How do you wash your car?

[Fried_Chicken]

After spending a good half of today cleaning the cars (including the ZHP), I spent the second half of today watching people talk about washing their cars.

I also delved into the Obsessed Garage rabbit hole - a guy who has seemingly devoted his life to washing cars, including spending hours upon hours washing already clean cars. He's also suckered countless people to part with hundreds, if not thousands, of their hard-earned dollars on pressure washing equipment.

I almost got suckered in. In fact I did follow his recommendation on pressure washers when my old one started leaking, and I got myself a Kärcher K1700 (it's decent). Except, I don't think any of this crap is necessary. Not even the pressure washer.

Does foam actually make any difference when cleaning a car? I've found no matter what I do with the pressure washer, I still have to go in with the sponge to get all the dust/dirt off. In fact I'm not even sure the pressure washer does anything for washing a car, except help distribute soap.

The only thing I've noticed that really made a difference getting a Chamois cloth and then applying wax with my little electric waxing thing. Maybe I'm wrong. Does anyone actually have an ultra-foaming machine? Does it make a difference when washing cars?

[sillieidiot]

It makes a difference, however, it really only makes an impact on maintenance washes. Especially if the car is already sealed/coated. If you are waiting until say your car gets really dirty, it helps loosen some dirt, but you'll have to sponge it still. Personally, I would take a DI system over a pressure washer lol Drying the car takes a lot more time than washing does for me. The dirt falls off on it's own due to the sealant already so that's why washing is rather quick.

[Fried_Chicken]

It makes a difference, however, it really only makes an impact on maintenance washes. Especially if the car is already sealed/coated. If you are waiting until say your car gets really dirty, it helps loosen some dirt, but you'll have to sponge it still. Personally, I would take a DI system over a pressure washer lol Drying the car takes a lot more time than washing does for me. The dirt falls off on it's own due to the sealant already so that's why washing is rather quick.

DI system?

[t.er]

DI system?Deionizing system. Basically purifies the water so you don't even have to wipe the car down to dry since there's no calcium buildup that would cause water spots

[Will]

It's certainly a deep rabbit hole with many different perspectives. I think it may make a difference for a concours such as Pebble Beach. For me, it's not worth it on my daily driver. My goal now is clean, not pristine.

I've tried two bucket wash, air blower for drying, and also pressure washer for washing. Maybe I'm not doing it right, but the marginal difference wasn't noticeable for me. I had no luck with only power washer on paint. Similar to you, I've always had to use a microfiber / sponge and soap for dirt removal.

The one area I noticed a big difference was washing wheels with the power washer, it was easier and quicker. But even then, a hose and a couple sprays with the Sonax wheel cleaner and a quick brushing works just as quickly.

Now I just wash with one bucket with a microfiber (instead of a sponge), regular hose, and a chamois for drying. Vaccuum with my house vacuum.

For wheels, I'll use Sonax if I have it (but it's really expensive stuff, so I usually don't have it), otherwise I've found a couple spritzes of SuperClean on wet wheels (and an immediate brushing and rinsing) does the job, too - tip: get the Foaming spray bottle, but refill it from the regular galloon jug of SuperClean when the spray bottle runs out. The only difference between the foaming and the non-foaming is the spray nozzle.

A couple microfibers to wipe clean the door and trunk jambs. Some Stoner window cleaner (or just Windex) to hit the inside and outsides and some 303 or left over Vinylex on tire sidewalls, and call it a day.

If I feel like it, maybe a wipe down of the dash, sills, and rubber gaskets with 303, and a wipe down of the leather with Leatherique Pristine Clean.

35-45 minutes each car, simple. Again, my goal now is clean rather than pristine.

I'm overdue for a paint correction, though.

I admire the people who take the time and make the effort to do the multi-stage cleaning / correction / sealant / waxing. The results are remarkable and the photos really pop. I really enjoy seeing those photos, such as in our water-beading photo thread. I think the enjoyment might be in the process as well and not just the final outcome. It was quite satisfying when I did paint correction, just time and labor intensive.

I'm curious how others see it.

Edit: yes, DI system would be great... it's nice to just hose it down and drive off without worry of spots.

[Fried_Chicken]

I was always under the impression that DI systems are/were exorbitantly expensive.



