maintenance washing between detail sessions

[jmrkad]

I'm interested in discussing the proper technique for maintenance washing between detail sessions. Our cars usually go in for a professional detail every 6-8 weeks but show noticeable road grime after 1 or 2 days of driving.

I usually end up washing each car once or twice a week. I can use a duster to get most of the dust from daily driving off. But I have to use water/soap and and a mitt to get everything else off below the "beltline". We have several cars so it is pretty time consuming to keep them all clean.

Here's the problem. First, we don't have a soft water outlet for the hose. So when I wash at home I always end up with residue from the minerals in the water. Second, water conservation is a big thing here (live in the desert, can't run lawn sprinklers between 10-5, fines are imposed for wasting water, etc..) and the amount of runoff from washing a bunch of cars twice a week gets frowned upon. And third, the last time we got all the cars detailed it was $1800, and took a couple of days. The cars are in good shape so there isn't a lot of restoration going on but, there's still a lot paint to be delt with.

If it's not too bad I just use a quick detail spray and microfiber cloth. But I usually end up driving the cars down one at a time to a coin operated cinder block place and give them a bath. I use the low pressure setting on the paint, and high pressure on the wheels, wheelwells, and undercarriage. I pack a rubbermaid bin with a chamois, a mitt, surfactant, microfiber towels, bucket, and aerosol glass cleaner. I don't touch the cars with the brush in the stall.

With the tools described above is there a recommended technique for cleaning the grime off? I think I am doing things properly but am looking for more opinions. I rinse, soap, rinse, then chamois dry. After that I touch up what I missed and do the glass and the wheels.

One problem car is a white X50 that gets dirty quick. It has composite brakes and generates a lot of brake dust. It also has custom exhaust without baffles and leaves exhaust deposits on the rear which are a pain to get off without some pressure. Anyone know of any good techniques to deal with this without stripping too much wax from all the frequent washings?

[Smoky14]

Be cautious about using softened water on your car; it contains salt and will lead to rusting. I also live in the desert and have terrible water. I run a softner but use hard water to rinse to prevent salt residue from lingering in the places you can't see. It takes twice the time to prevent that crusty look from the hard water but rust really sucks, and you don't see it until it's too late.

[jmrkad]

Thanks for the replies.

[Lynn]

Throw away that chamois! It can cause significant scratches. Invest in a good waffleweave (from CMA, PakShak, and others here) for drying.

Also, have you read the Autopia Guide to Detailing? It will give you lots of good techniques on proper washing/drying techniques, so you can avoid any swirls/microscratches. Also, reading through several threads here -- especially in the Autopia University forum -- will give you several useful tips. I quickly ran this search and turned up 372 threads! You might want to scan through several of them, but this thread seemed to have a good number of basic, helpful pointers.

BlackRegal mentioned Poorboy's Spray & Wipe available at www.poorboysworld.com. I've used it too, and am very pleased with it. Recently I used it after a 350-mile trip to a Concours, in lieu of a water-wash. Be sure to get some high-quality microfiber towels to use with it. Poorboys sells nice ones, as do others here. Let us know if you want some URLs.

[Greg]

Spray and Wipe and QEW!