meaning rain will knock more dirt off your car than normal preventing damages caused by accumulated dirt.
Some spray waxes may even be applied to windows, which can be extremely useful.
Any rainwater on the glass will instantly slide off when you start driving. This makes it much easier to see out of the windows.
Additionally, a car with many small beads of water covering the surface can look pretty cool, as you can see in the picture.
Keeps Your Car Clean Longer
Waxing your car also has other effects on your washing process.
After applying wax, you may notice yourself washing less frequently.
This may be due to less dirt and particles sticking to your car’s paint.
Car wax makes it more difficult for dirt to stick to your car’s paint because of the smooth, protective surface. Without wax, dirt is more likely to attach to your rough clear coat.
Since dirt is less likely to stick to your car, it will take longer for it to accumulate on your car. Therefore, you will find yourself washing your car less often.
Additionally, any dirt that DOES accumulate on your paint could rinse off easier. This means that even rainwater could potentially clean dirt off your car.
All of these factors result in less frequent washing of your car, which is a huge benefit of waxing your car.
Adds Another Protective Layer to Your Paint
Waxing your car adds another level of protection to your car’s paint which helps to add shine and avoid rust damage.
The colored paint layer of your car is protected with clear coat, which is a hard, transparent layer that sits on top of all paint layers.
A worn clear coat will start showing signs of wear in the form of scratching, chipping, and fading.
By waxing your car, you add a layer of protection to an existing layer of protection (the clear coat). This results in maximum protection against paint damage.
Having ultimate paint protection is extremely important, as paint imperfections will easily ruin the look, and resale value, of an otherwise perfect car.
Additionally, deep paint chips and scratches can cause irreparable damage by allowing harmful elements like rust to accumulate on the vehicle’s surface.
Having the best paint protection is extremely important and another one of the benefits of waxing your car. It is suggested to use a high quality car wax like a synthetic type wax product
Protects Against Sun Damage
You may have noticed cars on the road with faded paint spots that make the car look horrible.
This is most commonly caused by damage from the sun, to the clear coat layer of the car’s paint.
Over the long run, ultraviolet rays from the sun can damage the paint, causing it to fade.
Car wax helps to fight this by forming a protective layer that helps prevent the ultraviolet rays from reaching your car’s paint.
Wax can be easily removed and reapplied while having your vehicle repainted is not such an easy (and cheap) process. Therefore, it is a smart decision to protect your car’s paint before it is too late. To take it a step further, a ceramic coating is recommended to fully protect your car’s paint job.
Waxing your car often can help prevent UV ray exposure, which is one of the biggest long term benefits of using car wax.
Keeps Your Car Looking New
Over time, your car’s paint is exposed to many different weather conditions and situations. Many of these situations cause damage to your car.
Car wax can help maintain your body paint condition and avoid small scratches from road debris
Waxing your car regularly will help you maintain that new car look and uniform appearance.
Using car wax to wax your car will keep your vehicle looking new can be beneficial for several reasons:
- It will help boost resale value, as it will be clear that the car was well-maintained and taken care of. This is important to professional automotive estimators.
- It will also be more enjoyable to drive around, even though the car may be many years old.
Using car wax regularly maintains that new car look throughout the vehicle’s lifetime, which is one of the many reasons it is beneficial to continue waxing your car routinely.
Helps Mask Imperfections
Waxing your car also helps hide imperfections in the paint.
This is mostly true for clear coat paint damage, as this is the outermost layer of your car.
Imperfections, such as scratches are extremely common on cars.
They cannot be avoided entirely, as they can happen for many different reasons, such as improper washing or opening your car door with your keys in your hand.
These very light types of imperfections may become invisible after waxing your car because it fills in cracks in your paint.
This results in the scratches becoming temporarily repaired by the wax. Although, it is important to fix light scratches permanently.
How Often Should You Wax Your Car
Overall, waxing your car can provide many great benefits. It can save you time, money, and embarrassment from driving around in a terrible-looking car but how often you should wax your car depends on the circumstances in which it lives.
Although some people may not have time to wax their car regularly, it should be done at least 2 times a year for minimum protection.
If you’re looking for a great paste wax to wax your car, I use and recommend Meguiar’s Ultimate Paste Wax.
If you don’t have much time to wax, I recommend using Turtle Wax: Wax and Dry to add a bit of extra protection during your washes (it will also save you time!). You can read my review of the product by clicking here.
If you’re more experienced in this department, feel free to use a buffer to apply the wax. Just make sure that you know how to use a car buffer before giving it a shot.
How Long Does Wax Last On A Car?
A typical DIY wax job should last you between 2 weeks and up to 6 months before you have to strip the wax off, wash off all the dirt and debris, and reapply again. Of course, there are other variable factors including the frequency of using your vehicle, type and brand of wax used and is the waxing process done properly.
What’s Better, Carnauba Wax or Synthetic Wax?
Both waxes are very effective. If most auto part stores you’ll find both but also carnauba mixed with some chemicals found in synthetic products as well.
Does Wax Keep a Car Cleaner?
Yes wax will keep a car cleaner over time because of it’s sealing and hydrophobic properties. This extra layer of protection prevents dirt, dust, and other road debris from sticking to the surface over time.
What’s the Best Carnauba Wax?
I personally prefer Meguiar’s Deep Crystal Wax. Meguiar’s has been around the auto detailing industry for decades now and consistently produces high quality products that perform well.
What’s the Best Synthetic Wax
A modern leader in the industry leader, Chemical Guys, produce a high quality synthetic wax made with byproducts from natural wax compounds. This wax is known as Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax. It’s a high shine formula that is safe for all finishes and safe for DIYers and professionals alike.