The one area I noticed a big difference was washing wheels with the power washer, it was easier and quicker. But even then, a hose and a couple sprays with the Sonax wheel cleaner and a quick brushing works just as quickly.

Now I just wash with one bucket with a microfiber (instead of a sponge), regular hose, and a chamois for drying. Vaccuum with my house vacuum.

For wheels, I'll use Sonax if I have it (but it's really expensive stuff, so I usually don't have it), otherwise I've found a couple spritzes of SuperClean on wet wheels (and an immediate brushing and rinsing) does the job, too - tip: get the Foaming spray bottle, but refill it from the regular galloon jug of SuperClean when the spray bottle runs out. The only difference between the foaming and the non-foaming is the spray nozzle.


For wheels I've found the BMW wheel cleaner works really well, although DO NOT USE WITH ALUMINUM WHEELS. That gets rid of brake dust pretty solidly. It's $20 at the dealerships, and turns purple as it reacts with brake dust.



I admire the people who take the time and make the effort to do the multi-stage cleaning / correction / sealant / waxing. The results are remarkable and the photos really pop. I really enjoy seeing those photos, such as in our water-beading photo thread. I think the enjoyment might be in the process as well and not just the final outcome.

It's an insane rabbit hole. I'm kind of curious how big the market/industry is. So much snake oil.

[edit]

Actually it seems like the male equivalent to woman's hair products.

[John in VA]

... Now I just wash with one bucket with a microfiber (instead of a sponge), regular hose, and a chamois for drying.
... I'm overdue for a paint correction, though.
No wonder!
I use 2 buckets (or 3, for wheels, depending on how bad they are) & microfiber chenille wash mitt - lots of surface area on it. Some of the OG or AMMO of NY steps may seem excessive, but result in a better end result. A true natural chamois will pull off your last step product.

[jtamayo027]

I used to do the 3 bucket method(1 for wheels, 1 with soap, 1 for rinsing.) I recently switched to a pressure washer, foam cannon and 2 buckets (1 for wheel, 1 for rinsing.) For the pressure washer did help with reducing the amount of time it took to wash my cars. It also made it easier to remove bug guts once I pre-treated it with bug remover. Washing the wheels is easier and quicker as well.

The pressure washer does remove dirt prior to using the foam cannon and sponge. Like you mentioned, the foam cannon just layers the car with soap. A sponge is still needed to remove any dirt the pressure washer did not get. The idea behind is the the layer of soap would minimize micro-scratches.

But the pressure washer does not get call the dirt, as you have noticed. I saw a detailer pre-treat heavily dirty areas with diluted all purpose cleaner before pressure washing. I tried this method it seemed to help. But soap and sponge is still required.

I agree that a pressure washer or a foam cannon is not needed to wash your car. But it sure does make it more fun! I also like the fact that a pressure washer waste less water than a garden hose. Mine uses about 1.75 GPM compared to the average garden hose uses about 12-13 GPM.

Paint correction is a different ball game. Something I know very little about. I do have dual action polisher with a few microfiber pads. I attempted to do paint correction recently. I used 3D One with my microfiber pads, the paint is shinier and small scratches were removed. Nothing to brag about. Then again I am no professional and have limited knowledge and skills in this area. It is good enough for me and my daily driver.

[3ZHP]

I’ll jump in on this knowing that I’ve been a bit crazy about this.

Year 15 of my ZHP starts two weeks from tomorrow. Check the date on that!

It all starts with wetting things down with the 40+ year old Strahman Valve M-70 nozzle. Then the Griot’s ultimate car wash bucket gets rinsed out. The soap bowl in the lower grill (1” off the bottom) gets filled with Griot’s Brilliant Finish car wash. It’s then filled with water until the bubbles start popping through the 1/4 upper grill.

For the main body, I use a 10”x3” Boars’ Hair brush. I start from the bottom and move up from there. This is all due to a failed test in a auto tech class back in high school. (Reason, so you can see what you’ve washed. No soap running over what you haven’t).

Once done, I start on the wheels. Wet the wheels with the hose. Then I spray down one side with simple green full strength. In between each spoke set, heavy in the center, tire and all over once again.

First tool that’s no longer available (Griot’s 1/2” dia x 3” long sponge. Mounted on a 1/4” dowel 8” long). This is used to get between the spokes, around the lugs and into the holes between.

