How clean is your s550 mustang?

[#1ford]

Just fine. I do run snow tires which definitely helps. Just have to go easy on the throttle from a stop

be safe out there!!!

Sponsored

 

[icecreamtruckz]

Strip wash, clay bar, very light cut with DA polisher, Turtle Wax Graphene wax. I swear the graphene wax gives it better gloss than the absurdly expensive ceramic job I got done on the C8.
I got the Graphene Flex wax spray as well. If I can use it as drying agent when I wash and keep this gloss, never paying for ceramic again.

 

[Rock&Roll]

Yeah my 2016 is super clean. When I rotated the wheels a year ago I cleaned everything I could see under there. No pics but she's clean

 

[Topdown]

About every 3-4 months. Internally about twice a year. No obsession happening here. Two old for that.

 

[#1ford]

Strip wash, clay bar, very light cut with DA polisher, Turtle Wax Graphene wax. I swear the graphene wax gives it better gloss than the absurdly expensive ceramic job I got done on the C8.
I got the Graphene Flex wax spray as well. If I can use it as drying agent when I wash and keep this gloss, never paying for ceramic again.

your car looks outstanding well done

 

[vinny89gt]

Probably thinking "when is he going to do mine?" LOL...

I have a neighbor across the street whose house/grounds/car are always dirty and in disarray.

Whenever I'm out washing my cars and he drives by he always hits me with the "when are you going to do mine?"

 

[skinnyb]

I have a neighbor across the street whose house/grounds/car are always dirty and in disarray.

Whenever I'm out washing my cars and he drives by he always hits me with the "when are you going to do mine?"

Same here.

 

[Grimmer]

Mine stays pretty clean in the summertime, but a single trip in the winter around here (even with dry roads) gets salt and crap all over it. I'm going to try using a touchless car wash that has an undercarriage spray using a monthly subscription to keep it "rinsed" off (and then hand dry it with some quick detailer handy) weekly. Then detail it myself once a month during winter. Here's hoping it will do the trick...

When I first got my car, I was wiping the engine bay with a rag and the "unfinished" sheet metal edges cut my fingers. So now I only rinse down the engine bay with the pressure washer once or twice a year (there is nothing in there but dust). Although I recently changed the cam covers, so the whole thing was wiped down with quick detailer and a micro-fiber.

Otherwise, it stays as clean as when new. Although it is about due for another round of rock-chip repair. Shitty paint, UGH!

 

[RazzaRossa]

Mine is pure toy as well. How clean? Better than new, and it's 5 years old, 2.5K miles.

 

[#1ford]

Mine is pure toy as well. How clean? Better than new, and it's 5 years old, 2.5K miles.

That’s why we call them our babies!,

 

[black22gt]

Am I as crazy as people think that I am ? How clean do you keep your non daily driver ! My personal car is my toy and at this point I am not planning to sell it anytime in the future?

Yes, but thats okay. Mine's getting its regularly scheduled washing right now!

 

[Grimmer]

... I'm going to try using a touchless car wash that has an undercarriage spray using a monthly subscription to keep it "rinsed" off (and then hand dry it with some quick detailer handy) weekly. Then detail it myself once a month during winter. Here's hoping it will do the trick...

This was a total bust! It finally stopped raining / snowing for a bit so I ran it through the touchless car wash.

First problem was the machine battering my tires. It was like a continuous curb check all the way though. I swear the track made contact with the undercarriage (there was a horrible scraping sound as it positioned itself under the car. And at one point (before starting to move) the front of the car suddenly dropped a few inches. I suspect that it had set some part of the suspension (maybe the lower control arms or knuckle) on the track which eventually slid off. I haven't lifted it up to take a look yet. Luckily these were the 18" winter wheels and tires with taller sidewalls. If the 19" low profiles had been on, likely there would have been some scrapes on the wheels.

Second problem was that it was not effective at removing the road salt. It was about as effective as me pre-rinsing the car with plain water. I had expected there to be some areas where some salt remained that would require the quick detailer rather than just wiping it dry; however, the majority of the salt remained, and I wasn't even comfortable wiping it down with quick detailer. I had to take it home and wash it by hand.

 

[RazzaRossa]

This was a total bust! It finally stopped raining / snowing for a bit so I ran it through the touchless car wash.

First problem was the machine battering my tires. It was like a continuous curb check all the way though. I swear the track made contact with the undercarriage (there was a horrible scraping sound as it positioned itself under the car. And at one point (before starting to move) the front of the car suddenly dropped a few inches. I suspect that it had set some part of the suspension (maybe the lower control arms or knuckle) on the track which eventually slid off. I haven't lifted it up to take a look yet. Luckily these were the 18" winter wheels and tires with taller sidewalls. If the 19" low profiles had been on, likely there would have been some scrapes on the wheels.

Second problem was that it was not effective at removing the road salt. It was about as effective as me pre-rinsing the car with plain water. I had expected there to be some areas where some salt remained that would require the quick detailer rather than just wiping it dry; however, the majority of the salt remained, and I wasn't even comfortable wiping it down with quick detailer. I had to take it home and wash it by hand.

Just buy one of these and do it yourself: https://www.amazon.com/RIDGE-WASHER...hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584138871445755&psc=1
And you use clean water, not the recycled salty road runoff from the car wash.

 

[Adam the Lighting Guy]

Can our cars ever be "Too" clean? Nope. Will OCD take over our common sense sometimes and Make us waste countless hours detailing, effort that is basically wasted the first time we hit a rain fall? Yep. We know the value of our efforts, very few others do.

I used to love cleaning my vehicles. It was a point of pride that only for the most part rewarded me. My shits pretty clean(personal S550, not the work S550 car) and.there is always room for improvement, but at what cost? My self inflicted "To do" list domestically is kinda long.

 

[icecreamtruckz]

Can our cars ever be "Too" clean? Nope. Will OCD take over our common sense sometimes and Make us waste countless hours detailing, effort that is basically wasted the first time we hit a rain fall? Yep. We know the value of our efforts, very few others do.

I used to love cleaning my vehicles. It was a point of pride that only for the most part rewarded me. My shits pretty clean(personal S550, not the work S550 car) and.there is always room for improvement, but at what cost? My self inflicted "To do" list domestically is kinda long.

I have a storage closet full of detailing products mostly full because I keep buying new stuff. Wax, synthetic sealants, ceramics, soaps, polishing products, quick detailers, it never ends. Always trying to find a better product.

In reality, it’s extremely hard to tell a difference between a great sealant, a great wax, and a great ceramic. I never leave the paint alone for longer than a month, so the products that claim to last a year or more I will never know. If I have ceramic on it, every wash I’m using a ceramic drying agent to top it off. I’m always topping off whatever product is being used for paint protection.

Of the hundreds of products I have used, only a few stand out. Duragloss sealant applied with the bonding agent was extremely effective and could stop a meteor. Gtechnik CSL ceramic is pretty good. Turtle Wax new Graphene products are pretty damn good, same with Adams. Best drying agent I have found is Duragloss Aquawax or Koch Chemie spray sealant with the grey label.

Most of the extremely expensive ceramic products I don’t see the benefit of if you take care of your car. They don’t look any different visually. They don’t give better gloss that I can see. They just claim to last years. Which is great if you don’t touch your paint for years, but who does that?

I should start a detailing business at this point just to recoup the money I spent on all this stuff.

Sponsored