How to wash your car 101

This is something I did not see here and thought would help some out. While I am no expert I know a few detailers and this is also from a few years of experience. When my car first came off the ship from Japan and sat on the docks, covered in mud, oil and all sort of horrible stuff my first reaction was to tell the importers to refund my money! He assured me that it will be fine and had his detailer go with me to collect the car and take it to get cleaned up.

 

 

 

Now here in Trinidad the ambient temperature is always 30c+ often with lots and lots and lots of sunlight. Imagine all that nasty stuff on the car, baked on! First thing to always remember, no matter how tempting it is ( remember when you were a kid and drew smiley faces on your moms dirty car! ) DON'T TOUCH THE CAR! Immediately he poured cold water all over the door handle, placed two paper sheets on the floor and seats and drove to the exit gate where he opened the door to pass the guard the release papers ( don’t wind the windows down! ), then asked if he could use the water hose just outside that they water the plants with. We sprayed water and without touching tried to wash off what ever we could before proceeding on. 20 min later we drove to his shop and the real work began.

 

 

 

First we spray on even more water and then water/soap mixture. What ever you do never use any powdered detergents or abrasive soaps! Especially the stuff that has suspended particles in it ( I.e. no laundry detergents, liquid or not and many dish washing liquids are BAD! Same goes for anything with ammonia or high strength cleaning agents ) Let the soap wet foam on but also don’t let it dry! The soap will need to settle in and do it’s work for a few minutes then spray more on, gradually increasing the pressure but never too strong. Most of the mud and sand particles washed off but some were semi stuck on a thin oily film, sprayed on more wet foamy soap and with a soft sponge ( new ) gently wiped off the stuck clumps, using a different clean part of the sponge per clump, threw the sponge out and then with a new one soaked it directly in his soap mix and very gently wiped the car down, he never put the sponge back in the mix but instead had a soapy water bucket that every few wipes he would dunk, then every time the water got a little brown he’ll throw it out and refill, same for the sponge ( new sponge ). After washed down with water and rewet foamed again a few times.

 

 

 

“So now we can finally wash the car as normal” he says. “The car is already wet but we’ll start from scratch anyway!”

 

 

 

What you’ll need is simple

 

 

 

Garden hose and good supply of water, lots of water!

 

2 buckets, 5l ( one gallon or so ) each at least ( if you don’t have good water pressure or no hose larger buckets )

 

A roll of bounty paper towels

 

Two soft sponges ( edit, use a wash mitt if possible instead! )

 

A car shammy ( or another sponge )

 

 

Soap mixture ( choose what ever you may from your Canadian tire/pep boys/ what ever auto shop is in your country )

 

Dental floss

 

Armor all

 

 

Touchup paint

 

Carwax ( optional AFTER a good wash )

 

 

 

Optional items are a nerf bat and sling shot ( you’ll see why later )

 

 

 

In the shade to start, a covered garage, tent, alley way, anywhere where no direct sunlight will get to the car, but there needs to be lots of light to see what you’re doing.

 

 

 

Wet the car down, what ever you do never wipe anything off your car when dry or hot! Try and wash off as much as you can with just water, some stuff won’t come off just yet but still don’t touch it.

 

 

 

Once nice and really wet and after you have tried to wash off as much as you can inspect to see nothing is clumped on, remember those spots that have stuff that won’t just wash off.

 

Now spray on ( if you can ) soap, if not make a real thick soap/water mix, you want a little foam but you also want it REALLY soapy, pour it on the car ( don’t splash and don’t pour to fast ) , make sure it gets all over and soaks in, add more if needed. Don’t let it dry, keep it wet and a little foamy.

 

 

 

Check the spots with clumped on stuff, try spraying ( or pouring ) water on them now to see if the soap helps, if not resoap and with a bounty sheet ( wet! ) gently wipe it off , use a clean part per clump, throw the cloth aside after ( not out yet! )

 

 

 

Fill one bucket with plain water ( the other should have your soap water mix already ) and dunk the sponge in the soap mix, use the sponge to wipe the car down gently. Remember not to redunk the sponge in it again, instead pour more soap mix on to it from the bucket, use the plain water bucket to clean the sponge every once in a while and refill every time it gets brown ( never let the dirty water get on the car ), if the sponge gets dirty just wash it out but if it stays black or if you ever feel sandy like particles ( any actually ) throw it out! This is why you may need two ( or use the bounty sheets a lot! )

 

 

 

Wipe the entire car down, you want to splash on the soap mix now, keep everything wet and soapy, go over the car at least twice and never let the soap dry on. Soap will emulsify almost everything that can get on the car and a good soap won’t harm the paint, ( or clear coat or wax! ) yet will remove just about everything else!

