Quote:
Originally posted by Spilchy
ACCUMULATOR....ACCUMULTATOR!!
Anyone home 
Hold on HotRodGuy, you'll get a solid response from the Autopian Boars hair guru... |
Heh heh, yeah, just mention the BHB or a Cyclo and here I am with a *long* post
Clarifying- we're talking about the "regular" BHB, right? The full-size one for washing the vehicle (pn 66073), the one that used to have a wooden handle but now has a plastic one. The smaller ones are great for nooks and crannies (and wheels), but I figure this thread is about washing paint with a BHB.
Gotta watch you don't mar the vehicle with it- these are for hard paint only. No problem at all on the MPV, nothing worse than "normal" marring on Audis or other "normal" cars, but I'm not gonna use it on the XJS' soft lacquer any more. Not as gentle as my "extreme wash technique", not as gentle as a perfectly clean mitt. It's not (IMO) that the hair itself is gonna mar the paint, but the dirt doesn't migrate up away from the surface very well (let alone get "trapped" as with a mitt) so you get marring from *that* unless you're *VERY* careful.
There are tricks you can use to prevent/limit the marring- use a high-lubricity shampoo, use a slick LSP and wash before dirt really "sticks" to it, rinse the BHB after almost every stroke, and use a shower-foam gun in conjunction with the BHB to flush dirt away.
The most important thing is to barely touch the paint with the tips of the bristles- just "whisk" the dirt away in a flood of wash solution. If you "scrub" you're gonna mar the finish. And if you do an entire panel without rinsing the brush, you're gonna get marring from that too. So if the vehicle is very dirty, watch out.
BUT..on the plus side, they're free rinsing- dirt doesn't stick to them. Mitts can sometimes pick up dirt that doesn't rinse out and thus cause marring that way. The BHBs last for many years (I still have two from the early '80s), but check that the flagging on the tips of the bristles isn't wearing down- it'll wear down to a coarse tip (that might mar- I dunno) long before the brush shows signs of aging. And, some of us just like using them better than using a mitt. A BHB in each hand is a pleasant way to wash, IMO.
Almost everyone gets *some* marring from their wash/dry technique, no matter what they use. Those that *don't* should keep doing whatever they're doing. The BHB can make the wash-induced marring worse if you don't use it right. But again, I sincerely doubt that it's the *hair* that's marring the paint. Wet hair, lubricated with wash solution, is *not* very abrasive. Yeah, it'll scratch a CD, but a CD isn't automotive paint.
Gee, how was THAT for an ambivalent BHB post from *me*?!? Sorta negative, huh? The thing works *GREAT* on the MPV- no marring after a few *years*
It also worked OK on the WRX (I'd just polish once a year or so). But comparing Accumulatorette's A8 (BHB, no overkill techniques- just wash/dry the car) with my S8 (my extreme wash technique), well, there's no comparison. Her car has very slight (not a problem on silver) micromarring in spots that sure *looks* like it's from the washing. My S8 doesn't have any of that. Is it the BHB? I dunno, her car gets a lot dirtier than mine does, so that's a factor too. "Regular" wash techniques, using a mitt, will sometimes cause micro marring for me too, so unless I'm gonna do the extreme wash thing, I figure I might as well use the BHBs, I just like them better than a mitt. I oughta do a comparo- doing one side of the A8 with a mitt and one side with a BHB, but life's too short
Linear Mode
