Love that combo. I'll go with new wheels before I drop $350+ to powdercoat the stock ones. Otherwise... evidently it's $30 in plasti-dip every half year for me!
As far as taking your vehicle to a car wash, and frequently, it would be an interesting debate. Curious what others think but for me, washing my car once a week via "automatic" car wash is much better than me washing the car by hand what... once a month max? Who has time for that, not to mention the wasted water, stuff you have to buy, etc... I do hand wax every few months however. I would find it hard to believe that leaving bird crap, silt, salt, road grime, etc... on your paint, for ANY given time could be better than taking it through a car wash and getting if off your paint immediately. New school car washes are all brushless, softer cloth, etc...
Sources for the studies are not listed but found this interesting:
Is it ok to run a high end model car through a car wash or is it better to hand wash it? - Quora
Anyway, my truck looks brand new aside from the faint pin stripes from trail rash. I hand dry the car w/ micro-fiber towels (this is part of the Soapy Joe's shtick - they provide a place to pull the car in after wash where they give you clean microfiber towels, high powered vac, etc... it's not the crappy gas station auto-wash you're picturing) and I'm always on the lookout for scratches as I dry off the LC.
