well i'm about to wash my car yet again... but i want to see some of your guys' techniques for drying. mine isn't very effective: two towels, wipe up water with one while drying the rest of the residue with the other. it works but it sometimes leaves watermarks... the fact that its sunny and 80 outside doesn't help either. so how do you guys dry your babies?

 

Absorber..look for it at your local walmart.

 

 

I got one of those orange shammi cloth towel things. It soaks up all the water and you wring it out and keep wiping.

 

Well after years and years of getting fed up with swirlmarks and trying to find the right drying products I've come to this conclusion: the more times you apply any cloth on your paint the higher chances for swirls. So I try to avoid as much friction contact as possible.

Although this might not be the "correct" way to wash/dry according to top detailers but it works for me. I've tried the absorber, the water blade and "special soft" towels to dry but it just didn't do the trick. I've found that 100% made in usa cotton towels work best (although I want to try micro fiber towels).

1.) Always take car thru touchless automatic car wash.
2.) First part of drying involves the blower at the end of the car wash.
3.) Drive home. (2nd part of drying)
4.) Usually by the time I get home most of the car is dry so I just touch up nooks and crannies with a cotton towel.
5.) Then I dust the car with the California Dust Mop to remove any dust or dirt that might have got on the car on the way home.
6.) Next I whip out my trusty Eagle One Wet Wipe n' Shine and apply and remove to each panel, one panel at a time. This will remove all if any waterspots plus giving your paint hella gloss and shine at the same time.

Notice the only time any cloth ever touched the paint was to remove and buff the Eagle mist off.

dlo- when your finished washing your car keep doing what your already doing. Use one towel to get most of the water off and then another towel to dry up the excess water. Then if theres still water spots buy some Eagle Wet Wipe n' Shine and mist and wipe the areas that have waterspots. Or just do the whole damn car!

 

the absorbers and shammies don't work for me. they always leave long streaks of water, and i only wipe (i actually drag it across sometimes and it does the same thing) one direction and i found that it's much too tedious a task to do with such a small rag that doesn't even work completely, which is why i went back to the towels.

 

California Water Blade or the good ol Leaf Blower

 

What I do is wash my car on the driveway, then run the water over my car w/o the nozzle to "sheet" off most of the water. Then I drive down to the end of my street and back to blow of some of the water and also spin the water off the wheels/tires. Then I pull into the garage and dry it off in there. Shade = no water spots. Of course all this is when I'm at home at my parents' house. If I'm at my apt I wash at the coin-op wash (hate doing it, but no choice), then I will either drive around on the interstate for awhile, or drive back to my place, find some shade, and then dry it off.

 

 

Blue Absorber....

 

The blue or pink absorbers they sell at pepboys is great. I don't remember their brand, but they're in a transparent plastic cylinder.

My car is white so I can't really see swirls though.

 

lol! leaf blower!! i've actually done that, not bad


[Modified by fiebru1119, 6:00 PM 5/12/2002]

 

California Waterblade + Absorber =

Go over the car with the waterblade, following it with the absorber... it should get most of the mean ole water.

 

LOL we have to take a building assemblages class for our architecture major at my school, and what was drilled into our heads the whole semester was "WATER IS YOUR WORST ENEMY".... secondly was "water vapor is your worst enemy in waiting".

 

waterblade

 

Squeege and a very soft towel

 

nice high powered lead blower is like nothing else. i love using the thing no streaks or watermarks to deal with and gets into all the little crevices. if one is not available to you i suggest the water blade/absorber combo

 

i from toronto and i've just NOW seen a commercial
for the waterblade,...something i'be been wanting to
come out forever!,...i've been using a squegee to
take major water off, but not flexible enough!!! then
i use a sheepskin chomois to take excess off.

but what is an "absorber"???

 

I've found the most important thing is to make sure your car is in tha shade. After rinsing off the car I use a synthetic chamois from http://www.griotsgarage.com, which is definitely my favorite car car product that I've bought. It murders my friend's Absorber. Then I go over the car with a 100% cotton towel, opening the doors, hood, and hatch. I then dry the wheels and underside of the car. It always looks great and it's the only way I dry my car. Later, Ryan