Please critique this wash procedure

[kilodawg]

I just got my Simple Green foam gun today (10 minutes after I finished washing the car). So I started thinking about a process that would work for me in light of all I`ve read here.



The car in question is my black, daily driver, police interceptor. Finished with Zaino layered with Z-3 and Z-8 once a month. Water beads like crazy.



I live in Florida and so generally dust and salt air are the major issues. I`m finding that if I wash the car twice a week the car keeps pretty clean and is easy to wash. I have been using the process below (with the exception of the foam gun) and I believe that the results, so far, have been excellent but I want to be sure I`m not overlooking something. This isn`t "Accumulator" intense but it only takes me an hour from start to finish.



Here goes:



1. Spray wheels with wheel cleaner

2. Use wheel brush and soap bucket to go over wheels and wheel wells, rinse

3. Rinse entire car completely

4. *Use foam gun to foam down entire car, let sit for 5 minutes*

5. *Rinse car thoroughly*

6. *Re-apply foam let sit 5 minutes*

7. With fresh buckets, from top down, using two bucket chennile ballon mitt method go over car

8. Rinse car thoroughly

9. Dry with leaf blower

10. Spot dry as required with MF towel (somedays, like today, this step was unnecessary)

11. Usual post wash tire dressing etc.



On days where the car only has a light covering of dust and salt spray I`m hoping that I might only need the foam gun and be able to skip step "7" thereby avoiding any direct contact with the finish. Is this feasible?

[imported_Neothin]

Ever think about sealing your wheels? It completely eliminates the need for wheel cleaners. Ive sealed my wheels every 2 months and now all i use is car wash soap from my foam gun with a spoke brush and the wheels look great.



I found the ballon method really difficult to do. Granted I`m not the most coordinated person out there, but having the gun inside the mitt and holding it all together while still putting very little pressure on the paint was difficult. Instead, I switched to sheepskin mitts. Ill soak the mitts in the soap bucket, take them out, spray foam onto the panel, and then wipe the panel with the mitt while spraying foam directly where the mitt contacts the paint. The mitt is on the right hand, and the foam gun is in the left. Hardly any marring.



I wouldnt foam down the entire area unless your under some shade. Being a floridian also, I know that even now in "winter" water dries up in a minute or two on the car. I`d just foam a panel at a time for like a minute or so and then rinse off.



make sure you rinse thoroughly. Foam is going to get EVERYWHERE. when you use the leaf blower afterwards, if you didnt rinse well enough, its going to come back out from the cracks and crevices.



your probably going to have to qd the car after you leaf blower dry it. The leaf blower will leave behind tiny water droplets (micro beading) and those will dry to form mini waterspots. QDing after the wash will quickly eliminate these.



Your process is very similar to my own. It works well and it should work great for you too!

[White95Max]

Ever think about sealing your wheels? It completely eliminates the need for wheel cleaners. Ive sealed my wheels every 2 months and now all i use is car wash soap from my foam gun with a spoke brush and the wheels look great.



Definitely. Quit using harsh wheel cleaners all the time. Seal them a few times a year, and they will wash right off with soap and water, and zero effort.

[zippymbr]

I could not agree more. I have a few botles of A2Z that are collecting dust in the garage since I have been sealing most of the wheels of the cars I detail.

[dawiyo]

sounds good to me

[Accumulator]

Yeah, the mitt-balloon isn`t easy by any means. I only do that on the S8 and the Jag (and it`s not like I wash the Jag very often). Otherwise I just try to keep the foam spraying between my wash media and the panel as best I can- basically the same thing that Neothin (and, IIRC, Bill D) is doing. Heh heh, I wouldn`t try doing the mitt-balloon on the minivan for anything! And I don`t plan to do it on the Caprice either (if it ever gets back on the road :rolleyes: ).



I don`t presoak that much and I wash/rinse/inspect/rewash or clay-and-rewash/rinse as needed. I do a partial panel at a time, like half a door or a quarter of a hood at most. Then I redo the whole panel with a separate mitt (usually MF) after I`ve finished doing it in sections. And I rinse the whole vehicle off frequently, even though I`m working in a climate controlled garage.



I commend you on working to get your wash technique worked out properly :xyxthumbs It`s not the easiest thing to figure out.

[imported_Neothin]

accumulator, when not using the mitt ballon method, and just washing "regularly" (like how i described above), how long does it take for you to wash a vehicle? when my car is an average dirty, it takes about an hour and a half. Today when i washed the car, it was disgusting (rained a few days ago, and haven`t gotten around to it since) and it took just over 2 hours to wash the car.

[Accumulator]

Neothin- I can`t remember the last time I washed in under two hours; it takes me a long time. I work fast too, using both hands, no wasted motions, and working at a pace that`s aerobically demanding (I`m in shape too ;) ). It takes me over half an hour to do the wheels/wheelwells/undercarriage alone and the doorjambs/underhood/etc. take a fair amount of time too. I`d say you and I take about the same amount of time on the body proper, I probably just spend more time on out of the way areas like that.