How to wash your car?
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 41
Likes: 0
From: Colonial Heights, VA, USA
Re: How to wash your car? (Battle23)
WARNING! This is going to be LONG!
First off, I'm a Zaino zealot and I use their entire system on my vehicles. I'm also rather obsessive about my cars as you'll find out. You can use whatever system you prefer - any of the decent name brands will work just as well as long as you stick to their system.
My REGULAR wash routine involves using Z-7 carwash shampoo, a GOOD, SOFT sheepskin wash mitt, a chenille wash mitt, a small sponge, a scrub brush and diluted Simple Green. For drying I use soft microfibre cloths and then follow with some Z-6 Gloss Enhancer as a quick detailer.
That said, it's not too bad but it takes a while (and my neighbors all think I'm crazy.)
Make sure the car is in the shade and that the finish isn't too hot when you wash. One important thing to remember is to let the soap do the work - don't ever scrub the finish - glide over it as lightly as possible. You really want just the nap of the mitt to do the cleaning. If there's a trouble spot, press a bit more firmly on that area only. If it won't come clean, clay it.
Let's start with the wheels. Fill a bucket with cold water and toss in some cheap carwash soap. First wash the chrome tailpipe to get that out of the way. There's no special technique for the wheels except that I use a cheap sponge that I can toss out after a few washes. I also don't use any special cleaner because I don't let the wheels get too dirty (although I periodically spritz the brake calipers with 50/50 Simple Green/water mix and scrub them with a toothbrush through the wheel spokes.) I also use diluted Simple Green and a scrub brush on the tires. Rinse the wheels/tires off and dump that water - it's polluted now. Make sure the bucket is CLEAN before you start the next step!
I use the two-bucket method for the car finish - one bucket for warm soapy wash water and one for rinse water. Put 2-3 gallons of warm water in your first spotlessly clean bucket (5 gallon buckets for me) add 4-5 capfuls of Z-7 shampoo and then fill the bucket the rest of the way with water. This way you won't get as many suds but you'll get a good amount of wash water.
Fill the other bucket with clean, cold water from the hose.
Now soak the car - REALLY soak it. Try to blast off any big stuff with the hose - the cleaner the car is when you start, the fewer swirls you'll get. Take your sheepskin wash mitt and SOAK it in the wash water. Starting on the top of the car, wash about 1/4 of the top, turn the mitt over and use the clean side to wash the other 1/4 of the top. Now rinse the mitt in the clean water bucket. Dunk the mitt in the wash bucket again and repeat for the other side of the top - 1/4 at a time.
Then wash the windows and outside mirrors (no special technique except to rinse the mitt in the clean water bucket each time.) After that, rinse the car.
Now the hood and fendertops - same thing - 1/4 wash, turn the mitt and wash the other 1/4, rinse, resoap and do the other half. BTW, this does not include doing the grille, bumper or lights. Next comes the horizontal trunk lid and spoiler with the same technique.
Rinse. You don't ever want soapy water to dry on the finish. FWIW, I rinse the entire car from the top-down every time just to keep the finish wet and clean.
Time to wash the side now. Wash from the window bottom to the body-line divider - about 2/3 of the way down. DON'T go any lower than that. I’ll rinse/resoap the mitt about 3 times to wash one side. Repeat for the other side. When washing the sides, go ahead and wrap around to do the headlights, grille, tops of the bumpers, taillights and vertical surface of the trunklid. Just remember to turn the mitt often and rinse and resoap every few passes.
OK, now that we've got the clean part of the car done, let's get to the dirty part!
Switch to the chenille mitt, soap it up good and wash the lower part of one side of the car. Lather, rinse, repeat for the other side. Now do the front surface of the front bumper, grilles and license plate (if you have one.) Go around and finish the vertical surface of the rear bumper as well.
Rinse again.
If there are any paint imperfections that won't wash off, spot-clay them to get them clean. Luckily the Z-6 makes the surface of the car smooth and slick so not too many things will stick to it. I also clay the windshield about every 3rd wash to get the road grime off of it.
That's about it for the wash. Rinse once more without the hose nozzle, just let the water flow over the car. The surface tension of the water will pull a lot of the excess water off so there's less to dry.
Break out the microfibres and start drying. Follow the same basic pattern as washing - start at the top and work down. If you drop a microfibre, it goes in the dirty pile immediately and doesn't touch the cars finish again until it's been washed and de-scummed (I use tweezers.) I can actually dry the outside of the car with two microfibres by just wringing them out periodically. You can also use The Absorber - I've heard good things about it but never used one. I don't use chamois or water blades - I had a bad experience with both.