Second tool, is a 8” x 4” + handle rigid wash mitt material tool. I use this to wash the inside diameter of the wheel. I do use fingers to get behind the spokes.

Last tool is a simple wash mitt to get everything else.

Dry time, first, I use a water blade, to get the heave drops off. Next I dry the glass with one of two dedicated microfiber towels. Next I do a first towel on the painted surfaces. I then do a second dry with the other dryer microfiber towel.

Next is the third and smaller microfiber towel. This gets used on all the door and boot jams and everything in the engine bay.

Next is a wipe down of the interior and engine bay with Mequiar’s interior detailer cleaner and or natural shine protector. Both with dedicated microfiber towels!

The finishing touch, goes to Griot’s Best of Detailer and of course I use a special dedicated microfiber for that.

Supplies are currently low so, things may change shortly.

Not many miles this year but, hope to have it fixed shortly.

Added picture! 14 years of ownership in the books @ 160k!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201210/8440ca8b78c4105172665248a0661814.jpg



Sent from my iPhone Xs using Tapatalk

[BMWCurves]

Y'all are wild. I'm out here using old t-shirts and whatever grit sandpaper I can find.

[t.er]

Y'all are wild. I'm out here using old t-shirts and whatever grit sandpaper I can find.

Now that you have your ceramic coating, just rinse it off once in a while, or leave it out in the rain /s

[BMWCurves]

Now that you have your ceramic coating, just rinse it off once in a while, or leave it out in the rain /s

It does make washing easier. It needs it so badly right now, but making treks up and down I-5 daily for one of my rotations is making it pointless.

[zhpnsnv]

Great topic!

First, I think this is entirely dependent on how severe your sickness is. By sickness, I mean, how light of a swirl-mark will you pick up on when it is inevitably introduced into your clear-coat by the wash/dry process?

If you're like me and OG Boss Kayger, the answer is all of them. We see and lose sleep over all of them. When we get gas at night under massive LEDs and see the love marks, we cringe. When the sun hits the hood just-so, we plan our entire weekend around correcting the issues.

So, that said, if you're similarly afflicted (like the Obsessed Garage fella), then you'll do/try/experiment with lots of things to reduce the inevitable damage you're doing by washing and drying your car.

How one washes a car would depend on the situation: maintenance, removing a lot of dirt, winter salt, spring pollen, water-less situation, rinse-less, etc...

Rabbit-hole, it most certainly is! Let's agree up front that whatever is working for you and your car is the right way to do it. Some try to make this topic religious like oil type and approval. Washing a car is too joyous to ruin like that!

Here's how I do it currently:

Equipment:
- Karcher power-washer, Obsessed garage wand/hose/attachments/gun/etc...
- 3 buckets - wheels, soap, rinse, with grit-guards
- Microfiber wash mitts
- Various brushes for wheels/tires
- Ego leaf blower
- MF drying towels

Chemicals:
- P&S wheel cleaner
- Degreaser/all purpose cleaner
- Sonax bug-off
- Any good car soap (Meguiar's, P&S, 3D, I'm not picky here).
- Optimum No Rinse (amazing product)
- Some drying aid (Beadmaker, Sonax Brilliant Shine, Nextzett something-er-other)

Process:
- Wheels/tires/exhaust tips
- Rinse
- If VERY dirty, pre-treat with degreaser OR solution of Optimum no-rinse
- Rinse again if that step was needed
- Foam (this is to lift and remove more dirt)
- Rinse
- Wash panel by panel, north to south, rinsing the mitt between panels
- Rinse
- Blow-dry the big stuff off plus crevices
- Dry the rest with MF towels and drying aid
- dress tires/plastic
- clean glass

Result:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/C8rlv6MfHnbCxQ061hHf8ANsaz-3qF3oVksZ9a3oPKGlq2XgyNYNN_wwq_3DrDw8AV-KN8MXQwPwkvyOo3yHnBjdeza1GGbFpV5L1Z27d6lOVPfJw79ON vAsf33gkfFO0mRFU0G0hg=w600-h315-p-k

Full disclosure: my car has 174k miles on it, currently has minor swirls, and also some paint/rust issues, so these distance photos don't tell the whole tale.

mb

[joeybananaz18]

When I was living with my parents I could spend all the time in the world doing my cars. Also because it was city water I really didn’t have to worry about using too much.