 

 

 

After two passes with the sponge wash off all the soap with regular water, then put more on! Wash it off and inspect! Your looking for scratches, nicks, stuff that doesn’t wipe just off ( BIRDS! ) etc.

 

 

 

Now here is a point many will have contention with, some paints can withstand being scratched with finger nails, some can’t. Test on an area and see if a plain human ( no fancy nail polish ) can scratch the finish, even if it doesn’t it probably can remove wax and clear coat. If your ok with this use the pinky nail to remove baked on crud! Only the small specks etc. If not use a piece of regular dental floss wet in water and try to remove the stuck on offensive bits, you can also make a clump of dental floss to rub stuff off. Regular dental floss won’t harm paint and is very useful in removing decals, stickers emblems etc. At the very least it’s much less harmful than a finger nail and will stay together better than sponge etc.

 

 

Now that that bit is done use a shammy or new sponge and wipe the car down, your trying to dry the car now without letting the water dry on it! Always start from the top then work down!

 

 

 

While your drying the car take note of nicks and scratches again. Curse every scratch you find! Then curse the person who did it. Dry the area around the scratch or nick ( and importantly above it! ) then dab on touch up paint if you see bare metal. If it’s really bad don’t try but let a good detailer fix it up. The touch up pens with clear coat in them are best.

 

 

 

Also this is now the most delicate part of the clean up job! If your out doors have the sling shot ready to chase ANY bird that so much as even looks at the car ( I’m in Trinidad, there are LOTS of birds, they love cars! ). Remember the idea is to chase them off, not to have the EMA ( or your version ) charge you with animal cruelty. Also for use on small animals like squirrels, iguanas, bugs etc that may want to do the same.

 

 

 

Wash each tire and rim with soap ( or since many of you are so fortunate, spray that wonderful tires/rim cleaning stuff on! Can’t get anything like that anymore here ). Wash soap off and see how many scratches there are on your once new rims.

 

 

 

Armor all the weather stripping and external rubber bits, spray on bounty sheet and wipe on. Also works good on tires if you can’t get the real tire/rim stuff.

 

 

 

Windex is impossible to get cheap here so clean windows with mild soapy water and bounty sheets, put dirty sheets aside.

 

 

 

Go over the car again ( with sling shot at ready! ) make sure you didn’t miss anything. Oh but we did! Remember those bounty sheets now! They’re already wet and dirty, use them to wipe the muffler tip and other real nasty bits. What ever you do now throw them out and never let them touch the car again!

 

 

 

 

 

Well we’re almost done! Go over the car, look at how nice and clean it is wiping up any little bits with a damp cloth. Keeping the damp cloth ready stand guard with nerf bat to make sure no one touches the car! Get one that looks like a real bat, trust me it really works well! Beat anyone who touches the car silly, at least here and in Canada they can't charge you for beating someone up with a nerf bat ( ok at least the last time I got beat silly with one the York region cop just laught at me and told me never to touch the guys car again right after he washed it! ).

 

Oh also get some models to pose with your now nice shinny new looking car and take lots of pictures and show off even more, just don’t blame me if they scratch it!

 

Ok thats the end of my weekly ramble. Don't email me if this is wrong, do feel free to add lil bits of info that may be useful as well.

 

Edit replace sponge with wash mitt!

Sponge!!! Never! Sheepskin Mitt

Mods, move this to the detailing forum, oh wait...(hint, hint)

I'll second both the wash mitt and the detailing forum.

Exactly, never use a sponge on your paint. About right on with the other suggestions, especially the 2 bucket method. I personally do not use a brush on my wheels either. I use a chenile wash mitt on the wheels and a sheepskin mitt on the paint. I'd also never use a cheesesloth on my paint. Cheesecloth is actually pretty abrasive, and would easily induce micromaring. Heck, I recently laid tile in my house and you use cheesecloth to buff off the dryed grout residue. Better to use a chemical cleaner, such as Tarminator or even Prepsol to desolve the gunk and rewax the area to restore the protection that the chemical cleaner strips off.

Ok, now would someone like to mail me a wash mitt

Ok, now would someone like to mail me a wash mitt

Sure. I was just about to get rid of mine for the new season anyway

Nice writeup. One of the reasons that sponges are bad is because they hold dirty water inside and have been known to redeposit that dirt on the surface for you to drag across and scratch the paint. Anyway, wash mitts are much safer.

