How long do you guys spend on a basic wash? - Page 5

BMW335i · 12-12-06, 09:59

How many times do you guys rinse your mitt per panel? I just use one side of the mitt, then use the other side. I rinse in between panels. I pick up some suds from the wash bucket if I need some. Now that I think of it, I have no idea why I take four hours. I spend most of my time rinsing the car, rinsing the bucket (getting fresh wash water) and rinsing my mitt out (to minimize swirls). Rinsing the mitt 3-4 times per panel sounds like alot. I am still working on my technique so my time should go down by alot once I get more experienced. (This is literally my 7th or 8th time washing a car in my life). But I have improved drastically.

toyotaguy · 12-12-06, 10:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMW335i

(This is literally my 7th or 8th time washing a car in my life). But I have improved drastically.

what the heck??????? in your life???? what have you been doing??

BMW335i · 12-12-06, 10:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by toyotaguy

what the heck??????? in your life???? what have you been doing??

I am very young...haven't had too many cars to wash...

paul34 · 12-12-06, 10:44

how many times really depends on how dirty the panel you're working on is (and how dirty the car in general is)

thesacrifice · 12-12-06, 10:56

With ONR and a Sheepskin I'm getting very brave. I'll do half the roof and half the windshields (f and r) before a rinse. Or the top half of both doors.... the whole hood and a front quarter panel....

I think when someone first comes here theyre trained to think that marring is induced easily. Using the propper wash technique (not scrubbing in circles) elimantes a lot of that.

I'll double check when its light out to see if I induced any marring (didnt see any under the artificial lighting) but if I did its going to be ultra micro...

nailzer · 12-13-06, 04:19

Normal weekly Saturday afternoon wash and dry takes 45 minutes.

Accumulator · 12-13-06, 12:40

Quote:

how would you rather spend your time??? washing your car, or going out and enjoying your life???

Ah, that's a good point, and that's why I wouldn't mind paying somebody to duplicate my work

But I find washing vehicles to be a fairly enjoyable task so I don't mind doing it as needed, it's an OK way to spend part of a Saturday. And I don't enjoy driving dirty/marred vehicles, so going out and enjoying life means doing it in a well-detailed ride

It's like the time spent doing laundry or shining shoes, regrettable but required.

Heh heh, one reason I bought the beater-Blazer is so I'd have a dog-hauler that I wouldn't mind washing in a fraction of the time I spend on the good vehicles (which don't get washed all *that* often 'cause I'm always driving a dog-hauler, knowing that it'll need washed anyhow).

Oh, and polishing takes me a *lot* longer than just a few hours, so any time spend avoiding marring is time well-spent in my case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMW335i

How many times do you guys rinse your mitt per panel?

When I was using only mitts (no BHBs), I'd often have to rinse out a mitt several times to do a single panel. Otherwise I'd drag potentially gritty dirt across the panel, risking marring. Using the BHB/foamgun combo for the initial passes means that I can do a *lot* of area with *no rinsing of the wash media at all*. The suds from the foamgun blasting through the bristles flush the dirt away (my rinse buckets stay very clean, a clue into how little dirt is sticking to the wash media). The mitt/foamgun combo doesn't do this as well, but does do it to some extent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrueDetailer

I'd like one of the people who spend 2+ hours to tell me what all they do.

- Assuming we're just discussing this here and not

or anything, it's easy to spend a lot of time when I do all the little things that might not matter to other people. The sort of stuff I don't bother with every time on the Blazer

Cleaning the undercarriage of a vehicle, and I mean *all* of it just takes a long time. Cleaning a single hinge in such a way that everything gets clean but the lube doesn't get disturbed takes time. Cleaning around all 20 wheel lugs and four valvestem recesses (before tackling the back of the wheels, the dust shields, and the calipers) takes time.

Note that for me, a simple wash results in a pretty thoroughly detailed vehicle.

If I paid somebody to wash my car, I'd want *all* these areas spotless, just like when I do it. I bet most pros would

if I did the sort of inspection that I do of my own work!

