Brand New Car - best things to do to keep it looking new?

[countrychic]

I'm a once a month car wash-er with a brand new car too. The paint on my new car isn't perfect, so I will be doing the wash-clay-seal-glaze-wax to it next weekend. Cost me $70 for products plus $50 for applicators/towels. I expect this to last me at least 3 years. Given the cost of a new car I'm happy to pay that to keep it looking its best. (It's not an MPS or a dark colour)

paintbeforesmall.jpg paintaftersmall.jpg
ETA: Before and after photos. HUGE difference... just as well given it took 5 hours. The blemish in the before photo is the sticky residue from the plastic wrap that the dealer failed to remove.

I have the same question on inside fabric protection - is over the counter scotchguard worth using? Kids? Pets? Anyone? Once upon a time I could use seat covers but with side airbags that's not possible anymore.

[dru]

For fabric protection I use Aerospace 303 Fabric Gaurd. I find that it's great stuff! I first used it on my floor mats, let it dry and poured some water onto the mats. I can say, I've never seen water beads on material before!!! Better yet, the material felt the same and didn't stiffen up!

[MISSMPS]

Anytime mate

Also forgot to mention, if you do the Prima Paint Protection, do the wheels too!

Makes keeping them clean sooo much easier


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[TD]

Thanks to the advice in this thread and the gentle encouragement of OzMPS's resident R35 GT-R owner we (well mainly Wardski!) cleaned up the GTI a few weeks ago. Not to anywhere near the standard of our detailing masters who have contributed to the thread, but enough to massively improve on how it was delivered from the dealer. Took us 2-3 hours with plenty of chatting in between.

Exterior
- Good car wash (Megauirs?), rinsed, soaked it in foam, rinsed, then washed and microfibre dried.
- Bowdens Own pre-wax treatment, this stuff was great! Removed all the storage/transport effects and dealer gunk from the paint, bit of effort to do however.
- Applied 'Fusion' paint protection (used plenty of elbow grease). Can really notice the difference in the paint, the white paint seems to glow. In my limited knowledge of this sort of thing it appeared to do the job well and has made the car easier to weekly wash.

Interior
- Gave it a good vaccuum
- 2 x cans of Scotchguard used to apply protection to all fabrics within the car while following the directions on the can. Has already passed the spilt coffee test with flying colours.
- Quick wipe of the plastics using Autoglym interior cleaner to get rid of dust and soot.

Overall I'm very happy, it looks great and gives a sense of pride when I see it in the car park in the middle of nowhere by itself (then someone else always decides to park next to it...mutter mutter...)

[Caffeine Fiend]

Good stuff TDski

Needs pics though

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[TD]

Good stuff TDski

Needs pics though

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Pics? Go sit at a cafe, grab a coffee and wait half an hour, you'll see about 6 GTI's drive past! Look for the cleanest white one, mine will look like that