I would like to offer my version of “How I Wash a Car” to give my viewpoints and to invite comments, questions, or mud slinging (as long as it’s not around my clean car! J ). I’m not a pro detailer, but a longtime OCD’er that used to be a professional finisher of high end goodies, so I’m no stranger to lots of catalyzed urethanes and rotary machines. But no machines necessary here, anyhow, this is just about washing…
First, let me say I use (and love using) a brush, and not a mitt. I do keep an acrylic mitt for getting into the wheel wells and behind some styles of wheels that a brush won’t reach. But for the body of the vehicle I use a brush because:
I believe it has a better ability for “Reducing the Potential” to quote Mike Phillips (and perhaps others?). Assume there’s a piece of grit adhering to the finish. The initial hose-down didn’t remove it, so something’s going to have to dislodge it whether it’s a brush, a mitt, a sponge, or Keith Richard’s dad’s old t-shirt. Ideally, that hunk o’grit would be sucked straight up off the surface, never to appear again. That probably isn’t going to happen. Next best would have it gently picked off of the surface and floated away on a cushion of water and/or soap and/or suds. Some of the grit does disappear that way, assuming the gentle touch of an implement. But some of the grit adheres to the implement for at least part of the time. Witness what’s left behind when emptying the wash bucket(s). It is my opinion that a brush has a better chance of flicking grit away where it is free to ride away on the soapy water cushion or the next intermediate rinse. A brush does not seem to “capture” and hold what’s underneath it the same way other tools do. But of course it does capture some of the grit, just less of it. Once captured, however, the piece of grit can’t stay right on the very end of the finely flagged (like split ends on human hair) bristles; it rides up a little higher “inside” the brush. The same thing technically happens with a wool mitt. A piece of grit can’t stay at the end of a hair, and will try to work its way into the mitt. But unlike a brush whose bristles mainly stay perpendicular to the paint surface, a mitts fur (or hairs) is staying primarily parallel to the surface, allowing the grit repeated chances to scratch the paint. I believe it’s Increasing the Potential.
Now people like to say (and it’s really said about microfiber) that a mitt will pull that grit away from the surface and hold it until it’s dipped in water or soap or wrung out. I can’t believe that anything will “pull” grit away. I do believe grit could “work” its way inward, but until it’s “worked” in, it’s got the potential to leave a trace of where it’s been. I’d love to see a very close-up movie of what truly happens with different wash implements. And keep in mind that all the time the grit is supposed to be getting pulled up, or worked up into the implement, that said implement is supposed to be flowing soapy water out of it all the time! So how a piece of grit can fight the outgoing tide is a
mystery to me. And of course the flow is what we want to be floating away as much of the grit as possible in the first place, so we LIKE flow. I believe a brush offers the least contradicting method of removing grit, and the most gentle way of contacting the surface of the paint. That alone is reason enough for using a brush. And of course I’m assuming that a high quality brush is being used. It is also my opinion that if you take a perfectly clean brush and a perfectly clean mitt and wipe them on a car that neither is any more likely to leave a trace. It’s the grit that will be leaving any traces.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Reason number two for using a brush is its effectiveness at getting all the dirt. The individual bristles are far more likely to reach between each body panel to get the recessed surface beneath. Those bristles are much easier to work around all sides of a grill, around each and every letter and space of the make or model or engine feature that the manufacturer has chosen to emblazon upon the backside of our chariots. A mitt can get into many of these spaces, but at a cost of extra attention on your part, and worse, at a cost of extra pressure on your part. Potential extra credit: a brush won’t pull up the edges of any vinyl lettering or graphics.
Reason number three of this diatribe is that a brush is way easier to totally rinse out whether you use a one or a two bucket system. A couple of flicks of your wrist while the brush is under the water or the soap dislodges and rinses the brush. Another flick when it’s above the surface gets rid of the extra rinse water or the extra soapy water that would otherwise flow on the ground and be wasted before the brush reaches the car. In Mike Phillips video (or at least the one I saw), he is washing a very small car and has to bend down and rinse his mitt 8 times (not including wheels and tires) and then wring it out. No wonder he’s wearing a fore-arm brace for tennis elbow! (Okay, I have no idea of why he wore one on his video, but enough wringing will give most anyone that problem.) And a
Grit Guard in the bottom of a rinse bucket can’t do much good; you’re going to submerge your mitt and your hand(s) and arm(s) through 3 or 4 gallons of dirty water to rub all sides of a mitt back and forth across the G.G.? What about all the grit that’s still floating through those 3 or 4 gallons that hasn’t had time to settle out (and down) yet? If one truly has confidence in their system, why do so many mitt users use a separate one for the lower (dirtier) reaches of the vehicle? And a little oil or grease is much less likely to be smeared on the surface and on the brush; it rinses off the brush’s slippery bristles with the standard car wash soap, not a separate bath later in detergent.
I would be interested in the results of others trying this experiment: If I go out to the garage and rub my clean, dry brush inside of a clean, white bucket, I’ll see nothing. Maybe a little fluff shedding off the very tips of the bristles. If I take my clean and dry (acrylic) mitt and do the same thing, I’ll have a whole bunch of fine grit at the bottom of the bucket. Now that may not be a fair experiment since I don’t bother to really wash and rinse my mitt since I only use it for wheel wells and wheels.
The FOURTH reason (yes, I’m trying to go for one of the longest postings, but I hope not one of the most boring!?) is the time savings. I’m not a pro where my time is money, but if I can also save time in the washing, it leaves me more time to do something else I enjoy like wiping down the dust in the engine bay (one of my favorites; yes I know I need to get a life). It saves time because the brush can do the moving instead of me. I should say here that I use a
Meguiar’s Versa-Angle Body Brush which has a longish handle that lets me stand at the side of my full sized SUV and get the roof without a ladder. It lets me wash the entire hood while standing at the front of it. It’s like having your arm be two feet longer with the increased reach. Plus it gets into those cracks and crevices mentioned above in much less time than working each of those areas with the mitt.
The FINAL (Sweet Mary and Joseph, finally!) reason I like using a brush is that it’s a back saver for old farts or those of us who are in training for old fartedness. I barely bend to get rocker panels or front or rear valances. I barely stretch for an SUV roof. I don’t bend over, much less crouch, to rinse or dip my brush in a bucket.
Whether this convinces anyone to examine or re-examine the use of a brush, I don’t know. I feel like I’ve tried most systems over the years, and this is the best for me absolutely. I think it’s also best for the car. I partially mention it now because Meguiar’s has discontinued this brush, so they will get difficult and then impossible to find. I think this is a better brush than boar’s bristles and the rubber cladding is safe, whereas I don’t think a wood brush is. I’ve stockpiled a few of the things; they’re cheap at $9-12.
…okay, time for bed…gosh, I never got around to actually washing the car…
Dave
But the "regular" rectangular ones from Griot's (short bristles) and AutoGeek (long bristles) work well for me. There are others that are probably at least as good, and my best one is a 20-some year old one from Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories...that thing is just incredibly gentle and I only use it on the good cars.
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