Manufacturers of every class, from two-bit weekend chemists to
established major corporations would like us to believe that *their*
product can protect a car's finish and give it a long lasting lustrous
shine.  What (if anything) do you put on your car, van, etc... and why?

23 responses total.

Carnauba Wax.  Tons.

I like to squirt a little non-detergent motor oil into the inside of the
doors, wheel well seams and trunk and hood seams.  Once the oil runs into 
the seams, it will displace any moisture that tries to collect there.  I
had my last car, an AMC, for 13 years.  It had no rust through except in
the front fender, which never saw any oil cause it was hard to get to. The
doors were like new.
Wax is important to keep the rust from going from the outside in, but not
many people do anything to keep it from going from the inside out.

I myself like to spray lithium grease all over the inside door jamb and
hinge areas, and use underbody coating on the sills.  The lithium I started
doing soon after I started the usual lubing the latches and hinges as is
commonly reccomended.  There's so much overspray anyway,it just takes a little
more to finish.
    As for the outer body, I *have* to keep my hood and roof waxed, because
the original finish has been wind broken.  I use an occasional coat of
basic Turtle Wax (not that I'm terribly brand loyal, but I haven't seen
any real reason to try others), and I use the wax from the self-serve spray
washes fairly frequently.  It takes some practice to get the spray stuff on
in a thick but decent looking coat, but it really does work and only
takes 2 or 3 minutes and one dollar to put on.
     What I'm really curious about here are all the wonder products, that
supposedly last for a full year,or even permanently, with one wipe on/ wipe
off application.  I read an article on some of these products ina car mag,
I'll try and look it up in my little archives.

Turtle wax, and the occasional total respraying of paint & finish...

Rain Dance is also a good wax.

   When we got our Tercel in 1983, we got a protective coating on it,
called Poly Coat I believe.  That stuff was amazing.  There are still
places on the car even now that have the original shine.  I believe
that is one of the reasons it avoided rust for so long.  So while its
not a wax, it certianly seemed to do what waxes are supposed to do.

These "last forever" coatings are fine, just remember that they are on
the surface of the paint.  Any abrasion or stone chip that removes a bit
of paint also take the last forever coating with it, exposing whatever is
underneath.  If you are going to depend on such magic, have it re-applied
every year or so.  (Is that your Terce with all the, uh, "holes" in it
Steve?  ;)

Our Tercel really only has "hole" in the hatch.  The main body of the car
has very little rust.  Almost all of the Tercels of the early 80 vintage
that we have seen have rusted out hatches and little body rust.  Maybe
Toyota should investigate this, yes?

Maybe they did investigate since you note that it only seems to be a 
problem with the early ones, or is it because the late ones are too
young?  I wish Ford would learn from their rusty tailgates.  They've
had problems in this area for decades!  

My truck cost me $300. What is wax?

   That which holds it together?

  Wax?  That spray on, wipe off Minute Wax stuff works okay for my
$300 truck...about once every three years whether it needs it or not.

You aught to sprinkle salt on your $300 truck.  It adds distinctive 
character.

All I have to do is drive around Ann Arbor in the winter and I get
plenty of salt, thank you very much.  

Boy, you know, I hate the damn thing. Slow, clunky, doesn't make
sense...I just can't stand it.
Plus, there's always some nimrod on it...
I just hate it. Plain and simple.
I'm glad I never have to use it any more.

re #15 - Whoops - thought that said this was the VAX item :)

...thought you were talking about your truck...

When I bought my Escort, it had Ford's ClearCoat paint on it.  I wash
the car every 3 or 4 months or so, and when I do, it comes out looking
like new...except for the stone chips up front from Detroit I-94 traffic.

I'm pretty skeptical that cars need any wax at all.  I've heard it said,
that if you have clear coat paint, you SHOULDN'T wax, because it scrapes
away a thin layer of the clear coat each time, eventually ruining the paint.

So far, this works.  I didn't get it undercoated and don't do shit to keep
it from rusting and the only rust I have is along the inside seam of my
hatch.  Water tends to collect there.

$0 spent on beauty aids for my car.  4 Wayne County winters, too.

What year is the car?  I've seen a lot of mid-eighties Escorts go
through the car wash and have the paint color come up into the
drying towels.  Red always seemed the worst color.

  Wax is benificial to your MPG as the finish sees a more aerodynamic 
surface. One of my first jobs was washing airplanes at City Airport 
after school. Never waxed one though...
  I used to apply wax to my car every week just after I got it out of
the wash.;-) with the muffler I added I must have got 3 extra miles
per gallon

re:#19:  My car is a 1988 and a half.  It was the first of the "bubble-butt"
Escorts.

re:#20:  Your milage increase came from the muffler.  Wax on surfaces is only
good for higher speeds, and my Escort does'nt verywell qualify as a high-speed
vehicle.  I want to say that it starts to make a difference (appretiable) above
100mph, but I can't be sure.  Mufflers, on the other hand, control backpressure
and the burning of your fuel, which has an immediate, direct impact on the
consumption rate (i.e. milage).

and the tune-up condition.

Once a year for me.  Got 37 mpg, as of Sunday.
About 1/2 of that was with the a/c on.

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