Now tho I’m in the country and have well water, so I need to be mindful about how much I use. Also because of this, I have high calcium in the water and get spots like crazy, so a deionizer is next on my list. Adam’s has a really cool one I should have picked up on Black Friday. It has a switch so you can decide when you want to use the deionizing filter (if that’s what it’s called). So the idea is that you wash your car with the filter turned off, just regular mineral filled water, and then when you want to do a final rinse you turn the filter on. So the last water to touch your car has been filtered out and you don’t get spots and still save water.

I do the two bucket method of course. Just griots garage stuff. I’ll do a big wash at the beginning of the spring using their high gloss wash. Then clay bar using speed shine as a lubricant. After that another quick wash and then I bust out the polishes- everything from the BOSS line. I use a GG orbital with 3 and 6 inch plates to cover all size surfaces.
Then I wrap up with their ceramic spray wax. This coming season I’ll be trying out Adam’s ceramic coating with graphine so I’ll see what all the fuss is about.
To maintain cleaning (when I have time to do that) I do GG rinseless wash best of show detailer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[joeybananaz18]

Result:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/C8rlv6MfHnbCxQ061hHf8ANsaz-3qF3oVksZ9a3oPKGlq2XgyNYNN_wwq_3DrDw8AV-KN8MXQwPwkvyOo3yHnBjdeza1GGbFpV5L1Z27d6lOVPfJw79ON vAsf33gkfFO0mRFU0G0hg=w600-h315-p-k

Full disclosure: my car has 174k miles on it, currently has minor swirls, and also some paint/rust issues, so these distance photos don't tell the whole tale.

mb

Show people that pic and tell them the mileage and they won’t care about the rest of the tale. That looks great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[zhpnsnv]

Show people that pic and tell them the mileage and they won’t care about the rest of the tale. That looks great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you!!!

[sillieidiot]

I was always under the impression that DI systems are/were exorbitantly expensive.



They are. You can DIY and it'll be cheaper. That's what I plan to do, but never got around to it lol



For wheels I've found the BMW wheel cleaner works really well, although DO NOT USE WITH ALUMINUM WHEELS. That gets rid of brake dust pretty solidly. It's $20 at the dealerships, and turns purple as it reacts with brake dust.



It's an insane rabbit hole. I'm kind of curious how big the market/industry is. So much snake oil.

[edit]

Actually it seems like the male equivalent to woman's hair products.

Yeah the BMW cleaner is Sonax basically.


Yeah I have been working on reducing the amount of time I'm washing my DD. I still do the 2 bucket method because I go a long time between washes now, so the rinse bucket gets pretty dirty. I use Bathe Plus as my car soap, it has some sealant properties mixed in. Then I use Meguiars Hybrid Ceramic Wax as a drying aid to seal the rest of the car. First time application, you wanna do it with a dry car, after that, drying aid every wash (at least for me cause I wash every 6 weeks, normally you would do every other wash or so). Just disregard their instructions cause it's a waste of product. For the wheels, I use a boar's hair brush at the end after I'm done with the car so I could reuse what's left of the soap bucket. Use the HCW on that too. If I'm feeling fancy, I will use PERL on the tires. But usually for the DD, I'm like fuck the tires lol Sometimes, I don't even wash the wheels lol

Then when you go to wash the next time around, you'll see like 80-90% of the dirt just wash off with water (using the jet on the hose nozzle) lol and the water basically beads off, then repeat.

[BADCLOWN]

Right now I just use the two bucket wash method with some meguiars stuff

I know I could drastically increase the quality of my washing but that would involve buying probably a few hundred dollars worth of equipment (power washing gear, orbital buffer, air jet drying equipment, some other stuff)

[joeybananaz18]

Right now I just use the two bucket wash method with some meguiars stuff

I know I could drastically increase the quality of my washing but that would involve buying probably a few hundred dollars worth of equipment (power washing gear, orbital buffer, air jet drying equipment, some other stuff)

Skip the power washer. With a good random orbital water will bead off and you wouldn’t need the jet dryer. That’s my line of thinking.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk