Volumes have been wrote on polish, wax and finish care.  What I spot from far away is the glaring lack of prep to the following areas:

 

Wheel wells, pull the tires and scrub down the wheel wells and get some satin or semi-black and spray the wells where appropriate. Do tape off areas like the front bumper support that is in natural fiberglass etc. Tape the body bushings too it looks tacky when they are covered with paint, run a wet cloth of tire gel on them to brighten the rubber up.  If the brake lines show tape'em off and then clean'em afterwards for a like new look.  While the wheels are off scrub the backsides too....clean backsides make it easier to spot leaking calipers!   What I spot is dirty/muddy wheel wells and dirty areas around the lug nuts.

If the brake calipers look all grody and rusty...scrub'em and repaint.

If you are entering a judged show make sure the lips of the wheel wells are cleaned if they decide to reach inside and feel for dirt/mud on the inside lips.....I lost points for this once when I got lazy and did not do it once and they decided to check.

 

The windshield wiper bay:   Scrub it out and paint it if need be with a satin/semi gloss black (remove the wiper arms before hand).  I brushed on Rustoleum 17 years ago and it still looks like new.  Replace the dirty windshield washer hose with some fresh hose.  If you show your car with the hood up and have the motor cleaned up they will not even notice it if the wiper area is filthy.

 

Clean out the gas cap area and treat the rubber with a protectant.

 

Clean the bugs out of the radiator when the hood is up.  Nothing like a few dragon flies spread eagle on the grill to distract an other wise clean frontal area.

 

Replace missing hub covers or lug nuts! ....this should be obvious but how many of you have seen this?

 

Sure some people could careless about some of this but If you want your car to attract as much attention as the new car next to you, it better look as clean as that car.  This is even more important if you are selling your car and want top dollar for it.

Have fun,

JU

 

 

 

 

      Only 32 years together