 

Another great washing technique is to use a double bucket method. Keep a clean bucket of water to rinse off the wash mitt before you go in for more soapy water. That helps keep your wash water clean so you don't run into the same problem with the sponge issue. I don't always use the double bucket, so I just keep the hose in my other hand and I rinse the wash mitt off before I go in for more soap. Just a tip.

 

Now let's get this thread moved over to that detailing forum. Where did we put that....?

This is great. Now, someone sticky this in the detailing forum.... (I'm not giving up hope dangit!)

I washed my car this weekend.. Used the Mr. Clean autowash thingamabobber.. Although a bit more time consuming than a regular wash (bucket/hose), it does a really great job. Allowing your car to dry itself w/o water spots is worth the extra effort. Followed that up with a good waxin... the car looks cleaner than when the dealership gave it to me.

 

Crappy thing about washing your car is finding all the chips on your car.. I must have 50 or so tiny pin-head size spots that need to be addressed. Im kicking myself for not getting the clearbra installed when the car was a week old. [homer]DOH!![/homer]

I washed my car this weekend.. Used the Mr. Clean autowash thingamabobber.. Although a bit more time consuming than a regular wash (bucket/hose), it does a really great job. Allowing your car to dry itself w/o water spots is worth the extra effort. Followed that up with a good waxin... the car looks cleaner than when the dealership gave it to me.

 

Crappy thing about washing your car is finding all the chips on your car.. I must have 50 or so tiny pin-head size spots that need to be addressed. Im kicking myself for not getting the clearbra installed when the car was a week old. [homer]DOH!![/homer]

I use the Mister Clean too- it's nice to not have to dry the car

You know, the only thing that Mr. Clean thing does is grease up the surface of your car while washing so that the water beads up and slides off. The exact same thing happens when you wash any waxed car because of the oils in the wax. If you run a slow stream of water on a car that is waxed after you wash it then all the water basically is stripped off in the same way that the Mr. Clean thing does it.

You know, the only thing that Mr. Clean thing does is grease up the surface of your car while washing so that the water beads up and slides off. The exact same thing happens when you wash any waxed car because of the oils in the wax. If you run a slow stream of water on a car that is waxed after you wash it then all the water basically is stripped off in the same way that the Mr. Clean thing does it.

I know what you're saying, but Mr. Clean does it way better than just a slow stream of water.

Well, I guess if nothing else then that keeps the car from getting swirls from people drying with crusty bath towels or something. Every little bit of prevention helps.

Well, I guess if nothing else then that keeps the car from getting swirls from people drying with crusty bath towels or something. Every little bit of prevention helps.

crusty bath towels.

top down rinsing: roof-windows-body panels-wheels works good followed by a nice chamois dry (sp?). I used paper towels for a while and never had any issues but then i felt it was a waste of paper. Invested ina nice soft piece of leather.

top down rinsing: roof-windows-body panels-wheels works good followed by a nice chamois dry (sp?). I used paper towels for a while and never had any issues but then i felt it was a waste of paper. Invested ina nice soft piece of leather.

 

No offense, but if you used paper towels to dry your car and never noted any "issues" you must be blind. Paper towels would put horrible swirls in the paint in short order. Natural chamois suck in comparison to new technology like waffle weave microfiber towels. Not trying to be harsh, and if you are not fanatical about your car's finish, then you wouldn't notice the difference anyways.

I use an "absorber" chamois. They work excellent, anyone who has one knows what I'm talking about.

 

http://www.boatersworld.com/graphics/boatersworld/products/178910097.jpg

ooooooh! The Absorber is an awesome drying tool. That is another one where blotting actually works better than dragging, but it is incredible. I have had the same absorber for 7 years. I retired it from paint a few years ago and now I only use it for drying under the hood when I do engine details. Any drying towel that can handle working under the hood is an incredible product.

Ok now you guys are really making m feel bad! I'll need to buy some of these thing next time I'm in Miami!

ooooooh! The Absorber is an awesome drying tool. That is another one where blotting actually works better than dragging, but it is incredible. I have had the same absorber for 7 years. I retired it from paint a few years ago and now I only use it for drying under the hood when I do engine details. Any drying towel that can handle working under the hood is an incredible product.

+1 for that.

 

I've not had anything but microfiber or the absorber touch my paint yet (well, besides what the dealer did too it...)

