Hey Randy, I have a similar story. Back in the 60's through the late seventies, my grandmother had a '64 Nova. It was a 2 door, 6 cylinder, automatic, RADIO DELETE. Kind of a dark blue-green color. It was a gourgeous car. She bought it new, and literally drove it to the grocery store on Saturday and Church on Sunday. (She even walked to work which was a paper mill right across the street.) Anyway, I remember going to her house once in a while and she would be washing her car with a bucket of water and a couple cap fulls of kerosene! She toweled it dry and never waxed it. Man, that car was shiny like new well into the late seventies. Unfortunately, when she got too old to drive she gave it to her son (my uncle) who never took care of it at all.
I'm not sure how this would work on todays paint and plastic chrome.
I had never heard of anyone else doing this until I just read your post.
-Joe