The actual washing of the exterior panels, even with all my foamgun-centric excess care, doesn't take long at all. No matter if you're using both hands (foamgun in one) or what your'e doing, washing a panel only takes so long. The actual process is: rinse, wash half a panel with BHB/foamgun, rinse, inspect. Rewash with mitt/foamgun, rinse, inspect. Spot clay with Sonus green (and rewash clayed area) as needed. That part of it goes pretty fast. It's all the little things that take forever. Heh heh the trunk hinges on the Auids are neat little works of art...but they take forever to clean/dry/QD. Ditto for the stuff under the engine compartment cladding, and man does it get dirty between washes!

I really do sympathize with how pros have to do stuff in a limited time, and I suspect I came across badly on my last post

As long as the customer is happy, and the pro makes money, that's what counts. I just wish there were some pros in my area who could cater to somebody with my extreme standards. I pay other professionals to do some stuff that I *could* do but don't want to, and I wouldn't mind paying somebody to do this stuff when I have other things on my plate.

jsatek · 12-13-06, 12:59

Accumulator- I couldnt imagine driving a car without weekly detailed trunk hinges! Imagine if someone saw, I'd be so embarassed! (do you have a water drainage problem in that Audi?)
You have a good position on washing cars. If someone could could do a wash the way I liked, when I liked, I'd pay them what they wanted also. And for me, its more theraputic than anything else. I could watch TV on Saturday morning or wash my car, its an easy choice

I wont wash my car if I dont have a free block of 1h 30m. I wont rush and take the chance of marring a 9 hour polish job.

Accumulator · 12-13-06, 01:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsatek

Accumulator- I couldnt imagine driving a car without weekly detailed trunk hinges! Imagine if someone saw, I'd be so embarassed! (do you have a water drainage problem in that Audi?)...

Heh heh, good thing that the only person's opinion I care about is mine, huh? Imagine if I were trying to please other people too! Though I did get a kick out of an elderly friend of mine- I was getting his walker out of the trunk of the A8 and he said "hey, the hinges in there are just as nice as your doorjambs! How the **** do you keep that stuff so nice?!" He's a pretty crusty old coot (and he'd see that as a compliment

), a meticulous engineer, the sort of guy who doesn't miss much. He also commented on how the car's headlights were aimed *just* right, slightly above the regular setting.

Water drains OK on the Audis, but only with movement. When it's just sitting on level ground the water stays put more than I'd like (and that's with smoothly polished, well-LSPed surfaces there too). If I don't get all the water out myself it drains of its own accord, leaving spots/etc.

The drainage thing brings up a good point though- one of the reasons why I do all the extreme stuff is to make sure nothing is clogging the drain holes or otherwise building up and holding moisture. I washed a service loaner the other day with only 3K miles, a new A6. Seemed like there was a *lot* of retained water under the hood so I took off the engine cladding (which I hadn't planned to do) and found all sorts of [stuff] in the nooks and crannies, enough that it'd clogged up the drains. There was a lot of [stuff] around the trunk hinges too, must've spent some time under trees. Heh heh, I sure didn't spend countless hours washing *that* car, went pretty fast even with a double-application of FK425. And yeah, the guy from the dealership was very appreciative (it'd been a real mess due to a winter storm) that he got to drive back in a nice, clean car.

TrueDetailer · 12-13-06, 01:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Accumulator

Ah, that's a good point, and that's why I wouldn't mind paying somebody to duplicate my work

But I find washing vehicles to be a fairly enjoyable task so I don't mind doing it as needed, it's an OK way to spend part of a Saturday. And I don't enjoy driving dirty/marred vehicles, so going out and enjoying life means doing it in a well-detailed ride

It's like the time spent doing laundry or shining shoes, regrettable but required.

Heh heh, one reason I bought the beater-Blazer is so I'd have a dog-hauler that I wouldn't mind washing in a fraction of the time I spend on the good vehicles (which don't get washed all *that* often 'cause I'm always driving a dog-hauler, knowing that it'll need washed anyhow).

Oh, and polishing takes me a *lot* longer than just a few hours, so any time spend avoiding marring is time well-spent in my case.

When I was using only mitts (no BHBs), I'd often have to rinse out a mitt several times to do a single panel. Otherwise I'd drag potentially gritty dirt across the panel, risking marring. Using the BHB/foamgun combo for the initial passes means that I can do a *lot* of area with *no rinsing of the wash media at all*. The suds from the foamgun blasting through the bristles flush the dirt away (my rinse buckets stay very clean, a clue into how little dirt is sticking to the wash media). The mitt/foamgun combo doesn't do this as well, but does do it to some extent.

