Water and soap

I swear, this stuff cleans my faded stock paint better than anything else I've ever used! I highly recommend using the Dial brand, as it also gets rid of 99.9% of germs so your car can't catch a cold. I guess that could also serve double as exterior mold protection, for the fair amount of you who have a Turbo Coupe that just sits there broken for half of the year!

The easiest way to go about using this mixture is to get yourself a clean, medium sized bucket and pour some of your preferred soap in. Fill it with warm water, and slosh a soft clean rag around to create lots of bubbly fun! Now hose your car down and apply the soapy water. Remember to work from the top first, down to the bottom!

Oh yeah, don't forget to rinse.

LOL smartass

Dish soap is the worst thing you could ever put on your car. The paint contains oils which help keep the life of the paint last. This is why we wax cars. Dish soap is designed to remove grease and oil which destroys the paint fast.

I would use the cheapest walmart soap before dish soap.

Dishsoap, one of the fastest way to remove a wax job. Another one of life's hard learned lessons for me

Originally posted by trashline:
Dish soap is the worst thing you could ever put on your car. The paint contains oils which help keep the life of the paint last. This is why we wax cars. Dish soap is designed to remove grease and oil which destroys the paint fast.

I would use the cheapest walmart soap before dish soap.

Do you think those oils are still there on 20 year old faded paint?

What dishsoap does is remove the contaminants from the surface of the paint as well as the wax, glaze or any other protectant you have on there. After all that is removed, you are left with a sometimes dull, lightly scratched, surface. Which is the surface of the paint without any protectant on it. You never want to use dishsoap if you have a good coat of wax on the car because it will remove it, leaving your paint unprotected to the elements. If your going to use some type of dishsoap use something very mild like Ivory. However, it is best to use a soap designed to clean without removing the cars waxed surface. Something like Turtle Wax brand car wash or Meguires car wash or something similar.

I don't know about oils in the paint for protection. I'll have to ask the paint rep. about that one, but I do know that if oil gets in the paint when your spraying it, it will cause all kinds of fisheyes and believe me, you don't want that. Fisheyes are a paint and body man's nighmare.

Originally posted by thecrusher315:


I don't know about oils in the paint for protection. I'll have to ask the paint rep. about that one, but I do know that if oil gets in the paint when your spraying it, it will cause all kinds of fisheyes and believe me, you don't want that. Fisheyes are a paint and body man's nighmare.

Take a look in the tech section (detailing your car) explains right there. like the second or third paragraph down.

So you guys mean all those times I've washed my car with sandpaper, hydrochloric acid, coffee beans and stale Funions, I've been doing it all wrong?!

No, not oils for protection, but in the makeup of the paint. Yes, check with the paint rep. For years I worked in different body shops and was told by various paint reps NOT to use a strong detergent to wash the vehicles because it would literally strip any waxes and oil chemicels out of the paint making the finish go dull. But that was also before these new water based paints came along. John Kosmoski of House of Kolors also said the same thing at one of his seminars here in Chicago. Don't use a strong detergent.

Bhazard, the reason why that car has faded paint is partly due to the reasons listed above. Too much dish soap not enough wax put back on. Also I have a 93' Tempo that still has real good looking paint. It wasn't extremely smooth and shiney from the factory, but still looks good today. Every time I wash and polish/wax it, it seems to look even beter. Except for the smooth part (dislikes some factory paint jobs- too much orange peel)