What products to use on a car that has paint protection?

[TheEggShell]

Hi all,

I was just wondering, do you need to use any special products or take any special care when polishing/waxing a car that has had paint protection applied to it?

Also, can anyone tell me what the Audi paint protection is called?

[squinty]

are you talking about supagard, or autoglym life shine?

if you paid to have that applied then you should of also got a boot organiser with a load of products in, i think there is some sort of sealant in there that they recommend you use.

the concept behind this paint protection system is that you dont need to wax the car for 3 years! personally, if you dont mind spending a bit of time waxing the car, then it cant hurt. more wax, just means more protection at the end of the day, so you dont lose anything.

polish on the other hand, is an abrasive cleaner. effectively, this will remove the paint protection that you have paid to have applied. then you will definately have to wax the car ;)

[TheEggShell]

Cheers squinty!

It was the supagard I was refering to. To be honest, the car is 4 years old now so I assume it has worn off and have been both polishing and waxing my car. I was asking as much for one of my mates who has just bought a new type-r with their paint protection system.

Do you know if a claybar would remove the supagard?

Also, are these protection systems worth the money?

[squinty]

personally speaking, no. they are not worth the hefty price tag that the dealers ask for.

i work at a mercedes dealership, as a valeter, so have first hand experience of applying the product, and seeing the results/how well it lasts. all the demo cars get the supagard paint sealant applied, and admittedly, they are relatively easy to wash. although they do get done weekly, so there is never too much to wash off anyway! water still beads up on these really well easily 6 months after application. i have also seen customers cars coming in 1 and 2 years after it has been applied, and i must say that it really does start to deteriorate.

the problem is, that i dont know how well looked after the car is. so, it could be a combination of both the product wearing out and poor maintenance/cleaning.

at the end of the day though, this does nothing different that any decent wax is capable of. so, if you have the time to wax your motor every 2-3 months, then i would take this option.

i would definately recommend the interior fabric treatment though. i have covered my interior with this stuff.

IF you do want to have the supagard applied to a car, it can be picked up on ebay VERY cheap. all that comes in the valeters kit is the wax, a can of interior treatment and a can of alloy polish (also leather conditioner if you have a leather interior). by getting them from ebay, you are only missing out on the boot organiser kitm which is a basic kit of shampoo, wheel polish, brush etc...

the wax is a 100ml sachet sealed inside an applicator sponge. there is easily enough there for 5 average sized cars. cut the sponge and remove the sachet, its a lot easier to control how much you use! ;)

the can on interior spray will do a couple of cars liberally, or about 4 coats in one car (which is what i did :D)

as for a claybar removing the supagard... it wont totally remove it. the claybar will primarily remove the contaminants that build up on top of this, and those that get embedded. i would think that it will take a portion of the sealant off aswell though. so, after you have used the claybar 2-3 times it will probably have removed all the protection.

[TheEggShell]

Ok cheers squinty, excellent advice!

Do you know if there is a fabric treatment for leather/alacantara upholstery?

I currently use Auto Glym leather cream on the leather and just hoover the alacantara bits.

[squinty]

that sounds fine.

if you really wanted to, you could get a can of the supagard interior fabric guard from ebay and use that on the fabrics. it will prevent any spillages from soaking into the fabric. in turn this should eliminate the need for cleaning the fabric. all you would need to do i hoover it.

[TheEggShell]

Ok, many thanks for your help squinty!