right, first of all, yes.........WHAT?!?!!?!!!
dont take it through the car wash, especially brush ones as they create loads and loads of swirl marks on the paintwork
you can get no better wash than a hand wash
wax is essential in protecting your cars paintwork, it should be done 3-4 times a year to fully protect it
the finish lasts as long as the weather mate, but you should find that your cars a bit cleaner than usual for longer
you should be looking at £30 worth of bottled stuff minimum, and then you need a big bucket, a good sponge, and definitely a chamois.......you need a chamois, also polish applicator, buffing cloths and some good terry towels
if you wanna get it all from Halfords then id recommend a good shampoo such as Zymol Auto Wash, its very concentrated.....an very good
for the polish id go for Zymol Cleaner Wax or Turtle Wax Extreme
then you should buy a wax, a proper one in a tin/tub.......you can get Simoniz original from Colin_S on here for £6, from Halfords id go for Turtle Wax Original Hard Shell, or Turtle Wax Extreme
id recommend buying a Zymol Wax however, they are far superior to your usual waxes......for a silver car go for the Cream Wax.....it costs £40 a tub but it should last for 4 years even if used every month.....keep it in the fridge too.....so it only works out to £10 per year
once you have waxd your car then you dont need to polish it again for ages, just wash it, and every so often apply another layer of wax
http://www,mbrunskill.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/water-sperms1divx.avi">Video 1
http://www,mbrunskill.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/water-sperms2divx.avi">Video 2
look at my videos here to see what water does on a properly waxed surface, if you look around a car park when its rainin you can see which cars have been waxed, the ones that havent the water just kinda sticks to the paintwork an all the rain droplets just create a wet blanket on the car, on a waxd car the rain sits on the car in proper droplets and runs off