How To Wash And Dry Your Car

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How To Wash And Dry Your Car
Topic Started: Sat 5 Nov 2005, 14:51:25 (239 Views)
c76jon	Sat 5 Nov 2005, 14:51:25 Post #1
PE30 Private 2nd Class Posts: 22 Group: New Blood Member #7 Joined: 5-11-05	"Properly washing your car by hand helps to avoid scratches, swirls and strong detergents often associated with tunnel car washes." While washing a vehicle isn't exactly a rocket science, there are tools and techniques that you can use to minimize car wash induced swirl marks and microscopic scratches that can reduce the beauty of your automotive paint finish. In this article we will learn about the dos and the don'ts to get the most out of washing your car. We need to take the approach that we are "gently lifting" dirt and grime rather than "scrubbing" it off the car. So often I hear about someone who meant well but really did more harm than good by using a scouring pad or steel wool to remove bugs, road tar or tree sap from their automobile's fine finish SELECT THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB Do not use dishwashing detergent, brillo pads or any other household cleaning item on your car. I highly recommend the use of high quality products that are made specifically for automotive cleaning and detailing. Here are some detailing tools that I recommend for washing your car: 1. Two (2) clean five gallon buckets 2. 50 - 100 foot garden hose with an adjustable spray nozzle. 3. Microfibre wash mitt 4. pH balanced car wash shampoo. 5. Plenty of microfiber towels for drying. WORK IN A SHADED AREA One of the most important things to remember when washing you car by hand is to work in a shaded area and that the paint surface be cool to the touch. If you work in direct sunlight, the car's surface will get too hot and your car wash solution will tend to dry on the paint finish. Dried soap residue and water spots are something that we want to avoid so finding a shaded area to work in will be of great benefit to you and your car. RINSE THE VEHICLE THOROUGHLY Use a garden hose with an adjustable spray nozzle and thoroughly rinse your car, starting at the top and working your way down. This step is very important as it will remove loose dirt and contaminants from the vehicle. USE THE TWO BUCKET METHOD I highly recommend the use of two buckets when washing your car. One of the buckets is going to be a clean water rinse for your wash mitt and the other bucket will contain your soapy car wash solution. When you see how dirty the water in your clean water rinse bucket gets, you will fully understand why I am telling you about using two buckets when washing your car. Almost all scratches and swirls which occur, are caused from improper car washing. The dirt and grit from you car get trapped in your mitt or brush as you are washing your vehicle. fill your first bucket with about 2 gallons of water, add the appropriate dilution of car wash soap and then agitiate with a strong jet of water to create copious amounts of suds. These suds with help lift dirt and grime away from your paint. Fill your second bucket with about 3 gallons of clean water. You will use this bucket to dunk your wash mitt in after using it to clean your vehicle. The proper steps to using the two bucket method are as follows: 1. Prepare two five gallon buckets, one with clean water and the other with soapy car wash solution. 2. Rinse vehicle thoroughly. This will remove loose dirt and contaminants. 3. Dunk your wash mitt into the soapy car wash solution, gently glide mitt over vehicle to lift dirt from surface. Start at the top of vehicle and work your way down. This is important to prevent transferring dirt from the grimier lower areas up to the rest of the vehicle. Use long straight sweeping motions with the wash mitt. Do not scrub. Allow the soap and water mixture to do the work. 4. Dunk wash mitt vigorously into clean water rinse bucket to clean mitt and remove any dirt and contaminants that were removed from the vehicle surface. 5. Dunk wash mitt into soapy car wash solution again, gently glide over vehicle to lift dirt from surface. Repeat this process until you have washed the entire vehicle and then rinse thoroughly. RINSE YOUR WAY TO EASIER DRYING Now that you have washed your vehicle and rinsed it with a garden hose and spray nozzle, I am going to teach you another rinsing technique that will actually make the drying process easier! You may have noticed that when you rinse your vehicle using a hose with a spray nozzle that alot of water remains on the surface. This makes drying a chore with all that water left behind! The water may even be beading and if the beads dry before you get to them, you will be left with thousands of tiny water spots. There is an easier way! Simply take the spray nozzle off of your water hose and use a stream of water instead of a spray to rinse your vehicle. Start at the top and slowly move the hose in a left and right pattern as you work your way down. Using this method to rinse causes the water to sheet right off your vehicle. This floods the vehicle surface and by providing more water volume, you allow gravity to pull the water down and off the car! CRACKS AND CREVICES One of my favorite tools for drying my car was actually invented for drying motorcycles and it is called an "Air Force Blaster". Basically, it is a 4.0 horsepower blower but do not confuse it with an ordinary leaf blower. The "Air Force Blaster" filters the air that it intakes to help prevent any dirt or sand from being thrust onto your vehicle at high velocity. Ordinary leaf blowers do not prevent this from happening! FINISH THE DRYING PROCESS WITH WAFFLE WEAVE MICROFIBER Throw away your old T-shirts, leather chamois, cloth diapers and anything else that you have been using until now. High quality waffle weave microfiber is a superior fabric to use when drying your car. Waffle weave microfiber slides across your paint finish easily, without stripping wax like other chamois and leather products do. Waffle weave microfiber towels come in various sizes, the most popular sizes for drying your vehicle are 16"x24" inches, 20"x40" inches, 25"x36" inches. Start at the top of your vehicle and gently dry the surface. Use a smaller microfiber for the lower areas such as bumpers and sills panels to help prevent your towel from touching the ground. IN SUMMARY Washing your car is the single most important thing that you can do to help keep that "like new" appearance for years to come. By keeping your vehicle clean, contaminants don't have a chance to etch into and destroy your expensive paint finish. Don't skimp when it comes to detailing tools. Use high quality car wash soaps, wash mitts and microfiber towels to help make the job easier and reduce the risk of car wash induced scratches and swirl marks. hope this helps john



loopylee	Fri 11 Nov 2005, 00:29:52 Post #2
PE30 Sergeant Major Posts: 5,039 Group: Admin Member #35 Joined: 10-11-05	john ive seen your car mate and imoh you are the god of detailng



RickyE30BMW	Mon 21 Nov 2005, 00:03:56 Post #3
Unregistered	ive seen it aswell , its the dogs bollo.ks :bmwsmile:
Unregistered


Betty Tree Hugga	Mon 28 Nov 2005, 02:13:15 Post #4
Unregistered	wow thats a realy detailed guide thank you
Unregistered


Andy	Wed 30 Nov 2005, 00:03:12 Post #5
Site Designer Posts: 2,270 Group: Site Security Member #3 Joined: 1-11-05	john. machine glaze. i have this 3m stuf, finishing glaze. it says to use with a polisher but i prefer to smooth on, wait to dry, work off the majority on to a fresh bathtowl, and then use the buffing pad (the big wooly cotton one) to get rid of every smear. the final result is the doggys, especialy on black and at night she looks soaking wet she�s so glossy. question is, how much glaze can i use in one sitting. it says i can double coat, but would the buffer pull it up again?



Nav	Thu 15 Dec 2005, 00:36:40 Post #6
PE30 Private 1st Class Posts: 80 Group: PE30 Members Member #215 Joined: 15-12-05	good read there john. few of the steps i already do but a very good tip on the 2 bucket idea. got to putthose cleaning towels i got off you to use now.


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