What happens when you never wash your car 🏁
Yesterday, I was filming with a donor car for my upcoming Paint Enhancement workshop.
And while I could have used a garage-kept vehicle that had been cared for, I decided to go the opposite direction...
I used a 7-year-old daily driver that lives on a dirt road and literally only gets washed by the rain.
It served as a great reminder to me of why it's important to wash your car regularly.
Here's what happens if you don't wash your car often enough:
1. Bird poop and bug guts permanently etch into your clear coat
If you get to them in time, they just wipe off - no harm done.
But this stuff is acidic, and if you let it sit on the surface long enough, that acid will eat into your clear coat.
So even after you clean off the mess, there will be a stain left over that won't scrub off.
As a matter of fact, even compounding or wet sanding won't remove it in extreme cases.
2. Tree sap bakes on
This might not cause as much damage, but it can be a total pain to remove if it's been left for a long time in the sun.
On this particular car, it had really hardened, and I had to cut it off with a razor blade (don't try this at home).
3. Unprotected paint oxidizes and looks grey
I knew the car that I was working on was supposed to be black (it looked dark grey), but I didn't realize until I started polishing the oxidized clear coat that it was actually metallic black.
Cutting the top layer of dead clear coat revealed a beautiful metal flake and deep, glossy reflections.
This has more to do with a lack of protection than dirtiness, but the thing is, you can't wax or coat a car that you haven't even washed.
So not washing it guarantees that it'll also be lacking the proper protection.
4. It's harder to wash when you eventually do it
At some point, you'll probably get around to washing your car.
I can promise you that it's much more difficult and time-consuming to wash a neglected car than one that's been maintained.
There's dirt, leaves, and grease built up in the door jambs and wiper cowl. And if you just hit that with your pressure washer, it's going to turn into mud.
On top of that, unprotected and contaminated paint is hard to dry off.
Say goodbye to blowing it dry with a leaf blower - the water just sits on the surface instead of gliding off.
Even towel drying isn't very effective. You can wipe and wipe and it'll still be wet.
This takes a lot more time than it would if you had stayed on top of it.
And knowing that it's going to be a pain to wash is going to make you prolong it even more, so your car is going to keep getting worse until you finally decide to tackle a "disaster detail".
This can all be avoided by washing your car semi-regularly.
It doesn't have to be once a week or every time it gets dirty - but it's a good idea not to let more than a month pass by without a wash.
The surprising benefit of not washing your car
I don't condone this, but there is one advantage to never washing your car:
Most swirl marks are caused by improper wash methods.
Even if you wash it the right way, you're still rubbing dirty paint.
If you just never touch it, there might not be any swirl marks hiding under all the dirt.
It's the opposite of the Corvette owner who wipes his dusty car down with a quick detailer every hour at a car show.
Swirl City.
The problem is that whenever you do decide to wash your car, it's going to be even more difficult to avoid creating scratches because you have so much built-up dirt and grime to remove.
So basically, just wash your car if you care about it. And if this just inspired you to do some deep cleaning, you might like this video.
