Waxing a car is a common practice that is designed to coat a car's paint job with automotive wax to improve its appearance and make it last longer. Although waxing a car is not a necessity, and although many car owners do nothing more than wash their cars periodically, waxing a car provides benefits to its paint job. What follows is a brief list of the most common reasons for applying wax to a car.
Waxing a car's exterior goes a long way toward protecting the integrity and condition of its paint job. Wax penetrates deep into a car's paint, where it attaches itself to each individual paint molecule and acts as a protective barrier to environmental pollutants and contaminants. A good wax job also reduces the damaging effects of the sun's ultra-violet rays on a car's paint job and limits sun-induced paint fading.
A good wax job helps to keep a car clean and helps to prevent dirt, dust and road grime from sticking to a car's paint surface. A waxed vehicle surface creates a slippery, non-stick surface that repels many types of environmental and roadside particulate matter, which helps to protect a car's paint from staining, pitting and streaking. Cars without a good wax job tend to accumulate heavy dirt and grime particulate that, if left for long periods of time, can embed themselves into the paint surface and be very hard to remove.
A car that has a good, quality wax job simply looks better than a car without one. Besides protecting a car's paint job, a good wax job makes a car's paint shine and glisten, and it injects tired, worn old paint with new-found luster. Most car owners who value their car's appearance have their cars washed and waxed on a regular basis, both to protect and maintain the integrity of their car's paint but to also make it look better and more appealing.
Car paint that is regularly waxed lasts longer and holds up better over time than car paint that is rarely waxed. The degrading effects of environmental factors combined with the simple passage of time slowly degrades car paint and causes it to break down and even crack and peel. Keeping car paint regularly waxed protects it from the sunlight, dirt and grime that are so damaging to car paint and significantly reduce its lifespan.
Oxidation, which is a form of paint fading typically caused by exposure to high heat, is a typical problem affecting most older paint jobs. Oxidation commonly affects a car's hood, where heat from the engine radiates to the hood panel and exposes the paint on the hood to extremely high temperatures. The car roof and trunk are two other common areas that experience high levels of oxidation due to the direct sunlight that strikes these areas. A good wax job protects each individual paint molecule from excessive heat absorption and greatly reduces the incidence of paint oxidation.
