Best wash media for really dirty Vehicles

[kdrchuck]

My truck gets dirty really dirty between weekly washes. Especially this time of year. The Marring that occurs on my truck most likely is coming from grit spread by my mitt. I use a foam gun and frequently will go through a spray wash before hand washing at home.



So. What rinses the easiest and frees the most dirt with a dunk in the rinse bucket? Any other suggestions are appreciated.



Thanks

[BigAl3]

if you haven`t tried a grout sponge (only $2), give it a try and find out for yourself if it meets your expectations. just like anything else, some things may or may not work for you...



http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/101657-better-grout-sponge.htm

[Innovative Detailing]

if you haven`t tried a grout sponge (only $2), give it a try and find out for yourself if it meets your expectations. just like anything else, some things may or may not work for you...



http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/101657-better-grout-sponge.htm



+1 :up.......20 years of using these grout sponges ( I get them from Home Depot still until today.....( 6 for $9.98 ) and I wouldn`t trade any brand of mitt for one....period.



Using 2 buckets, 1 with your soap solution/water mix and one with rinse water/grit guard only. I prefer to use 2 sponges, 1 in each hand for all upper surfaces. Dip clean sponges in the soap solution, washing in a straight back and forth pattern, avoid circular motion. Then after each panel squeeze out the dirty sponges in the rinse out bucket to release any dirt or debris in the face or pores of the sponges. Then repeat the same method for the rest of the vehicle to reduce any possibility of creating any scratches.



I recommend that for lower rockers, bumpers, and wheel well edges you have a 3rd sponge just for these areas only as they have more dirt and debris. After all upper surfaces have been cleaned thoroughly, use the 3rd sponge for the areas mentioned above.



Here is a thread that was posted sometime ago...............



http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/112066-so-whats-all-talk-about-grout-sponge.html

[kdrchuck]

Good deal. Thats what i was considering next. Thanks for the help.

[Accumulator]

kdrchuck- I just did a marring-free wash of the Tahoe, which was utterly encrusted with gritty dirt.



-Pre-wash with siphon-feed unit that hooks up to the compressor (a pressure washer would make a great substitute)

-Pre-soak with foamgun

-Initial passes with BHB spraying the point of BHB-to-paint contact with the foamgun

-Subsequent passes with sheepskin mitt while spraying with foamgun



I`ve used the same method countless times and I don`t have to polish come spring.



Glad so many people do well with sponges. I used seasponges before switching to BHBs, and I`ve tried grout sponges, but like ONR those methods don`t work as well for me :nixweiss

[kdrchuck]

kdrchuck- I just did a marring-free wash of the Tahoe, which was utterly encrusted with gritty dirt.



-Pre-wash with siphon-feed unit that hooks up to the compressor (a pressure washer would make a great substitute)

-Pre-soak with foamgun

-Initial passes with BHB spraying the point of BHB-to-paint contact with the foamgun

-Subsequent passes with sheepskin mitt while spraying with foamgun



I`ve used the same method countless times and I don`t have to polish come spring.



Glad so many people do well with sponges. I used seasponges before switching to BHBs, and I`ve tried grout sponges, but like ONR those methods don`t work as well for me :nixweiss



I am deffinitly going to take a lot from your technique. The truck is already marred so i guess it will be hard to tell how well I am doing untill I get the swirls out. I will see how the sponges go with the same prewash, prefoam, foam POC as you describe. Sponges are cheap and available. Feel free to recommend a good brush.



BTW, Before I started really taking care of my vehicles i washed with whatever soap and whatever soft britsle broom/brush. Couldn`t stand to do it to my new truck. The jeep took it pretty well though.



Thanks

[Shamerrific]

I know all the pain with marring (I like to call it wash marks) because we wash about 50,000 or more cars a year. One dealer BMW in KC I believe has the softest clear coats ever when they are brand new. We lot wash there cars twice a week and they expect perfection all the time. We have to wash our Shamerrific`s every 2-4 cars with a pressure washer just to keep them clean to prevent marring plus use newer Shamerrifics. The product you use have to be dirt free to prevent marring. It`s not so much the product (unless you use terry) but the dirt in the product so keeping the products clean will help the marring problem. Also like EliminatorXP said try not to wash the bottom and top with the same sponge. That`s why when a car has been driven we wash the bottom first, clean the Shamerrific with a washer on the windshield, then wash the whole car with the Shamerrific starting from the top then to the bottom. Believe it or not we only use water. The more water on the cars the more lubrication. How we get rid of bad marring is with Ardex Hard at it with a polisher and a blue whool pad. Then Ardex Stereo Glaze and a polisher with a blue foam pad to get rid of the dullness. Then we use Ardex Topaz and apply it with a damp microfiber and remove it with a polisher with a white foam pad to get rid of the swirls. Hope this helps.

[Accumulator]

kdrchuck- Last time I did a comparision, the best brushes for most situations were the Boar`s Hair Brushes from Griot`s.



The reason I like them so well for the first passes is that they rinse clean incredibly well; if you spray the foamgun at the point where the bristles touch the paint, you can pretty much just knock the abrasive stuff loose and flush it away. My problem with using other media for the first step is that gritty dirt got stuck in it (until I stopped and cleaned it out in the rise bucket) and caused marring. That can still happen after the BHB/foamgun pass(es) but at least you can get the worst of it off that way. Just don`t press so hard with the BHB that you bend the bristles over and grind the dirt in that way....eh, this stuff sure isn`t easy no matter how you do it!



Using just the sponge, try to keep it *really* saturated with shampoo mix, so it`s more likely to flood the dirt away than hold onto it. Yeah, that`ll mean rinsing it out a lot. I`ve never had the dirt "go up into the sponge away from the paint", but maybe that was just me :nixweiss Note that I do still use grout sponges for the painted areas in my wheelwells/etc. so it`s not like I`m categorically opposed to them.

[Dan]

Powerwash all the grit/crap/dirt off and then wash with a mitt.