- Assuming we're just discussing this here and not

or anything, it's easy to spend a lot of time when I do all the little things that might not matter to other people. The sort of stuff I don't bother with every time on the Blazer

Cleaning the undercarriage of a vehicle, and I mean *all* of it just takes a long time. Cleaning a single hinge in such a way that everything gets clean but the lube doesn't get disturbed takes time. Cleaning around all 20 wheel lugs and four valvestem recesses (before tackling the back of the wheels, the dust shields, and the calipers) takes time.

Note that for me, a simple wash results in a pretty thoroughly detailed vehicle.

If I paid somebody to wash my car, I'd want *all* these areas spotless, just like when I do it. I bet most pros would

if I did the sort of inspection that I do of my own work!

The actual washing of the exterior panels, even with all my foamgun-centric excess care, doesn't take long at all. No matter if you're using both hands (foamgun in one) or what your'e doing, washing a panel only takes so long. The actual process is: rinse, wash half a panel with BHB/foamgun, rinse, inspect. Rewash with mitt/foamgun, rinse, inspect. Spot clay with Sonus green (and rewash clayed area) as needed. That part of it goes pretty fast. It's all the little things that take forever. Heh heh the trunk hinges on the Auids are neat little works of art...but they take forever to clean/dry/QD. Ditto for the stuff under the engine compartment cladding, and man does it get dirty between washes!

I really do sympathize with how pros have to do stuff in a limited time, and I suspect I came across badly on my last post

As long as the customer is happy, and the pro makes money, that's what counts. I just wish there were some pros in my area who could cater to somebody with my extreme standards. I pay other professionals to do some stuff that I *could* do but don't want to, and I wouldn't mind paying somebody to do this stuff when I have other things on my plate.

Ah ok its taking you 2+ hours cause your not just washing your truck. Your doing some detail, whatever you want to call it.

A simple wash is the exterior washed and dried,wheels/tires cleaned and door jambs dried out.

That is a simple wash and should take no more than 40 minutes. Anything else added on its no longer a wash but a detail of sorts.

Accumulator · 12-13-06, 01:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrueDetailer

Ah ok its taking you 2+ hours cause your not just washing your truck. Your doing some detail, whatever you want to call it...

Ah, OK we were just miscommunicating! Guess I've been doing it that way for so long that what I do has become "a normal wash" to me. The way I wash service loaners/etc. sounds a lot more like what you're talking about, and yeah, it can go fast. If a customer doesn't care about the areas that don't show, no point in doing them (and having to charge for it).

Last week some weird circumstances required that I wash the A8 twice, on consecutive days

Much to my surprise, all those "extras" needed doing again...I was pretty surprised that I couldn't cut a lot of corners. That time I *almost* finished in under two hours, it was all that blowing out with the compressor that got me.

fdizzle · 12-13-06, 01:36

sure . . washing a car takes me about 15 to 20 minutes if you are talking about a rinse, top to bottom scrub w/ 2 bucket method, a rim job and some mf drying towels and an air compressor to remove all the water.

but it depends what you consider a car wash.

for me, there is also a spray wax or qd to restore gloss and slcikness, a vacume and dusting of the interior and trunk. . . in/out glass cleaning, rubber/tire dressing and some mild metal polish on the exhaust.

theres a lot of gray area to what is dubed a "car wash" there really is no right answer . .

but as far as four hours goes for a car wash . . . i dont know how maticulous you are but the process mentioned above take me about an hour and a half . . and that includes setup and cleanup of my chemicals, mf, and garage floor and or any other products/tools used. I have done several full in/out details on smaller cars (no carpet extraction). . . with clay, 1 or 2 step polishes and an lsp application in less than 4 horus . . to me, it seems like you are going to far out of your way to avoid swirils . . a good wash mit, proper prep and two buckets with a little extra attention to what your doing has been the primary cause of me not creating new swirils or marring when I wash the majority of cars I care for. There have been times (espeiclly on my dads truck's with the stupid toneau cover) where I have noticed some swirils (very soft paint on the toneau), but other than that I have been pretty fortunate.

but thats just my .02 . . . had i the time i would spend all day in my garage with a case of beer, and a few cars to play with . . .