Well thank you good sir, that was a lot of really useful and good information! Thanks for taking the time.
You've given me a really good array of options here, pretty much exactly what I was looking to find out about. What brand of PPF did you apply to your CX-5? XPEL? Those ceramic coats do seem to be intense albeit a fantastic option. I think the PPF seems to be the way to go, I've seen what it looks like on the CX-5 at the dealer and it didn't bother me at all.
I'll definitely be taking the time to hand wash and wax the car, especially during the summer months (liking the technique you describe!; for the first year of my last car, I washed it by hand and probably induced more swirls than any automatic car wash ever would have). I'd be lying if I said this was going to be possible during the winter out here though. I'm hoping a high quality touchless car wash won't necessarily leave my paint looking less than 'newish' if I get it machine polished at a detailer at some point? I've seen those car wash swirls be lifted and the paint returned to nearly a brand new form— hoping that will be the case here if I can't do handwashes Dec - Feb.
Ultimately, I think what scares me about ever using an automatic carwash of any kind... is the potential for rock chips (honestly.. you really don't know what might happen in those things, last year one ripped off some plastic pieces / trims around my window). I'm not sure the one on Sunday actually put that little pin prick of a chip in my hood but boy did that scare me.
Going to do a little handwash and waxing this weekend!
BTW, what do you think about rust in general with the CX-5? I know it appears to be an issue with Mazda in general after reading around these past few days, but some of the pictures I've seen on fairly new CX-5's is a bit concerning. Are you doing anything to yours, in terms of some kind of undercoating / rust protection?
I believe my installer used Suntek PPF if i'm not mistaken. He said he liked that film much better then the Xpel as he felt the Xpel wasn't as glossy. I felt confident in his work and his shop, when I took my car in they also had a Mercedes AMG GTS, A BWM M5, a challenger hellcat and a MB G-wagon in for PPF. If those cars and their owners trust this shop, my lowly CX-5 sure trusts that shop.
Like I said, I did the PPF on the front, hood, fender mirrors and front bumper. Before it was installed I polished the paint to remove the dealer induced swirls from them washing the car with red shop rags for me (face palm)! After the PPF was installed I used optimum Gloss coat coating. It was very easy to apply and went right over every exterior surface on the car except glass. Paint, trim and lights. It's been about 16months, still water beading very well, a little deterioration below the belt line on the doors from the winters but not to bad. I'll probably recoat with something fall or just add some more Gloss Coat to the doors here soon.
Washing your car by hand in the winter is totally possible. Look at Optimum No Rinse (ONR). Do you have a garage or somewhere else that is relatively sheltered? I'm in Wisconsin and use ONR in the winter months and wash the car in my garage.
Here's how you do it:
1) Fill a bucket with about 4 gallons of luke warm water and add about 4oz of the ONR solution to the bucket.
2) Get some edgeless microfiber towels, 5-6 should be enough for the CX-5 size, I use 5, and add them to the bucket.
3) Use a spray bottle or garden sprayer with ONR solution to presoak the really dirty areas on the vehicle.
4) Take one of you microfiber towels out of the bucket and fold it into fourths, start from the top down as previously described and wipe in long straight strokes. Turning the towel to a new clean section after every wipe, I can get about three swipes per 1/4 side by using the front, middle and back as my leading edge.
5) after you've washed one panel dry it immediately with your drying towel and move onto the next section.
6) Grab a new fresh microfiber from the bucket and proceed to wash the rest of the car drying after each section. My sections are, Towel #1:Roof and windows including side windows on up, Towel #2:Front end (hood, bumper, fenders), Towel #3: Passanger side doors and rear quarter panel, Towel #4: Driver side doors and Rear quarter, Towel #5 Rear end.
I place the used towel on a small cart I have and rinse them all out in the bucket when done. Don't put the dirty towels back into the Clean water solution until you're finished. find that doing the wash this way doesn't take any longer then my summer time 2 bucket wash with hose and the amount of water on the ground when done is no greater then parking in the garage after it's rained on the car and dripped off.
ONR is a great product that traps and encapsulates dirt with in the solution preventing scratches. I was skeptical at first as washing the car with out a rinse from the hose was new to me but it works extremely well. ONR can be used year round for washes if you like as it is much more water usage friendly. Search YouTube videos for How-to's.
If you are new to machine polishing you can pick up a Harbor Freight Dual Action Polisher for cheap and order a new 5" backing plate and some quality foam pads to start with. The HF polisher is actually pretty decent and can create some great results.
