I no longer subscribe to leaving it for 6 months either. I left it the first year and the paint felt terrible in March, so didn't do it again and won't leave it so long this time.
I have just completed its full clean since spring this year (SF,wash,korrosol,tardis,clay,detox,hand polish,2 coats of HD wax)ready for winter and while its quiet therapeutic, a day and a half is not something I want to tackle too often, but I worry about doing a quick winter wash being worse for the paint without the full works.
Whats your quick routine? Without introducing too many scratches, being a black car you must need to be even more careful?
Depends what you mean by quick routine. I do exactly what I do in the warmer months, with a couple of tweaks and slightly less frquently due to weather constraints and the fact I have to do all my detailing outside on the driveway so am at the mercy of the weather. As a rule, I don't really do a half interim washes like some do, i.e, jet washing and snow foaming then leaving it, I prefer do a full wash, but if the weather prevents this then it's better than nothing to tide over until I can do a proper wash. A month between proper snow foam+2 BW washes is the very longest I would leave it.
Twice a year, Post and Pre winter (Spring and Autumn) it gets the full works (like you have just done) then it's a case of regular maintenance washes and protection top ups as required. A winter maintenance wash is exactly the same as summer with a couple of extra considerations.
The snow foam stage is particularly important to remove as much salt and winter grit and grime at the 'touchless stage of the wash' and I often do a double snowfoam in winter if I feel it's needed. But it's business as usual albeit with colder hands which a pair of nitrile gloves help keep a bit warmer. I always use 2 lambswool washmitts in winter - one for the upper panels and another for the lower panels. My exterior winter maintenance wash routine goes like this (takes about 1-1.5 hours with a couple of tea stops):
Wheels pre wash spray on wheel cleaner- diluted 1:10 or less as required
Snow foam using lance (with pressure washer)
Pressure wash rinseWash wheels (wheel brush/wheel mitt) use separate bucket to rest of car
2 Bucket wash (with grit guards and lambswool mitt) - one mitt for roof and upper panels, second mitt for lower panels - starting from top down - roof - upper sections of car first, lower (dirtiest) sections of car last
Pressure wash rinseFinal rinse with open ended hose to reduce standing water to a minimum
Dry - blot dry with MF towels/Metrovac air dryer for water traps etc
External glass clean Dress tyres Metal polish tailpipes Bodywork / glass / wheel protection topped up as required.