Once the outside of the car is dry, open the doors, trunk, gas filler and hood and dry all of those areas. I use an older cloth there because there's always scum in there no matter what I do. Be sure to dry both the door jams and the edges of the doors. There will be unbelievable amounts of scum across the inside-bottom edge of the door itself so do those last. Dry the inside edges of the trunklid and the area around the weatherstrip. Close the trunk and watch the water run out from behind the license plate mount. Say a few bad words and mop that up with a clean cloth - not the one you've been using on the doorjamb and trunk. Dry inside the gas filler lid. Dry the edges of the hood and the fender tops where the hood closes. Don’t forget to dry the rear edge of the hood too! I also dry the black plastic radiator cover at the front of the engine bay and, as finally I'll wipe off the valve cover and intake shield.
Close all of the various opened apertures and wipe up any drips. FWIW, I haven't yet found a way to stop the outside mirror housings from dripping...
Then dry the wheels. Again, no special technique other than use an old microfibre since it'll get scummy and probably drag across the ground while you're drying.
Get one more clean microfibre and Z-6 everything except the windshield and tires. Side windows and rear glass are fine to QD. Lastly I’ll move the car into the grass or gravel and apply tire dressing – I’ve lately been using Meguiar’s Hot Shine Tire Foam. It does a good job without making the tires too glossy. I spray it on, let it soak for about 5 minutes and then buff off the excess. Just remember that you have to move the car forward a bit to rotate the tires around so you can get an even coating on them.
Now, realize that this is my REGULAR routine.
In addition to that, I periodically – once every couple of months – do a deep cleaning that involves removing the wheels and cleaning and waxing them inside and out, as well as washing and detailing the wheel wells and brake calipers. If it’s been really nasty out I’ve been known to put the car on ramps and power wash the underside as well. I also clean inside the sunroof opening and detail the engine compartment.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something here but this should cover most of it.
First off, I'm a Zaino zealot and I use their entire system on my vehicles. I'm also rather obsessive about my cars as you'll find out. You can use whatever system you prefer - any of the decent name brands will work just as well as long as you stick to their system.
My REGULAR wash routine involves using Z-7 carwash shampoo, a GOOD, SOFT sheepskin wash mitt, a chenille wash mitt, a small sponge, a scrub brush and diluted Simple Green. For drying I use soft microfibre cloths and then follow with some Z-6 Gloss Enhancer as a quick detailer.
That said, it's not too bad but it takes a while (and my neighbors all think I'm crazy.)
Make sure the car is in the shade and that the finish isn't too hot when you wash. One important thing to remember is to let the soap do the work - don't ever scrub the finish - glide over it as lightly as possible. You really want just the nap of the mitt to do the cleaning. If there's a trouble spot, press a bit more firmly on that area only. If it won't come clean, clay it.
Let's start with the wheels. Fill a bucket with cold water and toss in some cheap carwash soap. First wash the chrome tailpipe to get that out of the way. There's no special technique for the wheels except that I use a cheap sponge that I can toss out after a few washes. I also don't use any special cleaner because I don't let the wheels get too dirty (although I periodically spritz the brake calipers with 50/50 Simple Green/water mix and scrub them with a toothbrush through the wheel spokes.) I also use diluted Simple Green and a scrub brush on the tires. Rinse the wheels/tires off and dump that water - it's polluted now. Make sure the bucket is CLEAN before you start the next step!
I use the two-bucket method for the car finish - one bucket for warm soapy wash water and one for rinse water. Put 2-3 gallons of warm water in your first spotlessly clean bucket (5 gallon buckets for me) add 4-5 capfuls of Z-7 shampoo and then fill the bucket the rest of the way with water. This way you won't get as many suds but you'll get a good amount of wash water.
Fill the other bucket with clean, cold water from the hose.
Now soak the car - REALLY soak it. Try to blast off any big stuff with the hose - the cleaner the car is when you start, the fewer swirls you'll get. Take your sheepskin wash mitt and SOAK it in the wash water. Starting on the top of the car, wash about 1/4 of the top, turn the mitt over and use the clean side to wash the other 1/4 of the top. Now rinse the mitt in the clean water bucket. Dunk the mitt in the wash bucket again and repeat for the other side of the top - 1/4 at a time.
Then wash the windows and outside mirrors (no special technique except to rinse the mitt in the clean water bucket each time.) After that, rinse the car.