 

I've found that blotting does better too. Would you mind going into your drying process with the absorber in detail?

You leave it damp to start. I roll mine up, and them wipe/blot the water off. When it gets filled with water, ring it out. It cuts the drying time in half. Wash your car in the shade, but them move it to the direct sunlight to dry it.

 

Some people like to spread it out and pull it over the surface. Some like to use it folded like a pad. Others like to use it bunched up loosely in their hands. If your absorber is not clean when you put it away it might acquire an odor, or even mildew. If this happens it won't hurt it, just wash it with your regular wash.

 

-Tyler

This isn't mine, it's my friend "Accumulator"'s fanatic wash technique. I myself use 2 buckets, and 4 sheepskin wash mitts. I dry with either the waffle weave mfs or an Absorber; they're both excellent.

 

Accumulator's Non-Marring Wash Technique

 

A few people have asked me about my non-marring "extreme wash regimen". I've altered it a bit recently (losing the problematic siphon-feed), so here�s the current version. I've used this on a few vehicles and it will NOT mar the finish in any way *IF* the paint is protected with something that�s pretty slick and the vehicle is washed frequently enough that the dirt isn't allowed to really build up. If you have to "scrub" the dirt off, nothing will prevent marring.

 

Note that the real problem is that when washing, you have to move (abrasive) dirt over the surface of the vehicle. This can cause marring. Some dirt can "migrate" deep into the knap of a mitt away from the finish, but some will not.

 

This is admittedly a rather extreme method of washing a vehicle, and it's not something I do on anything except my S8 and XJS. It's just too much work.

 

This is a condensed version, omitting work on wheels/wheelwells/undercarriage, the use of BHBs in nooks and crannies, and drying technique (blot with WW MFs). It merely covers the basic washing of the exterior. It's can be tweaked to individual preference, but this is how I do it. Please post questions if anything isn't clear or if you wonder why I do something the way I do.

 

Supplies: two hoses (one for each side of vehicle), rubber coated nozzles and easy to use (with one hand) shutoffs for each hose, five buckets (two wash, two rinse, one set for each side of vehicle, and one for used mitts), several chenille wash mitts (the more the better), and some Griot's Car Wash. Optional: MF mitts, additional (long) hose with a shower-foam gun attached (filled with an eyeballed mix of Griot's wash solution and set on "full strength mix").

 

The separate systems for each side of the vehicle make this labor-intensive method easier and a little quicker, but are not absolutely necessary.

 

Mix the wash solution to your preferred strength. In the buckets or in the shower-foam gun, I just do it by eye, but I make it plenty strong. Try to NOT make a bunch of foamy suds- make solution, not foam. Fill your rinse buckets with clear water.

 

Begin by rinsing the entire vehicle thoroughly. Try to rinse off as much dirt as possible. Start washing at the top of the vehicle as follows:

 

With the water shut off (this is why you need the easy to use shutoffs), put the nozzle INSIDE a clean wash mitt. Dunk the mitt into the wash solution, trying to get as much solution as possible in the mitt. Hold the soapy mitt over the finish with the knap of the mitt barely touching the finish. Turn the water on just slightly. You want the water to lubricate the surface and rinse away loosened dirt, but you do NOT want so much water that you overly dilute the wash solution in the mitt. Sweep the soapy mitt over the finish, barely touching it. Don�t do too large an area. Put the mitt in your rinse bucket and turn the water on full blast to rinse it out. Turn off the water. Repeat until you�ve cleaned the panel. Remove the nozzle from the mitt and rinse the panel. Inspect. Repeat as needed. If at any time you notice ANY contamination in the mitt that doesn't rinse out; toss the dirty mitt in the "mitt bucket" and switch to a clean mitt. Optional: rewash the presumably clean surface using a MF mitt and rinse.

 

Always endeavor to just barely touch the surface. This takes a little practice, especially on the vertical panels. Don't start to "cheat" by covering bigger and bigger areas as you go or by using a mitt once it's visibly contaminated. Add more Car Wash to the wash bucket if you notice it's getting diluted. Periodically, rinse the entire vehicle, keeping it wet so you don't get water spots, and dump and refill the rinse buckets.

 

Optional (highly recommended if the vehicle is especially dirty): put the nozzle of the shower-foam gun inside the mitt for the first passes, blasting foamy wash solution through the mitt. Watch that you don�t rub the mitt against the finish with the rigid nozzle of the shower-foam gun (this is another technique that takes a while to master). Then rinse and rewash using the "regular" method explained above.