How to keep your MX-5 looking new

A mechanical car wash is a no go area ! These will damage the surface of the paintwork on your car. The rotating brushes that have cleaned hundreds of dirty cars before yours will abrade the surface leaving it dull and lack lustre. 

To clean a car properly takes time, a complete clean can be achieved in about 4 hours although I would suggest putting aside a morning or nice evening to tackle the job.

Once a car has been cleaned and waxed with good quality wax the subsequent cleans can be done in a fraction of the time.

1. Don't wash your car in direct sunlight especially if your car is a dark colour (Black etc) as this will dry the water before you have a chance to chamois it dry and leave water marks that are hard to remove. Washing  your car when you have been for a drive will have the same effect as the bonnet will be very warm.
2. Firstly hose the car down with cold water to remove all lose grit and anything else that will scratch the surface when you run a sponge over it.
3. Then using clean sponge, bucket of warm (not to hot) water with a good quality car shampoo (I personally find the Halfords one very good) start washing the car from the top down. Don't worry about the wheels yet.
4. Once the car has been completely washed rinse the car with the hose again, making sure all the soap has been removed.
5. Now the car must be dried, the best way of achieving this is will a chamois leather, have a clean warm bucket of water to hand and dry an area at a time, again working from the top down. Every now and again rinse the chamois out with the warm water. Again leave the wheels for now.
6. Open the doors, bonnet and boot and chamois all the shuts where water gathers.
7. Now you can concentrate on the wheels (assuming they are alloy), the reason I leave the wheels until I have dried the car is because the wheels usually dry and get water staining before I get to dry them. Unless the wheels are in particularly bad condition and heavily soiled with brake dust then I would avoid using any wheels cleaners as these contain acid, if the wheels are badly soiled then I would recommend using Autoglym Clean wheels. Assuming the wheels are in good condition use a small sponge which I keep for the wheels separate to the one for the car wash the wheels in the same way as the car, then dry the excess off with a chamois.
8. Now go for a drive for a few minutes !! When you come back all the water will have run out of all the crevices which you can dry with the chamois, this stops the water running down when you are trying to polish your car. It also stops the brake disc from going that horrible brown rust colour.

1. If your cars paintwork is new or in good condition then omit this part. If your cars paintwork is very dull has lost its shine and has lots of fine scratches then you might want to restore the paint before you wax it. This can be done with a product called T Cut which is made by Car Plan (shown below) it has been on the market for a good number of years. It is applied like polish and removes a very fine layer of paint revealing the true colour of the car. Although very good use with caution as damage can be done if not used correctly.

2. Assuming that your paintwork is relatively new or hasn't lost its colour then the first thing to do is to apply a Super Resin Polish which is made by Autoglym, this is a polish with a slight cleaner in it, it must be applied with a 100% cotton cloth or purpose stockinet because any man made fibres in the cloth for example nylon will scratch the car. Apply in a circular motion to a panel at a time, I usually start with the bonnet then the boot and then the sides. Cover the panel with an even coat of the polish. If there is any small surface scratches, Tar etc then rub slightly harder to remove these.

3. Cover the whole car and let the polish totally dry, it doesn't matter how long the polish is on the car it wont do it any harm. Buff the polish off with a clean piece of the cotton rag / stockinet.

4. Have a cup of tea !

5. Next is to give it a coat of Extra Gloss Protection also made by Autoglym, this is done in exactly the same way as the Super Resin Polish, only this time don't press so hard as this polish contains no cleaner at all it is just a protective wax. After applying and buffing to a deep shine you should be left with a very smooth paint surface.

6. If you are feeling very keen the alloy wheels can have the 2 coat treatment also. Although I tend to just give the wheels a coat of Super Resin Polish.

1. Dress the tyres when dry with Autoglym Instant tyre dressing  this is best applied with a small sponge, simply spray a little on the sponge and wipe around the edge of the tyre (do not get to much on the tread) and leave to dry, this can be reapplied in about 15 minutes if needed.
2. Finally use AutoSol to polish the chrome exhaust trims, this is a toothpaste like substance that is applied to a raw metal and buffed to a shine, its easy to use the more you rub the shiner the object gets!       

Picture of the products used are displayed below , scroll through the thumbnails and click to view.

paul@mx5-3rdgenerationlimited.com