Now the hood and fendertops - same thing - 1/4 wash, turn the mitt and wash the other 1/4, rinse, resoap and do the other half. BTW, this does not include doing the grille, bumper or lights. Next comes the horizontal trunk lid and spoiler with the same technique.
Rinse. You don't ever want soapy water to dry on the finish. FWIW, I rinse the entire car from the top-down every time just to keep the finish wet and clean.
Time to wash the side now. Wash from the window bottom to the body-line divider - about 2/3 of the way down. DON'T go any lower than that. I’ll rinse/resoap the mitt about 3 times to wash one side. Repeat for the other side. When washing the sides, go ahead and wrap around to do the headlights, grille, tops of the bumpers, taillights and vertical surface of the trunklid. Just remember to turn the mitt often and rinse and resoap every few passes.
OK, now that we've got the clean part of the car done, let's get to the dirty part!
Switch to the chenille mitt, soap it up good and wash the lower part of one side of the car. Lather, rinse, repeat for the other side. Now do the front surface of the front bumper, grilles and license plate (if you have one.) Go around and finish the vertical surface of the rear bumper as well.
Rinse again.
If there are any paint imperfections that won't wash off, spot-clay them to get them clean. Luckily the Z-6 makes the surface of the car smooth and slick so not too many things will stick to it. I also clay the windshield about every 3rd wash to get the road grime off of it.
That's about it for the wash. Rinse once more without the hose nozzle, just let the water flow over the car. The surface tension of the water will pull a lot of the excess water off so there's less to dry.
Break out the microfibres and start drying. Follow the same basic pattern as washing - start at the top and work down. If you drop a microfibre, it goes in the dirty pile immediately and doesn't touch the cars finish again until it's been washed and de-scummed (I use tweezers.) I can actually dry the outside of the car with two microfibres by just wringing them out periodically. You can also use The Absorber - I've heard good things about it but never used one. I don't use chamois or water blades - I had a bad experience with both.
Once the outside of the car is dry, open the doors, trunk, gas filler and hood and dry all of those areas. I use an older cloth there because there's always scum in there no matter what I do. Be sure to dry both the door jams and the edges of the doors. There will be unbelievable amounts of scum across the inside-bottom edge of the door itself so do those last. Dry the inside edges of the trunklid and the area around the weatherstrip. Close the trunk and watch the water run out from behind the license plate mount. Say a few bad words and mop that up with a clean cloth - not the one you've been using on the doorjamb and trunk. Dry inside the gas filler lid. Dry the edges of the hood and the fender tops where the hood closes. Don’t forget to dry the rear edge of the hood too! I also dry the black plastic radiator cover at the front of the engine bay and, as finally I'll wipe off the valve cover and intake shield.
Close all of the various opened apertures and wipe up any drips. FWIW, I haven't yet found a way to stop the outside mirror housings from dripping...
Then dry the wheels. Again, no special technique other than use an old microfibre since it'll get scummy and probably drag across the ground while you're drying.
Get one more clean microfibre and Z-6 everything except the windshield and tires. Side windows and rear glass are fine to QD. Lastly I’ll move the car into the grass or gravel and apply tire dressing – I’ve lately been using Meguiar’s Hot Shine Tire Foam. It does a good job without making the tires too glossy. I spray it on, let it soak for about 5 minutes and then buff off the excess. Just remember that you have to move the car forward a bit to rotate the tires around so you can get an even coating on them.
Now, realize that this is my REGULAR routine.
In addition to that, I periodically – once every couple of months – do a deep cleaning that involves removing the wheels and cleaning and waxing them inside and out, as well as washing and detailing the wheel wells and brake calipers. If it’s been really nasty out I’ve been known to put the car on ramps and power wash the underside as well. I also clean inside the sunroof opening and detail the engine compartment.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something here but this should cover most of it.
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 41
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From: Colonial Heights, VA, USA
Re: How to wash your car? (RS93DA)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RS93DA »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">are you kidding me??? you have that saved somewhere for special occasions when people ask about washing their car?????
EDIT:Get a life my friend</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yep, I had it saved from a writeup I did on another board.
But that's the procedure I use. It takes about 2 hours, once per week or so.
For what I paid for my car, I'll sacrifice the time.
EDIT: I have a life, thankyouverymuch.
EDIT:Get a life my friend</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yep, I had it saved from a writeup I did on another board.
But that's the procedure I use. It takes about 2 hours, once per week or so.
For what I paid for my car, I'll sacrifice the time.
EDIT: I have a life, thankyouverymuch.
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Joined: May 2004
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From: High Desert CA
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