How To: Properly Wash & Dry Your Car
05-31-13, 10:49 AM
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How To: Properly Wash & Dry Your Car
*First off this will be an example using my daily driver and not my seven.*
As car enthusiasts we enjoy doing regular maintenance on our vehicles and pride ourselves on the cleanliness of it. Washing and waxing our vehicles is a very therapeutic and relaxing time for us, but what if its doing more harm then good for our cars? In this article we will take a deeper look into correct washing and drying techniques, the affects of improper washing and drying techniques, along with proper and improper materials to use.
What are swirls and what do they look like?
Below is a photo of a typical daily driven car I was scheduled to do full paint correction on. When in the sunlight or under a street lamp at night these swirls are very easily spotted and are a bit of an eye sore. These swirls are thousands of micro scratches induced, for the most part, by improper washing and drying techniques. Automatic car washing or hand washing with the wrong materials will start to create these micro scratches "swirls". By employing the correct materials, and techniques you can avoid inducing these micro scratches. Now lets not panic, these imperfections can be removed through paint correction. This is an advanced technique where buffers equipped with various foam pads and polishes finish down the paintwork creating a flawless finish.
Proper Materials Vs. Improper Materials.
You will need materials designed specifically for automotive paint. Yes, Dawn will work but overtime it will harm rubber trim and accelerate the fading of plastic trim. Not only that, but Dawn will strip off any wax you have on the car. Who wants to have to re-wax every single wash!?!? How about those Terry rags they use on TV? Those towels are pretty abrasive and will, even if they have zero contaminants on them, induce swirls and other imperfections. Quality Microfiber towels are specifically designed to be gentle for even the most delicate surfaces.
What materials do i need?
The Wheels are always first.
When we do washes we want to do the wheels first because they are always the dirtiest portion of the car. we wouldn't want to risk spraying dirty water and chemicals all over our nice clean car. First things first, lets grab a bottle of Sonax Full Effect and spray all the wheels down, even the inside barrels of the wheels, and let that sit while we get our wash buckets ready. Now this is why i have that third bucket, Me personally, I like to keep a designated wheel bucket because it tends to get pretty filthy over time. Now lets go ahead and place a grit guard insert in the bottom of this bucket. Start the hose and fill up the bucket to about the halfway point then put in some shampoo, about two cap fulls. With the nozzle lets switch it to a mode where we can achieve a fast stream of water to create some suds. We are all set and it looks like that Sonax has started to turn red, don't be alarmed, that's just the chemicals working to loosen all that baked on brake dust. Dunk the EZ-Detail brush into the bucket and start to wash in between the spokes getting the inner barrels clean. use a sponge or designated MF towel to wash the face of the wheels. Make sure to rinse the wheels thoroughly before we move on to the paint.
*Note; if you are concerned with the softness of the finish on your wheels you can instead fill the wheel bucket with warm water. The Ez-Detail brush's bristles will soften from the warmth of the water. This allows you to still use the brush on even the most fragile of wheels.*
Moving onto the paint!
Now since we have the dirtiest part finished, lets move onto the paint. Since we already have your buckets ready at this point position them towards the middle of the car so your not running around all the time. Set the sprayer on the hose at a strong stream and try and get as much of the dirt loose. Starting top to bottom, dunk your mit into the soap, squeeze a bit of it out of it so you can achieve some good suds. when your rinsing the mit make sure to scrub the mit along the grit guard to loosen the collected dirt from the mit, squeeze all the dirty water out of the mit before re-soaping it. i like to divide the car into sections; half of the roof & pillars ~ rinse/re-soap, window, quarter panels upper doors. upper front fenders ~ rinse/re-soap, lower doors & lower fenders ~ rinse/re-soap, half of the hood & half of the front bumper, half of the rear glass, trunk, and rear bumper ~ rinse/re-soap. Now if you know your car is fairly dirty you can modify this to where your rinsing and re-soaping more often. Also it may be a good idea to dump the rinse water half way through if your vehicle is that dirty. Also make sure your not letting the water or soap dry or it will start to create water or soap spots, just give it a quick spray every so often until your ready for a complete rinse. Now that the car is squeaky clean lets give her a nice rinse, make sure to go top to bottom and really get into the roof rails as they tend to like to hold soap in them.
Time to dry, The right way!
Now that we have the car fully rinsed we are going to learn a little trick to help us out. We are going to take off the hose sprayer leaving just the open hose. Turning the water at about half its potential flow we are going to start to manipulate the water into "sheeting" down the paint, leaving us less water to deal with drying. Start by "flooding the roof of the vehicle. Then continually moving down toward the window while moving left to right you'll start to notice the water sheeting down with you and the hose. replicate this trick all around the car and you will notice in the end that only about 10% of the water is on the surface now. This definitely works best with freshly waxed cars. For the remaining water we want to use our Quick Detailer or Spray Wax and our quality microfiber waffle weave drying towel to carefully pick up the rest of the water. Fold your drying towel into fourths and give it a couple sprays with the Quick Detailer to soften or "Prime" the towel. Spraying each section of the paint before lightly wiping the surface with the towel start making your way all around the car.
Now that the car is completely clean, you can move on to the wax or you can just take a few moments to admire how awesome your car looks! And guess what? We did this the right way and avoided any potential swirl inducing techniques and materials in the process! Great Job, now its time for that cold beer.
As car enthusiasts we enjoy doing regular maintenance on our vehicles and pride ourselves on the cleanliness of it. Washing and waxing our vehicles is a very therapeutic and relaxing time for us, but what if its doing more harm then good for our cars? In this article we will take a deeper look into correct washing and drying techniques, the affects of improper washing and drying techniques, along with proper and improper materials to use.
What are swirls and what do they look like?
Below is a photo of a typical daily driven car I was scheduled to do full paint correction on. When in the sunlight or under a street lamp at night these swirls are very easily spotted and are a bit of an eye sore. These swirls are thousands of micro scratches induced, for the most part, by improper washing and drying techniques. Automatic car washing or hand washing with the wrong materials will start to create these micro scratches "swirls". By employing the correct materials, and techniques you can avoid inducing these micro scratches. Now lets not panic, these imperfections can be removed through paint correction. This is an advanced technique where buffers equipped with various foam pads and polishes finish down the paintwork creating a flawless finish.
Proper Materials Vs. Improper Materials.
You will need materials designed specifically for automotive paint. Yes, Dawn will work but overtime it will harm rubber trim and accelerate the fading of plastic trim. Not only that, but Dawn will strip off any wax you have on the car. Who wants to have to re-wax every single wash!?!? How about those Terry rags they use on TV? Those towels are pretty abrasive and will, even if they have zero contaminants on them, induce swirls and other imperfections. Quality Microfiber towels are specifically designed to be gentle for even the most delicate surfaces.
What materials do i need?
- A Quality Washing Mitt, i usually have a spare just in case.
- A quality PH balanced shampoo like Chemical Guys Mr. Pink.
- A nice PH balanced wheel cleaner like Sonax Full Effect.
- Two to Three 5 gallon buckets.
- Two Grit Guard inserts for the buckets. (four is preferred)
- EZ-Detail brush to clean the wheels and wheel wells.
- Waffle Weave Microfiber Towels for drying.
- Quick Detail Spray or Spray wax.
The Wheels are always first.
When we do washes we want to do the wheels first because they are always the dirtiest portion of the car. we wouldn't want to risk spraying dirty water and chemicals all over our nice clean car. First things first, lets grab a bottle of Sonax Full Effect and spray all the wheels down, even the inside barrels of the wheels, and let that sit while we get our wash buckets ready. Now this is why i have that third bucket, Me personally, I like to keep a designated wheel bucket because it tends to get pretty filthy over time. Now lets go ahead and place a grit guard insert in the bottom of this bucket. Start the hose and fill up the bucket to about the halfway point then put in some shampoo, about two cap fulls. With the nozzle lets switch it to a mode where we can achieve a fast stream of water to create some suds. We are all set and it looks like that Sonax has started to turn red, don't be alarmed, that's just the chemicals working to loosen all that baked on brake dust. Dunk the EZ-Detail brush into the bucket and start to wash in between the spokes getting the inner barrels clean. use a sponge or designated MF towel to wash the face of the wheels. Make sure to rinse the wheels thoroughly before we move on to the paint.
*Note; if you are concerned with the softness of the finish on your wheels you can instead fill the wheel bucket with warm water. The Ez-Detail brush's bristles will soften from the warmth of the water. This allows you to still use the brush on even the most fragile of wheels.*
Moving onto the paint!
Now since we have the dirtiest part finished, lets move onto the paint. Since we already have your buckets ready at this point position them towards the middle of the car so your not running around all the time. Set the sprayer on the hose at a strong stream and try and get as much of the dirt loose. Starting top to bottom, dunk your mit into the soap, squeeze a bit of it out of it so you can achieve some good suds. when your rinsing the mit make sure to scrub the mit along the grit guard to loosen the collected dirt from the mit, squeeze all the dirty water out of the mit before re-soaping it. i like to divide the car into sections; half of the roof & pillars ~ rinse/re-soap, window, quarter panels upper doors. upper front fenders ~ rinse/re-soap, lower doors & lower fenders ~ rinse/re-soap, half of the hood & half of the front bumper, half of the rear glass, trunk, and rear bumper ~ rinse/re-soap. Now if you know your car is fairly dirty you can modify this to where your rinsing and re-soaping more often. Also it may be a good idea to dump the rinse water half way through if your vehicle is that dirty. Also make sure your not letting the water or soap dry or it will start to create water or soap spots, just give it a quick spray every so often until your ready for a complete rinse. Now that the car is squeaky clean lets give her a nice rinse, make sure to go top to bottom and really get into the roof rails as they tend to like to hold soap in them.
Time to dry, The right way!
Now that we have the car fully rinsed we are going to learn a little trick to help us out. We are going to take off the hose sprayer leaving just the open hose. Turning the water at about half its potential flow we are going to start to manipulate the water into "sheeting" down the paint, leaving us less water to deal with drying. Start by "flooding the roof of the vehicle. Then continually moving down toward the window while moving left to right you'll start to notice the water sheeting down with you and the hose. replicate this trick all around the car and you will notice in the end that only about 10% of the water is on the surface now. This definitely works best with freshly waxed cars. For the remaining water we want to use our Quick Detailer or Spray Wax and our quality microfiber waffle weave drying towel to carefully pick up the rest of the water. Fold your drying towel into fourths and give it a couple sprays with the Quick Detailer to soften or "Prime" the towel. Spraying each section of the paint before lightly wiping the surface with the towel start making your way all around the car.
Now that the car is completely clean, you can move on to the wax or you can just take a few moments to admire how awesome your car looks! And guess what? We did this the right way and avoided any potential swirl inducing techniques and materials in the process! Great Job, now its time for that cold beer.
can't wait to try them out this weekend!
11-21-13, 06:10 PM
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Great write up! What I like to do is before doing anything depending how long I detailed my car is take it to the touchless wash bays and get a good rinse and pre-wash going as good as it can. Saves alot of time. Also if you have a home garage, I do the drying process in the shade to prevent spotting since the water leaves deposits
02-07-14, 05:53 PM
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Great write up I did notice that you didn't mention to make sure when soaping and drying the car to go in a straight line and never to go in circles it helps with that swirl effect hope this helps some of you
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